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This study deals with youth in war-to-peace transitions and the response of international organizations to them. While youth’s relevance for societal transformation is a long-acknowledged fact, their large numbers and potential roles in conflict have recently caused organizations to consider them a target group for peace and development programs. Reflecting on this process, this study thus assesses the difficulties in conceptualizing the role of youth in peace-building processes on the one hand and the concrete efforts of international organizations to integrate them into their policies and programs on the other. For this purpose, it explores four guiding questions: First, what approaches have international organizations developed regarding youth? Second, on which assumptions about youth and their role in violent conflicts are they based? Third, how do the different approaches affect program development, and, fourth, are they are compatible?

• Year 2005
• Author(s) Yvonne Kemper

My aim here is to address some of the deep confusion that still surrounds the term reconciliation, and its practice in post-violence peacebuilding. Despite its generally acknowledged importance, there remains great disagreement over what reconciliation actually means and, in particular, how it relates to other concepts and processes, such as justice, peacebuilding, democratisation and political development.

• Year 2006
• Author(s) David Bloomfield

Recent experience around the world has demonstrated that resistance and liberation movements have become a defining feature of contemporary political conflicts, and that in the end, reaching political settlements needs their active involvement and cooperative engagement. The purpose of this report is to understand more fully how choices between violent and non-violent strategies are made to achieve certain political ends, which factors impact on these decisions, and conversely, how these choices affect conflict transformation and post-war reconstruction.

• Year 2009
• Author(s) Véronique Dudouet

[ترجمة آلية الملخص]

أثبتت التجارب الأخيرة حول العالم أن حركات المقاومة والتحرير أصبحت سمة مميزة للصراعات السياسية المعاصرة ، وأن الوصول إلى تسويات سياسية في النهاية يحتاج إلى مشاركتها النشطة والمشاركة التعاونية. الغرض من هذا التقرير هو الفهم الكامل لكيفية اتخاذ الخيارات بين الاستراتيجيات العنيفة وغير العنيفة لتحقيق غايات سياسية معينة ، والعوامل التي تؤثر على هذه القرارات ، والعكس بالعكس ، كيف تؤثر هذه الخيارات على تحول الصراع وإعادة الإعمار بعد الحرب

• Year 2009
• Author(s) Véronique Dudouet

The publication presents results of a project funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF). The study investigates initiatives for reconciliation and “dealing with the past” which were undertaken by international organisations, legal institutions and local civil society actors in response to the wars of the 1990s. The coherence of objectives and strategies and their implications for peacebuilding, forms of cooperation and learning experiences, and the political resonance of the various approaches were a particular focus of interest. In all, 150 interviews were conducted in 28 municipalities. The study was carried out with input from civil society organisations and academic experts in the region. Srđan Dvornik (Zagreb), Katarina Milićević (Belgrade), and Ismet Sejfija (Sarajevo) co-authored the study.

• Year 2013

There has been an increasing tendency to view all armed actors as ‘spoilers’ to be fought at all costs or, at best, pacified through disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), rather than as agents of change who can play constructive roles in securing peace and building more legitimate states. The purpose of this report is to present key policy-relevant findings from a two-year participatory research project on the timing, sequencing and components of post-war security transitions, from the perspective and self-analysis of conflict stakeholders who have made the shift from state challengers to peace-and state-building agents in South Africa, Colombia, El Salvador, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Burundi, Southern Sudan, Nepal and Aceh.

• Year 2012
• Author(s) Véronique Dudouet, Hans-Joachim Giessmann, Katrin Planta

La ‘guerra contra el terrorismo’, lanzada por el gobierno de los Estados Unidos y sus aliados luego de los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001 en Nueva York y Washington, transformó profundamente el entorno geopolítico de la última década. En particular, la preponderancia de los enfoques de línea dura en materia de seguridad respecto de los conflictos inter- e intra-estatales han llevado a que todas las formas de insurgencia armada en contra del orden sociopolítico establecido se interpreten, de manera general, a través del lente del ‘terrorismo’, sin tener en cuenta la naturaleza de esos actores, su grado de legitimidad social o sus roles y aspiraciones políticas. Esas tendencias han afectado severamente las dinámicas de los conflictos armados, así como el desarrollo de los procesos de paz y los entornos de posguerra. De hecho existe una tendencia creciente a considerar a todos los actores armados como ‘corruptores de la paz’ a quienes hay que combatir a toda costa, o al menos pacificar mediante el desarme, la desmovilización y la reintegración (DDR), en lugar de verlos como agentes de cambio que pueden desempeñar papeles constructivos en el logro de la paz y la construcción de estados más legítimos.

• Year 2012
• Author(s) Véronique Dudouet, Hans-Joachim Giessmann, Katrin Planta

La ‘guerre contre la terreur’, lancée par le gouvernement des Etats Unis (EU) et ses alliés à la suite des attaques du 11 septembre 2001 à New York et à Washington, a profondément transformé l’environnement géopolitique de la dernière décennie. La dominance des approches militaires et policières face aux conflits inter- et intra-étatiques a conduit à une interprétation généralisée de toutes les formes d’insurrections armées défiant l’ordre socio-politique établi à travers le spectre du ‘terrorisme’, et ce, indépendamment de la nature de tels acteurs, de leur degré de légitimité sociale et de leurs rôles et aspirations politiques. De telles tendances ont considérablement affecté non seulement les dynamiques des conflits armés, mais aussi le déroulement des processus de paix et les environnements d’après-guerre. Il est de plus en plus courant de considérer tous les acteurs armés comme des ‘saboteurs’ à combattre à tout prix ou, au mieux, à pacifier par le désarmement, la démobilisation et la réintégration (DDR), plutôt que comme des agents du changement capables de jouer un rôle constructif dans la stabilisation de la paix et la construction d’Etats plus légitimes.

• Year 2012
• Author(s) Véronique Dudouet, Hans-Joachim Giessmann, Katrin Planta

The article argues that the demand for local ownership in externally funded conflict transformation projects is counterproductive, if it is seen as a concrete project objective. Nevertheless, the demand has an important function as policy ideal, pointing to the necessity for change in present international cooperation. Instead of aiming towards the impossible goal of literal “local ownership” of a foreign-funded project, which by definition inscribes the roles of donor and beneficiary, the focus should be on the nature of the relationship between the donors and the beneficiaries. It is within this relationship that power is or is not shared and that the equality of the partners may or may not be realised. The concept of "learning sites" can be used as a framework to counter asymmetrical relationships and develop a more equal partnership between “insiders” and “outsiders” in international peacebuilding work.

• Year 2006
• Author(s) Hannah Reich

The case of Colombia is especially interesting as regards the transition of liberation or resistance movements from armed struggle to legal, political entities. Not only has it one of the longest guerrilla conflicts in the world (more than 40 years to date); it is also a place where experiments in peace-making with armed insurgents have been explored for more than 25 years. Various peace processes led to different peace agreements in the 1990s which made it possible for ca. 5,000 guerrillas to demobilise and reintegrate into social and political life. Although this did not signify the end of the armed conflict in the country, it entailed a series of political transformations which changed the context in which the nation developed and made a definitive solution to the conflict possible.

• Year 2008
• Author(s) Mauricio García Durán, Vera Grabe Loewenherz, Otty Patiño Hormaza