Abstract
The reintegration of ex-combatants after war has become big business for several international organizations and agencies. The United Nations has a dedicated disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) section within its Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).2 The Secretary-General reported in 2011 that there are four current UN peacekeeping missions with significant DDR mandates (two in Sudan, one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and one in Côte d’Ivoire), with another recently concluded (Liberia, the subject of a chapter in this book) and a mission in Haiti where the UN has used DDR programming for community violence reduction. Special political missions have also supported DDR efforts in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, and Somalia. By 2011, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) was supporting reintegration efforts in 22 countries and territories, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in nine, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 15.3 These recent UN efforts combine with the 36 internationally supported DDR processes between 1992 and 2005, 25 of which were in Africa.4
Peace causes [soldiers’] metal to lose its temper; and the fault lies with the social system which does not teach its soldiers what to make of their lives when they are off duty.
(Aristotle, Politics, Book VII)1
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Notes
Translation is from A. J. Toynbee (1951) War and Civilization: Selected by Albert Vann Fowler from ‘A Study of History’ (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p.51.
Several high-profile UN publications have emphasized DDR’s importance to peacebuilding. The 2000 Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, commonly referred to as the Brahimi Report, called DDR the ‘key to immediate post-conflict stability’ (UNGA and Security Council (2000) Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, 21 August, A/55/305 and S/2000/809, para.42). See also UN Security Council (UNSC) (1999), ‘Statement by the President of the Security Council on Maintenance of Peace and Security and Post-Conflict Peace-Building’, 8 July, S/PRST/1999/21; UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKo) Lessons Learned Unit (2000) Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in a Peacekeeping environment: Principles and Guidelines (New York: United Nations); UN Development Programme (UNDP) (2006) Practice Note: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants (New York: UNDP); and UNGA and UNSC (1998) ‘The Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa’, Report of the Secretary-General, 13 April, A/52/871-S/1998/318, para.64.
UN (2006), Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (New York: United Nations), 4.30.
The most prominent evaluations of DDR by international organizations include: MDRP (2010) MDRP Final Report: Overview of Program Achievements (Washington, DC: World Bank); DPKO (2010) DDR in Peace Operations: A Retrospective (New York: UNDPKO); UNDP (2009); UNDP (2006); UNGA (2006) ‘Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration: Report of the Secretary-General’, 2 March, A/60/705; UNDP (2000) Sharing New Ground in Post-Conflict Situations: The Role of UNDP in Support of Reintegration Programmes (New York: UNDP Evaluation Office, January); N. J. Colletta, M. Kostner and I. Wiederhofer (1996) Case Studies in War-to-Peace Transition: The Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Uganda (Washington, DC: World Bank); and World Bank (1993) ‘Demobilization and Reintegration of Military Personnel in Africa: The Evidence from Seven Country Studies’, World Bank Discussion Paper, No.130 (Washington, DC: World Bank).
J. Gomes Porto, C. Alden and I. Parsons (2007) From Soldiers to Citizens: Demilitarization of Conflict and Society (Aldershot: Ashgate), p.20; R. Muggah (2009) ‘Introduction: The Emperor’s Clothes?’ in R. Muggah (ed.) Security and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Dealing with Fighters in the Aftermath of War (London: Routledge), p.9;P. Heller (2005), ‘Guns Beneath the Table: Contingent DDR and Political Stalemate in Côte d’Ivoire’, in A. M. Fitz-Gerald and H. Mason (eds) From Conflict to Community: A Combatant’s Return to Citizenship (Shrivenham, UK: Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform), p.122.
This is a theme common in literature on democratic transition after war. See J. D. Fearon and D. D. Laitin (2004) ‘Neotrusteeship and the Problem of Weak States’, International Security, 28:4, 5–43; S. Krasner (2004) ‘Shared Sovereignty: New Institutions for Collapsed and Failing States’, International Security, 29:2, 85–120; J. L. Snyder (2000) From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (New York: Norton);and E. D. Mansfield and J. L. Snyder (1995) ‘Democratization and the Danger of War’, International Security, 20, 5–38.
I. Douglas, C. Gleichman, M. Odenwald, K. Steenken and A. Wilkinson (2004) Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration: A Practical Field and Classroom Guide (Frankfurt: Deutsche Gesellschaft för Technische Zusammenarbeit, Norwegian Defence International Centre, Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, and Swedish National Defence College), p.84; A. Verheul (2011) ‘Managing DDR Risks in Sudan: A Field Perspective’, in M. A. Civic and M. Miklaucic (eds) Monopoly of Force: The Nexus of DDR and SSR (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press), p.206.
Coincidentally, the advice to ‘create parking spaces’ occurs as the subheading for the section in question: GTZ (1996) Concepts and Experiences of Demobilisation and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants: Guidelines and Instruments for Future Programs (Eschborn, Germany: GTZ, September), p.44.
P. Uvin (2007) ‘Ex-combatants in Burundi: Why They Joined, Why They Left, How They Fared’, MDRP Working Paper No.3, World Bank, October, emphasis added.
J. Brethfeld (2010) Unrealistic Expectations: Current Challenges to Reintegration in Southern Sudan (Geneva: Small Arms Survey). Incidentally, a Google search for ‘ex-combatant reintegration’ and ‘high expectations’ yields 93,300 results.
N. Colletta and R. Muggah (2009b) ‘Rethinking Post-War Security Promotion’, Journal of Security Sector Management, 7:1, 2.
UNGA (2011), para.26; E. McCandless (2010) Second Generation Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Practices in Peace Operations: A Contribution to the New Horizon Discussion on Challenges and Opportunities for UN Peacekeeping (New York: UNDPKO).
M. Utas (2005a) ‘Building a Future? The Reintegration and Remarginalisation of Youth in Liberia’, in P. Richards (ed.) No Peace, No War: An Anthropology of Contemporary Armed Conflicts (Oxford: James Currey), p.150.
J. Herbst (1996) ‘Responding to State Failure in Africa’, International Security, 21:3, 120–44.
C. Lutz (2001) Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century (Boston: Beacon Press), p.9.
J. Hanlon (2010) ‘Mozambique: “The War Ended 17 Years Ago, But We Are Still Poor”’, Conflict, Security and Development, 10:1, 77–102; L. Metsola (2007) ‘Out of Order? The Margins of Namibian Ex-Combatant “Reintegration”’, in H. Melber (ed.) Transitions in Namibia: Which Change for Whom? (Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute), pp.130–52; Jennings (2007); M. Cahen (2005) ‘Success in Mozambique?’ in S. Chesterman, M. Ignatieff and R. Thakur (eds) Making States Work: State Failure and the Crisis of Governance (Tokyo: United Nations University Press), pp.213–33; Hanlon (2005).
Principal formal evaluations of reintegration related to the book’s case studies are: Namibia: R. Preston (1993) The Integration of Returned Exiles, Former Combatants, and Other War-Affected Namibians (Windhoek: Namibian Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Namibia); Mozambique: UNDP (1997a) Report on the Reintegration of Demobilized Soldiers in Mozambique 1992–1996 (Maputo: UNDP); UNDP (1997b) ‘The Socio-Economic Reintegration of Demobilised Soldiers in Mozambique: The Soldiers’ View’ (Maputo: UNDP, October); Sierra Leone: Government of Sierra Leone Executive Secretariat, National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR), Sierra Leone (2002) Technical Assistance Mission Report (Freetown: NCDDR, July–August); Executive Secretariat, NCDDR (2002) Overview and Guide to Reintegration (Programmes and Operations) (Freetown: NCDDR, 31 May); S. Comninos, A. Stavrou and B. Stewart (2002) Assessment of the Reintegration Programmes of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (Freetown: NCDDR, 8 November); G. Tesfamichael, N. Ball and J. Nenon (2004) Peace in Sierra Leone: Evaluating the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Process, Final Evaluation of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Program and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund Supporting DDR, Washington, DC, Creative Associates International Inc., October; Liberia: Liberian Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Programme (2003) ‘Draft Strategy and Implementation Framework’, 18 October; UNDP (2006) ‘Liberia’s Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration, and Rehabilitation Programme Trust Fund Activity Draft Report’, Vol. IV, January–December; C. Bugnion, L. Lafreniere, S. G. Doe, H. Tefferi and C. Garlo (2006) External Mid-Term Evaluation Report of the Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Programme in Liberia, 2 October; and J. Pugel (2007) What the Fighters Say: A Survey of Ex-combatants in Liberia, February–March 2006 (Monrovia: UNDP).
For example, the ILO stated in 2010 that ‘buying time’ is counterproductive: ILO (2010) Socio-Economic Reintegration of Ex-combatants (Geneva: ILO), p.26.
W. Easterly (2002) ‘The Cartel of Good Intentions: The Problem of Bureaucracy in Foreign Aid’, Policy Reform, 5:4, 228; M. Duffield (2007) Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples (Cambridge: Polity), p.12.
J. Schafer (2007) Soldiers at Peace: Veterans and Society after the Civil War in Mozambique (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan), book jacket.
K. Fierke (2001) ‘Critical Methodology and Constructivism’, in K. M. Fierke and K. E. Jørgensen (eds) Constructing International Relations: The Next Generation (New York: M. E. Sharpe), p.122.
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© 2013 Jaremey R. McMullin
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McMullin, J.R. (2013). Introduction: Reintegration into What?. In: Ex-Combatants and the Post-Conflict State. Rethinking Political Violence series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312938_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312938_1
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