Microfoundations of Civil Conflict Reconciliation: Ethnicity and Context

Dyrstad, Karin; Buhaug, Halvard; Ringdal, Kristen; Simkus, Albert; Listhaug, Ola

doi:10.1080/03050629.2011.622627

Cited by 26 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…This finding is more in line with arguments of 'war-weariness', which propose that people closer to the battlefield are more disposed to reconciliation (e.g. Bakke et al, 2009;Dyrstad et al, 2011). In a study from South Africa, Gibson and Gouws (2001) found little effect of context on tolerance.…”

supporting

confidence: 77%

Ethnonationalism in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo The effects of local violence and ethnic composition

Dyrstad

Ellingsen

Rød

2015

International Area Studies Review

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In this article we examine attitudes of ethnonationalism in two countries that have experienced ethnic civil war: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. We analyse the strength of attitudes of ethnonationalism on the individual level, and how ethnonationalism is related to local ethnic settlement patterns and previous experiences of local inter-ethnic violence. We combine data at the municipality level with data from the SouthEast European Social Survey Program from 2003 and conduct a multilevel analysis for each case. In both cases, ethnonationalism dominates, but it is stronger in Kosovo than in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We find a clear difference between members of local majorities and minorities, but the effect in Bosnia-Herzegovina is the opposite of the effect in Kosovo. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, members of both minority and majority groups tend to be more ethnonationalist the larger their group. Contrary to our initial expectations, people express less ethnonationalism in municipalities that were more severely hit by violence, whereas in Kosovo no effect of local violence can be found. The more recent conflict and less consolidated institutions in Kosovo may help explain these divergent results. Still, the lack of consistent findings makes it hard to infer beyond the two cases examined.

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supporting

confidence: 77%

Ethnonationalism in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo The effects of local violence and ethnic composition

Dyrstad

Ellingsen

Rød

2015

International Area Studies Review

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“…In societies affected by protracted conflict, individuals directly exposed to violence and losses tend to adhere more strongly to the conflict‐supporting shared beliefs of the society—also termed the “ethos of conflict” or “conflict ideology” (Canetti et al, ; Hobfoll, Canetti‐Nisim, & Johnson, ; Lavi, Canetti, Sharvit, Bar‐Tal, & Hobfoll, ). As illustrated in previous research, exposure to violence and war losses that cannot be recovered (i.e., the loss of loved ones) exert a negative impact on intergroup attitudes in wartime and postwar situations (Bakke, O'Loughlin, & Ward, ; Besser & Neria, ; Canetti‐Nisim, Halperin, Sharvit, & Hobfoll, ; Dyrstad, ; Dyrstad, Buhaug, Ringdal, Simkus, & Listhaug, ; Gould & Klor, ; Halperin, Canetti, Hobfoll, & Johnson, ; Hayes & McAllister, ; Lavi et al, ; Pham et al, ; Punamaki, Qouta, & El Sarraj, ; Samii, ). We contribute to this literature in novel ways by examining how exposure to violence and war‐related losses impact individuals' transitional justice preferences, which are closely linked to the “ethos of conflict” that tends to persist long after wars end (Bar‐Tal & Halperin, 2011; Bar‐Tal et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Exposure to Violence and Attitudes Towards Transitional Justice

Hall

Kovras

Stefanović³

et al. 2017

Political Psychology

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Transitional justice has emerged to address victims' needs as a means of restoring relations broken by violence. Yet we know little about victims' attitudes towards different transitional justice mechanisms. Why do some victims prioritize retributive justice while others favor other forms of dealing with the violent past? What determines victims' attitudes towards transitional justice policies? To address these questions, we offer a new theoretical framework that draws upon recent insights from the field of evolutionary psychology and links both war exposure and postwar environments to transitional justice preferences. We argue that both past experiences of wartime violence and present-day social interdependence with perpetrators impact transitional justice preferences, but in divergent ways (resulting in greater support for retributive vs. restorative justice measures, respectively). To test our framework, we rely upon a 2013 representative survey of 1,007 respondents focusing on general population attitudes towards transitional justice in Bosnia two decades after the implementation of the Dayton Accords. Specifically, we examine the impact of displacement, return to prewar homes, loss of property, loss of a loved one, physical injury, imprisonment, and torture on attitudes towards transitional justice. On the whole, our findings confirm our two main hypotheses: Exposure to direct violence and losses is associated with more support for retributive justice measures, while greater present-day interdependence with perpetrators is associated with more support for restorative justice measures. While acknowledging the legacy of wartime violence, we highlight the importance of the postwar context and institutional mechanisms that support victims in reconstructing their lives.KEY WORDS: exposure to violence, transitional justice, displacement, Bosnia, retributive justice, restorative justice, victimhoodThe war of 1992-95 left a deep trauma in Bosnian society as the country was subjected to an armed campaign characterized by ethnic cleansing and the genocide in Srebenica unprecedented for 345 0162-895X

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“…Among the second group, studies have contended that variables other than violence take the front seat when it comes to explaining attitudes toward peace. For example, focusing on the 2001 Macedonian civil conflict, Dyrstad et al (2011) found that ethnicity trumped all other individual and contextual factors-including exposure to violence-in explaining people's support for the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the deal that brought the conflict to an end. Exploring citizens' attitudes toward peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Newman (2012) found that present conditions-largely related to lack of trust in Arab aspirations-rather than past experiences of conflict were what really helped to understand Israeli unwillingness to make concessions for peace.…”

Section: Exposure To Violence and Attitudes Toward Peacementioning

confidence: 99%

Who Shot the Bullets? Exposure to Violence and Attitudes Toward Peace: Evidence from the 2016 Colombian Referendum

Seguer¹,

Masullo²

2020

Lat Am Polit Soc

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Does exposure to violence affect attitudes toward peace? Civilians living in war zones see peace agreements as an opportunity to improve their security prospects. However, in multiparty conflicts, this does not automatically translate into support for peace. Support hinges on the interplay between which faction has victimized civilians in the past and which faction is sitting at the negotiation table. If civilians have been victimized by the group that is involved in the peace agreement, they will be likely to support peace. On the contrary, if they have been victimized by another faction, they will be likely to refrain from supporting peace if they believe that this can trigger retaliatory violence against them. This article explores this argument empirically in the context of the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC; both quantitative and qualitative data yield support to the study’s theoretical expectations.

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Microfoundations of Civil Conflict Reconciliation: Ethnicity and Context

Cited by 26 publications

References 60 publications

Ethnonationalism in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo The effects of local violence and ethnic composition

Ethnonationalism in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo The effects of local violence and ethnic composition

Exposure to Violence and Attitudes Towards Transitional Justice

Who Shot the Bullets? Exposure to Violence and Attitudes Toward Peace: Evidence from the 2016 Colombian Referendum

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