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Seeking Reconciliation between Georgia and Abkhazia: The Bottom-Up Approach since 2008
Salát, Patrik ; Brisku, Adrian (advisor) ; Horák, Slavomír (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with the reconciliation process between Georgia and Abkhazia after 2008. It focuses on the bottom-up approach to reconciliation and its potential for the transformation of protracted and unresolved conflict. As bilateral negotiations at the political level between Georgia and Abkhazia have been stuck since 2006, this approach may be the only tool to disrupt the current status quo. Nevertheless, the research results show that this potential is quite limited in Georgia. The current discourse about the conflict that supports the status quo is related to ethnic identity and is also supported internationally. Middle-range leaders who are a significant part of the civil peace process between Georgia and Abkhazia have attempted to disrupt this discourse. Still, even their willingness to compromise is limited by a myth-symbol complex. Moreover, participants in peace projects are not homogeneous groups that aim to disrupt the current discourse. The research results show that reconciliation outside the state level has contributed at least to the preservation of negative peace because its participants mostly avoid stereotypes, do not feel negative emotions towards the other side, and reject violence as a tool for conflict resolution.
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Seeking Reconciliation between Georgia and Abkhazia: The Bottom-Up Approach since 2008
Salát, Patrik ; Brisku, Adrian (advisor) ; Horák, Slavomír (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with the reconciliation process between Georgia and Abkhazia after 2008. It focuses on the bottom-up approach to reconciliation and its potential for the transformation of protracted and unresolved conflict. As bilateral negotiations at the political level between Georgia and Abkhazia have been stuck since 2006, this approach may be the only tool to disrupt the current status quo. Nevertheless, the research results show that this potential is quite limited in Georgia. The current discourse about the conflict that supports the status quo is related to ethnic identity and is also supported internationally. Middle-range leaders who are a significant part of the civil peace process between Georgia and Abkhazia have attempted to disrupt this discourse. Still, even their willingness to compromise is limited by a myth-symbol complex. Moreover, participants in peace projects are not homogeneous groups that aim to disrupt the current discourse. The research results show that reconciliation outside the state level has contributed at least to the preservation of negative peace because its participants mostly avoid stereotypes, do not feel negative emotions towards the other side, and reject violence as a tool for conflict resolution.
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Transforming conflict at the local level: Women peace mediators in Burundi
Vodičková, Anna ; Werkman, Kateřina (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
Armed conflict affects men and women differently due to their previous roles in the society. For instance, it often crucially changes the status of women and enhances their emancipation. Therefore, women should be included in conflict resolution as well as in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction, to ensure sustainable peace. Examples from many African countries driven by conflict denote that women are not automatically included in these processes. This single intrinsic case study documents the work of women peace mediators in Burundi. At the theoretical level, the study argues for an elicitive endogenous approach to peacebuilding, embedded in the conflict transformation theory by John Paul Lederach. Nevertheless, theoretical concepts are not emphasized because they tend to limit the mediators' agenda which actually involves a wide range of conflict handling mechanisms. The main part of the study is based on semi-formal questionnaires filled out by women peace mediators in Bujumbura. The goal of the research is twofold: First, it is aimed to introduce the mediators and to understand their motivations to mediate. Second, it documents their everyday work by analysing official reports. The findings show that an "average" mediator is a married woman, with children, with at least secondary...
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Transforming conflict at the local level: Women peace mediators in Burundi
Vodičková, Anna ; Werkman, Kateřina (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
Armed conflict affects men and women differently due to their previous roles in the society. For instance, it often crucially changes the status of women and enhances their emancipation. Therefore, women should be included in conflict resolution as well as in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction, to ensure sustainable peace. Examples from many African countries driven by conflict denote that women are not automatically included in these processes. This single intrinsic case study documents the work of women peace mediators in Burundi. At the theoretical level, the study argues for an elicitive endogenous approach to peacebuilding, embedded in the conflict transformation theory by John Paul Lederach. Nevertheless, theoretical concepts are not emphasized because they tend to limit the mediators' agenda which actually involves a wide range of conflict handling mechanisms. The main part of the study is based on semi-formal questionnaires filled out by women peace mediators in Bujumbura. The goal of the research is twofold: First, it is aimed to introduce the mediators and to understand their motivations to mediate. Second, it documents their everyday work by analysing official reports. The findings show that an "average" mediator is a married woman, with children, with at least secondary...
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The Role of Religious Leaders in Conflict Transformation
Bodenbender, Stanislava ; Maslowski, Nicolas (advisor) ; Kratochvíl, Petr (referee)
Religion has often been viewed as a source of conflict and violence in international relations. Yet history provides that religion has also been a source and inspiration for peace building and non-violent resistance. The role of religious leaders in conflict transformation has been treated as a marginal phenomenon. Appleby (2000) points out that identifying and documenting the roles of religious actors in resolving protracted conflicts remains an unfinished task. This thesis is an attempt to meet such challenge by focusing on religious leaders and their role in search of solutions in deeply rooted conflicts. Working from the premise that religious leaders can make a substantial contribution in conflict transformation, the overarching goal of this thesis is to examine what roles religious actors play and how equipped they are to serve their communities in their capacity as peacemakers.
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