Belligerents and Believers: Exploring Faith-based Mediation in Internal Armed Conflicts
This study explores faith-based mediation in armed conflict, that is, diplomatic initiatives taken by explicitly religious organisations in order to settle or manage armed conflicts through some process of dialogue with the warring parties. Whereas previous research on religious peacemaking in gener...
Authors: | ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
2013
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In: |
Politics, religion & ideology
Year: 2013, Volume: 14, Issue: 4, Pages: 557-579 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | This study explores faith-based mediation in armed conflict, that is, diplomatic initiatives taken by explicitly religious organisations in order to settle or manage armed conflicts through some process of dialogue with the warring parties. Whereas previous research on religious peacemaking in general, and on faith-based mediation in particular, have been dominated by case analysis, anecdotal evidence and conceptual work, this study presents the first global cross-country dataset on faith-based mediations in armed conflicts. In this descriptive analysis, we map the empirical landscape of faith-based mediation in armed conflicts around the world, during the time period 1989-2008. Utilising and developing a typology from Cynthia Sampson [‘Religion and Peacebuilding’ in I.W. Zartman and L.J. Rasmussen (eds) Peacemaking in International Conflict (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002)], this study generates three major findings, (1) faith-based mediation primarily occurs in situations where religion is not part of the conflict itself; (2) the organisation of faith-based mediation are significantly different in the Christian and the Islamic contexts; and (3) there is decrease in frequency of faith-based mediation over the studied time period, which could indicate a trend of decreasing international peacemaking engagement from the faith-based communities. Our descriptive analysis opens up new avenues for future empirical work on the occurrence, dynamics and effects of faith-based mediation. |
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ISSN: | 2156-7697 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Politics, religion & ideology
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/21567689.2013.829046 |