RSSHandbook Dialogue No 9 now available in hard copy
Handbook Dialogue No 9 – Human Rights and Conflict Transformation. The Challenges of Just Peace – can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
06/2010
06/2010
Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 9 Published
We are very pleased to announce the release of Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 9: “Human Rights and Conflict Transformation: The Challenges of Just Peace”. While the relationship between human rights protection and conflict transformation may seem straightforward, it is not an easy one. Over and over again, the question has been asked whether the two share a common agenda or actually pursue competing goals. Contributors to this Dialogue aim to go beyond the divide and polarising language of “peace versus justice” in order to gain a clearer understanding of the potential – and limits – of bringing together human rights and conflict transformation in specific contexts. Drawing evidence from contexts such as Nepal, South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Uganda and Colombia, they argue that a more thorough emphasis on human rights – as causes and manifestation of conflicts, but also as normative and practical intervention tools – contributes to bringing conflict transformation closer to its aim of tackling conflicts at their deepest roots. The lead author and her respondents engage in a rich dialogue on areas of tensions as well as complementarity between the two sets of practices: they encourage mutual learning and joint work, and stress the importance of locally-designed, timely and context-specific initiatives, as well as of hard-nosed analysis of the political context and use of human rights and conflict transformation discourses.
04/2009
Handbook Dialogue No 8 now available in hard copy
Handbook Dialogue No 8 – Building Peace in the Absence of States: Challenging the Discourse on State Failure – can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
04/2009
Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 8
We proudly present Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 8, titled Building Peace in the Absence of States: Challenging the Discourse on State Failure. The exchange between the lead authors and the discussants in this dialogue vividly illustrates the need to shift from a state-centric view, yet without entirely rejecting the notion of state. At the same time it shows the difficulties of integrating concepts of political order that do not correspond with the western-style Weberian/Westphalian state. Instead of advocating ideal-type, off-the-shelf models and blue-prints, the contributors to this dialogue argue that historically well-informed analysis, which leads to a deeper contextualized understanding of the local and regional situation on the ground, has to be the bedrock of any attempts for external assistance aimed at peace and development. They discuss evidence and counter-examples from Somaliland, Afghanistan, Liberia through to the Balkans and East Timor.
02/2009
Handbook Dialogue No 7 now available in hard copy
Handbook Dialogue No 7 Peacebuilding at a Crossroads? Dilemmas and Paths for Another Generation can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
01/2009
The Berghof Handbook presents Dialogue No. 7
The Berghof Handbook presents Dialogue No. 7: Peacebuilding at a Crossroads? Dilemmas and Paths for Another Generation. In it, practitioners and researchers reflect on the conditions of success or failure in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. The lead article expresses a lingering worry that complex economic and environmental crises, international factors of violence and war, and an underlying ‘murkiness’ of values may overwhelm the best efforts for social change and create a feeling that we are “just wasting our time”. The comments emphasize that values and approaches – as well as the international context, power politics and injustice – should be the objects of critical analysis. Investment in learning, honest self-reflection and critical peace research appear to be a must for effective practice. Others stress a need for more effective public mobilization for the effective prevention of violence. Many additional questions are raised and present food for thought for an ongoing debate.