This month, RESOLVE highlights recommended readings from the RESOLVE Policy Note, “Linking Official and Unofficial Approaches of Engaging Armed Actors.” In this note, author Claudia Hoffman discusses how coordinated approaches between different actors utilizing their respective strengths may help achieve specific goals and sustainable resolutions where non-state armed actors are involved. To enhance the policy note, the author includes suggested readings on contemporary conflict, armed actors and small arms control, creating negotiation momentum and persuasion strategies for engagement.

On Contemporary Conflict

Call, Charles T. “The Fallacy of the ‘Failed State’.” Third World Quarterly 29, no. 8 (2008): 1491–1507.

Kaldor, Mary. “In Defence of New Wars.” Stability: International Journal of Security and Development 2, no. 1, p.Art. 4 (2013).

Rotberg, Robert I., ed. State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003.

On Armed Actors and Small Arms Control

de Tessières, Savannah. “Unit 10: Supporting the Development of Armed Actor Capacity for Weapons and Ammunition Management.” In Effective Weapons and Ammunition Management in a Changing DDR Context: A Handbook for Practitioners, 44-49. UNODA and UNDPKO, 2018. https://peacekeeping. un.org/sites/default/files/effective_weapons_and_ammunition_management_ddr_handbook.pdf.

Florquin, Nicolas, Pascal Bongard, and Emilia Richard. “Options for Engagement: Armed Groups and Humanitarian Norms.” In Small Arms Survey 2010: Gangs, Groups and Guns, 304-33. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2010/en/ Small-Arms-Survey-2010-Chapter-12-EN.pdf.

On Creating Negotiation Momentum

Hofmann, Claudia and Carolin Goerzig. “Influencing Negotiation Willingness in the Middle East: The Potential Contributions of Private Actors.” Negotiation Journal 32, no. 2 (2016): 151-163.

Planta, Katrin and Véronique Dudouet. Fit for Negotiation? Options and Risks in the Political Transformation of Non-conventional Armed Groups. Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), 2015. https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Planta_Dodouet_NOR… negotiation_Feb%202015_final_version.pdf.

On Persuasion Strategies for Engagement

Goerzig, Carolin und Claudia Hofmann. “The Hurting Way Out: Group Cohesion and the Mitigating Potential of Private Actors in Conflict Negotiation.” Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers No. 177 (2016). https://www.eth.mpg.de/pubs/wps/pdf/mpi-eth-working-paper-0177.

Kaplan, Oliver. “Nudging Armed Groups: How Civilians Transmit Norms of Protection.” Stability: International Journal of Security & Development 2, no. 3, p.Art. 62 (2013).