Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T21:04:37.495Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Dilemmas of war-to-democracy transitions: theories and concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2010

Anna K. Jarstad
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor and Coordinator for the Conflict and Democracy Program, Department of Peace and Conflict Research Uppsala University Sweden
Anna K. Jarstad
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Timothy D. Sisk
Affiliation:
University of Denver
Get access

Summary

War-torn societies entering the path toward democracy and peace face the challenge that efforts to achieve one of these desirable goals can have negative effects on the other. This chapter puts forward the concept of war-to-democracy transitions to capture the dynamic between the two interacting processes of democratization and peacebuilding. Democratization refers to the process of opening up political space, including improvements regarding contestation, participation, and human rights. Peacebuilding regards the post-settlement period and includes the implementation of the peace agreement. The focus is on the dilemmas that arise when the two processes have adverse effects on each other. A dilemma is a trade-off situation, where usually the choice is between two bad things. However, here the dilemmas regard two goals widely held to be mutually reinforcing, namely democracy and peace. Such dilemmas for post-war transitions occur when actions taken in the name of democratization have negative effects on the peace process. Dilemmas are also activated when actions taken in the name of peace have negative effects on democratization. In addition, the dilemmas are often interacting: there is seldom one dilemma at a time, and one dilemma may make another dilemma even more critical. Such dilemmas pose severe challenges for both local and international actors engaged in peacebuilding and democratization.

Type
Chapter
Information
From War to Democracy
Dilemmas of Peacebuilding
, pp. 17 - 36
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×