Arming with Opportunities

Taking away a weapon is not enough; the incentive to take up arms has to be taken away. That is the aim of Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programmes, and it is considered to be vital for the success of peace building missions. In recent years there also has been a growing demand to approach DDR with a more community- based perspective. But practical recommendations on how to undertake such a community-based approach to DDR, or even attempts to define or problematize community-based DDR are lacking. Informed by this lack of comprehensive knowledge, this book starts with a literature research on DDR, attempting not only to give a comprehensive overview of best practices, but also to back these up with theoretical frameworks. Derived from the experiences and lessons learned of past DDR initiatives, an attempt is made to make a start with concretization of what community-based DDR could encompass. The final section records the results of field research in Jonglei State, South Sudan. This case is particularly interesting for a community-based approach, as a distinction between civilians and combatants is hard to make.