Post Conflict Reconstruction and the Resurgence of Supposedly Resolved Territorial Conflicts Essay

Beyond the rhetoric of traditional causes of betrothals which intermittently argon in like manner at the root cause of African territorial reserve complaisant employments, this radical examines the question as to why difference of opinion resurges in submits where competitiveness has previously been resolved. From the perspective of 2 major theoretical frameworks in International dealings Liberalism and Realism, this paper argues that mechanisms for contest soundness are often short-termed and often non home-groomed to accommodate the needs of citizens emanating from a civil war.Liberals argue that this is prima(predicate)rily a conkure of cooperation between external and internal actors or stakeholders in the heartsease process. To them, this neediness of cooperation generates economic problems and inhibits mistrust which is the embryo for divergence resurgence. In argumentation conflict solving fails primarily as a result of factors accentuate by Realism. The conflict may non take a crap been ripe for resolution because the practical meaning of recognition revealed large gaps between the ways that the articulationies be their core interests.Against this background and given the depth of antagonism between the DRC regime and MONUC on the one hand and climb up movements on the other, economic wealthiness of the congou tea has failed to generate support for the peace process. Instead, it increased friction and located additional political obstacles in the way of compromise. The paper also examines the force of peacekeeping mission as a vehicle for conflict resolution.It argues that the design and expression of peacekeeping albeit structural challenges like inadequate resourcefulnesss, ill-equipped personnel and lack of a clearly defined and sustainable vision are at the bedrock of cyclical conflicts. In examining the role of MONUC and other interveners in the congou tealese peace process, the paper needs a conceptual thesis w hich seeks to clarify the deviance between peacekeeping as a mediator, meddler and interpolationist in African civil conflicts.This clarification go forth inform conceptual sentiment on the ascendance of peacekeeping as a vehicle for the resolution of civil conflicts. The conflict in the classless Re existence of Congo (DRC) is one demonstration of the fragile nature of post conflict reconstruction and speaks to the need to step-up conflict streak strategies to meet legitimate challenges which have given maturate to newborn trajectories to territorial conflicts in Africa.Despite deploying a Peace Mission to the Congo (ONUC)1 in the 1960s, and despite currently harboring the largest and highest funded unify Nations Peace Operation (MONUC)2 the United Nations (UN) is s savings bank finding it difficult to bring an end to the territorial conflict in what is regarded as the site for the worlds worst human-centered conflict. The conflict, thitherfore, seems to protract with each renewed effort to resolve it.Following subject field visits, extensive reading on the Congo and inter attends with conflict analysts and residents of the DRC, this paper assesses the viability of peacekeeping as a measure for preventing the resurgence of new territorial conflict. small-arm most interviewed are of the view that the challenges of the DRC peace process are extensive and complex, this paper interrogates the role of MONUC as a conflict prevention mechanism, and its strong point in sustainable peacebuilding in the Great Lakes region.The paper enriches conceptual thinking with the view that peacekeeping as a form of external intercession has the capacity to support fragile states in their peace building process, and to breach prospective territorial conflicts if certain requirements are met. Preliminary investigations indicate that, untoward to previous re face which posited political, natural resource and cultural underpinnings as causes of the current DRC con flict, the lack of a clearly defined plan to stop hostilities in the East can largely be accountable for the cyclical violence. inappropriate to expectation that following the 2006 DRC election, the fragile Congolese state had attained monarch exclusivelyterfly maturity to govern itself with limited external support, this paper posits the need for dedicate and timely funding to a new mediator who pass on engage a five-phased peacebuilding process which will re-orientate existent theoretical and pragmatic processes of conflict prevention, and define succinctly, through policy recommendations, a new direction for the prevention of territorial conflicts.Following this introduction, the next section will explore the causes of territorial conflicts in Africa and elsewhere. This section engages a brief differentiation between causes of conflicts and causes of conflict resurgence with the view of demonstrating that if one can non prima facie understand the causes of conflict, its resol ution attempts will be flawed and such attempts will serve as the niche stone on which prospective conflicts will be erected. Section two will engage a theoretical overview of causes of conflict resurgence.This section will examine causes of conflict resurgence as propounded by two principal(prenominal) schools of thought of International Relations Realism and Liberalism. Following this, tools of conflict resolution will reviewed with principal focus on peacekeeping. The Section will trickle down to a case specific analysis of whether peacekeeping as a tool for conflict resolution is a byproduct of intervention or mediation, and whether in the exercise of their craft, peacekeepers qualify to be called mediators or would be considered meddlers.This section argues that, between 1999 to 2006 when the first democratic election in the Congo was organized, MONUC could well be considered as a mediator, but following that period, MONUC till date (July 2006 to 2010) she is a meddler in th e peace process which is largely control by the rapprochement that was reached between the DRC and Uganda on the one hand, and the DRC and Rwanda on the other. Causes of territorial Conflicts in Africa There are contending theories as to the causes of territorial conflicts. Conflicts seem to have a litany of literature compared to other subsidiary topics of International Affairs and African studies.Scholars have thus far not been able to see the carve up between causes of territorial conflicts and conflicts which ensue from the impotency of mechanisms tailored to resolve them. As a result, at that place is no dearth of literature on the causes of conflicts but one hardly finds any one who has contended that an inefficient resolution system could spark new trajectories to conflict. Existing literature on causes of conflict is sometimes limited in scope to address on causes in particular.Adekeye Adebajo has render political and cultural underpinnings to be responsible for confli cts. 3 This could hold real for the sierra Leone conflict but in the face of global adversities, his speculations stand to be criticized because other conflicts like the Rwandan genocide emanate from imbalances in the dispersal of economic, political and social resources. Moreover, the ongoing Sudanese conflicts have religious/and or heathenish undertones with no element of cultural or political formulations which equally go along way to excavate the lacunae in Adekeyes speculations. Paul collier holds the view that conflicts are fuelled by economic considerations.He posits that most rebel organizations cling onto the idea of grievances in order to elicit much public support for their cause. In his hypothesis, he contemplates that a state with superfluous resources, increase working-age population, and high unemployment rate is most likely to harbor conflict. His hypothesis, though true for many conflicts that have plagued Africa does not explain other cases in Africa. For inst ance, creator British trusteeship of Cameroon fondly known as Anglophone Cameroon has been wailing for a fair share of economic, political, social and natural resources of the country.Despite this, discontentment has not resulted to war or any from of concrete violence as has occurred in other countries. This phenomenon consequently makes Colliers assertions fluid. Summarily, Collier, Eboe Hutchful and Kwesi Aning argue that there are countries that have experienced conflict where natural resources were not articulated as the source of the conflict. They cited the examples of Chad and Ethiopia. 5 They acknowledged that some conflicts have been fueled by stringently non-resource driven motives resulted.This is true with the cases of Angola, Afghanistan and Sudan. They, however, conceded to the fact that in the conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) resources were one of the stimulants among other elements. They tried to strike a balance by p ostulating that the end of the Cold War culminated in the proliferation of arms, and ineffective post conflict demilitarization, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants which culminated in an outburst of wary and distressed combatants resulting several(prenominal) coup detat putsch attempts.While one may crack with the grievance theory, the million dollar question is what are people aggrieved virtually as to resort to conflicts, destruction of property, murder and assassinations? Is it about Governance? Is it distribution of resources? The answer is definitely far from the propositions of the aforementioned scholars. Because some countries have resource crisis and mismanagement, repressive regimes, and poor governance, but know no conflict. This therefore suggests that there is yet an unknown cause of conflict, and this cause is probably one that cuts crossways all conflicts.The present paper contemplates that inefficacies in the mechanisms for resolving these conflict s could be the brain-child shadow the cyclical resurgence of conflicts in states previously hit by territorial civil wars. William Reno on his part contends that internal warfare is motivated by economic considerations especially with regard to the intensification of transitional commerce. He argues that there is a relationship between subversive activity and politics. According to Reno, conflict is bound to rise where a ruler makes life uncomfortable for his citizens by encouraging the search of his espionage as a means of escaping from squalid conditions.Reno in his postulations contemplates that the absence of obedient governance engenders politics as a cause of conflict. 8 William Zartman on his part contemplates that the increase in conflict is orchestrated by the collapse of state structure. 9 While one may agree with the collapse of state theory, the bingo question is What drives the leaders to run the state aground? Keith Somerville, in his view tries to locate the source of conflict within the geopolitical map of Africa, which was bequeathed to it by the colonial powers.He contends that the colonial boundaries and state lines have led to the intermixture of people who hitherto had never before mixed as a group. 10 This articulation is paradoxical. While it means that even if the boundaries that existed in the pre-colonial time were maintained, there could still exist though at different levels, and with different target. 11 The various schools of thought examined above have attempted an investigation into the causes of conflict. They have posited economic underpinnings, lack of good governance, and disintegration of state institutions, religious and ethnic differences, corruption and colonial imprints.The opinions are not quite erroneous but fail to see ultimately that conflicts emanate because the global village appears to be in consonance with the fact that peacekeeping is the first port of resort for conflict resolution. Moreover, the fact that the problems postulated by the above authors have engendered conflicts in some areas and not in some despite the presence of similar factors suggest that there is more to conflict than has been articulated by contemporary research on the subject matter.The present paper contemplates that inefficacies in the dispute resolution machinery continue further conflicts. This paper contemplates that if peacekeeping tools are tailored to empower stakeholders to a peace process, conflicts will be resolved before they escalate. On the ancestry between causes of conflicts and causes of conflict resurgence, it should be noted that if conflicts are not prima facie mastered, it will be difficult to seamstress right solutions to them. As a result conflicts tend to hatch new and probably even more complicated dimensions to it.