ABSTRACTS

THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY AND THE NEED FOR UNIVERSAL RESPONSIBILITY

As the twenty-first century starts, we find that the world has grown smaller and the world’s people have become almost one community. Political and military alliances have created large multinational groups, industry and international trade have produced a global economy, and worldwide communications are eliminating ancient barriers of distance, language and race. We are also being drawn together by the grave problems we face: overpopulation, dwindling natural resources, and an environmental crisis that threatens our air, water, and life forms that are the very foundation of existence on this small planet we share. I believe that to meet the challenge of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all mankind. Universal responsibility is the real key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace, the equitable use of natural resources, and through concern for future generations, the proper care of the environment. For some time, I have been thinking about how to increase our sense of mutual responsibility and the altruistic motive from which it derives. Briefly, I would like to offer my thoughts.

A ZONE OF TURMOIL?: MAPPING BELLIGERENT MILITARY FORCE ACROSS SUBSYSTEMS, 1946-1996

In the analysis of interstate conflict, it is often assumed that two radically different systems have emerged in international politics. The first is the zone of peace that cocoons the First World. The second is the zone of turmoil in which the rest of the world labors, where interstate violence remains commonplace. Recent research, however, argues that this dichotomous image of interstate conflict is insufficient. Conflict revolves around regional processes to a greater degree than has often been appreciated. In this study, logistic regression models demonstrate that the use of belligerent force varied significantly across regional subsystems over the 1946-1996 period. Actors in some subsystems are more prone to employ belligerent force than actors in others. The former subsystems stand less chance of developing into islands of tranquility, or nascent zones of peace, in the international system than the latter.

PEACE-BUILDING BY THE RULE OF LAW: AN EXAMINATION OF INTERVENTION IN THE FORM OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS

This essay examines the two existing international criminal tribunals, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Court for Rwanda (ICTR), in comparison with the past military tribunals and the future International Criminal Court (ICC). In so doing, it attempts to locate them in the context of peace operations and assesses its merits and demerits for building peace in war-torn societies. After looking at the “harmonious,” “adversarial,” and “conditional” views on international criminal tribunals characterized as “judicial intervention,” the essay emphasizes the importance and subtlety of the use of international criminal tribunals as part of peace operations. The strategies of the ad hoc tribunals are identified as “international legitimacy” and “international indictments.” The inherent problem in “judicial intervention” is also discussed in terms of the conceptual orientation of “individualization” of conflicts.

HAS CONFLICT RESOLUTION GROWN UP? TOWARD A DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF DECISION MAKING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

This article provides a nascent developmental model of conflict resolution and explores how such a model challenges theorists and practitioners in the field of conflict resolution to engage with the concept of unity. The developmental model states that the ways in which human beings understand, approach, and attempt to resolve conflicts can be analogized to the developmental stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Further, the model argues that conflict resolution can occur in four modes—S-Mode (Self-Centered); A-Mode (Authoritarian); P-Mode (Power Struggle); and C-Mode (Consultative Mode). Each of these modes corresponds to a particular nature of conflict resolution that, respectively, may be survival based, force based, power based, or unity based. The authors suggest that the C-Mode remains largely unexplored and that conflict resolution is primarily constructed and understood today according to the dynamics of the A-Mode and P-Mode. The key to exploring the C-Mode is to analyze the concept of unity and its implications for both conflict resolution theory and practice.

GUESTS OVERSTAYING THEIR WELCOME: THE DEMISE OF THE PEACE ACCORD STRUCTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA

Leaders of political parties and other organizations in South Africa signed a National Peace Accord in September 1991; one of its purposes being to create a climate for meaningful political transition to a post-apartheid era. That objective was achieved. Yet after the elections of 1994, the Peace Accord structures disappeared almost overnight, despite having gathered substantial expertise and resources for implementing the Accord’s other goals. This article is an insider’s reflection on the reasons for their demise.

PEACE AS A GENDERED PROCESS: PERSPECTIVES OF WOMEN DOING PEACEBUILDING IN SOUTH AFRICA

There has been little systematic gathering of information about women’s conceptualisations of peace and peacebuilding within different national contexts. This article reports on a research project that examined how women involved in peacebuilding activities in South Africa understand the meaning of peace and peacebuilding. The principles of participatory research methodology were used in the design of the project. The methods and procedures were designed in consultation with an advisory group composed of South African leaders in the field. A two-day workshop was then convened. It followed a participatory process which brought together 16 women who are emerging leaders in present-day South Africa. The main objective was for participants to discuss the question of how women directly engaged in peacebuilding activities view the meaning of peace. With the permission of the participants the proceedings were recorded. This article presents an analysis of the transcribed proceedings focusing on key themes which elucidated conceptualisations of peace and peacebuilding. The dominant conceptualisation was that peace is a gendered process that involves both internal and external aspects. Emotional issues and processes were seen to comprise the internal aspects of peace, whereas the external aspects of peace were seen as the technical-procedural components. The article discusses each of these aspects, examining the complex and diffuse ways in which they were seen as gendered.