Institute for the Study of

Intercommunal Conflict

Research

Current members of the institute are engaged in a wide variety of research projects including studies of aggression, cooperation, violence against women, police reform, ethnic conflict, human rights, weapons of mass destruction, genocide, international refugees and internally displaced people, and many other areas.

The institute is a welcome home for those engaged in interdisciplinary research in all areas related to intercommunal conflict. The institute's members seek external grants and other forms of funding to support the wide variety of topics encompassed in intercommunal conflict.

Organized Crime and Order in Post-Conflict Kosovo

Claire Metelits, Washington State University
Kendra Koivu, Northwestern University

Can criminal organizations facilitate the development of order in post-conflict societies? This question represents the aggregation of several others: What motivates informal power structures? How do these organizations manage intercommunal violence? Do illicit power structures encourage competition between criminal organizations and rivalry between ethnic communities, or do they have the opposite effect, forcing cooperation between groups and sectors of society?

Using evidence based on fieldwork in post-conflict Kosovo, we find that informal power constellations structure the sectarian violence in post-conflict Kosovo, and in so doing can provide order to local communities there. This article examines illicit informal power structures that develop during periods of high-intensity conflict and are later maintained through criminal activity, in this instance, within publicly owned enterprises in the energy sector. We consider how the maintenance of these power constellations structures the sectarian violence in post-conflict periods. It addresses questions that are at once relevant to the study of weak states and actors that bring order.

Research Projects on Insurgencies

Insurgencies and Behavior Toward Civilians

Claire Metelits

This project explores the reasons insurgent groups change their treatment of noncombatants they claim to represent. It accounts for the transformation in insurgent groups from representative entities that provide local civilians with public goods and services in exchange for resources, to highly coercive groups guilty of gross violations of human rights. Current debates claim that insurgent behavior is linked to the scramble to obtain the resources that groups need to fight their foes, or that such behavior is a natural evolution of contemporary warfare. This project examines and critiques recent studies of insurgent violence and offers an alternative perspective—namely that insurgent group behavior depends largely on the presence or absence of rivals. Field research has been conducted on insurgencies in Iraq (the PKK targeting Turkey), Sudan, and Colombia. Future research will include the ETA in Spain as well as other cases.

Cooperation and Lack Thereof Among Insurgencies

Martha Cottam, Claire Metelits, Joe Huseby, Bruno Baltodano

Civil wars commonly involve multiple combating groups, including insurgent groups and government forces. In Iraq today, for example, the civil war is being waged by al Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni rejectionists (including the New Baath Party, the 1920 Revolutionary Brigade, and Jaysh Muhammad), death squads, and at least 7 different militias, including those controlled by Muqtada al Sadr. Nevertheless, in most civil wars (75%), one side, either government forces or insurgents, wins (Fearon 2007). This means that for insurgents to win rather than cause ongoing death and violence, which can result in a failed state such as Somalia, they must either defeat their rivals for power or cooperate to achieve broad political goals. This research project poses the following questions: Why do some armed groups coordinate and even cooperate with one another? What factors motivate them to engage in cooperation, what factors enable them to cooperate, and what factors keep coalitions together successfully?  We begin with a study of insurgencies from the past, cooperation among the 3 tendencies of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, lack of cooperation among insurgents in the contra factions in Nicaragua, and cooperation among insurgent groups in Guatemala. Current cases we intend to study are insurgencies in  Kashmir, Darfur, and the Philippines.

Violence and Oppression Research Project

Martha Cottam, Faith Lutze, Joe Huseby

The focus of this research project is on the evolution of violent impulses in different contexts, the escalation and acceleration patterns as well as limiting patterns, and the eventual conclusion of violent behaviors. We are exploring the causes and impact of violence on people during its cycle, from initiation to escalation to conclusion and aftermath. In the process the research project examines a wide variety of types of conflict, including domestic interpersonal violence; community-level violence ranging from racial to ethnic conflict, gender-based violence, gangs, hate crimes, and riots; resource-based conflict; civil wars, genocide, and the lives of child soldiers, and violence perpetrated by criminal regimes; failed states, and states committed to rule through terror. Events such as these have cost millions of people their lives in the last 100 years, yet it is only in the past 2 decades that the common causes and patterns of these activities have come under scrutiny by academics. During the Cold War the avoidance of nuclear catastrophe was attributed to the rationality of deterrence, while wars that were offshoots of the Cold War were discounted as "proxy wars" whose victims hardly mattered. Violence in the home used to be considered a "private" concern. The distinction between the criminal and the political universes were considered absolute. But today scholars from a number of fields as well as clinicians are developing a different perspective. What we learn about human violence in one domain may well contribute to our understanding of it in many other domains.

The project also considers what we call "slow genocide." Although tremendous attention is given by those in the international community to the rise of violence that results in mass killings and genocide, little attention is then paid to the "ordinary violence" (i.e., domestic violence, rape, assault, and murder) that occurs before and after the genocide, and results in slow genocide. Slow genocide is the emotional and physical harm done to survivors of violence over time that leads to extreme hardship and premature death for many. The emotional and physical harm resulting from witnessing or participating in violence and the continuing experiences of living in unsafe and violent communities perpetuates a cycle of violence that often affects multiple generations.

Research on the International Policing Policy Community (IPPC)

Otwin Marenin

Police, and more generally security sector (SSR), reform has been promoted transnationally through different mechanisms: e.g. bilateral, regional and international aid and assistance programs, UN peacebuilding efforts, or international law enforcement academies. The basic goal of all such transnational reform programs is the creation of democratic policing systems in countries and regions which currently lack these. The standards against which the 'democraticness' of policing systems is measured and progress toward that goal evaluated have become enshrined in international policing and security regimes.

I am interested in 2 questions: who produces these programs and the conceptions of democratic policing against which they are being measured. They do not happen by themselves, nor are they natural and obvious solutions to transnational and domestic crime and security problems.

I will collect information on the individuals, and institutions and groups they are affiliated with, who have been instrumental in creating standards and programs, and plot their social networks established through personal and institutional connections. My impression, so far, is that a core group of individuals linked in dense social network have been responsible for producing most of the standards and specific reform programs. The core network is surrounded by a tangentially and less permanently associated group of others also involved in planning, implementing, and evaluating policing reforms. Both core and periphery groups can be seen as the beginning of a global civic society interest group in SSR and policing, which functions below and cuts across national and state levels.

Second, what have been the consequences, intended and unintended, of transnational policing assistance and reform programs on the organizational arrangements, management styles, occupational performance, and professional cultures of assisted policing systems. More specifically, to what degree have assistance programs helped policing and security systems become more efficient and effective, while remaining attuned to the protection of rights and due process, when dealing with social and individual conflicts ranging from crime to the maintenance of peace, security, and good order.

There exists a substantial literature on these questions, most of it not highly positive about the achievements of transnational policing programs. Specifically, though, I want to focus on the impacts of programs on occupational cultures, and whether programs are a one- or a two-way street. Three issues are of interest here: have assisted policing systems changed in their cultures; have assisting police institutions and cultures been changed by their exposure to other policing systems and practices and their reforms efforts outside their own countries; do we see the development and institutionalization of a global police culture?

Border Studies Projects

Cooperation in NAFTA: Security Issues

Martha Cottam, Otwin Marenin

This research project has focused on cooperation and problems therein in NAFTA regarding security issues, particularly in the war on drugs, but also related to other post-9/11 security concerns such as the flow of immigrants and trade conflicts. Cooperation between the national governments and local law enforcement communities is one issue of emphasis. Factors such as mutual perceptions, nationalism, bureaucratic cultures, and the unique requirements of practitioners' jobs have been studied as influences on cooperation.

You Are Not My Friend: Feeding Conflict in Times of Peace

Susan Dente Ross

Advocates and scholars of peace journalism have expounded on this journalistic paradigm in the context of perceived problems with media coverage of international conflict through critiques of what they call 'war journalism' practice (see, e.g., Galtung; Kempf; Lynch; Mandelzis; McGoldrick; Nohrstedt; Ottosen; Peleg; Ross; Shinar). This project expands peace journalism research by exploring the peacetime construction of conflict with putative allies and friends. This study explores the construction of U.S. neighbors in the texts of the New York Times, policy initiatives, and presidential speeches dealing with U.S. borders during the first 7 years of the George W. Bush administration. The text analysis examines and compares U.S. political and media constructions of both the Mexican and Canadian borders with the United States, paying particular attention to issues of trade/commerce, immigration, illegal drugs, and national security. This study seeks to identify and critique the discursive preparation during periods of bilateral cooperation and peace that strategically assists or impedes the build-up to military conflict between the United States and its neighbors or 'friends.' In so doing, the authors hope to provide new terrain for engagement of peace journalism practice that will reduce the international drive toward militarism and war.

Violence, Tragedy, and Toleration in Early Modern England

Will Hamlin

Much of my work in the past has dealt with representations of violence and transgression in English Renaissance tragedy, and I continue to study the ways in which specific forms of social dislocation and personal violation find expression in literary texts—particularly those of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. At the moment I am particularly interested in the English reception and appropriation of the French essayist Michel de Montaigne, whose essays testify repeatedly to his horror at all forms of cruelty, and who is generally regarded as an early and important voice in the movement toward religious toleration in Europe. I hope to explore in detail the many networks of influence through which Montaigne's ideas were conveyed to English readers, and by which various forms of religious intolerance were gradually dismantled.

Violence Against Women Projects

Bosnian Women and Intimate Partner Violence: Differences in Experiences and Attitudes for Refugee and Non-Refugee Women

Lisa R. Muftic, University of North Texas
Leana A. Bouffard, Washington State University

Forthcoming, 2008, Feminist Criminology

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is increasingly seen as a global social problem. Inter- and transnational organizations, including the World Health Organization, World Bank, and United Nations, have increasingly focused on IPV, urging "all governments to prioritize the elimination of violence against women" (Nayak, Byrne, Martin, & Abraham, 2003, p. 333); however, much of the research in this area has been limited to North America, leaving a broad gap in the existing literature and a stark need for more research on IPV among diverse national, cultural, religious, and ethnic groups. This study aims to narrow this gap somewhat by examining IPV among Bosnian women within the context of the dramatic socio-political changes that have occurred in that country over the last 2 decades and the forced migration of many Bosnian refugees to other countries, particularly the United States.

Approximately 70 Bosnian women completed paper and pencil surveys that measured experiences and attitudes associated with IPV. Bivariate analyses were used to compare the responses of Bosnian nationals residing in Bosnia-Herzegovina (n = 49) against the responses of Bosnian refugees residing in the United States (n = 21). While no statistically significant differences were found related to victimization rates between the 2 samples, a few differences in attitudes were discovered. A somewhat surprising finding was that Bosnian women residing in the U.S. appeared to hold more conservative social attitudes than their female counterparts living in Bosnia. This may seem counterintuitive as the West (and women living in the West) is generally associated with more liberal, pro-feminist viewpoints, especially in contrast to Eastern-European countries that are characterized by more conservative, patriarchal attitudes and traditions. It is important to point out, however, that the U.S. sample of Bosnian women had only lived in the U.S. for an average of about 9 years at the time of the study. Nonetheless, it was surprising that their attitudes were more conservative than women residing in Bosnia. The few studies that have examined the experiences of female refugees, however, indicate that most refugee women seek to reconstruct familiar lifestyles in their new homes. For Bosnians, familiar may mean a continuation of traditions of patriarchy and conservatism with regards to gender roles. Franz (2003), for example, found that among Bosnian refugee households, the enforcement of cultural traditions and practices, such as the separation of sexes in public settings, were actually stricter in the U.S. and Austria than they had been in Bosnia. This interpretation also is supported by the lack of significant differences in victimization rates.

Part of increasing globalization is the forced migration of refugees, and the impact of this migration on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors is not fully understood. This study offers a preliminary look at this issue with respect to differences among Bosnian women. Refugee women within the U.S. and women outside of the U.S. have not received the same level of research attention in terms of their experiences with violence. Violence against women crosses international boundaries, and research too must broaden its focus to achieve a full understanding of the context of IPV.

Violence Against Women: Incidence, Resources, & Response in a Bosnian City

Lisa R. Muftic, University of North Texas
Leana A. Bouffard, Washington State University

This study examines the phenomenon of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Bosnia. Specifically, an exploratory analysis is structured around 3 important and interrelated areas: (1) prevalence of IPV, (2) public policy (i.e., criminal law and police responses), and (3) availability of services (i.e., treatment programs, shelters, and public support for such services). Forty-nine Bosnian women completed pencil and paper surveys that measured experiences and attitudes associated with IPV. In addition, 5 professionals (i.e., social worker, police officer, shelter director, lawyer, and psychologist) who work with or are in direct contact with victims of IPV victims were interviewed.

The results of this study indicate that intimate partner violence is a pervasive social problem impacting Bosnian women. Similar to previous studies (Copic, 2004; NGO, 2004), 1 in 3 Bosnian women indicated that they had been physically victimized by their spouse or partner in the past 12 months. Prior to the enactment of the new Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, the police were not mandated to intervene in situations of IPV. This has changed, however, with the passing of Article 140 of the Criminal Code, which requires police to report domestic violence calls to the criminal inspector. In turn, the inspector is required to initiate criminal proceedings against the perpetrator. It is important to point out, however, that while the police are now required to remove the offender from the family home (i.e., separation), they are not mandated to arrest the perpetrator. In addition, very little training (including sensitivity training and investigative techniques for IPV) has been provided to the police since the enactment of the new Criminal Code.

At the time of this study, the state had yet to establish support services for IPV victims, including housing, counseling, or treatment. Instead non-governmental organizations were attempting to provide piecemeal services to IPV victims. These services were currently financed and run by the NGOs operating in the country. Unfortunately, most of the services provided were disjointed, temporary, and available only to a small portion of the residents in the city in which the NGO operates. For instance, in all of Bosnia there was only 1 permanent shelter (located in Sarajevo) and 2 temporary shelters (located in Zenica and Banja Luka) available for victims of IPV in 2005. In a country of nearly 2 million women with a land mass comprising 51,128 square kilometers, this is problematic to say the least. Case-in-point, if a woman residing in Mostar wishes to leave her abusive partner, she must travel, more than likely by bus, at least 77 miles to the nearest shelter, which may or may not have room for her and her children.

It is important for political leaders, criminal justice practitioners, and victim rights activists to recognize the structural context in which victims of IPV reside. In post-conflict settings, such as the case with Bosnia, the newly emerging socio-political environment (often besieged by inflation, unemployment, and civil unrest) interacts with a largely patriarchal culture, producing a situation of overarching dependence (due to an overall deterioration in economic and social resources) for these women. This dependence tends to solidify "social views which tend to maintain or intensify [women's overall] submissive role" within society (Nikolic-Ristanovic, 2002, p. 138). Thus, as Mills (1996) argues, "women who live in cultures where community is stressed above individuality face sometimes insurmountable barriers when confronting domestic violence" (p. 263).

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