New People’s Army and the Philippines: No end in sight?
Noriko Hashimoto discusses the prolonged conflict between the government of the Philippines and the communist rebel group, New People’s Army. After giving an overview of the long and tragic history, focusing primarily on the presidencies of Ramos and Arroyo, Hashimoto looks to the underlying factors of poverty and land distribution, and the potential for a negotiated peace.
Violence Against Women: The Case of the Philippines
Violence Against Women: The Case of the Philippines Author: Grace N. Mallorca-Bernabe Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 12/15/2005 Category: Analysis PDF Here: Violence Against Women in the Philippines The United Nations decade for Women (1976-1985) brought to the fore the issue of gender-based violence, particularly violence against women (VAW). This phenomenon, which […]
Comfort Women and the Failure of International Law
Seong Eun Lee discusses the failure of international law to hold states responsible for their use of women as sexual slaves during the Pacific War. The history of international treaties and regulations outlawing such behaviour are briefly reviewed, as is the current state of the former comfort women’s struggle for justice. The author argues that interlocking structures of oppression based on power imbalances of gender and ethnicity have continued to frustrate this struggle in the arena of international law.
Key words: Korea, Japan, comfort women, international law, development, South Asia, World War II, gender, peace and conflict, ethnicity, sexual slavery, justice.
Land of the Golden Pagodas: Checking in on Myanmar’s Peace Process
Monica Paniagua reports on her recent trip to Myanmar to support the ongoing peace process. In this article, she also reflects on the still-troubling human rights situation in the country and the recent economic and political changes that continue to be a source of cautious optimism.
Palestinian Suicide Bombers Revisited: A critique of current wisdom
A fundamental question has dominated the study of terrorism and suicide attacks. After the September 11 attacks, scholars have primarily relied on themes from neoclassical economics to develop theoretical and empirical models of terrorism. Suicide attackers and terrorist were seen as optimizing agents. But this innovative approach failed to deliver and obscured more than it illuminated. It failed to yield meaningful predictions and practical policy implications. This paper considers the merits of this approach and surveys evidence gathered from the biographical sketches of 50 Palestinian suicide attackers.