This research is about the local significance of the Pacification of Ghent in Utrecht between 1576 and 1581. It argues that the Pacification was the crucial treaty for the participation of the...Show moreThis research is about the local significance of the Pacification of Ghent in Utrecht between 1576 and 1581. It argues that the Pacification was the crucial treaty for the participation of the States and city of Utrecht in the Dutch Revolt because of its lack of coherency and clarity. This thesis explores the competing narratives about the meaning of this peace. The analysis focusses on the interests of different groups in city and the reinterpretations of the peace terms in the Pacification within the rapidly developing circumstances of the Dutch Revolt. The main argument is that the act of oblivion in the Pacification was the tacit driving force behind the competition of narratives about legitimacy. The Pacification successfully offered a tabula rasa for the previous decade and became the most important reference for peace negotiation between 1576 and 1581. The “originalist” narrative tried to stay with the Pacification terms as intended when it was signed in 1576; the “clarifying” narrative argued that the cherry-picked peace violations of the royal party – together with the changed circumstances – necessitated an elaboration of the original peace treaty; the “abnegation” narrative used these cherry-picked peace violations of the royal party to highlight the obsolesce of the treaty and framed the treaty’s failure as a reason to abjure king Philip. This last narrative flipped the Pacification on its head; the new continuity with the present was not based on the treaty’s terms but on its violation and frame of belonging to the past.Show less
In early modern Europe, authority was often legitimated by the antiquity of an institution or practice. The past played an important part in the self-fashioning of rulers, and vice versa posed a...Show moreIn early modern Europe, authority was often legitimated by the antiquity of an institution or practice. The past played an important part in the self-fashioning of rulers, and vice versa posed a problem for people trying to change or replace ancient institutions.In this context historians have coined the term ‘memory wars’, as memories become arguments justifying present actions. While the role of memory politics, aimed at remembering as well as forgetting, has been studied in the civil wars in the Low Countries and France, this has not been done for a similar conflict in Scotland. This points to a problem in the study of memory politics in early modern Europe, which is mostly based on progressive polities as France and the Low Countries. This is problematic because modernity is a point of contention among scholars studying memory practices.To overcome a possible distortion of early modern memory practices by relying on relatively ‘modern’ polities, it is necessary to compare the practices in these polities with memory practices in an early modern polity which was less developed, such as Scotland. Are economic prosperity and state formation, or a certain level of development, prerequisites for ‘modern’ memory practices?Show less
Bachelor thesis | Afrikaanse talen en culturen (BA)
closed access
This thesis is an analysis of the report written by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a specific focus on the recommendation about the establishment of an extraordinary...Show moreThis thesis is an analysis of the report written by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a specific focus on the recommendation about the establishment of an extraordinary criminal tribunal. The different reasons why this extraordinary criminal tribunal has not been established are researched in this thesis.Show less
Shia clerics and movements in Iraq tend to use four main instruments in acquiring legitimacy from the Shia population. These are the provision of security, the provision of basic needs, the...Show moreShia clerics and movements in Iraq tend to use four main instruments in acquiring legitimacy from the Shia population. These are the provision of security, the provision of basic needs, the establishment of religious networks, and the establishment of legal networks. By focusing on the two dominant current Shia Iraqi leaders Muqtada al-Sadr and Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani from 2003 to 2008, it becomes clear how they have been using those instruments successfully. The main reason for their success can be ascribed by their ability to replace the tasks of the Iraqi state. The Iraqi state failed to provide its citizens the needs they hardly needed, mainly regarding to the basic security and social needs.Show less
Somalia and (South) Sudan belong to the most troubled countries in the world. All three of them are classified within the bottom 20% of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. Similarly, they have...Show moreSomalia and (South) Sudan belong to the most troubled countries in the world. All three of them are classified within the bottom 20% of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. Similarly, they have consistently been ranked in the top-5 of the Fragile States Index. Unsurprisingly, the contemporary history of Somalia and Sudan is characterized by chronic insecurity because of recurring civil wars between ethnic, tribal or clan-based groups and their governments. Therefore, the vast majority of international involvement in the Horn of Africa during the last twenty years has been directed at these countries. However, despite this ample attention, the deployed international military forces have thus far been unable to re-establish secure environments and rebuild state structures. Focusing on five distinct military interventions from 1990 to roughly 2010, this inquiry aims to measure the qualitative and quantitative contributions of Security Sector/System Reform (SSR) to the restoration of the state’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force. To this end, it addresses e.g. the progress made within Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs. This inquiry then attempts to assess the legitimacy of the post-conflict state reconstruction effort by looking at e.g. the empowerment of civil society representatives and the progress made within community confidence-building measures. In doing so, this inquiry adopts Paul D. Miller’s concept of ‘armed state building’ as a theoretical framework. It therewith argues that – despite a growing number of criticisms – liberal institution-building has since the end of the Cold War remained the prevailing paradigm of state reconstruction efforts. Based on a reading of relevant literature, this inquiry contends that group identities in Somalia and Sudan have become interwoven with relative deprivation between them. The result have been enduring crises of citizenship and legitimacy in the state which continue to feed narratives that help to mobilize groups for violence. This inquiry finds that SSR has managed to increase the capacities of security and justice institutions, albeit in a vacuum. Analyses indicate how the (re)-established state institutions overall have been rather a-contextual, a-historic and frequently paralleled more capable, indigenous mechanisms. Simultaneously, the problems within the state’s legitimacy domain illustrate the complex environments, wherein international military forces e.g. were hampered by their cooperation with problematic local partners. This points to limitations within the military spheres of influence that affect soldiers’ ability to address the ‘root causes’ of conflict. This, in turn, leads to questions of how SSR should otherwise be treated within their activities, and how these armed state building efforts could best be complemented.Show less
External support to security sector reform (SSR) has emerged as a crucial instrument in international peacebuilding and state-building operations and is widely considered as the sine qua non of...Show moreExternal support to security sector reform (SSR) has emerged as a crucial instrument in international peacebuilding and state-building operations and is widely considered as the sine qua non of contemporary post-conflict reconstruction efforts in post-conflict or fragile states. Although SSR is considered as a core instrument of state-building and as a precondition for achieving peace and development, its record of achievement is quite limited. This thesis seeks to explain how the conventional SSR focus on state security undermines post-conflict transition and fails to enable an environment for sustainable peace and development. Based on the transition processes in Afghanistan and Timor Leste, this thesis argues that a state-centric approach to SSR is likely to be less effective in hybrid states and can even destabilise state recovery by protecting state institutions that are not embedded within society.Show less
What role does civil society play in the outbreak of violence within fragile hybrid regime countries? This study shows the connection between an active civil society and the escalation of tensions...Show moreWhat role does civil society play in the outbreak of violence within fragile hybrid regime countries? This study shows the connection between an active civil society and the escalation of tensions between groups within society.Show less
