HIS/HUM 381 Discussion Board: Analyzing Peacebuilding and Terrorism

This discussion board post analyzes three articles related to peacebuilding, conflict, and terrorism. The first article discusses peacebuilding strategies in conflict-affected areas, focusing on the role of education and UNICEF's efforts to support vulnerable groups like women and children. The second article examines the impact of indiscriminate warfare in Syria, the role of media, and the political responses to chemical weapon attacks. The third article explores the factors contributing to far-right terrorism incidents in the United States. The student provides summaries and reactions to each article, highlighting key points and offering critical analysis. The post emphasizes the importance of education, media responsibility, and further research to understand and address these complex global issues, referencing the provided research papers.

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2DISCUSSION BOARD
Affolter, F. W., & Valente, A. A. (2020). Learning for Peace: Lessons Learned from
UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy in Conflict-Affected Context
Programme. In Children and Peace (pp. 219-239). Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22176-8_14
Summary
The authors in this article try to speak about the pea building strategies for the vulnerable groups
in the post-conflict period. It is also interesting to note that in the war-affected zones all the
people in general and the more vulnerable groups like women and children, in particular, are
affected the most. In other words, the peacebuilding strategies are highly beneficial for them they
can get the proper support to restore to normalcy. Insecurity is one of the most harmful impacts
that is created in the war or the conflict-stricken area. Children who are born in these places have
to suffer from physical and mental disorders (Affolter & Valente, 2020). UNICEF is taking
several measures on educating children and women in the war-affected regions to educate
people. According to Save the Children, approximately 357 million children lived in countries
and areas affected by war in 2016, which is 1 out of 6 of the world's children. A child who is
born in the war-affected place is also likely to become a school drop out and there are also
chances of becoming undernourished. Indirect violence is also one of the major impacts of war
and conflicts. This is because children might become the victim s of bullying or any deadly
disease as well. To solve these issues, some measures have to be taken (Gleditsch & Polo,
2016).

3DISCUSSION BOARD
Reaction
The authors in this article try to focus on the role of education as one of the weapons to combat
the harmful impacts of war and conflicts, however, this measure is still in the state of infancy and
must be carried on in a proper way for being used in future. Various future works have to be
done to carry on more research on the role of education in contributing to social cohesion.
Locally led research worlds are essential to find out the role of education in combating the
harmful impacts of war.
Geis, A., & Schlag, G. (2017). ‘The facts cannot be denied’: legitimacy, war and the use of
chemical weapons in Syria. Global Discourse, 7(2-3), 285-303. DOI:
10.1080/23269995.2017.1288488
Summary
The authors in this article talk about indiscriminate warfare and the death and destruction being
inflicted on Syria. Due to this warfare and their immediate impact, people suffer a lot and social
media usually plays a huge role in carrying forward these impacts via youtube posts, TV
advertisements, and others. This article throws light upon the U.S reactions towards the videos
and images showing the destruction caused in Syria after the chemical weapon attack on the
Ghouta area (Geis & Schlag, 2017). The political leaders must always ensure that they are not
getting biased or carried away. They have to ensure that there is a proper assessment of the news
and then the action being taken, political leaders or the Government agents have to remember
that all their questions were ethical or unethical will be questioned.

4DISCUSSION BOARD
Reaction
This Article is a good enough response towards the involvement of media, journalism and other
such sources towards the depiction of war-stricken areas and the destruction being caused there.
The good part that this article deals with is the reaction of President Obama towards this
chemical weapon attack in Syria that he termed as a ‘red line Assad regime, one of the world’s
largest chemical weapons arsenals has been monitored and destroyed peacefully. Syria’s huge
chemical weapon stockpile was also exposed via the digital representation and then destroyed by
peaceful means as well.
Klein, B. R., Gruenewald, J., & Smith, B. L. (2017). Opportunity, group structure,
temporal patterns, and successful outcomes of far-right terrorism incidents in the United
States. Crime & Delinquency, 63(10), 1224-1249.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brent_Klein/publication/303565644_Opportunity_Gr
oup_Structure_Temporal_Patterns_and_Successful_Outcomes_of_Far-
Right_Terrorism_Incidents_in_the_United_States/links/59d944fcaca272e60966d1fd/
Opportunity-Group-Structure-Temporal-Patterns-and-Successful-Outcomes-of-Far-Right-
Terrorism-Incidents-in-the-United-States.pdf
Summary
Authors through this article are trying to talk about how they can put an end towards terrorism.
Several terrorist attacks are inflicted on masses, however, some are successful and some are not
(Klein, Gruenewald & Smith, 2017). It is also evident that protection must be granted to the
people through added security for saving them from the terrorism occurrences and this also
reduces the far righted terrorism cases (Dalton, 2017).

5DISCUSSION BOARD
Reaction
This article has been a good attempt towards studying the success and failure of different
incidents. However, efforts have to make to increase the sample size in the current years (Choi,
2018). In the future, the sample size has to be increased and also focused on a variety of
incidents. In the future, there must also be more research on the target vulnerability and
attractiveness so that they can be studied and solve in a detailed manner.

6DISCUSSION BOARD
References
Affolter, F. W., & Valente, A. A. (2020). Learning for Peace: Lessons Learned from UNICEF’s
Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy in Conflict-Affected Context Programme.
In Children and Peace (pp. 219-239). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
030-22176-8_14
Choi, S. W. (2018). Does Restrictive Immigration Policy Reduce Terrorism in Western
Democracies?. Perspectives on Terrorism, 12(4), 14-25.
https://whanchoi.people.uic.edu/DoesRestrictiveImmigrationPolicyReduceTerrorisminW
esternDemocracies.pdf
Dalton, M. (2017). Defeating terrorism in syria: A new way forward. Hampton Roads
International Security Quarterly, 16.
https://search.proquest.com/openview/18616d28de277779a045c36e1046c180/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=25776
Geis, A., & Schlag, G. (2017). ‘The facts cannot be denied’: legitimacy, war and the use of
chemical weapons in Syria. Global Discourse, 7(2-3), 285-303. DOI:
10.1080/23269995.2017.1288488
Gleditsch, K. S., & Polo, S. M. (2016). Ethnic inclusion, democracy, and terrorism. Public
Choice, 169(3-4), 207-229. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17438/1/GP_EIT.pdf

7DISCUSSION BOARD
Klein, B. R., Gruenewald, J., & Smith, B. L. (2017). Opportunity, group structure, temporal
patterns, and successful outcomes of far-right terrorism incidents in the United
States. Crime & Delinquency, 63(10), 1224-1249.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brent_Klein/publication/303565644_Opportunity_G
roup_Structure_Temporal_Patterns_and_Successful_Outcomes_of_Far-
Right_Terrorism_Incidents_in_the_United_States/links/59d944fcaca272e60966d1fd/
Opportunity-Group-Structure-Temporal-Patterns-and-Successful-Outcomes-of-Far-
Right-Terrorism-Incidents-in-the-United-States.pdf
Klein, B. R., Gruenewald, J., & Smith, B. L. (2017). Opportunity, group structure, temporal
patterns, and successful outcomes of far-right terrorism incidents in the United
States. Crime & Delinquency, 63(10), 1224-1249.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brent_Klein/publication/303565644_Opportunity_G
roup_Structure_Temporal_Patterns_and_Successful_Outcomes_of_Far-
Right_Terrorism_Incidents_in_the_United_States/links/59d944fcaca272e60966d1fd/
Opportunity-Group-Structure-Temporal-Patterns-and-Successful-Outcomes-of-Far-
Right-Terrorism-Incidents-in-the-United-States.pdf