Ethiopia’s recent history has seen significant emigration due to communal violence and other factors, with over three million Ethiopians and people of Ethiopian origin residing abroad, with the United States hosting the largest diaspora community. Against the background of reverberating ethnically and religiously motivated violence since the escalation of the Tigray conflict in 2020, a closer look at the various ways in which the largest Ethiopian diaspora community influences the production of violence in their homeland might add an explanatory variable to the ambiguous situation on the ground.
Avant d’être combattantes, nous sommes des femmes
L’article parle des femmes combattantes dans les provinces du Nord et Sud-Kivu en République démocratique du Congo, qui font partie des groupes armés. Bien qu’elles soient activement engagées, les femmes sont souvent négligées dans les initiatives de consolidation de la paix, et les programmes de Désarmement, Démobilisation et Réintégration (DDR) ne tiennent souvent pas compte de leurs besoins spécifiques. Les expériences des femmes ex-combattantes dans les groupes armés sont diverses, allant des tâches ménagères aux postes de commandement, malgré les inégalités observées. Le traitement des femmes dans les groupes armés est également différent selon leur position.
The struggle for democracy in Burma/Myanmar
At the break of the military coup in Burma/Myanmar in February 2021, residents in many parts of the country would bang their pots and pans in their respective homes every eight o’clock in the evening. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has restrained social mobility, this signaled the beginning of a widespread protest movement against authoritarian rule.
Populism in conflict
Populism has become a buzzword in popular and media discourses in recent years. Academic debates on the concept of populism—what it is and isn’t, where to look for it and its normative prescription—has been highly contested. From minimal definitions to vernacular descriptions to propositions to drop the concept all together, a considerable but disparate field of study has emerged.
The economy weighs on sand
Humans, by a fallacious sense of ownership claim over the planet, have covered earth with more man-made mass than earth’s natural biomass. That’s saying something. It means that anthropogenic activities have been so drastic, so all-encompassing that in the year 2020 the produced and accumulated man-made objects far exceeded what the earth naturally generates. And it is believed that most of this built object, the infrastructure, and materials around us are made up of one core element, sand.