Hagar obtained her PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She earned an MA in political science with a specialization in international relations, and a BA in journalism and mass communications with a specialization in journalism and a minor in political science from the American University in Cairo.
Taha’s doctoral research examined the two cases of Darfur (Sudan) and Somaliland (Northern Somalia), focusing on the prospect of integrating community-based formations in contexts of intervention and conflict resolution in an attempt to critically examine the liberal understanding and practice of these terminologies. Her work focuses on problematizing the meaning of "civil society" in the South and assessing the challenges facing local actors.
Hagar is a Project Officer with the "Access to Justice in Libya" research team at the Van Vollenhoven Institute, Law Faculty, Leiden University.
Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship... more Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship between three main factors and the recurrent failure of humanitarian intervention in the post-Cold War Era, particularly in Africa, in spite of the hopes associated with it since the beginning of the 1990s. Those factors are: the interest-based, racist selective state practice, the inadequacy of the humanitarian discourse, and the lack of an impartial international body responsible for implementation and monitoring of intervention. Through examining the two cases, the research highlights the failure of the international community to address the humanitarian disaster in Rwanda and the preliminary failure in the case of Darfur. But the case of Darfur has highlighted the developments that have started to take place within humanitarian intervention doctrine and practice. It is argued that for these developments to continue and for humanitarian disasters to be dealt with differently in the future, the three factors within humanitarian action presented by this research should be dealt with vigorously and wholeheartedly.
Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship... more Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship between three main factors and the recurrent failure of humanitarian intervention in the post-Cold War Era, particularly in Africa, in spite of the hopes associated with it since the beginning of the 1990s. Those factors are: the interest-based, racist selective state practice, the inadequacy of the humanitarian discourse, and the lack of an impartial international body responsible for implementation and monitoring of intervention. Through examining the two cases, the research highlights the failure of the international community to address the humanitarian disaster in Rwanda and the preliminary failure in the case of Darfur. But the case of Darfur has highlighted the developments that have started to take place within humanitarian intervention doctrine and practice. It is argued that for these developments to continue and for humanitarian disasters to be dealt with differently in the f...
A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays,... more A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays, which aims to draw a map of the long history of what has been, since the 19th century, termed 'humanitarian intervention'. Though the problem of protecting human rights has been a concern of the international community for centuries, humanitarian intervention has been treated until recently in both policy as well as academic circles as a subject of the post-Cold War era.
A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays,... more A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays, which aims to draw a map of the long history of what has been, since the 19th century, termed 'humanitarian intervention'. Though the problem of protecting human rights has been a concern of the international community for centuries, humanitarian intervention has been treated until recently in both policy as well as academic circles as a subject of the post-Cold War era.
Journal of International and Political Studies, 2020
This article examines efforts of intervention and conflict resolution made by local formations of... more This article examines efforts of intervention and conflict resolution made by local formations of civil society in Darfur. Two main themes are explored here: the forms of intervention and conflict resolution offered on a local level and the argument for incorporating this local element. Although local formations in Darfur take shapes other than those recognized in western literature and societies as being 'civil society', recent interactions between these local formations, the state and the international community have produced something entirely different. Efforts made by local formations in Darfur to resolve conflicts are to be introduced and critically analysed. The purpose is to clearly distinguish traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution in Darfur as well as what communities have to offer after their reformulation through interaction with the modern state and international community. The division between traditional and modern here are entirely organizational and for establishing basic conceptual clarity. The reality depicted by fieldwork for this research has been entirely complicated, which this paper seeks to highlight. The paper provides an overview of interventions and conflict resolution mechanisms by local formations in Darfur and analyses the significance of integrating them in attempts to resolve conflicts in the region.
Since 2015, the number of refugees entering the EU has doubled due to poor security situations in... more Since 2015, the number of refugees entering the EU has doubled due to poor security situations in various parts of the world. EU member states have agreed to receive refugees in order to resettle them safely in the region. There have been many discussions regarding their successful integration into their new communities.
حينما نمر بأحد الشوارع المتربة باحدى مدن دارفور، يصعقنا مدى العولمة التى تملأ جوانب الريف الدارفو... more حينما نمر بأحد الشوارع المتربة باحدى مدن دارفور، يصعقنا مدى العولمة التى تملأ جوانب الريف الدارفورى بغرب السودان. فنرى مكاتب متعددة تديرها منظمات دولية مثل الصليب الاحمر و برامج الامم المتحدة للغذاء و الزراعة و غيرها. و لكن، و بالرغم من ’تدويل’ منطقة دارفورقد يتساءل احدهم اذا كانت خصوصية المجتمع المدنى تم تشكيلها فقط بواسطة هذا العامل وحده.
There is an urge now, on a social as well as political level, to settle the Darfur question lest ... more There is an urge now, on a social as well as political level, to settle the Darfur question lest it eventually goes down the same route as the South. But the question here is whether Darfur can actually be compared at all with the South; is separation even an option for ending the conflict?
The early months of 2013 have once again seen the severe deterioration of Darfur’s humanitarian s... more The early months of 2013 have once again seen the severe deterioration of Darfur’s humanitarian situation. There may be links between this recent violence, the region’s newly discovered gold mines and the Government of Sudan.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the South Sudanese state’s creation, the country is st... more As we approach the one-year anniversary of the South Sudanese state’s creation, the country is still plagued with many of the issues it has faced for decades. Indeed, it’s only because we have inflated expectations of states that we believed it would be any different.
Understood differently by international actors, the state and locals, Darfur's civil society is i... more Understood differently by international actors, the state and locals, Darfur's civil society is in a state of continuous re-invention.
Accessing information is usually a difficult task because not only our interlocutors look upon th... more Accessing information is usually a difficult task because not only our interlocutors look upon this attempt with scrutiny, but also because we – as researchers – have to keep questioning what kind of information we want to reach and what reasons we have behind this, practically all the time. Eventually researchers understand that the process of accessing their field of study has been actually part of their research because it demonstrates meanings regarding the field as well as themselves studying that particular field. In that sense, researchers as individuals become part of their own study and who they are, where they come from, what language they speak and what prejudices they have become essential in their ability to access certain information while being unable to access others. Trusting the person who they present to people in the field becomes essential in their ability to do research. To reach this level a researcher will have to be in continuous state of questioning and requisitioning their own research and the point behind it. Issues of trust are also always more complicated where research is being done under authoritarian regimes and brutal security settings where not only the researcher has to gain the trust of the society but also elements within the state order to be able to conduct meaningful research in somehow a ‘secure’ environment. Based on fieldwork experience in Darfur (Sudan) and Somaliland (Northern Somalia), this paper will attempt to examine the importance of trust, on the level of state and society, as a key component in accessing research field in Africa and the process that researchers go through in order to construct this trust.
Majority of literature on Conflict Resolution ignores local mechanisms in spite of being inherite... more Majority of literature on Conflict Resolution ignores local mechanisms in spite of being inherited in many cultures. For a long time, resolving conflicts has been a one-size-fits-all intervention that usually comes from the West and forces its vision on native populations. But because of the recurrent failure of outside interventions, there has been a tendency within the international community – reflected on literature on Conflict Resolution – to shift towards resorting to local mechanisms. Though the shift has been generally welcomed, little attention is being paid to the serious challenges facing these local systems. Focusing on the two cases of Darfur and Somaliland, some of the challenges that this lecture will present would be the role of government, the incoherence of the 'local entity', and the limited resources in the so-called global South where conflicts mainly occur. These factors should not lead to a shift away from these cultural-based mechanisms for resolving conflicts, but rather a realistic assessment of what they could actually contribute with.
Unlike Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler’s (2003) longstanding economic based argument of ‘greed and... more Unlike Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler’s (2003) longstanding economic based argument of ‘greed and grievance’ as an explanation to civil wars, Justin D. Leach proposes preservation of cultural identity as a more plausible alternative particularly in the case of the two civil wars witnessed in Sudan from 1955–1972 and again from 1983–2005. Leach argues that Sudan’s lack of integration as a unified state throughout its modern history complicates Collier and Hoeffler’s explanation that holds seeking a common economic goal as the driving motivation behind civil wars and demands for secession. Instead, Leach argues that Southern rebel groups have not developed along ‘any single economic-rationalist model’ but rather ‘deeper concerns about security and culture’.
This book review is organized into two main parts; the first one will be mainly dedicated to the ... more This book review is organized into two main parts; the first one will be mainly dedicated to the brief statement of Strange’s argument and the evidences she provides to support this argument and the final conclusions she drew at the end of her book. The second part will be mainly the evaluation of the author’s argument, the way she supported it and whether this is all was convincing and contributing to the study of International Political Economy or not, and at the end I will be finishing with final remarks.
Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship... more Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship between three main factors and the recurrent failure of humanitarian intervention in the post-Cold War Era, particularly in Africa, in spite of the hopes associated with it since the beginning of the 1990s. Those factors are: the interest-based, racist selective state practice, the inadequacy of the humanitarian discourse, and the lack of an impartial international body responsible for implementation and monitoring of intervention. Through examining the two cases, the research highlights the failure of the international community to address the humanitarian disaster in Rwanda and the preliminary failure in the case of Darfur. But the case of Darfur has highlighted the developments that have started to take place within humanitarian intervention doctrine and practice. It is argued that for these developments to continue and for humanitarian disasters to be dealt with differently in the future, the three factors within humanitarian action presented by this research should be dealt with vigorously and wholeheartedly.
Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship... more Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship between three main factors and the recurrent failure of humanitarian intervention in the post-Cold War Era, particularly in Africa, in spite of the hopes associated with it since the beginning of the 1990s. Those factors are: the interest-based, racist selective state practice, the inadequacy of the humanitarian discourse, and the lack of an impartial international body responsible for implementation and monitoring of intervention. Through examining the two cases, the research highlights the failure of the international community to address the humanitarian disaster in Rwanda and the preliminary failure in the case of Darfur. But the case of Darfur has highlighted the developments that have started to take place within humanitarian intervention doctrine and practice. It is argued that for these developments to continue and for humanitarian disasters to be dealt with differently in the f...
A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays,... more A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays, which aims to draw a map of the long history of what has been, since the 19th century, termed 'humanitarian intervention'. Though the problem of protecting human rights has been a concern of the international community for centuries, humanitarian intervention has been treated until recently in both policy as well as academic circles as a subject of the post-Cold War era.
A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays,... more A deep historical analysis of humanitarian action is provided by this volume of collected essays, which aims to draw a map of the long history of what has been, since the 19th century, termed 'humanitarian intervention'. Though the problem of protecting human rights has been a concern of the international community for centuries, humanitarian intervention has been treated until recently in both policy as well as academic circles as a subject of the post-Cold War era.
Journal of International and Political Studies, 2020
This article examines efforts of intervention and conflict resolution made by local formations of... more This article examines efforts of intervention and conflict resolution made by local formations of civil society in Darfur. Two main themes are explored here: the forms of intervention and conflict resolution offered on a local level and the argument for incorporating this local element. Although local formations in Darfur take shapes other than those recognized in western literature and societies as being 'civil society', recent interactions between these local formations, the state and the international community have produced something entirely different. Efforts made by local formations in Darfur to resolve conflicts are to be introduced and critically analysed. The purpose is to clearly distinguish traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution in Darfur as well as what communities have to offer after their reformulation through interaction with the modern state and international community. The division between traditional and modern here are entirely organizational and for establishing basic conceptual clarity. The reality depicted by fieldwork for this research has been entirely complicated, which this paper seeks to highlight. The paper provides an overview of interventions and conflict resolution mechanisms by local formations in Darfur and analyses the significance of integrating them in attempts to resolve conflicts in the region.
Since 2015, the number of refugees entering the EU has doubled due to poor security situations in... more Since 2015, the number of refugees entering the EU has doubled due to poor security situations in various parts of the world. EU member states have agreed to receive refugees in order to resettle them safely in the region. There have been many discussions regarding their successful integration into their new communities.
حينما نمر بأحد الشوارع المتربة باحدى مدن دارفور، يصعقنا مدى العولمة التى تملأ جوانب الريف الدارفو... more حينما نمر بأحد الشوارع المتربة باحدى مدن دارفور، يصعقنا مدى العولمة التى تملأ جوانب الريف الدارفورى بغرب السودان. فنرى مكاتب متعددة تديرها منظمات دولية مثل الصليب الاحمر و برامج الامم المتحدة للغذاء و الزراعة و غيرها. و لكن، و بالرغم من ’تدويل’ منطقة دارفورقد يتساءل احدهم اذا كانت خصوصية المجتمع المدنى تم تشكيلها فقط بواسطة هذا العامل وحده.
There is an urge now, on a social as well as political level, to settle the Darfur question lest ... more There is an urge now, on a social as well as political level, to settle the Darfur question lest it eventually goes down the same route as the South. But the question here is whether Darfur can actually be compared at all with the South; is separation even an option for ending the conflict?
The early months of 2013 have once again seen the severe deterioration of Darfur’s humanitarian s... more The early months of 2013 have once again seen the severe deterioration of Darfur’s humanitarian situation. There may be links between this recent violence, the region’s newly discovered gold mines and the Government of Sudan.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the South Sudanese state’s creation, the country is st... more As we approach the one-year anniversary of the South Sudanese state’s creation, the country is still plagued with many of the issues it has faced for decades. Indeed, it’s only because we have inflated expectations of states that we believed it would be any different.
Understood differently by international actors, the state and locals, Darfur's civil society is i... more Understood differently by international actors, the state and locals, Darfur's civil society is in a state of continuous re-invention.
Accessing information is usually a difficult task because not only our interlocutors look upon th... more Accessing information is usually a difficult task because not only our interlocutors look upon this attempt with scrutiny, but also because we – as researchers – have to keep questioning what kind of information we want to reach and what reasons we have behind this, practically all the time. Eventually researchers understand that the process of accessing their field of study has been actually part of their research because it demonstrates meanings regarding the field as well as themselves studying that particular field. In that sense, researchers as individuals become part of their own study and who they are, where they come from, what language they speak and what prejudices they have become essential in their ability to access certain information while being unable to access others. Trusting the person who they present to people in the field becomes essential in their ability to do research. To reach this level a researcher will have to be in continuous state of questioning and requisitioning their own research and the point behind it. Issues of trust are also always more complicated where research is being done under authoritarian regimes and brutal security settings where not only the researcher has to gain the trust of the society but also elements within the state order to be able to conduct meaningful research in somehow a ‘secure’ environment. Based on fieldwork experience in Darfur (Sudan) and Somaliland (Northern Somalia), this paper will attempt to examine the importance of trust, on the level of state and society, as a key component in accessing research field in Africa and the process that researchers go through in order to construct this trust.
Majority of literature on Conflict Resolution ignores local mechanisms in spite of being inherite... more Majority of literature on Conflict Resolution ignores local mechanisms in spite of being inherited in many cultures. For a long time, resolving conflicts has been a one-size-fits-all intervention that usually comes from the West and forces its vision on native populations. But because of the recurrent failure of outside interventions, there has been a tendency within the international community – reflected on literature on Conflict Resolution – to shift towards resorting to local mechanisms. Though the shift has been generally welcomed, little attention is being paid to the serious challenges facing these local systems. Focusing on the two cases of Darfur and Somaliland, some of the challenges that this lecture will present would be the role of government, the incoherence of the 'local entity', and the limited resources in the so-called global South where conflicts mainly occur. These factors should not lead to a shift away from these cultural-based mechanisms for resolving conflicts, but rather a realistic assessment of what they could actually contribute with.
Unlike Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler’s (2003) longstanding economic based argument of ‘greed and... more Unlike Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler’s (2003) longstanding economic based argument of ‘greed and grievance’ as an explanation to civil wars, Justin D. Leach proposes preservation of cultural identity as a more plausible alternative particularly in the case of the two civil wars witnessed in Sudan from 1955–1972 and again from 1983–2005. Leach argues that Sudan’s lack of integration as a unified state throughout its modern history complicates Collier and Hoeffler’s explanation that holds seeking a common economic goal as the driving motivation behind civil wars and demands for secession. Instead, Leach argues that Southern rebel groups have not developed along ‘any single economic-rationalist model’ but rather ‘deeper concerns about security and culture’.
This book review is organized into two main parts; the first one will be mainly dedicated to the ... more This book review is organized into two main parts; the first one will be mainly dedicated to the brief statement of Strange’s argument and the evidences she provides to support this argument and the final conclusions she drew at the end of her book. The second part will be mainly the evaluation of the author’s argument, the way she supported it and whether this is all was convincing and contributing to the study of International Political Economy or not, and at the end I will be finishing with final remarks.
This book review is divided into three main parts; first it aims at going through all these probl... more This book review is divided into three main parts; first it aims at going through all these problems as they were presented in the first part of the book, then in the second part it examines closely three of the most pressing ones in the opinion of the author of this review and they are in order; Malnutrition and Hunger, Sanitations and Access to Clean Water and Governance and Corruption. The third and last part is dedicated to the evaluation of the ranking of the Consensus to the ten problems and the approach used in the whole book arguing that the though the idea of prioritizing the problems of the world could be the major contribution of this book, there could be other alternatives for the methodology used for this prioritization such as the "human benefit analysis" used by the Youth Forum of Copenhagen Consensus. A reflection on the relation between such a book and International Relations Theory is provided in the conclusion.
Humanitarian Intervention: A History
Edited by Brendan Simms and D. J. Trim. The Edinburgh Buildi... more Humanitarian Intervention: A History Edited by Brendan Simms and D. J. Trim. The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship... more Using a comparative case study between Rwanda and Darfur, this research examines the relationship between three main factors and the recurrent failure of humanitarian intervention in the post-Cold War Era, particularly in Africa, in spite of the hopes associated with it since the beginning of the 1990s. Those factors are: the interest-based, racist selective state practice, the inadequacy of the humanitarian discourse, and the lack of an impartial international body responsible for implementation and monitoring of intervention. Through examining the two cases, the research highlights the failure of the international community to address the humanitarian disaster in Rwanda and the preliminary failure in the case of Darfur. But the case of Darfur has highlighted the developments that have started to take place within humanitarian intervention doctrine and practice. It is argued that for these developments to continue and for humanitarian disasters to be dealt with differently in the future, the three factors within humanitarian action presented by this research should be dealt with vigorously and wholeheartedly.
This project emerges from the literature on Security Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies parti... more This project emerges from the literature on Security Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies particularly focusing on Humanitarian Intervention and Conflict Resolution. These two have been mostly inspired in literature as well as in practice by Liberal Peace which represents and agreement on "Western-style democratization, 'good-governance', human rights, the rule of law, and developed open markets" as a driving force behind what is considered to be peace and how to achieve it. This has created a Liberal-inspired humanitarian discourse that has dominated these debates in the post-Cold War era culminating in the production of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine in 2001 . Since then, and because of the recurrent failure of humanitarian intervention in several parts of the world, there have been calls to integrate local initiatives of intervention into that discourse in order to best address conflict situations. Significantly, the call for creating global civil society to respond to wars has been combined during the past decade with a call to engage local 'civil societies' in the process.
The research attempts to engage critically with this debate on three basic levels based on fieldwork findings: on one level, it examines and problematizes the meaning of ‘civil society’ in the African context and particularly the role it plays in intervention and conflict resolution. On a second level, it explores the local/community-based formations available and the significance of their incorporation. Though the local element has been highly romanticized lately, this research attempts to critically examine these initiatives highlighting problems within their structure and practice. This leads to the third level, which is an examination of the challenges facing these local formations on societal, state and international levels with regards to intervention and conflict resolution. This analysis is to be done in relation to the two case studies examined through fieldwork: Darfur (Sudan) and Somaliland (Northern Somalia).
This paper aims at arguing that the discourse on nuclear weapons is essentially constructed throu... more This paper aims at arguing that the discourse on nuclear weapons is essentially constructed through ideational forces affected by rival power relations in three domains and these are; perceptions of threats, social symbols and political rhetoric. The specific case that this paper will be focusing on is the current debate between the United States and Iran concerning the latter's nuclear program. With perceptions I will be mainly concerned with the political elite and how they shape domestic, regional and international threats in both cases. With symbols I will highlight the meanings drawn from society and associated with nuclear weapons. And lastly, with rhetoric I will deal with how for the most part the heads of states use these perceptions and symbols to transmit their policy decisions to their own public and to the rest of the world. This division is entirely for an academic clarity purpose as in reality the construction of the discourse on nuclear weapons is complicated and these factors are extremely interlinked.
For the purpose of this paper, two of the organizations that have used suicide bombing widely- Th... more For the purpose of this paper, two of the organizations that have used suicide bombing widely- The Islamic Movement of Resistance (Hamas) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealem Movement (LTTE)- will be compared to examine their instrumental as well as their value rationalities on organizational, individual and societal levels proving that in spite of them coming from two different contexts and orientations, the use of suicide bombing by the two organizations is rational.
This paper aims in the first part of it at analyzing the contribution of post-development in crit... more This paper aims in the first part of it at analyzing the contribution of post-development in criticizing the failure of development in many parts of Third World – with a focus on the case of Africa – through the examination of the discourse and its origins. And in the second part it aims at analyzing the limitation of post-development as it fails to provide practical solutions to the problems that development studies and practice have led to. In the conclusion, I aspire for understanding how people of the Third World can move forward practically taking into consideration the valuable contribution of post-development while avoiding its stagnant position.
This paper points out the contradictions between the concept of humanitarian intervention and the... more This paper points out the contradictions between the concept of humanitarian intervention and the concept of the nation-state as the main foundation of the world order, which eventually makes the humanitarian intervention unable to fulfill its main function clarified in its previous definition. The main three debates discussed in this paper are the contradiction between preserving state sovereignty and preserving human security, between perusing state interests and protecting human rights and between state responsibility for its own citizens and the International Community’s responsibility of the human beings all over the world. Because the conflict in Darfur is an ongoing one and clearly manifests these debates, the case will be referred to frequently in this paper.
Emerging from the literature on Conflict Analysis and Peace Studies and particularly that on Libe... more Emerging from the literature on Conflict Analysis and Peace Studies and particularly that on Liberal Peace; which represents an agreement on “Western-style democratization, ‘good-governance’, human rights, the rule of law, and developed, open markets” as a driving force behind what is considered to be peace, which has inspired approaches to resolving conflict within academic as well as policy-making circles in post-Cold War era in the form of an evolving discourse on humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, peacemaking, peacebuilding...etc. This project intends to engage critically with this debate on three basic levels: on one level, an analysis of why liberal peace’s epistemology is problematic, yet still persistent in literature on peace studies and the state/institutional practice of intervention, peacemaking and peacebuilding. On the second level, an exploration of people’s attempts of resolving their own conflicts and rebuilding their societies through an examination of agency representation on the level of ‘civil society’ and beyond in order to highlight alternatives of liberal peace and empowerment possibilities for those affected in conflicts to bring about peace within their own visions. On the third level, an engagement with the still existing international community’s responsibility towards humanitarian disasters and the need for structural changes through mainly institutional reforms of key international and regional organizations involved. This is to be done in relation to the two case studies examined: Darfur (Sudan) and Somaliland.
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Edited by Brendan Simms and D. J. Trim. The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
The research attempts to engage critically with this debate on three basic levels based on fieldwork findings: on one level, it examines and problematizes the meaning of ‘civil society’ in the African context and particularly the role it plays in intervention and conflict resolution. On a second level, it explores the local/community-based formations available and the significance of their incorporation. Though the local element has been highly romanticized lately, this research attempts to critically examine these initiatives highlighting problems within their structure and practice. This leads to the third level, which is an examination of the challenges facing these local formations on societal, state and international levels with regards to intervention and conflict resolution. This analysis is to be done in relation to the two case studies examined through fieldwork: Darfur (Sudan) and Somaliland (Northern Somalia).