Cyclical Youth-Led Conflict as an Early Warning Indicator

Abstract

The dynamics of conflict are shifting. In the 2011 World Development Report, the World Bank stated that conflicts are now increasingly cyclical and intractable events; 90 percent of the civil wars that occurred in the 2000s were fought within countries that had experienced a domestic conflict in the past 30 years (World Bank, 2011). Countries are more likely to experience cycles of violence due to the persistence of weak state structures that cannot extend their reach into peripheral regions, leading to local instability (Kingston, 2004). Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the international community observed several states – in which external actors provided 50 percent of those states’ overall revenues – relapse into civil war (Call, 2012). Given the significant investment by the international community in peacebuilding projects in post-conflict states – whether democratic reforms, economic reforms, capacity building, or sustainable development – there needs to be a significant increase in research focused on civil war recurrence, as the trajectory of post-conflict states cannot be guaranteed without sustainable peace.

Electronic Recruitment of Children in Armed Conflict: A Legal Analysis Under International Humanitarian Law

“…This limitation, nevertheless, only affects specific applications of AP2 and has no bearing on IHL in general. Therefore, the dependence on the definition of an armed organisation and the presence of a violent dispute unites these explanations of the computerised recruitment procedure that is humanitarian and legal and the use of minors (Legassicke et al, 2023). Therefore, except for recruitment and utilisation by state military personnel, both prohibit the use of children in aggression that is not related to an armed conflict.…”