Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Colombia, a country beset by ongoing guerilla warfare, drug trafficking, and terrorism, has long had Latin America’s highest levels of homicides and human rights violations. In 2002 Colombia began an effort to demobilize paramilitaries that has led over 30,000 former combatants to return to civilian life since the beginning of 2003. While this effort has achieved some success in reducing violence in urban areas, many have criticized the demobilization as a sop to the right that has had little wider effect on the conflict in the country. This paper seeks to assess the impact of the demobilization process on violent crime and political violence in Colombia. To do so, the study analyzes official data on homicides –as a proxy for violent crime- and conflict-related events (including kidnappings) for the period 2000-2006, using an Interrupted Time Series Analysis (ARIMA) procedure. In addition, national, departmental, and municipal level data will be used to evaluate the effect of the demobilization process on regional violence trends during the study period.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper investigates the shifting role of private security companies as paramilitary forces in relation to national and international use of force. More specifically, the paper traces the parallel evolution of state and non-state private security forces in conditions of globality. The paper argues that the private security companies, just as some states, have grown transnational, transforming their strategic-political roles increasingly in terms of global imperatives and their attendant opportunities. The paper suggests that there is an underlying economy to the shift. This economy is defined in terms f the flexible articulations of security and reflexive use force in congruence with the legitimate instruments of state-centric national and international governance. Private security capacities in all their manifestations in the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia are thus significant factors in the shifting conceptualization of national and international security. The evolution of private capacities in the use of force in the shadow of sovereign states serves as an instructive entry into emergent security environments and the shifts in the nature and form of deployment of force in national and global political fields.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The errors associated with measuring the number of militia and patriot groups may cast doubt on conclusions drawn from prior studies of the spatial variation of these movements. Most studies of militias have been qualitative investigations of a single group, state, or region. A growing number of studies, however, have used quantitative techniques to assess the hypothesis that the number of militia groups by state covaries with structural and cultural forces. We outline a number of concerns with the instruments used to count militia groups and we reestimate models from previous studies using the four alternative measures of these groups employed in prior studies. We find that many inferences drawn for identical theoretical models differ based upon the measure used. These discrepancies apply not simply to tangential control variables but to indicators of key theoretical constructs. In other words, the decision as to whether or not a particular theoretical framework receives empirical support often depends upon which measure of the dependent variable is used. This suggests that the inconsistent findings in prior research may be due to measurement error and makes it difficult to assess the validity of the conclusions drawn from these studies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this study I focus on men from Serbia who voluntarily participated in the wars that followed the break up of the former Yugoslavia as well as on men who fled the wars. Such an ethnography of war participation, accomplished through an analysis of the public sphere and of the personal narratives of war volunteers and draft dodgers, has shed light on the complexity of the relationships among ethnonationalization, masculinization, and participation in the ethnic conflicts. The issues that my research attempts to address go beyond the understanding of conflict in the former Yugoslavia, as my project investigates the nature, origins, and potentials of individuals’ involvement in ethnic conflict. It looks into the social and cultural factors that foment or inhibit ethnic violence, the cultures of masculinity and militarization that influence war and conflict resolution, and the interaction of the state and individuals to see how the state might define, encourage, or be complicit with ethnic violence.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper places Iraq in context with prior efforts of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR). Lessons from those prior efforts, and from more academic assessments of the problem, suggest several lessons that could be applied in Iraq and other societies. First, DDR is more likely to be successful if it follows a full political settlement. Second, DDR is more likely to succeed if it is part of a comprehensive peace agreement, as opposed to being fragmentary. Third, DDR is more likely to succeed if a neutral mediator carries out the process. This paper next provides a detailed case study of the DDR effort in Iraq, an effort whose failure was illustrated in the opening paragraph. This case study is drawn from a mixture of original documents and the author’s own experiences working on this issue at the headquarters of the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Finally, the paper considers the extent to which the Iraqi DDR effort took advantage of lessons learned from past cases, and reflects whether or not these lessons could have been applied to the Iraqi case, and considers the prospects for peace in Iraq.