Since the sweeping (re)introduction of multiparty systems in the early 1990s almost all sub-Saharan countries have introduced bans on ethnic or - in more general terms - particularistic parties. Such party bans have been neglected in research, and this paper engages in a preliminary analysis of...

The involvement of business in peace negotiations and peacebuilding has become a standard concern for countries involved in transitions from armed conflict. This article sheds light on the recent history of the private sector's role in peace processes in Colombia - a country that has been...

In countries where civil war has formally ended, not all refugees return. Nor does emigration come to a halt. Why? We argue that three specific features of post‐war situations explain the varying levels of outward migration: the quality of peace, the quality of political institutions, and the...

Why did Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution initiate a peaceful democratic transition, while the 2014 protests were followed by violent conflict? This paper complements previous studies on Russia's role in Ukraine by focusing on domestic explanations of the recent violence. It shows that structural...

Much of recent international relations literature argues conflicts to achieve or to frustrate regional dominance will become more virulent in the future. In this context we examine different approaches in international relations theory regarding the role and importance which they attribute to...

Ausgehend von der in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur artikulierten Erwartung, dass Konflikte um die Durchsetzung oder Verhinderung regionaler Vorherrschaft in der Zukunft an Virulenz zunehmen werden, wird die Rolle und Bedeutung regionaler Führungsmächte im Rahmen verschiedener theoretischer...

While the Guatemalan Truth Commission came to the conclusion that agents of the state had committed acts of genocide in the early 1980s, fundamental questions remain. Should we indeed speak of the massacres committed between 1981 and 1983 in Guatemala as "genocide", or would "ethnocide" be the...

The concept of "structural stability" has been gaining prominence in development policy circles. In the EU's and the OECD Development Assistance Committee's (OECD DAC) understanding, it describes the ability of societies to handle intra-societal conflict without resorting to violence. This study...

Given the widespread focus on socioeconomic factors, it comes as no surprise that religion is neglected in most theoretical explanations of African civil conflicts. While scholarly interest is increasing in light of the civil wars in Sudan, Nigeria, and northern Uganda, no systematic empirical...

This paper analyzes the role of ethnicity in shaping the character of Kenya's political parties and its party system since 1992. Drawing on a constructivist conception of ethnicity, it uses a framework of comparison derived from Donald Horowitz and distinguishes between three party types: the...