Articles

8 Items

Ugandan soldiers march in the northern Pader district. The troops were deployed for operations against rebels who mutilate civilians and abduct children in the course of Africa's longest-running civil war.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Ending Civil Wars: A Case for Rebel Victory?

Spring 2010

Since 1990, negotiated settlements have been the preferred method for ending civil wars. A new analysis of all civil war endings since 1940, however, shows that military victory can be more effective than negotiated settlements in establishing lasting peace. The case of Uganda illustrates how peace eludes negotiated settlements and how rebels might be more likely to allow democratization. If stability, democracy, and development are valued objectives, then policymakers should examine victories as well as negotiated settlements to understand the conditions most likely to achieve durable outcomes.

 

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

AP Photo

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

| Summer 2008

The historical record indicates that nonviolent campaigns have been more successful than armed campaigns in achieving ultimate goals in political struggles, even when used against similar opponents and in the face of repression. Nonviolent campaigns are more likely to win legitimacy, attract widespread domestic and international support, neutralize the opponent's security forces, and compel loyalty shifts among erstwhile opponent supporters than are armed campaigns, which enjoin the active support of a relatively small number of people, offer the opponent a justification for violent counterattacks, and are less likely to prompt loyalty shifts and defections. An original, aggregate data set of all known major nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006 is used to test these claims. These dynamics are further explored in case studies of resistance campaigns in Southeast Asia that have featured periods of both violent and nonviolent resistance.

Journal Article - Foreign Affairs

Separatism's Final Country

| July/August 2008

"Muller argues that ethnonationalism is the wave of the future and will result in more and more independent states, but this is not likely. One of the most destabilizing ideas throughout human history has been that every separately defined cultural unit should have its own state. Endless disruption and political introversion would follow an attempt to realize such a goal. Woodrow Wilson gave an impetus to further state creation when he argued for "national self-determination" as a means of preventing more nationalist conflict, which he believed was a cause of World War I...."

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Journal Article - International Journal of World Peace

Peace through Dialogue

| March 1, 2007

The paper is dedicated to look at some major steps for achieving peace, through a better dialogue among people of other cultures andcivilizations, such as no speaking about past misdeeds, respect for others, tolerance of differences, a better knowledge and understanding of them, and attitudes toward real reconciliation.

Sri Lankans look at artillery pieces captured from Tamil Tigers by the security forces at an exhibition in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Feb. 9, 2009.

AP Photo

Magazine Article - Prospect

Nasty, Brutish and Long

April 2009

It’s a busy time for civil wars. The Sri Lankan army has pushed far into Tamil territory, seeking a decisive victory. The killings in Northern Ireland show how spoilers try to gain advantage over rivals in any political process. Then there is the threat that recently pacified civil wars, such as those in Iraq and Sudan, will come back, while the global recession may push new ones forward.

Imam Zaid Shakir leads a congregational prayer in Union Square, San Francisco in 2005.

yaznotjaz

Magazine Article - Foreign Policy

Why God is Winning

    Author:
  • Timothy Samuel Shah
| July / August 2006

"Religion was supposed to fade away as globalization and freedom spread. Instead, it's booming around the world, often deciding who gets elected. And the divine intervention is just beginning. Democracy is giving people a voice, and more and more, they want to talk about God."