International Mediation in Tajikistan: A United Nations Case Study is the title of my fourth and final term paper for my political science classes at AUB. The assignment from my Conflict and Conflict Management class was very broad–write a paper about an instance of conflict management. No further direction, instruction, or guidelines. In the end, that class was a bit of a disappointment–the professor was extremely intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced, but just not a good teacher. Rather than give lectures, which would have been fascinating, he assigned students to give presentations continuously, to the point that each 2.5 hour class session consisted of about six students coming up in front of the class and reading off of an outline of an article that they had read. Not very interesting or educational. Still, there were some worthwhile presenations, one of which resulted in this paper.
My friend Hamza was assigned a chapter out of our textbook that covered international mediation as a tool of conflict management. It was a very detailed essay, and I thought it would be an interesting exercise to use its description of international mediation as a template to view one specific conflict. The only other thing was to pick a war to research. I decided on the 1992-97 civil war in Tajikistan because it is one case where the United Nations’ international mediation effort was highly successful and very professionally carried out. For once, the UN managed to create real, lasting change, rather than act as a stopgap for something that would come back to haunt a region two years later. Tajikistan today is relatively stable, and is recovering from the brutalities of the war. This paper examines the conflict, then goes point by point through the book’s chapter in examining the UN’s role. As always, you’re free to use it for whatever, as long as you cite me as the author of the essay.
I’m in Thessaloniki, Greece, right now, and will post about my continued adventures as they occur. Expect some pretty epic stories. Cheers.
International Mediation in Tajikistan: A United Nations Case Study
Woo, done with four out of five of my classes! Now just have to start/finish another paper and tie up some loose ends, and I’m off on an adventure.
Overcoming Sectarianism in Lebanon: Recommendations for a Stronger State is the name of my term paper for Politics in Lebanon. I’m pretty proud of it as a paper–I think it represents some upper-level work. It’s a big topic, and I was genuinely interested in writing about it. My recommendations are, of course, incredibly flawed–Lebanon hasn’t reformed itself so far, and isn’t likely to soon–but they offer a nice ideal of what the country could do if it wanted to overcome short-sighted political greed and solve some fundamental problems (it doesn’t).
An interesting thing about this paper is that while focusing on events like the National Pact of 1943, White Revolution of 1952, or Civil War of 1975-90, a lot of names come up that are strikingly familiar. Not only do almost all of these individuals come from influential political families that act as political clans, or even warlords, for generations, but in many cases it is the same individuals who are still in power today. Some of the big names in the paper–Michel Aoun, Samir Geagea–are actively running for or in office. Aoun, in fact, is likely to be largely in charge of the next government (frequently misunderstood fact about March 14th: Hezbollah really likes being the underdog opposition force, and doesn’t necessarily want to be the majority. If the opposition wins the election, it will be their ally Michel Aoun who is most likely to be the front man). Other names, like Jumblatt, Khoury, Karami, and Gemayel, are just as common today in politics as they were back then. What irony, that after a 15-year civil war tears the country apart, those leaders are still in power. Overcoming the past, as I make clear in the paper, will not be an easy feat.
Overcoming Sectarianism in Lebanon: Recommendations for a Stronger State
Two out of four papers done, with a third to be finished within 12 hours! And a fourth….to be started….shortly afterward…
Abuses of Human Rights in the 2008 South Ossetia War: Two Perspectives is an essay written for my Human Rights class, which is very laid-back. The professor asked for a 12-15 page paper “about an abuse of human rights.” For the Lebanese, he requested that if possible it be based off of field research, including interviews. For the international students, he realized that this would be considerably more difficult to do because we largely lack contacts and language skills to do interviews properly, so he didn’t put that limitation on us. He also suggested that we could team-write papers in pairs if we so chose. Considering the workload at the end of the semester, division of labor was a very attractive option, so my friend Alex and I decided to split one up. We wanted to write on something outside of the Middle East, just to get some variety in our studies. We brainstormed for a while, and then decided to write about the week-long 2008 South Ossetia War, because neither of us knew much about it and we wanted to learn more. I remember that war occurring while I was studying Arabic at BYU, in Utah, and thinking “oh, that’s interesting. I have to go do eight hours of homework/find a wife now, but I’ll wikipedia it later.”
The paper itself is fairly basic, and certainly nothing to write home about (which I guess is more or less what I’m doing right now, but whatever). Since the class has such a conversational, discussion-based tone, we felt that it was appropriate to keep a degree of that in the paper, rather than make it a strictly formal academic work. Alex especially has a “lite” style, which is saying something considering my usual standards. Read, enjoy, share, use it for your own work as long as you cite us as the authors, etc. Cheers!
Filed under: American University of Beirut, Lebanon General, Middle East News
As my semester at AUB rapidly draws to a close, I’m frantically writing several term papers at once–one for each of my four political science classes. Because the internet is so awesome, I figured that I’d upload the papers on Scribd as I finish them so that interested friends, family, and strangers can peruse through them. I’ve completely finished with one of the four, so I’ll start with it.
Parties of the Same God: Finding Commonality Between Hezbollah and Hamas is the title of my term paper for Senior Seminar in Arab Politics. Our professor, who is a sitting member of parliament within the March 8th opposition bloc (in General Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, specifically), gave us a lot of liberty to write about anything we wanted. As long as we pitched an idea related to Arab politics to him and he approved, we had free reign. I’ve long been interested in non-state actors and how they interact in the international system, so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to learn more.
The structure of the essay is very simple–it runs first through attributes of Hezbollah, and then the same criteria of Hamas, finding similarities and differences. My conclusions were that the two are remarkably similar in their charters, leaders’ statements, political and military activities, and current situations. The biggest difference between the two is their organizational framework–one operates as a political party that happens to have a military wing, within a sovereign nation, and they other is a resistance organization in an occupied territory. However, this difference appears to have relatively little affect on how they operate within their respective geographic areas.
The paper is 14 pages long and can be accessed at the above link. Feel free to use it for any of your own work or enjoyment, but please give credit where it is due. Now I’ve got to go write some more of these things. Cheers!
Some interesting developments have occurred that definitely warrant mention here. I’ll just put two for now, but hopefully more will follow.
Lourdes
1. I accidentally acquired a roommate! If you recall me raving over how awesome CouchSurfing is, then consider this an excellent example of why. A lovely young Spanish woman named Lourdes requested to stay with me for two nights. Her English was a little bit rough, so I responded in Spanish and we corresponded back and forth a few times to work out the details. She arrived on Saturday, at the same time as a really cool Austrian couple that were also staying for two nights–four people sleeping in my little apartment is about the max, but it’s pretty cozy and fun. We all hung out together over the weekend, during which time I spoke more with Lourdes. She is originally from the Canary Islands, now a student of fine arts at La Universidad de Granada, and currently “studying abroad” through Erasmus in Thessaloniki, Greece. I use quotation marks because the university there was apparently struggling with protests and sit ins and other civil disobedience, so classes weren’t really running as normal. For that reason, she got assigned a long-term audio/visual project that doesn’t really require her physical presence in the university. Since then, she’s been traveling around Europe and the Middle East, the goal of ending up in Lebanon for a month or so because she’s always wanted to come here. She has some long lost family that she doesn’t know much about, and wants to track them down. However, she arrived here in Beirut speaking no Arabic or French, and limited English. I’m not really sure what her original plan was, but I expressed to her that the second bed in my apartment has no permanent resident, and if she wanted to move in as a rent-paying and dinner-cooking roommate, then she was absolutely welcome to. She thought it was a fantastic idea, and has officially made that decision.
Free at last...
2. On the political front, there was an interesting development last week. If you recall what I said about the Hariri tribunal that is currently ongoing, then you might be able to discern the impact of the release of four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals who have been incarcerated since the assassination. In the immediate aftermath, when all fingers pointed towards Assad’s government, these four gentlemen were regarded as likely suspects for betraying their former prime minister. They have been held for the past four years. On Wednesday, however, Daniel Bellemare and the UN tribunal decided that there was not enough evidence to hold them on, and they should be released. This appears to be a step away from blaming Syria for the assassination, though it would probably be smart to not jump to too many conclusions. However, in the meantime, Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian groups celebrated in the streets by dancing, singing, lighting off fireworks, and shooting various automatic weapons into the air. The police and army, which are both solidly pro-Hariri, responded by showing out in much larger force than normal and turning on their sirens as loudly as possible. I don’t believe that there were any clashes, but they definitely wanted to be heard. I wasn’t super close to any of the participants, but I could hear some sporadic celebratory gunfire and my friend Asher said that he could see some of the jubilation from his window. Also, I’ve heard rumors that since Wednesday there have been some minor unarmed scuffles, presumably between supporters of the different political blocs. Never a dull moment in Beirut.
Until next time…
As I adapt more and more to this place, several experiences have given me very positive and very negative reactions. Some of this may come off as unnecessarily whiny, but I’ll put the happy bits afterwards to balance it out and end on a good note.
Bad
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Academic bureaucracy is not fun at all. In trying to get into the master’s level Conflict Management course (which is my favorite class, I’d say), I had to go through a long petition process. That’s understandable in itself, as I’m an undergraduate student and needed to prove myself capable of performing adequately in a graduate class. However, I was singularly unimpressed with the way my petition was handled, from start to finish. The process necessitated going through a particular individual in the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences office, who is worse at her job than Michael Brown, Robert Mugabe, and Inspector Clouseau, all rolled up into one massively incompetent person. After submitting the petition and waiting far past what should have been the notification date for a response, I had to go to her office no less than four times before she could find where she had filed it, and even then she still could not remember my name, class level, or what my petition concerned. Finally, the sticking point seemed to be that I was qualified in every respect (including permission of the professor and my advisor), except that I officially have junior status, and this individual believed that in order to enroll in the class I needed to be a senior. The reason? Direct quote: “If undergraduates are enrolling in the class, that makes it look like there is something wrong with it.” As opposed to, say, there being something right with the student. I eventually had to go over her head and speak with the chairman of the department, who was very agreeable and strongly recommended me for the course, which I am now enrolled in. Speaking of that class, among others…
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Certain individuals in classroom settings are supremely annoying. The classes themselves are really good for the most part, but there are just some particular people that are problematic. The professor for my Senior Seminar in Arab Politics, who is a member of parliament and obviously knows the material, is not what you would call “involved.” We have a 5-6 page paper due on Wednesday on a few hundred pages of assigned reading, except 100 of those pages were not made available to us. I certainly would have brought this to his attention last class, but he called in sick. Keep in mind, this is the course that we didn’t have in week one because it was the day before classes started, and had only about half an hour in week two before he got bored of us answering vague questions and left. Then there was last week that he didn’t show, now we have an assignment due this week. Go figure.
There’s also a kid in the Conflict and Conflict Management in the Middle East class that I may end up shooting at some point. I’ll just use his behavior today as an example, but he’s been this way in the last two classes as well. Today he showed up an hour and a half into the class, and for the last hour he continuously interrupted students giving presentations to pose new and utterly incorrect or irrelevant arguments against them. In addition to claiming that Israel does not exist and that Kurds can’t be nationalist because they don’t have a state, he made the mind-blowing statement that sectarian divisions in Iraq are entirely irrelevant and all of the violence there is caused by economic factors—and attempted to support it. Ok, this kid reminds me an alarming amount of Sarah Palin. That’s not a compliment in my book, despite her charming looks and impressive field dressing skills. And it wouldn’t be so bad if he would be quiet, but he literally never stops. When I give a presentation a week from Monday, I may have to poison him. Which brings me to my next point… -
I had a bad experience with Barbar this evening. Zainab, my Dutch/Lebanese friend, had to come over and pick up some papers from me, and I asked her to pick me up some food on her way. She went to the restaurant and called me to ask what I wanted, so I brought up the online menu (very handy), and found something—djej sawda. I didn’t know what sawda means, but djej is chicken and Barbar always has good chicken. I figured there’s really no way that that can go wrong, and absolute worst case scenario it’d be one of those cultural learning experiences. 10 minutes later, Zainab showed up at my door with a bag of food, which I immediately started eating. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it because we were chatting while I ate, but after a few bites I realized that it wasn’t chicken. I pointed out to her that it tasted ok, but either she or Barbar had messed up. She looked at the plate, then at my face, and said “Oh, it is chicken. But sawda means liver.” I looked back down, and realized with a fair amount of disgust that what I’d been eating was the consistency of fresh dog feces, was actually green in some parts, and tasted more like fat than anything I could recognize. I didn’t eat any more of it, but as I write this I have a headache and stomachache and feel slightly in danger of being violently and spectacularly ill all over my laptop.
Good
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It’s been a little rainy (ok, really rainy) here for the last week or two, and it’s been getting me down a bit. After all, it’s the Middle East—I was sort of expecting heat and stuff. However, today was positively gorgeous, and reminded me of how beautiful this place is. Holy crap! I’d sort of forgotten about the fact that the Mediterranean is right there, and it was a pleasant surprise to see the sun shining on it this afternoon. Tuesdays are my busiest day so I probably won’t get a chance to tomorrow, but sometime soon I’d like to take a daytime walk along the Corniche, the big seafront boulevard. I went there on my very first night in Beirut while waiting for my mom to arrive, and haven’t been back since. It’s a really cool spot though. And on the subject of cool things…
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My friends are kind of awesome. I had a really fun housewarming party on Friday night, which was very well-attended and a very good time for everyone. I used to host a lot of get-togethers during my first semester of college because I had a double room but no roommate, but since then I don’t think I’ve thrown a single one. This weekend I definitely managed though, and there were a lot of really fun people there enjoying each other’s company. Also, they were all impressed by the apartment and jealous of the price that I’m renting it for, which was a really nice reaffirmation of what I already thought. See pictures of the apartment, party, and clubbing experience afterwards in my newest album here. Oh, surprise! New photos! And speaking of surprises…
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I’m getting better at Lebanese. This has actually been really fun. The other day I was walking down the street and a guy yelled at me from a car stopped in traffic. I walked over and greeted him, and he asked for directions somewhere in Arabic (to Barbar, actually—he probably didn’t get the sawda memo). My instinct was to apologetically tell him that I’m a dumb American and don’t speak the language, but for some reason I felt inspired to try. And it worked! Granted, they were very simple directions, but I still did it correctly and in an understandable way. I was very proud of myself. He’s probably dead now because of it, but at least it’s an indication that my language skills are improving. Also, I introduced myself to Ahmad, the live-in maintenance and custodial guy for my building, who is very friendly and helpful but doesn’t speak any English besides “Hallo!” Whenever he sees me carrying groceries, he reminds me that he’s happy to go get them for me (for a hefty tip, of course). Also, he knocks on my door every evening at about 6:30 if I haven’t put the trash outside, to ask if I have any for him to take. Usually our conversations are brief, but I am competent at exchanging pleasantries and greetings, and it’s a good feeling.
All in all, I’m feeling really good about things (unless you count my stomach, which is making ominous noises). Beirut is treating me pretty well, and I’m glad I’m here.
