Browsing by Subject "conflict"

This study relates to the conflict in Nepal and its peace process in particular, which is examined from the perspective of discourse theory. The conflict started in 1996 when a group calling themselves ‘Maoists’ launched their ‘people’s war’. Over the years, the conflict was marked by several negotiation rounds, intermittent ceasefires and a power-political struggle between the king, the mainstream political parties and the Maoists. The peace process can be deemed to have started upon the signing of a 12-Point Understanding between the Seven Party Alliance and the Maoists in November 2005. Despite its promising start, it is still too early to talk about the peace process in the past tense since researchers have considered the promulgation of a new constitution as a necessity for its closure. The conflict and its peace process have provided an interesting topic of inquiry for instance because Nepal’s Maoist insurgency has been considered the most successful one among other contemporary Maoist rebellions. The purpose of this study is to analyse how a ‘new Nepal’ was articulated in discourses of transformation during the peace process between 2005 and 2012 and determine potential shifts or changes in the discourses. Since the peace process is understood as a discursive process, a further objective is to evaluate the process and the prospects of sustainable peace on the basis of the discourses. Following the theory of conflict transformation, this study understood the peace process as a long-term project where sustainable peace necessitates addressing the root causes of conflict. The motive for choosing the discourse-theoretical perspective was that discourses have been suggested to have a significant role in conflict transformation. In their discourses, political actors may seek cooperation and consensus or reproduce the antagonistic relationship that existed between them during conflict. This study utilised the post-structuralist theory of discourse developed by Laclau and Mouffe as it has been considered suitable for studying political conflicts and changes. According to the fundamental premises of the theory, discourses are historically constructed and contingent systems of meaning in which signifiers receive their meaning in relation to other signifiers and which are susceptible to change. The empirical data of this study consisted of three official documents that have been said to provide a blueprint for a new Nepal as well as of newspaper articles published in The Kathmandu Post. Temporally the study was limited to a period between November 2005 and June 2012. The concept of new Nepal was understood as referring to the political, social, economic and cultural transformation of the country needed to address the root causes of the conflict, for which reason the analysis concentrated on discourses dealing with these aspects. Furthermore, the main focus was on the discourses of the political actors who were the chief adversaries during the conflict, i.e. the mainstream political parties, the Maoists and the king. The empirical analysis utilised the key concepts of Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of discourse, including articulation, floating signifier, nodal point, empty signifier, hegemonic practice, dislocation, social antagonism, political frontier, and the logics of equivalence and difference. According to the analysis, the discourses of the political actors were arranged around political transformation, which was closely linked with social, economic and cultural transformation. The discourses of transformation can be deemed to have formed a discourse on new Nepal, where the meaning of new Nepal was constructed around such salient signifiers as democracy, republic, federalism, secularism, peace, development, progress, change, social justice and inclusiveness. A chain of equivalence was articulated between these signifiers to establish a clear frontier between the past and the future. A significant finding was that the Maoists and the mainstream political parties were able to combine their particular interests into a common discourse by articulating the king as a common enemy and a threat to a new Nepal, which would appear to have made the peace process possible. However, this discursive unity seems to have dissolved after the king was removed and Nepal declared a republic. Since then the Maoists and the non-Maoist parties appear to have reproduced the previous antagonistic relationship between them and the situation has begun to resemble the circumstances before and during the conflict. Due to the discursive struggles between the actors, the Constituent Assembly failed to promulgate the new constitution that was articulated as a document which could bring peace and socio-economic transformation, and consequently it is argued that the prospects of achieving sustainable peace still seem rather bleak. The discursive struggles also pose a threat to the hegemonic discourse on new Nepal and to the new Nepal articulated therein. As regards sustainable peace, it would be important for the actors to find again the consensus that existed between them at the initial stages of the peace process.

Peace has always been a pivotal issue in the core of humankind’s thoughts throughout centuries; prophets, great thinkers, poets and elites have expressed their concern, vision and ideas of peace. Major world religions have teachings for peace. As one of the new religious movements of the world, Baha’i Faith has placed peace in the focus of its teaching. There have also been academic and intellectual efforts to define peace and to present plans for making peace like the works of Johan Galtung, the founder of the peace and conflict studies. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the peace plan of Baha’i Faith with Johan Galtung’s peace theory and explore their possible crucial differences and similarities (commonalities). In Galtung’s book, Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization, the first chapter is peace theory which is used to explore Baha’i teachings on peace in Baha’i primary sources like writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of Baha’i Faith, Abdu’l-Bahá' (first successor), Shoghi Effendi (Guardian and appointed head of the Faith) and Universal House of Justice (supreme ruling body) publications. Secondary Baha’i sources are also studied which are articles, papers and books written about Baha’i Faith. The method of comparative analysis used in this study is lens comparison in which we explore A (Galtung’s Peace Theory) less than B (Baha’i Faith peace plan), we use A as a lens through which to view B. The text A is used as a framework to understand and compare with text B. Galtung’s peace theory is an umbrella under which Baha’i teachings are studied. The idea of peace and the approach toward this idea is in the center of this comparison. During this process, the differences and commonalities of A and B are listed and analyzed in three realms, i.e. in relation to peace and gender, peace and democracy and peace and inter-state systems. After every point by point comparison chapter, all common and different features of A and B are observed, listed and analyzed to verify to what degree they are similar with or differ from each other. In this way, it is possible to see the level of proximity and remoteness of two sources and to verify how much they converge or diverge. The thesis reveals in which areas of peace-building ideas, Galtung and Baha’i Faith have common approaches and in which areas they have different standpoints, i.e. this paper disclosed, on gender and peace, both approaches have high level of proximity and convergence.

The objective of this thesis is to utilise the frame-building perspective to study how the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat framed the case of the Chibok schoolgirls who were abducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram in April 2014 in Nigeria. The data of this study is based on 105 news articles published by Helsingin Sanomat between April 2014 and December 2018. The structure of the thesis consists of four main sections. The first section focuses on mapping the case in the Nigerian context and providing information to understand the Nigerian situation with regard to its historical background, the rise of Boko Haram, and the case of the abducted Chibok girls. The second section focuses on the theoretical frameworks. News framing theory is an appropriate tool for studying media content that deals with terrorism. While the case consists of foreign news, there are also brief references to the theory of newsworthiness and foreign news transmission processes in the Finnish media. Also, the ambiguous relation between media and terrorism is addressed: terrorists need media for conveying information about their attacks, and correspondingly, their attacks serve as material for the news media. The third section focuses on terrorism and its victims, and its relation to conflict-related gender-based violence. In the Chibok schoolgirls’ case one perspective to violence is the concept of abduction. The fourth section focuses on the implementation of the frame building perspective to examine the selected Helsingin Sanomat news data. The study reveals that in reporting the Chibok schoolgirls’ case, Helsingin Sanomat favoured material from western news agencies and the most referred to news agencies were AFP and Reuters. Local Nigerian media was referred to as a source only in five of the news. The categorization of the quote source types reveals that Nigerian authorities dominated as sources for the citations in the news. From the news data a total of 12 frame theme categories are recognized and these categories are further organized into four main frame theme groups. In the group “Understanding the circumstances” the prevailing background information is the description of Boko Haram and the dichotomy of the country, but discussion of the ethno-religious historical background of the conflict remains limited. The second group “Government inactivity and politics” reveals that the news mainly concentrate on the negotiations and the international interventions to resolve the conflict between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram. The third group “Terrorism and violence” concentrates on the case of the Chibok schoolgirls, and the other attacks are described as chains of events. The Nigerian government’s role in the atrocities is recognized but not widely discussed. In the last frame theme group “Community and compassion” the communities’ active role in conflict resolution is recognized as the voice of the victims of Boko Haram. In general, the Chibok schoolgirls are depicted as a cohesive group which is subject to terrorism and collective violence. Despite the wide media coverage, the schoolgirls’ story is told by others in the news or via the reports of human rights organizations. The conflict in the country is depicted to be that between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram, although the unstable situation in the country has developed from a complex web of socio-cultural, economic, ethno-religious, and regional elements. The Chibok girls themselves, although referred to in the news, are mainly presented as victims whose own voice is hardly heard.

The sacrificing of Isaac, described in Genesis 22, is one of the most troubling stories in Bible. In that story, Abraham was faced with a moral dilemma and compelled to choose between two bad options: to disobey God or to kill his son. Why was Abraham willing to commit the most horrendous thing one can imagine: killing his own child? Did God really ask Abraham for such a sacrifice, and if yes, did he really expect Abraham to obey? Several attempts to explain Abraham’s behavior as well as God’s command have been made. Most often, Abraham is portrayed as a model of faith. God, on the other hand, is usually seen as ”only testing” Abraham, but not really expecting a sacrifice. Many scholars are questioning these interpretations, though. To some of them, Abraham is no more than a criminal, and God a moral monster. In this study, I am taking an analytical approach to existing literature and commentaries on the sacrificing of Isaac. I am describing, classifying and comparing different attempts to resolve the obvious conflict between divine obedience and morality. Since the command to sacrifice Isaac is often regarded as a divine test, I will also examine, what exactly might have been the focus of that test: faith, obedience, fear or something else? I am also referring to some contemporary crime cases to show that sacrificing a child in God’s name doesn’t belong only to history. Thus, contrary to some Bible commentators who claim that nothing similar could happen today, I will show that some people have used the story of Abraham and Isaac as a justification for their pernicious action. Finally, and as the title of my thesis implies, I will propose a ”kaleidoscopic” approach to the story of sacrificing Isaac. Just like an image in a kaleidoscope is prone to change with each new treatment, so is the interpretation of the story. Even more, the story in Genesis 22 is like a Rorschach test: it allows for the viewer to see what she wants to see, and to project her preconceptions of Abraham and God to the troublesome image.