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Contents:
1. Welcome to the second MICROCON Newsletter
2. MICROCON Research Working Papers
3. Fieldwork news
4. Conceptual Framework
5. Training programme
6. EC conference on the new EU Instrument for Stability
7. Plans for 2008
8. Other news
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Dear Colleague,
This is the second of our twice-yearly newsletters, being sent as the first year of MICROCON draws to a close. It contains news on our publications to date; news from our fieldwork teams; details of our training programme; and information on our plans for 2008.
If you haven't done so already, you can also sign up for alerts of publications in your area of interest as soon as they are published.
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2. MICROCON Research Working Papers
Since the last newsletter, we have published the following Research Working Papers:
Conceptual Framework
This paper assesses the usefulness of the emerging body of work on the micro level analysis of violent conflict in understanding the relationship between violent conflict and poverty. It goes on to propose a framework to understand fundamental transmission mechanisms from violent conflict through to household poverty, as well as the potential impact of household poverty on conflict.
Our second Research Working Paper assesses the greed and grievance hypotheses for violent conflict, suggesting that they may be complementary explanations. The authors argue that neither the presence of greed nor grievance is sufficient for the outbreak of violent conflict, something which requires institutional breakdown. They describe this as the failure of the social contract.
Contemporary Conflicts and Ethnic-religious tensions
Project 7: Religion, caste and communal violence in India
RWP3: Carrot or stick? Redistributive transfers versus policing in contexts of civil unrest
MICROCON's third Research Working Paper, by Patricia Justino, provides a theoretical analysis of the merits of redistributive transfers in preventing the onset of civil unrest, and compares it with policies of more direct intervention such as the use of police. The paper presents empirical evidence for a panel of Indian states, finding that, in the medium term, redistributive transfers are both a more successful and cost-effective means to reduce civil unrest. Policing is at best a short-term strategy. In the longer term, it may trigger further social discontent.
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3. Fieldwork news
Two MICROCON research teams went out to the field this year. The first team was led by Philip Verwimp (DIW Berlin), along with Tom Bundervoet (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Eleonora Nillesen (DIW Berlin), to do research for project 15: Civil war and activity choice. The research was co-funded by Wageningen University and the United States Institute of Peace, and consisted of a national household survey. This is intended as a 'second wave' of a national household survey carried out in 1998, and traces 1000 of the original households and 500 split-off households, giving a panel data set over ten years.
The second team was led by Colette Harris (University of East Anglia), along with Deborah Mulumba, Fredrick Immanuel Kindi and Eria Olowo Onyango (Makerere University), working on project 8: Gender identities and violent conflicts. They were carrying out some initial qualitative research in Internally Displaced Persons camps and returnee villages in Northern Uganda. A main focus of this initial research was on masculinity, but this research will be ongoing over the coming months and will also look at women's gender identities.
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4. Conceptual framework
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. The framework aims to contribute to the work of the entire project in order to shed light on the ‘critical dynamics’ necessary for the outbreak of violent conflict and ‘critical changes’ resulting from processes of mass violence. Regular exchange of ideas and analyses will be maintained with the participants of all Work Packages to ensure that the perspective of the framework is both nourished from, and brought to bear on, the entire research structure of MICROCON.
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5. Training programme
The first Call for Applications for our INCO Training Fund was issued in July, with a deadline of the end of September. This fund is intended to allow researchers from developing countries to visit MICROCON institutes to work with them for short periods. Five candidates were selected, from Georgia, Uganda, Nepal, Colombia and Burundi. They will be visiting Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, DIW Berlin, the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
There will be two further Calls for Applications, one issued in June of 2008 and one in June 2009 - they will be advertised on the MICROCON website.
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6. EC conference on new EU Instrument for Stability
Mansoob Murshed (Institute of Social Studies) and Lars Wirkus (United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security) were invited to represent MICROCON in the workshop “The EU as global actor - The role of think tanks” in Brussels on 30-31 October 2007. It was organised by the European Commission, DG RELEX, Early Warning and Crisis prevention unit, and evaluated opportunities and challenges for cooperation between think tanks and the European Commission in the context of conflict prevention and peace building. It took a closer look at the new EU Instrument for Stability and the therein planned a 'Peace Building Partnership'.
The workshop served as one of two preparatory meetings to the High Level EC conference "From Early Warning to Early Action - Developing the EU´s Response to Crisis and Longer Term Threats" (12-13 November), which was opened by Javier Solana and Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Mansoob Murshed represented MICROCON at this conference.
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7. Plans for 2008
Our third programme workshop in June will see the launch of our three policy-oriented 'Work Packages', Conflict in the European Neighbourhood, led by Nathalie Tocci (Istituto Affari Internazionali); Evaluating Conflict Interventions, led by Tilman Brück (DIW Berlin); and Policy Relevance and Implications, led by Patricia Justino (Institute of Development Studies).
More research teams will go out to the field next year, and the publication of Research Working Papers will start to gather pace as projects start to analyse the preliminary results of their fieldwork. For example, one will be published by Ana María Ibáñez (Universidad de los Andes) on displaced populations in Colombia, and project 5: From violence and conflict to models of integration of Muslims in Europe will start to publish results from its case studies.
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8. Other news:
Morten Bøås and Kathleen Jennings publish article on failed states in journal 'Globalizations'
MICROCON members present at Third Annual Households in Conflict Network Workshop
Patricia Justino presents at Yale University Program on Order, Conflict and Violence
Koen Vlassenroot publishes paper on Christian militantism
Poverty Reduction in Conflict and Fragile States: Perspectives from the Household Level
ISS Working Paper on relations between India and Pakistan published by Mansoob Murshed
New CEPS policy brief on Hamas and Hizbollah published by Nathalie Tocci
Philip Verwimp part of team evaluating Bosnian Book of the Dead
Tilman Brück elected as a fellow of the German Young Academy