Communal Conflict, Civil War, and Implications for Peacebuilding

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel advances the study of communal violence in the contexts of civil war, peacekeeping, peace negotiations, and peacebuilding. Communal violence research has attracted significantly increased attention from civil war to peacekeeping and peacebuilding scholars and policy makers in recent years. The panel brings together four papers that further our understanding of the complexity of communal (‘local’) violence. The contributions draw on fieldwork-based findings from Nigeria, Mali, South Sudan and Kenya. Civil war researchers have long argued that communal or ‘local’ conflicts constitute an important dimension of the complexity of war. Peacebuilding research has called for paying more attention to the local level and the resolution of communal conflict, and peacekeeping practice increasingly focuses on communal conflict and civilian protection. However, how communal conflicts shape the landscape of political violence and how they impact peacebuilding, peace negotiations, and peacekeeping practices has remained largely unaddressed. Furthermore, the gender dimensions of communal conflict have received limited attention to date, even though women’s participation in local peacebuilding is often seen as key to peacebuilding effectiveness. This panel brings together new empirical research on the causes, dynamics, and consequences of communal violence. First, Claudia Wiehler analyzes the relationship between communal conflict and civil war in Northern Nigeria and draws conclusions for civilian protection and military intervention. Second, Adam Lichtenheld, Hilary Matfess and Jakana Thomas analyze women’s roles in the escalation and the prevention of communal violence in Mali, with important implications for peacebuilding. Third, Sophia Dawkins identifies dynamics of escalation and restraint of communal violence in the context of South Sudan’s recent civil war and peace negotiations. Kathleen Klaus and Jana Krause conclude with a paper on barriers to peacebuilding after communal conflict, using evidence from Kenya.

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Individual Presentations

• Civil War Impact on Communal Conflicts: Evidence from Nigeria - Claudia Wiehler, ETH Zurich

• Communal Conflicts and Barriers to Peacebuilding: Evidence from Kenya - Kathleen Klaus, Uppsala University; Jana Krause, University of Oslo

Chair

• Kathleen Klaus Uppsala University

Discussants

• Susanna Campbell American University

• Scott Straus University of California, Berkeley