Current events

Kshemendra Kumar Ubadhyay, an expert in development with twenty-five years of experience fighting marginalisation in India, says in the interview that opens the latest issue of the journal, "the media look for sensation and breaking news and not really for deep analysis." It is just this deep analysis into the root causes of conflict that characterises this journal from the UOC.


Fighting conflict

There are many reasons why conflicts around the world are not only not resolved, but often perpetuated and made worse. In the interview that opens this issue, Dr Upadhyay explains how India's caste system, which relegates much of the population to a life of misery, is denied by the elites in the positions of power and reinforced by the government.

On other occasions, the conflict is not denied, but nor is it combatted correctly. The article by Abosede Omowumi Babatunde on the exploitation of the oil reserves in Nigeria's Niger Delta shows how repression worsens the conflict. In the author's opinion, to solve the problem, one simply needs to find its origin; in this case, the local people's call for an active role in the country's public, social and economic affairs.

From a more global point of view, Sidi M. Omar provides a critical reflection on the widespread and widely accepted theory of aid for development. According to the author, we have to get over the idea, from a post-colonial perspective, that underdeveloped countries have to be 'saved' through the intervention of First World countries.


Accepting conflict

In her article, Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen analyses the benefits of conflict management training in the case of a specific company. The author believes that conflict is inherent to any organisation where a heterogeneous group of people with different positions work. The fear of making conflicts worse or ruining the idyllic image of an organisation can lead to these conflicts being buried. The results of the training, however, show that accepting the existence of such conflicts allows for a better environment for their resolution.

Echoes of this idea of accepting conflict can be found in Audra Mitchell's book Lost in Transformation: Violent Peace and Peaceful Conflict in Northern Ireland, which is reviewed by Darina Lucheva in the Book Review section. During the peace process in Northern Ireland, the efforts to achieve peace were weak and fruitless because they were based on the idea that there is a direct link between conflict and violence. When attempts are made to end violence by eliminating conflict, the violence is accentuated, as different ideas on how to achieve this come to a head. The aim, in Mitchell's opinion, is to create conditions that allow multiple worlds to coexist in a non-violent manner (the theory of plural world-building).


Motivating factors

Two articles look in-depth at the reasons that lead to direct involvement in conflict. The article by Bhimsen Devkota and Edwin van Teijlingen analyses the motivating factors of individuals who joined Maoists as health workers during the armed conflict in Nepal (1996-2006). The article provides policy-relevant conclusions on how to promote peace and improve healthcare services in communities affected by conflict.

In turn, Adam Baird delves into the reasons why male youths in poor neighbourhoods join violent gangs. The article uses empirical data collected in Medellín, Colombia, and a conceptual focus on masculinities to understand why some male youths negotiated a pathway to manhood without joining violent urban gangs.


Projects for peace

The Pioneers section of this issue looks at the contribution of the Peace Studies department at the University of Bradford to the field of international peacebuilding and peacekeeping. The article by David Manus provides information on his research into new economic and social models that lead to cooperation rather than conflict.

Finally, the Profile section presents the work of Enough Project, which fights to end genocide and crimes against humanity.


The Journal

The Journal of Conflictology is a six-monthly electronic publication produced by the UOC since 2009 and led by the Centre de Recerca i Estudis en Conflictologia (Conflictology Studies and Research Centre, CREC) at the Campus for Peace, which has formed part of the UOC's IN3 research institute since 2001.

This is the fifth issue. Between January 2011 and the end of May 2012, the journal had 60,734 visits, 30,547 unique users and 1,360 subscribers.

The aim of the Journal of Conflictology is to examine the application of conflict resolution theory and disseminate knowledge on the practice of non-violence from a realistic and scientific point of view. Its work has raised the UOC to the highest echelons internationally in training, research and scientific dissemination in the field.