Potential research

Web pages, links, ideas, concepts … things to read about, research, consider and blog or write about.

28 thoughts on “Potential research”

  4. Write up on blog about Just War theory.

    Week 8: ‘Holy War and Just War in Christianity’.
    How do I use this?
    Just War

    Jus in Bello = justification of going to war. Six conditions:
    just cause
    legitimate authority
    right intentionally
    proportionality
    prospects of success
    last resort

    Jus ad Bellum = justice in fighting war. Two conditions:
    proportionality
    non-combatant immunity

    Jus post-Bellum = delivering justice after the war

    Need to understand:
    – the Just War Tradition;
    – just war theory;
    – Pacifism and Realism;
    these are two other Grand Theories regarding war
    Realism – morality and justice do no apply to war;
    Pacifism – all war is unjust.
    the relationships between them.

    Figures in the Just War Tradition:
    St Augustine (354-430). Wrote at the time the Roman Empire became Christian.
    Said the imperial power is lawful because it has the blessing of God (although there is nothing in the Gospels about running large empires.)

    Argued for ‘wars of conversion’. It says those who do not worship God, what they do is unjust, therefore, it is our duty to wage war on them and convert them. Therefore, justice – for the non-believer – requires war.

    Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).
    Wrote when Jerusalem had fallen to the Moslems and there was a risk of Christians being converted to Islam. Therefore, Jerusalem must be in Christian hands. The Moslem possession of Jerusalem is a threat to Christianity, therefore war is required.

    Sounds mercenary rather than Christian as he says “a new form of military service”.

    The Crusades were ‘wars of defence’.

    St Thomas Aquinas (1224/25-1274)
    Reverted to St Augustine’s view that it is Christian justice that warrants war, not Christianity directly.

    Acting for the sinner, it is for their good. Also, if it is for the common good, it is OK. The violence is to rid the victim on an internal enemy.

    These are wars of offence versus Christians.

    Francisco de Vitoria (1486-1546)
    Argued it was just to war against non-Christians who were committing acts such as cannibalism and human sacrifice, to protect the rights of the victims.

    Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)
    Modern just war. Removed the link with Christianity. Moved the argument from metaphysical to legal.

    “The Law of War and Peace” 1625. Keeps to the ‘Thou shall not kill’ doctrine. Disputes Augustine and Aquinas. Says there can be no Christian justification. He says the components of justice – defence, reclaiming what is owing, punishment – cannot be found in Christianity.

    These are secular wars.

    Over time the Christian just war principle became a secular one. ? this was lecturer’s comment; needs a reference.

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  6. “Transforming violent conflict”
    This looks as though they have used useful sources:
    https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/more/conciliation-resources/
    “A study spanning 323 campaigns for major social change between 1900 and 2006 found that about half of the nonviolent campaigns succeeded in exacting major concessions from government, compared to only about a quarter of the campaigns that used violence (Stephan & Chenoweth, 2008).”
    Stephan, M. J. & Chenoweth, E., 2008. ‘Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict’. International Security, 33(1), pp. 7-44.

    Reply ↓

  9. Two World beyond War documents to go through:

    https://www.worldbeyondwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WPTL-CADMUS-version.pdf
    saved as
    LUDocs\Dissertation\Useful papers\World Peace Through Law Rethinking an Old Theory\WPTL-CADMUS-version.pdf

    and

    https://www.worldbeyondwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/peace-briefing-new-security-dilemma.pdf
    saved as
    LUDocs\Dissertation\Useful papers\The new security dilemma\peace-briefing-new-security-dilemma.pdf

    Reply ↓

  11. Lists of peace agreement databases (which may all be the same or derivative):

    A search for “Peace Agreements Database” comes up with all sorts of things.
    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22peace+agreement+database%22&t=canonical&ia=web

    PA-X Women And Peace Agreement Database – https://www.peacewomen.org/node/101315
    The Transitional Justice Institute, at the University of Ulster, has launched a peace agreements database – https://humanrightsdoctorate.blogspot.com/2009/03/peace-agreements-database.html
    Peace Agreement Portal – https://www.peaceagreements.org/portal
    The Transitional Justice Peace Agreements Database – http://www.peaceagreements.ulster.ac.uk/
    PA-X Peace Agreement Database Project – http://www.politicalsettlements.org/portfolio/pa-x-database/
    PA-X Peace Agreements Database Peace Agreements Database – https://www.peaceagreements.org/
    and others.

    Political Settlements Research Programme PA-X Peace Agreements Database is available at http://www.peaceagreements.org
    The PA-X Peace Agreement Database is a database and repository of peace agreements from 1990 to date, current up until 1 January 2016.

    PA-X Publications Series
    http://www.politicalsettlements.org/pax-series/

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  18. There is an annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report produced by the international think-tank the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Going through all editions is one solution to finding alternatives to war.

    “The 2018 GPI reveals a world in which the tensions, conflicts, and crises that emerged in the last decade remain unresolved, resulting in a gradual, sustained fall in peacefulness. The largest contributors to the deterioration in the last year were the escalations in both interstate and internal armed conflicts, rise in political terror and reduced commitment to UN peacekeeping. Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia are the least peaceful countries whilst Iceland, New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark are the most peaceful countries.

    “The GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness. The report covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population and uses 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources to compile the index. These indicators are grouped into three key domains: ‘ongoing conflict’, ‘safety and security’, and ‘militarisation’. All three domains deteriorated over the last year.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index

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  20. A list of conflict management techniques from to read about and blog about:

    There is a list of conflict management techniques from the PPR.420 Course handbook. Where did this list come from?

    Conflict Management Techniques:
    Capacity-building: supporting local peace constituencies
    Humanitarian relief
    Legal protection of minorities
    Quasi-mediation (Parties in the Conflict taking a mediation role)
    Adoption of constructive means of prosecuting conflict by parties
    Peace processes
    Truth Recovery/Reconciliation
    Education
    Physical separation
    Peace-keeping
    Secret negotiations
    Back-channels
    Mediation
    National Peace conferences
    Peace Alliances
    Peace and Conflict Impact Assessments
    ‘Deep’ or ‘Structural’ Conflict Prevention
    ‘Light’ or ‘Operational’ Conflict Prevention
    Problem-solving workshops
    External intervention/mediation
    ‘Mediation with muscle’
    Community relations work
    Inter-Ethnic Round Tables
    Peace Zones
    Confidence Building Measures
    Supporting indigenous peace-builders
    Capacity-Building
    Conflict Resolution Training

    Alphabetically sorted list:
    Adoption of constructive means of prosecuting conflict by parties
    Back-channels
    Capacity-Building
    Capacity-building: supporting local peace constituencies
    Community relations work
    Confidence Building Measures
    Conflict Resolution Training
    ‘Deep’ or ‘Structural’ Conflict Prevention
    Education
    External intervention/mediation
    Humanitarian relief
    Inter-Ethnic Round Tables
    Legal protection of minorities
    ‘Light’ or ‘Operational’ Conflict Prevention
    Mediation
    ‘Mediation with muscle’
    National Peace conferences
    Peace Alliances
    Peace and Conflict Impact Assessments
    Peace processes
    Peace Zones
    Peace-keeping
    Physical separation
    Problem-solving workshops
    Quasi-mediation (Parties in the Conflict taking a mediation role)
    Secret negotiations
    Supporting indigenous peace-builders
    Truth Recovery/Reconciliation

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  22. Write up what I have learned from volunteering.

    Regarding the peace-sector organisations I have worked with or investigated, they are very good at saying war is bad, but poor at proposing alternatives. For example, Stop the War Coalition, Peace Pledge Union, …

    Warrington Peace Centre (The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace) (2013 – 2015) – the Think programme: interventions in schools works to disrupt gangs.

    Stop the War – protest marching does not work at all.

    Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War – changing the system from within for a few. Peace Tax Bill: passed first reading. Not worked yet. Issues over ‘hypothecated tax’. The Treasury do not want this. Commissioning a report: Minister for Peace and how it did not go as intended.

    Peace Tax Seven – Robin & others – civil disobedience by withholding tax can work, sort of.

    Make Wars History – Chris Coverdale – withholding tax can also result in prison.

    Peace Pledge Union – did not work for WW2. People did not keep to the pledge. So would they keep my suggested 11112018 pledge?

    Scientists for Global Responsibility – is anybody listening? So much academic research funding comes from the arms industry. Why is SGR not more influential?

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  24. Miscellaneous conflict management research to read and blog.

    This Wikipedia page has a list of models for conflict management:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_management#Orientations_to_conflict

    The conflict continuum page has conflict models:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_continuum

    Wikipedia’s pages in the category ‘peace and conflict studies’:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Peace_and_conflict_studies

    Wikipedia’s ‘peace and conflict studies’:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_and_conflict_studies

    Research into Peace and Conflict Studies:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_and_conflict_studies#As_research_activity

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  25. Consider: human rights and wars.

    From Open University DD301’s discussion on using contravention of human rights to determine social harm, and PPR.225 Introduction to Peace Studies’ week 17 “Human Rights and Conflict Prevention” which suggested the question “The best way to prevent conflict is to entrench respect for, and adherence to, human rights”. To what extent can adherence to human rights be used as a measure of non-violence?

    The UK is a member of the UN Security Council. What difference does that make either way?

    With the UK being a member of the UN Security Council and human rights gaining greater recognition internationally, to what extent could a human rights based approach be taken to determine and select interventions internationally? (Although the Responsibility To Protect alows wars to be started to save people, just as Just Wars can kill people to save them.)

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  26. Write up the problems with having a private sector arms industry.

    The private sector arms industry is part of the problem. The modern military-industrial-academic complex or Eisenhower’s 1960 military/industrial complex and US President whats-his-name circa 1919 making much the same warning and saying the arms industry must be re-nationalised to prevent future wars. Is this useful? Is it useful introduction or background material?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nye_Committee

    https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later

    It is a problem because they are a powerful lobbying group. Also, they employ many people and so MPs say it cannot be reduced because that would lose jobs and so lose votes.

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  27. Rethinking Security has loads of links that need to be followed up:
    – “Rethinking security: A discussion paper” at https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/portfolio/rethinking-security-paper/
    – “Rethinking Security Parliamentary Briefing – Reframing UK national security in a global context” at https://rethinkingsecurityorguk.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/parliamentary-briefing-march-20181.pdf
    – “TRACKING PEACE TRANSITIONS THROUGH A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH” at http://visionofhumanity.org/app/uploads/2017/10/Positive-Peace-Report-2017.pdf
    – Further reading at https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/further-reading/
    – Documents for policy makers at https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/policy-makers/
    – documents for teachers at https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/education/
    – Documents for supporters at https://rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/supporters/

    Reply ↓

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