This title was first published in 2001. A range of views on the challenges of the social, political, legal and psychological reconstruction of bosnian society are presented in this volume. It draws on the knowledge and experiences of scholars and practitioners from Bosnia-Herzegovina and internationally, and presents an analysis of the Bosnian case as an example for the study of other mulit-ethnic societies emerging from war. By combining a theoretical analysis of multi-ethnic societies with practical examples, the book hopes to highlight the complexities and sensitivities of a political system in a multi-ethnic state, especially in a post-war setting.
"This title was first published in 2001. A range of views on the challenges of the social, political, legal and psychological reconstruction of bosnian society are presented in this volume. It draws on the knowledge and experiences of scholars and practitioners from Bosnia-Herzegovina and internationally, and presents an analysis of the Bosnian case as an example for the study of other mulit-ethnic societies emerging from war. By combining a theoretical analysis of multi-ethnic societies with practical examples, the book hopes to highlight the complexities and sensitivities of a political system in a multi-ethnic state, especially in a post-war setting."--Provided by publisher.
This report is the proceedings of a December 2001 international symposium in Washington, DC organized by the National Academies and the Russian Academy of Sciences. The symposium addressed (1) characteristics of peaceful management of tensions in multiethnic societies, particularly in Russia; (2) policies that have contributed to violence in such societies; (3) steps toward reconciliation; and (4) post-conflict reconstruction.
This book examines the role of multiethnic armies in post-conflict reconstruction, and demonstrates how they can promote peacebuilding efforts. The author challenges the assumption that multiethnic composition leads to weakness of the military, and shows how a multiethnic army is frequently the impetus for peacemaking in multiethnic societies. Three case studies (Nigeria, Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina) determine that rather than external factors, it is the internal structures that make or break the military institution in a socially challenging environment. The book finds that where the political will is present, the multiethnic military can become a symbol of reconciliation and coexistence. Furthermore, it shows that the military as a professional identity can supersede ethnic considerations and thus facilitates cooperation within the armed forces despite a hostile post-conflict setting. In this, the book challenges widespread theories about ethnic identities and puts professional identities on an equal footing with them. The book will be of great interest to students of military studies, ethnic conflict, conflict studies and peacebuilding, and IR in general Florence Gaub is a Researcher and Lecturer at the NATO Defence College in Rome. She holds a PhD in International Politics from Humboldt University, Berlin.
This integrated analysis of conflict and conciliation in protracted insurgency and civil war in societies divided on ethnicity, language and nationality, combines exposition of conflict management theory with detailed examples and case studies on the Northern Ireland peace process, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Bosnian war, and others.
In the South after the Civil War, the reassertion of white supremacy tended to pit white against black. In the West, by contrast, a radically different drama emerged, particularly in multiracial, multiethnic California. State elections in California to ratify Reconstruction-era amendments to the U.S. Constitution raised the question of whether extending suffrage to black Californians might also lead to the political participation of thousands of Chinese immigrants. As historian D. Michael Bottoms shows in An Aristocracy of Color, many white Californians saw in this and other Reconstruction legislation a threat to the fragile racial hierarchy they had imposed on the state’s legal system during the 1850s. But nonwhite Californians—blacks and Chinese in particular—recognized an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the state’s race relations. Drawing on court records, political debates, and eyewitness accounts, Bottoms brings to life the monumental battle that followed. Bottoms begins by analyzing white Californians’ mid-century efforts to prohibit nonwhite testimony against whites in court. Challenges to these laws by blacks and Chinese during Reconstruction followed a trajectory that would be repeated in later contests. Each minority challenged the others for higher status in court, at the polls, in education, and elsewhere, employing stereotypes and ideas of racial difference popular among whites to argue for its own rightful place in “civilized” society. Whites contributed to the melee by occasionally yielding to blacks in order to keep the Chinese and California Indians at a disadvantage. These dynamics reverberated in other state legal systems throughout the West in the mid- to late 1800s and nationwide in the twentieth century. As An Aristocracy of Color reveals, Reconstruction outside of the South briefly promised an opportunity for broader equality but in the end strengthened and preserved the racial hierarchy that favored whites.
Semiotic Construction of the Self in Multicultural Societies elaborates on a holistic theory on the self, by means of integrating social representation theory, dialogical self theory and particular ideas from Vygotskyan developmental psychology in one framework. This book sends a humanistic message by indicating the power of inexhaustible human imagination that empowers individuals to strive for knowing the unknown, checking limits of their abilities and challenging (distancing) and at the same time, affectively and semiotically engaging (undistancing and recreating) their heritage cultures. It provides theoretical elaborations and innovations through the example of the case study of Georgian society and particular cases of proculturation. The theoretical and empirical explorations of proculturation experiences allow ways of tracing the rebuilding of the bridges between psychological and anthropological sciences, paving a path towards transdisciplinary approaches. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of social psychology, semiotics and multicultural studies.
Bringing together a range of contributors from multiple countries, this interdisciplinary volume offers a unique field view of the rule of law and human rights reform in the reconciliation and reconstruction process. The contributors all worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the ten years after the Dayton Peace Accords were signed; here they pause to analyze and critique the work they did. The contributors offer insights from within a variety of international organizations, including the Office of the High Representative, the Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe, and the United Nations. Allowing those who were in the field to identify, discuss and reflect upon the programmes and policies, the collection reveals how the programmes were created, what laws they were pursuant to, and what alternatives were rejected and why. The authors not only assess both the positive and negative aspects and outcomes of their work, but also comment on lessons learned for future post-conflict reconstruction scenarios.
