After the ghastly assassination of seven aid workers and their guide in a natural park in Niger on August 9, many false stereotypes surfaced in the media with regard to humanitarian aid in armed conflict zones. Humanitarian aid workers were portrayed from two opposing angles. One described the heroism of aid workers as dauntless saviors…
Author: Peace
Climate crisis: 6 million people join latest wave of global protests
Six million people have taken to the streets over the past week, uniting across timezones, cultures and generations to demand urgent action on the escalating ecological emergency. A fresh wave of climate strikes swept around the globe on Friday with an estimated 2 million people walking out of schools and workplaces. Organisers say that during…
A solitary peacekeeping mission on the edge of Europe
For nearly a decade, peacekeepers backed by the European Union have kept watch over a shaky peace at the far corner of Europe – along the contested boundary left after the Georgian-Russian war. The patrol is the EU’s only peace mission of its kind. It also remains the only dispassionate witness and deterrent to flare-ups…
Civil Society and Governance in Canada
Hania Shahrokhi Recommendations to improve the way in which governments at all levels work with civil society to strengthen dialogue and debate. In democracies like Canada’s, civil society and governments have a long history of constructive engagement. The relationship has evolved over time, often in response to changes in the social and political environment. Today,…
Religious Conflicts and Political Fundamentalisms in the Middle East
By Anahita Shahrokhi Whether it is ‘Muslim-Hindu’ violence in India, ‘Christian-Muslim’ violence in Indonesia, ‘Buddhist-Muslim’ violence in Sri Lanka, ‘Sunni-Shia’ violence in Iraq, or, indeed, ‘Islamic terrorism’, the advertent follower of the news or reader of academic journals instantly encounters numerous references to contemporary or more recent conflicts that are deemed ‘religious’ or ‘sectarian’. The…
Book Review: Orientalism
Orientalism & Cultural Imperialism;Edward Said’s Viewpoint By Hamed Kazemzadeh (Hkaze065@uottawa.ca)Conflict Studies ProgramSaint Paul University – University of OttawaBook Review: Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.ECS 5101: Identity – Based Conflict (Fall Semester 2018)Supervisor: Professor Enkelejda Sula Raxhimi (esraxhimi@ustpaul.ca) Published in Internal Journal of ACPCS – Winter 2019 (N.8); pp. 24-26 A. IntroductionOrientalism is…
Women in the North Caucasus Conflicts: An Under-reported Plight
Women in the Russian republic of Chechnya have never been under such pressure as they are today. Yet not much has been written about their role, their place in society, and their rights in Chechnya and in other North Caucasus conflicts. For more than two decades since 1994, the armed conflict between Russian federal forces…
Strengthening community-level peacebuilding in Rwanda
The genocide in Rwanda destroyed the social fabric in the country. The past 21 years have been marked by efforts to rebuild it. Jean De Dieu Basabose, Peace Direct’s local correspondent for Rwanda, examines one such attempt. Post-genocide Rwanda has been marked by efforts to rebuild the social fabric which was destroyed during the terrible…
Reaching a Durable Peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
The 2018 “Velvet Revolution” in Armenia raised hopes for a long-lasting peace in the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but sticking points remain. Ruben Elamiryan That the revolution radically changed Armenia’s power structure and the whole of the ruling elite provoked multilayer expectations and hopes among those who had considered further compromise on the status quo of…
Religious Conflicts in the Middle East
By Anahita Shahrokhi Published in Internal Journal of ACPCS, Winter No.02. pp. 12-18. As part of a trip to Iran a few years ago, I visited a friend south of Tehran, in Kashan, a city between mountains and desert with many beautiful old buildings and gardens. My friend showed us around over several days. On…
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