News from 2007
Morten Bøås and Timothy Raeymaekers appointed to editorial board for new Routledge journal 'African Security'
19/12/2007
African Security
Morten Bøås and Timothy Raeymaekers have been appointed to the editorial board of a new journal published by Routledge called 'African Security'. The journal will be published twice a year, and is dedicated to the exploration of fresh approaches to understanding Africa's conflicts and security concerns.
African Security publishes both full-length research articles as well as book reviews, and submissions are now being accepted for consideration.
Morten Bøås and Kathleen Jennings publish article on failed states in journal 'Globalizations'
17/12/2007
Globalizations
MICROCON researchers Morten Bøås and Kathleen Jennings have published an article entitled '"Failed States" and "State Failure": Threats or Opportunities?' in the journal Globalizations (Volume 4, Issue 4). It draws on five case studies - Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, and the Niger Delta region of Nigeria - to critically examine the circumstances under which the 'failed state' label is (or is not) applied.
Morten is a researcher on MICROCON project 3: The users of force, project 27: Citizenship and land rights, and project 24: Life and health in conflict zones. Kathleen is researcher on project 4: Recruiting child soldiers: Vulnerability, agency and reintegration.
MICROCON members present at Third Annual Households in Conflict Network Workshop
12/12/2007
MICROCON Deputy Director, Philip Verwimp, presenting at the workshop
MICROCON members Philip Verwimp and Carlos Bozzoli presented papers at the Third Annual Households in Conflict Network Workshop. Philip presented a paper on the assessment of the Bosnian Book of the Dead database, and Carlos presented a paper on displacement and health outcomes in Uganda.
Stathis Kalyvas, member of MICROCON's Advisory Board, made a keynote speech entitled 'The Paradox of Governance in Civil War'.
Patricia Justino presents at Yale University Program on Order, Conflict and Violence
08/11/2007
Patricia Justino presented a paper entitled, 'Carrot or stick? The use of social protection policies and police action in contexts of civil unrest', at the Yale University Program on Order, Conflict and Violence, on 7th November.
The paper provides a theoretical analysis of the merits of redistributive transfers in preventing the onset of (and reducing) civil unrest, and compare it with policies of more direct intervention such as the use of police.
MICROCON consortium meets for its second workshop
29/10/2007
Discussions at the Second MICROCON Workshop
Each of our 'Work Package' Leaders met on 12th October at the Centre for European Policy Studies to discuss how to integrate MICROCON's various research themes and disciplines into a single Conceptual Framework. Fieldwork reports were also given by the research teams that have gone out to the field so far.
Tilman Brück appointed to the Advisory Board of new research project, 'Transitional Justice and Development'
29/10/2007
Tilman at the UNU WIDER Fragile States conference
© Alexander Zach
Tilman Brück, Deputy Director of MICROCON, has been appointed a member of the Advisory Board of a new, international research project, 'Transitional Justice and Development'. Armed conflicts and authoritarian regimes in which massive human rights abuses are committed can have an immensely negative socioeconomic impact on countries. As a result, transitional justice is often pursued in a context of socioeconomic underdevelopment, scarce resources, and myriad competing needs. In this context, decision makers face difficult dilemmas about where to allocate available resources.
The project 'Transitional Justice and Development' seeks to address some of those dilemmas by examining the relationship between transitional justice and development. The project, which will run for twelve months till late 2008, is managed by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), which is an international human rights organization based in New York City. The Center’s primary aim is to promote accountability by helping countries develop effective responses to human rights abuse arising from repressive rule, mass atrocity or armed conflict.
Koen Vlassenroot publishes paper on Christian militantism
19/10/2007
Studies in Conflict and Terrorism
Koen Vlassenroot has coauthored a paper entitled: 'In the Name of the Father? Christian Militantism in Tripura, Northern Uganda and Ambon’, in the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (Volume 30, Issue 11) . The article treats three cases of non-state armed actors that explain their actions as being motivated by Christian beliefs and aimed at the creation of a new local society that is guided by religion: the National Liberation Front of Tripura, the Lord's Resistance Army, and the Ambonese Christian militias. It analyzes the way by which they instrumentalized religion against respective backgrounds of conflict rooted in social change, the erosion of traditional identities, imbalances of power, and widening communautarian faultlines.
Koen is the leader of the Work Package on Governance and Institutions.
Poverty Reduction in Conflict and Fragile States: Perspectives from the Household Level
17/10/2007
Conference proceedings publication
This conference was held on 8th and 9th November 2006 at USAID's offices in Washington, D.C., and was co-hosted by USAID's Office of Poverty Reduction, the Households in Conflict Network and DIW Berlin. The conference saw researchers, donors and practitioners come together to share their understanding of the challenges facing households in conflict and fragile states and how the international community could better address these issues.
The proceedings of the conference, along with the conference papers, presentations and audio recordings, are now available from the Poverty Frontiers website.
Award for Philip Verwimp for an outstanding contribution to criminology by a junior academic from the European Society for Criminology
05/10/2007
Philip Verwimp accepting his award
Philip received this award at the 7th Annual Conference of the European Society for Criminology in Bologna, Italy on 27 September 2007. The jury praised Philip’s paper on the economic profile of perpetrators in the Rwandan genocide (Journal of Development Economics 77 (2005)) for its scientific and methodological rigour.
Philip shares the Award with David Green (Oxford University) for his outstanding paper on opinion surveys and crime (British Journal of Criminology 46 (2006)).
ISS Working Paper on relations between India and Pakistan published by Mansoob Murshed
04/09/2007
Mansoob Murshed has published an Institute of Social Studies Working Paper called 'On the Costs of Not Loving Thy Neighbour as Thyself: The Trade, Democracy and Military Expenditure Explanations behind India-Pakistan Rivalry'. The paper, written with Dawood Mamoon, suggests that reduced trade, greater military expenditure, less development expenditure, lower levels of democracy, lower growth rates and less general trade openness are all conflict enhancing. Globalisation or a greater openness to international trade in general are found to be more significant drivers of a liberal peace, than a common democratic political orientation suggested by the pure form of the democratic peace.
Mansoob is a leader of the Work Package developing MICROCON's Conceptual Framework.
Download the Working Paper here
New CEPS policy brief on Hamas and Hizbollah published by Nathalie Tocci
17/07/2007
Nathalie Tocci, leader of the MICROCON Work Package on Conflict in the European Neighbourhood, has published a Centre for European Policy Studies Policy Brief entitled, 'What Went Wrong? The Impact of Western Policies towards Hamas and Hizbollah'. It gives a comparative analysis of the influence of Western policies on key domestic and international dimensions of the Middle Eastern conundrum. It argues that despite their declared aims, Western policies have often hampered the quest for international peace, democracy and good governance, as well as inter- and intra-state reconciliation.
Download the Policy Brief here
Philip Verwimp part of team evaluating Bosnian Book of the Dead
26/06/2007
MICROCON Deputy Director Philip Verwimp was part of a consultancy team asked to assess the Bosnian Book of the Dead, along with Ewa Tabeau of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Patrick Ball of the Benetech Initiative. The Book aims to identify each single victim of the war and to prevent any type of manipulation of numbers.
The trio gave the database a favourable assessment saying that the "database represents an extraordinary achievement for all those who were involved in its preparation." However, Philip, who is a researcher in the field of political economy in developing and post-war countries, human rights and genocide, warns that the IDC database does not mean that work on determining the number of war victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina is over.
Tilman Brück elected as a fellow of the German Young Academy
26/06/2007
MICROCON Deputy Director Tilman Brück has been elected as a fellow of the German Young Academy as of 23rd June. Members of the Young Academy are elected for a period of five years. Prerequisite for a membership is an outstanding doctoral thesis, completed no more than 3 to 7 years before election, and at least one academic work of excellence since then.
Institute of Development Studies hosting HiCN's Third Annual Workshop
18/06/2007
MICROCON partner, the Institute of Development Studies, will be hosting the Third Annual Workshop of the Households in Conflict Network. This will take place on December 10-11 2007.
The purpose of the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN) is to bring together cutting edge empirical and theoretical microlevel research on the nature, causes and consequences of violent conflict. This year’s workshop will focus on the relationship between micro-level conflict processes and institutions.
MICROCON officially launched
12/06/2007
MICROCON was officially launched at two meetings in March. The first of these meetings was a Kick Off Workshop on the 28th and 29th of March, and brought together the MICROCON consortium to discuss the Conceptual Framework, Data Collection, Research Methods, Research Ethics and the Gender Action Plan, and other issues. Read the report
The second meeting was a Public Launch Seminar held on the afternoon of the 29th of March, and was attended by policymakers, NGO staff and external academics, as well as the MICROCON consortium. It included talks from Prof. Lawrence Haddad, MICROCON Director and Director of the Institute of Development Studies, as well as from Prof. Stathis Kalyvas from Yale University and Prof. Joán Esteban from the Institut d'Anàlisi Económica CSIC in Barcelona. Read the report
MICROCON members' work presented at WIDER Conference: Fragile States, Fragile Groups - 15th & 16th June
12/06/2007
The work of MICROCON members Prof. Tilman Brück, Dr. Philip Verwimp, Prof. Frances Stewart, Prof. Koen Vlassenroot, Prof. Mansoob Murshed, Dr. Timothy Raeymakers and Eleonora Nillesen was presented in sessions at the WIDER conference on fragility held in Helsinki.
Many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries are classified as fragile states. In these states more than 350 million people live in extreme poverty and more than four million children die each year before reaching the age of five.This conference brought together researchers and practitioners to discuss different concepts and measures of fragility and vulnerability, to analyse causes and consequences of vulnerability, to consider appropriate policy options, and to identify future research directions.
Universidad de Los Andes hosting HiCN session on approaches to micro-analysis of conflict at LACEA-LAMES 2007 conference
12/06/2007
MICROCON partner, Universidad de Los Andes will be hosting a Households in Conflict Network (HiCN) conference session on innovative approaches in the micro-analysis of causes and consequences of conflict. The session will be part of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and Latin American Meeting of the Econometric Society (LAMES) conference in Bogotá, Colombia on 4-6th October.
Nathalie Tocci's new book published
12/06/2007
Dr. Nathalie Tocci, leader of the Work Package Conflict in the European Neighbourhood, has just published her new book: 'The EU and Conflict Resolution: Promoting Peace in the Backyard' (Routledge, London). Through the study of five ethno-political conflicts lying on or just beyond Europe's borders, the book analyses the impact and effectiveness of EU foreign policy on conflict resolution.
MICROCON researcher Timothy Raeymaekers receives PhD
12/06/2007
Congratulations to Timothy Raeymaekers, a researcher in the Conflict Research Group at Ghent University, who successfully defended his PhD thesis 'The Power of Protection. Governance and Transborder Trade on the Congo-Ugandan Frontier’ on 8th May.
He is a researcher on the project 'Governance without goverment?', in the Work Package on Governance and Institutions.
Tom Bundervoet's trip to Burundi
12/06/2007
In April Tom spent two weeks in Bujumbura, Burundi, making preparations for the survey to be carried out in the project Civil War and Activity Choice, in the Work Package on Risk, Security and Coping Mechanisms. The survey, which is a follow-up to the 1998 Household Priority Survey in Burundi, will start on July 16th. The goal is to trace all individuals who were interviewed in 1998 and survey them again, in order to study the micro-economic dynamics during the war.
Tom will leave for Burundi to carry out the survey on 10th July. He will be joined by Dr. Philip Verwimp on 22nd July, who will be training the enumerators, and Eleonora Nillesen will be arriving in mid-August to help with the survey.
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