Search Results (10)

This article examines the institutional formation and transformation of war commemoration in modern Japan, focusing on the relationship between symbolic enshrinement and the treatment of physical remains. While existing scholarship has emphasized memory, narrative, and political controversy—particularly debates surrounding Yasukuni Shrine—it has paid comparatively little attention to the materiality of the war dead and the embodied practices through which relationships with the deceased continue to be maintained. This study addresses this overlooked dimension as a critical aspect of war’s enduring legacy. Drawing on archival sources, it traces a historical trajectory from early shōkon practices to the establishment of Yasukuni Shrine, the development and postwar dissolution of military cemeteries, and the emergence of large-scale remains recovery. It argues that Japan’s commemoration system developed as a dual structure in which the spirits of selected war dead were symbolically integrated into state-centered institutions, while their bodies were subjected to processes of regulation, mobilization, cremation, and fragmentation. Using Vamik Volkan’s concept of “chosen trauma” and Pauline Boss’s notion of “ambiguous loss,” the article demonstrates that this division has produced enduring tensions in mourning and memory, illustrating the institutional persistence of violence. Full article

People want to hear stories of war. When a storyteller is the person who has fought at the forefront, audiences find the story even more engaging. For fighters who lived through traumatic experiences, life and death demand new definitions. This study uncovers the narratives through in-depth interviews with six women who fought or witnessed the civil war in Nepal to explore how such narratives transform into collective memory. Combining different methods within the thematic analysis and narrative mode for interpreting stories and utilizing research poetry as a tool for art-based analysis, this study explores how these women share their unique perceptions of the conflict in terms of violence, victory, war, peace, family and relationships. Full article

The governance of hate-related online communication increasingly relies on artificial intelligence, yet the scientific landscape linking computational detection methods with regulatory and ethical frameworks remains fragmented. This study provides a systematic bibliometric analysis of scholarship on the application of artificial intelligence to hate speech detection in digital environments, focusing on literature that examines hate speech and online hate through artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and other automated detection techniques. A dataset of 2137 publications indexed in Scopus between 2013 and 2026 was constructed and analyzed using the bibliometrix package in R. Descriptive indicators, thematic mapping, keyword co-occurrence analysis, citation structures, and temporal trend analysis were employed to examine the field’s conceptual organization, methodological evolution, and publication dynamics. The results reveal rapid annual growth, strong interdisciplinary collaboration, and a research structure dominated by language-processing methodologies, with natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning constituting the central analytical infrastructure. Temporal patterns indicate a progression from dataset construction and feature engineering toward neural architectures, transformer models, and increasing attention to multilingual challenges. Overall, the findings indicate that the field remains predominantly oriented toward the development of scalable computational detection systems, while governance-related concerns, such as transparency, accountability, and linguistic inclusivity, emerge as structurally secondary, albeit increasingly salient, dimensions within the broader AI-centered research landscape. Full article

This article examines the Colombo Conference Proposals of December 1962 as an instance of non-aligned mediation in the aftermath of the India–China border war. Based on a close reading of the Proposals and related diplomatic materials, it argues that the initiative did not seek to resolve the dispute but to structure restraint through ceasefire consolidation, disengagement, and demilitarized arrangements. In doing so, it conceptualized peace as a form of procedural governance—a political ceiling on escalation rather than a comprehensive settlement. Situating the case within existing scholarship on mediation, failed peace processes, and middle-power diplomacy, this article shows how non-aligned states contributed to conflict management through appeal, regional legitimacy, and sovereign consent. The Colombo episode illustrates both the possibilities and limits of such mediation: it could shape conduct and contain escalation, but it remained dependent on voluntary compliance and shared interpretation. Full article

Mohandas K. Gandhi (popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi) has primarily been recognized for his work in developing the theory and practice of nonviolence (ahimsa) for the purpose of building a culture of sustainable peace. Although Gandhi’s writings do not explicitly engage such categories as negative and positive peace, peace and international relations, or pacifism and nonviolence, scholars in peace studies have nonetheless assessed his contributions to the evolution of the field. This article advances the study of peace by emphasizing the dynamic nature of nonviolence (ahimsa), which is inextricably connected to Gandhi’s vision of sarvodaya (uplift of all). It further argues that his approach to peacebuilding, grounded in the upholding of pluralism across civic life, offers a conceptual framework for disrupting hegemonic monolithic systems. Gandhi lived in a time when the concept of pluralism had not gained currency; however, his vision, rooted in the values of diversity and tolerance, can appropriately be understood under the now widely accepted concept of pluralism. Gandhi thus uniquely connected nonviolence, peace, pluralism, and sarvodaya. For him, peaceful co-existence mandates attention to diversity—an approach that can enrich contemporary conversations in a divided political, social, and religious landscape. As a political leader and social reformer, he promoted indigenous languages, diverse village industries, local economies, and multi-faith religious education. In his later life, he also advocated for inter-caste and interreligious marriages in order to mitigate communal tensions. Such attention to diversity offers a promising path toward realizing the goal of sustainable peace and sarvodaya in a contemporary landscape increasingly prone to monolithic systems. Sarvodaya inherently requires a commitment to pluralistic, dialogical, dialectical, and nonviolent engagement in all spheres of life. By emphasizing shared humanity and committing to diversity, Gandhi offers a social philosophy of respect for all life as well as uplift of all trades, languages, and belief systems grounded in the vision of welfare of all. His practical methods of engaging diverse actors, along with his radical efforts to disrupt autocratic, authoritative, and centralized systems, affirm that the objectives of sarvodaya and sustainable peace can be realized only through a radical pluralism. Full article

Scholars and policymakers have recognized that collaborating on transboundary water resources is a significant way to promote peace and stability in conflict-prone areas. The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 between India and Pakistan remains one of the few enduring agreements on water management between the two countries. It has persisted through numerous wars and periods of political hostility. However, the treaty’s resilience and relevance are increasingly challenged by growing water shortages, changing weather patterns, and varying development plans. Besides these challenges, the militarization of Pakistan’s Indus Basin region also exemplifies significant resource challenges in South Asia. This paper examines the IWT both as a growing case of militarization in Pakistan’s Indus Basin Region and as a potential source of the broader environmental peacebuilding framework. Using a qualitative and conceptualization of the issue based on an environmental peacebuilding framework, the paper concludes that strengthening the IWT requires collaborative environmental peacebuilding strategies to transform the Indus Basin from a zone of militarization into a foundation for sustainable water peace and regional water security stability in South Asia. Full article

This study presents a sociotechnical framework for mitigating ethnic violent conflicts by integrating information and communication technologies (ICTs) with community-based social capital. Drawing on longitudinal case studies from three conflict-prone regions in Kenya, Mt. Elgon, Muhoroni, and the Turkana–West Pokot borderlands, the research examines how ICT-enabled peace networks, particularly the Early Warning and Early Response System (EWERS), mobilize bonding, bridging, and linking social capital to reduce violence. The study employs a multi-phase qualitative design, combining retrospective analysis, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, action participation, and thematic coding of EWERS data collected between 2009 and 2021. This approach enabled the reconstruction of system evolution, stakeholder dynamics, and community responses across diverse socio-political contexts. Findings demonstrate that embedding ICTs within trusted social structures fosters inter-ethnic collaboration, inclusive decision-making, and trust-building. EWERS facilitated confidential reporting, timely alerts, and coordinated interventions, leading to reductions in livestock theft, improved leadership accountability, emergence of inter-ethnic business networks, and enhanced visibility and response to gender-based violence. The system’s effectiveness was amplified by faith-based legitimacy, local governance integration, and adaptive training strategies. The study argues that ICTs can become effective enablers of peace when sensitively contextualized within local norms, relationships, and community trust. Operationalizing social capital through digital infrastructure strengthens community resilience and supports inclusive, sustainale peacebuilding. These insights offer a scalable model for ICT-integrated violence mitigation in low- and middle-income countries. This is among the first studies to operationalize bonding, bridging, and linking social capital within ICT-enabled peace networks in rural African contexts. By embedding digital infrastructure into trusted community relationships, the framework offers an analytical approach that can inform inclusive violence mitigation strategies across low- and middle-income settings. While the framework demonstrates potential for scalability, its outcomes depend on contextual adaptation and cannot be assumed to replicate uniformly across all environments. Full article

The motivations behind terrorism have emerged from debates on armed conflict. This article seeks to explore the membership status of the Taliban that maintained a positive social identity as an in-group to fight vigorously against the international community and seize Afghanistan in August 2021. With a range of semi-structured interviews with key security and justice stakeholders and civil society groups in Kabul from 2010 to 2016, opinions are based on efforts that engaged with Security Sector Reform (SSR) and fighting the resilience of the Taliban. It was found that the Taliban continued its fight and growth in membership and partial civic support due to its strong social identity (as an in-group) fighting an undesired, illegitimate, and corrupt state, judiciary, and police force supported by the international community. As part of social identity theory, poverty, unemployment, corruption and immorality are seen to serve a strategic and tactical purpose in aiding the socioeconomic, political and religious motives for recruitment towards the Taliban. However, after reseizing power, sanctions, a reduction in international aid, poverty and civic discontent with strict governance have resulted in other rival terrorist and resistance groups posing a threat to the Taliban, losing its positive social identity. Full article

Muslim theologian and well-known Indian peace activist Wahiduddin Khan (1925–2021) had a significant impact on the development of peace ethics in Islam. In addition to writing several books and essays on peace and non-violence, he also took part in Indian political debates and engaged in global issues related to Islam and the Middle East. He is one of the most prolific Muslim thinkers on peace and non-violence, having crafted a systematic approach to peace in his eleven books on the subject. This article discusses his contributions to Islamic peace ethics along with an applied case of his non-violence principles to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Furthermore, this article critically examines the consistency, applicability, and effects of his theory of peace. Full article