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ABSTRACTS


SEPARATION OR INCLUSION? TESTING HYPOTHESES ON THE END OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

R. William Ayres

The question of how ethnic conflicts can be turned from violence to peace has become an urgent one for both scholars and policy makers. Some scholars have suggested that violent ethnic conflict leaves only one possible solution: the permanent separation of warring groups. Others have suggested that conflict endings are reliant on the intervention of outside mediators, or the depth of hostility between the two sides, or the balance of military power between them. This paper will examine these arguments empirically, by comparing the characteristics of conflicts and types of settlements reached across 48 violent nationalist conflicts from 1945 1996. Tests will examine correlations between level of violence, third party involvement, stereotyping, power balance, and type of resolution and duration of conflict. The results suggest that while the level of violence can have some impact on conflict outcomes, third party involvement can have a consistently significant impact, both ameliorating and exacerbating conflict.


HOW DO NORMS WORK? A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Tore Nyhamar

The article discusses what constitutes a norm in international relations, and how we can establish empirically that norms exert causal influence on the foreign policy of African states. The empirical section of the article explores how norms work together with rationality in the Angolan war in 1975 and the Kenyan-Ugandan war of 1979. In both cases norms did play a part by entering into the actors' calculations, but norms alone were not able to fully explain the behavior of the actors concerned. Instead, it is concluded, the challenge is to find the particular mix of rationality and norms in each concrete case. In these wars, the main way for norms to have causal influence was as a constraint on rationality. Another theoretical finding is that norms quickly loose their constraining force for all actors when one party does not adhere to them. However, the article concludes that adherence to norms is contingent upon the behavior of others in the conflict itself but not behavior in other conflicts. Finally, one should be careful not to overestimate the causal importance of norms in explaining behavior as there are often competing norms and the actors will choose the one most conducive to their self-interest when they act.


FORGIVING THE CULPRITS: JAPANESE HISTORICAL REVISIONISM IN A POST-COLD WAR CONTEXT

Ingyu Oh and Douglas Ishizawa-Grbic´

This paper adopts a new historiography of taking women’s voices seriously in describing what has been either deleted from history books or tainted by historical revisionism. We intend to show that historical silence by the so-called Japanese military sex slaves [ianfu] does not mean that historical atrocities did not happen. Utilizing the words of the former sex slaves to understand their experiences would reveal why revisionists themselves tried to cover up history by introducing textbook revisions and constitutional reforms. These revisionist policies of the Japanese government are not an effort to strengthen the weak Japanese state in the international community, both economically and militarily, rather it is to permanently wipe out the memories of those who perished from history in silence.


PEACE BUILDING THROUGH RECONCILIATION

Charles Lerche

This paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of reconciliation as an approach to peace building. While there is much that is necessary and innovative in this technique, when applied at the national level in transitional societies, practice to date indicates it has several limitations directly related to the political contexts in which it has been attempted. Among these are an uneasy coexistence with legal processes, problems associated with the question of reparations, and a tendency not to address broader issues of violence in post-conflict society. It is suggested that a more proactive model of reconciliation is necessary if the goals of peace building are to be achieved over the longer run.


RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROBLEMS IN JAPAN: BACKGROUND AND CURRENT PROSPECTS

Tokihisa Sumimoto

The appearance of democracy in Japan did not arise from the Japanese people themselves, but rather resulted from an outside philosophical system grafted onto a relatively anachronistic feudal social order. This development created a unique expression of “democracy” in Japan--with a civil liberty tradition, which remained undeveloped, and superficial understanding of human rights. This characteristic of Japanese society is especially conspicuous when one looks into the issue of religious freedom. This essay explores historical background and current problems of religious freedom in Japan, focusing on state-sanctioned restrictions as well as social factors. It first examines prewar and wartime relations between church and state, including official persecution of religions by the wartime government. Then, it explores some postwar phenomena that might suggest a revival of religious control. This paper also analyzes some social factors in Japan that restrict religious faith. Finally, it presents a perspective on judiciary problems.