Militias and the challenges of post-conflict peace : silencing the guns
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Militias and the challenges of post-conflict peace : silencing the guns
Zed Books, 2011
- : pb
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-183) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Militias have proven to be a consistent and enduring challenge to achieving peace in war zones around the world. Whether armed by embattled governments in defence of their territory or fostered by external actors in the interests of greed or grievance, these groups occupy an uncertain and deeply controversial position in the changing landscape of conflict.
Linked variously to atrocities against civilians or international criminal elements, part of what distinguishes them from more traditional combatants is their willingness to engage in violent tactics that defy international norms as well as a proclivity to embrace expediency in alliance-making. As such, their diversity of form, unorthodox nature and sheer numbers make achieving short-term stability and an enduring peace a consistently difficult proposition.
Bringing together the lessons learned from four intensively researched case studies - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and Sudan - the book argues that the overly rigid 'cookie-cutter' approach to demilitaristation, developed and commonly implemented presently by the international community, is ineffective at meeting the myriad of challenges involving militias. In doing so, the authors propose a radical new framework for demilitarization that questions conventional models and takes into account on-the-ground realities.
Table of Contents
List of abbreviations
List of tables
Preface
1. Introducing Militias and Demilitarisation
2. Conceptualising Militias: A Framework of Analysis
3. The South Sudan Defence Force
4. The White Army Militias of South Sudan
5. The Mutineers of Timor-Leste
6. Militias in the Eastern DRC
7. Afghanistan's Long and Ongoing Experience with Militias
Conclusion: Militias and the Search for Local Security
Bibliography
Notes
by "Nielsen BookData"
