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Publications (54)
We introduce a mixed-methods approach to assess the impact of a complex development program on stability and present a selection of relevant results on stabilization dynamics and possible program-related impacts. The program is implemented by an international nongovernmental organization and combines capacity building with infrastructure developmen...
In this paper I first introduce the methodological approach of institution centred conflict research to investigate this specific aspect of a theory of social order: do institutionalised modes of conflict processing reduce violence, foster social cohesion and enable adaptive change? I then use this approach for a multi-layered empirical research in...
The challenge of building a security sector effective in terms of protecting the population and the state from challengers, and which at the same time fulfils minimum standards of good governance, was a daunting one in Afghanistan. These difficulties were compounded by what in hindsight seem to be obvious mistakes on the part of the intervention. I...
In this article we analyse the dynamics of the insurgencies and the corresponding
counter-insurgency measures in the North Caucasus over the past 25 years. By
comparing three cases – Chechnya, Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria – we identify
similarities and differences in the way insurgencies and counter-insurgency
measures influence governance in t...
This issues paper on subnational governance is developed as part of the Governance Forum Afghanistan (“Govern4Afg”) project. It has two interconnected, but distinct parts. Part One takes stock of the structural, policy, and legal state of affairs in Afghan subnational governance, underlines the opportunities for improving public service delivery th...
Prevailing studies on illicit drug economies in violent contexts are typically concerned with whether illicit drugs are a driver of insecurity, or vice versa. This paper provides additional nuance to the literature by considering the interaction between different governance arrangements and the everyday life of people involved in the drug economy....
In this paper we look at local effects of recent changes in how the international borders of two Afghan provinces, Nangarhar and Nimroz, are governed. Over the past decade Pakistan and Iran introduced changes to border infrastructure and regulation in an attempt to increase state control over both official and informal flows of goods and people. We...
With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the North Caucasus became, from the perspective of the Russian federal centre, a politically unstable and at times rather violent borderland. This article examines the political settlements emerging under the broader conditions of state formation in limited-access social orders, i.e. social orders negotiated be...
Can aid create political trust in conflict-affected states? International aid organizations often argue that supporting states in providing basic services can contribute to strengthening state–society relations. Previous studies in international development have indicated that the provision of basic services can indeed improve people’s attitudes to...
The public and the academic debates about the pros and cons of militias are beset with controversy and tend to ask in general terms whether militias do more good than harm or vice versa. The academic research on militias made significant progress in recent years. However, the conditions under which militias perform better or worse from the perspect...
The article provides an in-depth analysis of local governance in the North Caucasus, by example of land tenure conflicts in Kabardino-Balkaria. We follow an iterative analytical strategy, systematically combining qualitative case studies to develop grounded hypotheses, with subsequent statistical hypothesis testing. Based on fieldwork conducted in...
Institutional-oriented analysis of development issues emphasizes the existence or absence of binding rules that influence the relationship between nature and man, between different nature users, or between the state and local communities. Institutions play a crucial role in sustainable development, regulating existing and emerging contradictions an...
This paper contributes to an empirical understanding of state formation. Based on an original household-level data set, we provide a detailed picture of the process of state formation in Afghanistan over the last decade. State formation happens when state and society engage in reciprocal relations. Central to this relationship is an exchange of ser...
Though states frequently attempt to formalise and regulate militias, there has been very little research whether such a formalisation can, indeed, improve the performance of militias in terms of greater security provision and reduction of abuses against the population. Using original quantitative and qualitative data from North-East Afghanistan, we...
Wirkungsevaluierungen von Maßnahmen, Projekten, Programmen, Sektoren oder ganzen Entwicklungsinterventionen sind anspruchsvoller und voraussetzungsreicher als Output- oder Prozessevaluierungen. Dies hat einen einfachen Grund: Die Analyse soll herausfinden, was die Entwicklungsprozesse und deren Outputs tatsächlich gesellschaftlich, politisch oder w...
Development agencies claim that international support to public service delivery can contribute to strengthening state-society relations. The rationale is that improved access to education, health care or drinking water increases output legitimacy and people’s trust in state institutions. Previous survey-based investigations lend some support to th...
The following findings are based on four mass surveys conducted in Northeast Afghanistan (up to 3000 households) in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, and on qualitative research.
Am 22. Juni 2015 griffen Taliban das afghanische Parlament in Kabul an und attackierten damit erneut eine staatliche Einrichtung im Zentrum der politischen Macht. Sechs Monate nach dem Ende des 13-jährigen NATO-Kampfeinsatzes nehmen im Westen Befürchtungen vor einer weiteren Eskalation der Gewalt und einer Machtzunahme der Taliban zu.
Analyse
Seit...
Wie nimmt die ländliche Bevölkerung in Afghanistan den Beitrag
der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) in den
Bereichen Sicherheit, Wohlfahrt und Konflikttransformation
wahr? Antworten hierauf gibt eine Längsschnitt-Wirkungsanalyse
in Nordost-Afghanistan, die der Sonderforschungsbereich 700
„Governance in Räumen begrenzter Staatlic...
Video at: http://dbtg.tv/cvid/3270612
The edition contains the articles presented at the conference «Micro-political
studies: Methods and Examples of Research of Local Conflicts in the Northern
Caucasus and Central Asia» held in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) in August 2012 at the Osh
State University. The conference completed one of the stages of the international
German-Russian-Kyrgyz project «Und...
This chapter deals with how the presence of external military forces has been perceived over time in Afghanistan’s north-eastern region and how changes in the perception can be explained within the local context.
This chapter introduces a longitudinal multi-method approach to assessing the
impact of development interventions. To evaluate whether development aid in conflict zones has a stabilizing
effect one needs to show that observed changes in stability were caused by the intervention.
Repeated large-n surveys are used to identify impacts; and qualitative...
Учебное пособие обеспечивает понимание студентами наиболее важных сторон и свойств конфликтов, которые способствуют изменению и развитию на местном уровне или тормозят их. Интегрированный подход к изучению конфликтов достигается посредством изучения не только собственно конфликтных полей, но и углубленным отражением взаимодействия основных актеров...
Окуу куралы студенттер тарабынан өнҥгҥҥгө жана өзгөрҥҥлөргө тоскоол болгон конфликттердин ар тараптуулук маанисин, коомго тийгизген оѐ жана тескери таасирин тҥшҥнҥп билҥҥсҥнъ ъбългъ болот. Конфликттерди интеграциялуу жол менен изилдеп ҥйрөнҥҥдъ бир гана жергиликт\\ чыр-чатак чыккан аймакты изилдөө аркылуу гана эмес, негизги актерлор менен ресурстар...
This report is a documentation of the methodological approach for an impact assessment
of development intervention in conflict zones. We designed this approach for one specific
region, Northeast Afghanistan, but we believe that it can easily be adapted to other regions
and other contexts.
This report is one result of an eight-year cooperative resea...
In this paper I argue that governance can be referred back to the basic sociological categories
of social order, institutions and power. More specifically, governance as an analytical con-
cept refers to the ordering function of institutions that limits the role of self-help in social
interaction. Since social order clearly predates the state the e...
In this paper we present the design of an ongoing mixed method research assessing the impact of the international intervention on stability in northeast Afghanistan. Designing a qualitative / quantitative research measuring changes in stability in the contemporary northeast Afghan context faces significant conceptual and practical challenges. The m...
Grundsätzlich gilt: Die Bereitstellung von Sicherheit funktioniert in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit anders als in den entwickelten Gesellschaften der OECD-Welt, weil die politischen und sozialen Kontextbedingungen andere sind. Nach wie vor gilt, dass in den Gesellschaften der „Dritten Welt“ das Gewaltproblem nicht gelöst ist. Es gibt dort generel...
Video at: http://dbtg.tv/cvid/869482
Die externe Bereitstellung von Sicherheit ist bei zivil-militärischen Interventionen, die wie im Kosovo, in Ost-Timor oder in Afghanistan auf Aufbau und Stabilisierung rechtsstaatlich institutionalisierter Herrschaft abzielen, die Schlüssellegitimation der militärischen Präsenz im intervenierten Land. „Keine Sicherheit ohne Entwicklung und keine En...
Sicherheit und Entwicklung sind zentrale Begriffe für die militärischen und zivilen Interventionen der westlichen Staatenwelt
in Afghanistan. Beide Begriffe werden als einander bedingende, sich gegenseitig verstärkende Funktionen der Intervention erklärt:
Development without security is unachievable, and security without development is meaningless...
As development and security concerns increasingly converge, there is a need for better impact assessments of development aid on peacebuilding. The logistical challenges in conflict zones have often made the conduction of evaluations impossible due to budget and time constraints. This paper presents a method which could help to overcome these challe...
As development and security concerns increasingly converge, there is a need for better impact assessments of development aid on peacebuilding. The logistical challenges in conflict zones have often made the conduction of evaluations impossible due to budget and time constraints. This paper presents a method which could help to overcome these challe...
This essay explores the interdependence between statebuilding, narcotics and conflict through an analysis of interviews and a survey conducted, in the spring of 2005, in the Laghman and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan. Rural Afghanistan is characterized by weak conflict-processing mechanisms, combined with a high propensity towards the escalatio...
Georg Elwert fasst Konflikt in diesem Band als „[...] soziales Handeln, das auf der Wahrnehmung von teilweise inkompatiblen Interessen oder Inten-tionen zweier oder mehrerer Personen basiert“. Die Wahrnehmung von Inkompatibilität der jeweiligen Interessen kann dabei einseitig oder geteilt sein. Interessen müssen im jeweiligen Kontext verstanden wer...
Der vorliegende Aufsatz beschäftigt sich anhand der drei südkaukasischen Länder Armenien, Aserbaidschan und Georgien mit der Frage, wie korrumpierte Staaten mit offensichtlichen institutionellen Schwächen sich selbst stabilisieren und Steuerungsfähigkeit behaupten. Schlagwörter wie weak states oder failed states implizieren, dass der Staat von sein...
The conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh offers an insight into the rules and processes that governed the transformation of a weak empire into even weaker nation-states. More than other conflicts escalating into collective violence during the demise of the USSR, Nagorno-Karabakh had connotations of civil and interstate war, heavily involved official ce...
The Caucasus and the Balkan region are almost automatically associated with conflict and war. At the core of these struggles lies the quest for a new institutional relationship between territory, the state and ethnic groups. Both regions share a similar historical and institutional legacy which must be regarded as having paved the ground for a rise...
Die Schule der Straße (georgisch: kuchis skola ) ist ein sozialer Übergangsraum, den die überwiegende Mehrheit von Jugendlichen in Georgien, ungeachtet ihrer ethnischen, religiösen und sozialen Zugehörigkeit, zu passieren hat. Zentrale Institution sind die regelmäßigen öffentlichen Treffpunkte junger Männer einer Nachbarschaft, birzha (Börse) genan...
This paper draws on the research design of the comparative, cross-societal research project Accounting for State-building, Stability and Violent Conflict and intends to present insights into work in progress. The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and hosted by the Institute of East European Studies in cooperation with the Institute of...
Die Welt der jungen Männer in der postsowjetischen Peripherie Georgien steht im Mittelpunkt dieses Buches. Die Sozialisation junger Männer in den Provinzen des sowjetischen Imperiums und die Rolle der jugendlichen Subkulturen während des Zusammenbruchs der staatlichen Zentralmacht für die Organisation von Gewalt und der Neuverteilung von Ressourcen...
