Comparing armed conflicts primes the production of categories that, when mobilized, can alter the trajectories of the conflicts. Considering the political dynamism of spaces of conflict and intervention, and that practitioners regularly seek out academic expertise, this book discusses the possibilities and limits of comparative approaches to understanding armed conflict and intervention. Capacity-building experts, development workers, international organizations, and diplomats use their previous experiences and bring them into new contexts to understand and respond to their environment. Conflict actors can also make comparisons to buttress their political position in negotiations, consolidate their control over fighters, and as calls for transnational rebel solidarity. The use of such comparisons is an inherently political move and it has an impact on the production of scientific knowledge, on conflict dynamics themselves, and on the formulation and implementation of conflict management policy: comparison is inherently a practice of order-making. While there are important epistemological and methodological stakes associated with researchers engaging in comparison, there are also important productive effects connected to the research avenues taken. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Civil Wars.

Comparing armed conflicts primes the production of categories that, when mobilized, can alter the trajectories of the conflicts. Considering the political dynamism of spaces of conflict and intervention, and that practitioners regularly seek out academic expertise, this book discusses the possibilities and limits of comparative approaches to understanding armed conflict and intervention. Capacity-building experts, development workers, international organizations, and diplomats use their previous experiences and bring them into new contexts to understand and respond to their environment. Conflict actors can also make comparisons to buttress their political position in negotiations, consolidate their control over fighters, and as calls for transnational rebel solidarity. The use of such comparisons is an inherently political move and it has an impact on the production of scientific knowledge, on conflict dynamics themselves, and on the formulation and implementation of conflict management policy: comparison is inherently a practice of order-making. While there are important epistemological and methodological stakes associated with researchers engaging in comparison, there are also important productive effects connected to the research avenues taken. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Civil Wars.

This book critically examines peacebuilding, humanitarian intervention and peace operation practices and experiences in francophone spaces. Francophone Africa as a specific space is relatively little studied in the peace and security literature, despite the fact that almost half of all peacekeepers are deployed or were deployed in this part of Africa during the last decade. It is an arena for intervention that deserves more serious attention, if only because it provides fertile ground for exploring the key questions raised in the peacekeeping and peacebuilding literature. For instance, in 2002 a French operation (Licorne) was launched and in 2003 a UN force was deployed in Cote d'Ivoire alongside the French force there. Filling a gap in the current literature, Peace Operations in the Francophone World critically examines peacekeeping and peacebuilding practices in the francophone world, including but not limited to conflict prevention and resolution, security sector reform (SSR), francophone politics, and North-South relations. The book explores whether peace and security operations in francophone spaces have exceptional characteristics when compared with those carried out in other parts of the world and assesses whether an analysis of these operations in the francophone world can make a specific and original contribution to wider international debates about peacekeeping and peacebuilding. This book will be of much interest to students of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, African politics, security studies, and IR in general.

This book critically examines peacebuilding, humanitarian intervention and peace operation practices and experiences in francophone spaces. Francophone Africa as a specific space is relatively little studied in the peace and security literature, despite the fact that almost half of all peacekeepers are deployed or were deployed in this part of Africa during the last decade. It is an arena for intervention that deserves more serious attention, if only because it provides fertile ground for exploring the key questions raised in the peacekeeping and peacebuilding literature. For instance, in 2002 a French operation (Licorne) was launched and in 2003 a UN force was deployed in Cote d'Ivoire alongside the French force there. Filling a gap in the current literature, Peace Operations in the Francophone World critically examines peacekeeping and peacebuilding practices in the francophone world, including but not limited to conflict prevention and resolution, security sector reform (SSR), francophone politics, and North-South relations. The book explores whether peace and security operations in francophone spaces have exceptional characteristics when compared with those carried out in other parts of the world and assesses whether an analysis of these operations in the francophone world can make a specific and original contribution to wider international debates about peacekeeping and peacebuilding. This book will be of much interest to students of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, African politics, security studies, and IR in general.

This book aims to bridge the gap between what are generally referred to as top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacebuilding.

After the experience of a physical and psychological trauma, the period of individual healing and recovery is intertwined with political and social reconciliation. The prospects for social and political reconciliation are undermined when a top-down approach is favoured over the bottom-up strategy - the prioritization of structural stability over societal well-being.

Peacebuilding, Memory and Reconciliation explores the inextricable link between psychological recovery and socio-political reconciliation, and the political issues that dominate this relationship. Through an examination of the construction of social narratives about or for peace, the text offers a new perspective on peacebuilding, which challenges and questions the very nature of the dichotomy between top-down and bottom-up approaches.

This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, social psychology, political science and IR in general.

- surveys and analyses peacebuilding as it operates in specific African context. - outlines the evolution and ideologies, conceptualizations, institutions, and practices of African peacebuilding. - analyses specific thematic issues such as gender, justice, development, democracy, and the politics of knowledge, before ending with in-depth analyses of case studies drawn from across the continent - brings together an international line up of expert contributors

The role of French security policy and cooperation in Africa has long been recognized as a critically important factor in African politics and international relations. The newest form of security cooperation, a trend which merges security and development and which is actively promoted by other major Western powers, adds to our understanding of this broader trend in African relations with the industrialized North. This book investigates whether French involvement in Africa is really in the interest of Africans, or whether French intervention continues to deny African political freedom and to sustain their current social, economic and political conditions. It illustrates how policies portrayed as promoting stability and development can in fact be factors of instability and reproductive mechanisms of systems of dependency, domination and subordination. Providing complex ideas in a clear and pointed manner, France and the New Imperialism is a sophisticated understanding of critical security studies.

This book aims to bridge the gap between what are generally referred to as top-down and bottom-up approaches to peacebuilding.

After the experience of a physical and psychological trauma, the period of individual healing and recovery is intertwined with political and social reconciliation. The prospects for social and political reconciliation are undermined when a top-down approach is favoured over the bottom-up strategy - the prioritization of structural stability over societal well-being.

Peacebuilding, Memory and Reconciliation explores the inextricable link between psychological recovery and socio-political reconciliation, and the political issues that dominate this relationship. Through an examination of the construction of social narratives about or for peace, the text offers a new perspective on peacebuilding, which challenges and questions the very nature of the dichotomy between top-down and bottom-up approaches.

This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, social psychology, political science and IR in general.

While the events of 9/11 provoked countless debates about
international politics, security, and global order, one question
dominates. Should the United States don the mantle of empire for the
sake of world peace, or will peace come through world government?

This volume questions the very assumptions of this debate --
that the political order is hierarchical, with state and international
institutions at the top and individuals and groups at the bottom. Case
studies dealing with Canada's role in the construction and
maintenance of global order, both domestically and internationally,
reveal that the location of social and political practices creating
global order is no longer certain. How are these practices influencing
America's ability to structure its power around the world? What
are the links between Canadian security policy, our involvement in the
war in Afghanistan, and US power?
Rather than taking the state and international system for granted, this
timely and remarkable book demonstrates that global order post-9/11 is
not exclusively American -- allied powers are a key component of
its hegemony.

Since 9/11, policy-makers and observers have questioned whether Americashould don the mantle of empire for the sake of world peace, or whetherpeace will come through world government. Locating GlobalOrder questions the very idea that the political order ishierarchical, with state and international institutions at the top andgroups and individuals at the bottom. Chapters examining various casestudies on Canada's role in the construction and maintenance oforder domestically and internationally reveal that the global orderpost-9/11 is not exclusively American - allied powers are a keycomponent of its hegemony.