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War

28 09 2017

Honour the Bougainville Peace Agreement

By |2017-10-18T06:33:56+11:0028 September 2017|Categories: Governance, Peace, War|Tags: , |

(This post is co-authored with John by Associate Professor Miranda Forsyth of RegNet)

Instability and the potential of conflict recurrence could be brewing in Bougainville.

Yesterday John Momis, the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, expressed extreme concern about statements by PNG Prime Minister O’Neil that cast doubt on whether the […]

19 12 2016

Report from El Salvador: Displacement of Refugees and Violence

By |2016-12-22T10:24:03+11:0019 December 2016|Categories: Crime, Refugees, War|Tags: , , |

 
Civil war raged in El Salvador between 1980 and 1992. Many victims of the war fled as refugees to the United States, particularly Los Angeles. Young Salvadorean men from peasant backgrounds were often pushed around and humiliated on the streets of Los Angeles by Mexican gangs who ridiculed the way they spoke Spanish, for example. […]

5 12 2016

Ending residual paramilitary domination in Northern Ireland

By |2017-10-18T06:33:57+11:005 December 2016|Categories: Peace, Posts, Restorative Justice, War|Tags: , , |

John recently co-wrote a paper with Kirsty Campbell (St Andrews University) and Derick Wilson (Ulster University) called Ending residual paramilitary domination in Northern Ireland? Restorative economic and social inclusion strategies.

The paper considers options for  dismantling residual pockets of paramilitary domination and draws insights from restorative justice and complexity theory. It places Northern Ireland as […]

27 09 2016

Intimate Histories of War

By |2016-09-27T16:37:18+10:0027 September 2016|Categories: Peace, War, War crimes|Tags: , |

This is a week of Braithwaite family remembrance of the suffering of war

Dr Brendan Nelson, at the Australian War Memorial on 28 September, will launch my brother Dick’s splendid book on the Sandakan Death March that took the life of our mother’s first husband, Wal Blatch. Our father Dick Braithwaite was one of six Death […]

26 07 2016

Was this the biggest restorative justice meeting known?

By |2017-10-18T06:33:58+11:0026 July 2016|Categories: Nonviolence, Reconciliation, Restorative Justice, War|Tags: , , , |

During the campaign against blood feuds in Kosovo the largest reconciliation meeting was a gathering at Verrat e Llukës on 1 May 1990 where even the official Tanjung Agency of the Yugoslav regime reported 100,000 participants. Leaders of the reconciliation guessed 500,000 in the crowd. Parts of this event can be viewed in the following video: […]

18 07 2016

Compassion as a value in security sector reform and counterterrorism

By |2017-10-18T06:33:58+11:0018 July 2016|Categories: Counterterrorism, Crime, Peace, War|Tags: , , , |

The images in this news story  and towards the end of this video reveal in an inspiring way that compassion is a critical virtue for the security sector in times of crisis.

There were also reports of a Turkish soldier beheaded by a mob. But many more of unarmed citizens peacefully, firmly […]

6 07 2016

Northern Ireland: duty of hope

By |2017-10-18T06:33:58+11:006 July 2016|Categories: Peace, Restorative Community, Restorative Justice, Restorative Practice, War|Tags: , , , , , , |

Over nine days in late May-June 2016, Derick Wilson, Kirsty Campbell and John Braithwaite had thirty meetings with diverse public, political, civic and community organisations in Belfast, Dublin, Derry and Ballycastle. These meetings were hosted by two reconciliation charities, the Understanding Conflict Trust and the Corrymeela Community on the theme of ‘The Politics of Hope and […]

25 05 2016

Why are wars never fought by women as a group to defend women’s rights?

By |2017-10-18T06:33:59+11:0025 May 2016|Categories: Gender, War|Tags: , , , , , |

Wars get fought for many reasons. Some are to grab territory. Others are to kill an enemy before they kill you. Some are for one part of a country to separate from the rest, often because the separatist region feels that it is marginalized and dominated. Others are for a group with a particular political […]

24 04 2016

Lest We Forget Wal, Dick and Joyce

By |2017-10-18T06:33:59+11:0024 April 2016|Categories: War|Tags: , , , , , , |

Today, 25 April, I give the Call to Remembrance at the site of the Sandakan prison camp. From this site the terrible war crime of the Sandakan Death March departed in 1945. My father, Dick Braithwaite, was one of 6 survivors. More than 2400 Australian and British Prisoners of War from the camp perished. Many […]

20 04 2016

“Transitional Justice” for Karadzic?

By |2017-10-18T06:33:59+11:0020 April 2016|Categories: War|Tags: , , , , , |

The conviction of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide in Srebrenica, among other crimes, is a step toward justice after war. Yes, many populists in Serbia have publicly criticized the alleged bias against Serbs of The Hague Tribunal. At the same time, my fieldwork for Peacebuilding Compared with Aleksandar Marsavelski makes it clear that […]