Analyses

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The Role of Community Gender Norms and Relations in Both Mobilizing and Preventing Violence in Jos, Nigeria

Different norms of masculinity, and the broader community’s cultivation of these, as well as women’s roles in encouraging or mitigating violence, significantly influence whether a community will mobilize for violence or resist participation in violence amidst communal conflict.

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Beyond Victims or Peacebuilders: Women’s Participation in Security in Mathare, Kenya

When women’s contributions are overlooked due to an overwhelming focus on men’s security activities, “gendered political participation, social relations and socio-economic inequalities” are also overlooked as key components of security.

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A Trauma-Informed Healing Approach to Urban Gun Violence

A public health-informed approach acknowledging racial trauma and emphasizing individual healing is a promising way to address urban gun violence.

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Colombia in Focus: Informing Practice

Contrary to mainstream thinking, armed actors are sensitive to more than just the threat or use of violence against them. When contemplating ways to protect civilians in the context of armed conflict, both local communities and external organizations can leverage multiple nonviolent forms of influence in their interactions with armed actors.

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Colombia in Focus: The ICRC’s Support for Communities’ Self-Protection Efforts in Colombia

Communities and the ICRC have complementary protection capacities, with each “open[ing] up opportunities for dialogue with armed groups” in different ways.

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Colombia in Focus: Explaining Armed Actors’ Compliance with Civilian Demands in Colombian Peace Territories

Armed actors depend on the cooperation of civilians in order to reach their objectives and therefore cannot achieve everything they wish to through violence alone.

Two women sit conversing in the morning sun in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

The Role of Civil Society in Monitoring Ceasefires

Civil society ceasefire monitoring can address risks to ceasefire implementation

How A Feminist Ethic of Care Can Inform Feminist Foreign Policy

This analysis summarizes and reflects on the following research: Robinson, F. (2021). Feminist foreign policy as ethical foreign policy? A care ethics perspective. Journal of International Political Theory, 17(1), 20-37. Talking Points  Key Insight for Informing Practice   While a feminist ethic of care opens up space for attentiveness and responsiveness … Read more

Hero-Villain Narratives Prominent in U.S. Call-to-Arms Speeches

Narratives about national security, namely those identifying specific security threats, are highly influential in generating support for military action. In studying American call-to-arms speeches, Alexandra Homolar finds that hero-villain narratives are prominent in U.S. security discourse “from Samuel Adams to Donald Trump,” and are effectively used by political leaders because of their emotional appeal to the public.

The Entanglement of Militarism and Humanitarianism Broadens the Geographies of Violence

Militarism and humanitarianism produce and justify political violence that go beyond established conflict zones or battlefields.

Reimagining Peace as a Rejection of a Militarized Status Quo 

Feminist and queer perspectives on peace challenge binary ways of thinking about peace, thereby contributing to a reimagination of what peace means.