Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: Austrian befriedigend (B- 7,6), University of Innsbruck, course: Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation, language: English, abstract: Thinking about security and safety evokes many memories about my family and the past. Growing up was bearable as long as I had my siblings and other family members around, despite having an almost-absent father. My father was always busy and we did not bother to ask why he spent most time away from home. As a child, I had little understanding of the insecurity that reined in the village and across the entire region. However, while growing up, I was exposed to many dangers that any other young person would never want to face in their life. From my personal perspective, the issue of insecurity has multiple dimensions. Many people would think about massive bloodshed and conflicts when the issue is mentioned. However, this does not reflect the entire story about insecurity. Insecurity could also include lack of appropriate shelter and food, human right abuses during times of violence, and inaccessibility of shelter. I have experienced all those dimensions of insecurity while growing. Safety and insecurity have an intrinsic connection; hence, the absence of safety contributes to insecurity.

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - War and Peace, Military, University of Innsbruck, course: Peace, Security and Conflict Studies, language: English, abstract: As stated in the UNESCO preamble, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed”. This quote is the foundation for this work. My thesis demystifies the cycle of armed conflicts in Nigeria. I strongly believe that there is a need to positively transform the mindsets and ideologies that drive and fuel violent hostilities. At every point in time in Nigeria, there is unrest ranging from election violence, quest for self-determinism, or tensions arising from ideological dissonances. This thesis investigates what triggers these hostilities, and further explores nonviolent, grassroots and people oriented conflict transformation approaches. The historical, cultural and ethno-political complexity of Nigeria made this research a big challenge. For this study to be concrete, I explored some root-cause dynamics connected to armed conflicts in Nigeria. Obviously, armed conflicts are confrontations with the presence and the use of mobile and stationary weapons. This is why some scholars and experts argue that without weapons, armed conflict will not exist. Thus, eliminating weapons is the ultimate solution for ending armed conflicts. This argument is the brain behind arms embargo treaties such as the ECOWAS Moratorium on Small and Light Weapons, and the Bamako Declaration. Nigeria ratified both treaties, and has further demonstrated commitment in several multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation initiatives. This nexus between weapons availability and armed conflict is also the driving force behind demobilization and disarmament programs in Nigeria. The fundamental question here is, despite these acclaimed political and diplomatic endeavors on national, regional and international levels, why do armed conflicts still exist? My thesis unravels this missing puzzle. Following this, the threefold research questions forthis study are as follows: 1. What internal and external factors facilitate incessant armed conflicts in Nigeria? 2. Why has previous conflict resolution or conflict management mechanisms proved to be ineffective? 3. Taking the aforementioned questions into consideration, what approaches could be deployed to transform the situation?

The recent escalation in the violent conflict in the Niger Delta has brought the region to the forefront of international energy and security concerns. This book analyses the causes, dynamics and politics underpinning oil-related violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It focuses on the drivers of the conflict, as well as the ways the crises spawned by the political economy of oil and contradictions within Nigeria's ethnic politics have contributed to the morphing of initially poorly coordinated, largely non-violent protests into a pan-Delta insurgency. Approaching the issue from a number of perspectives, the book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of the varied dimensions of the conflict. Combining empirically-based and analytic chapters, it attempts to explain the causes of the escalation in violence, the various actors, levels and dynamics involved, and the policy challenges faced with regard to conflict management/resolution and the options for peace. It also examines the role of oil as a commodity of global strategic significance, addressing the relationship between oil, energy security and development in the Niger Delta.

Anatomy of the Niger Delta crisis: causes, consequences and opportunities for peace is a firm key work providing deep insights into the complex and varied interests that are at play in the Niger Delta of Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria. The nine treatises in this book, unequivocally, identify the primary motivations and major players in the imbroglio that is responsible for the quagmire which the international oil market is faced with today. The bold academic discourses, to a large extent, blame British imperialism, global capitalism and Nigeria's political elites for the situation in the Niger Delta, which has a far reaching global effect. Each of the essays, nonetheless, paints a picture of hope for the distraught communities in the Niger Delta in spite of the dark themes that are the preoccupations of the scholars. That is, if the Nigerian government would approach the Niger Delta crisis with the absolute sincerity that it deserves.

The book argues that in order to better understand the undercurrents of the Niger Delta conflict, it is imperative to analyse the dynamics of choice in terms of the distinct courses of action taken by the Ogoni and Ijaw. Given the similar structural constraints, the author considers why the Ogoni adopted nonviolent resistance, and the Ijaw violent resistance. This book is divided into seven chapters starting with an introduction to oil and political violence in African conflicts, and includes a synoptic overview of four other resource-rich countries in Africa. Theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of conflict are then presented with the aim of situating the Niger Delta conflicts within the wider conflict literature. Chapter Three concentrates the discussion on the Nigerian Niger Delta, outlining the core issues at the centre of the contestations. The following three chapters offer an in-depth empirical analysis on the interaction between the narratives on nonviolence versus violence, the nature of leadership styles, and the organisation of the Ogoni and Ijaw movements along with a concluding chapter.

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria has, since the 1970s, been engulfed by oil-related conflicts that have passed through different phases. The transformation of the conflict from one phase to another, despite development interventions by the Nigerian government, has elicited the concern of scholars and researchers who have engaged in an exciting debate on the challenges and opportunities for development in the region. The focus on development in conflict resolution is informed by the centrality of development to the conflict in the region. Thus, Niger Delta: Constraints and Pathways to Development explores the complex constraints and pathways to development in the region. Divided into eight chapters, and writing from the perspectives of the environment and sustainable development, good governance, public expenditure, public policy and participatory community development, the book attempts to explain and bring to the fore, the challenges to and options for development.

The 1990s heralded waves of spectacular forms of local resistance and globalized protest against oil exploitation and environmental pollution in oil-producing regions of the developing world. One of the most spectacular local uprisings against global oil multinationals was led by the Ogoni people who were protesting against the exploitation and marginalization of oil-producing ethnic minority communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. However, the hanging on November 10, 1995 of nine Ogoni ethnic minority and environmental justice activists, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, only served to exacerbate protests in later years. Within a decade, dozens of locally rooted insurgent groups emerged in the Niger Delta and construed themselves as part of the social movement for ethnic minority rights and environmental justice which dates back to colonial times. However, the trajectory of the revolutionary momentum has changed over time, reflecting a mix of progressive, opportunistic and retrogressive trends. This book provides a critical study of the trajectory of struggles in the Niger Delta since 1995, paying attention to continuities and changes, including recent developments linked to the shift from local resistance, to the rupturing of the Presidential Amnesty peace deal (largely to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) and the resurgence low-intensity sporadic armed militancy—led by the Niger Delta Avengers militia among others. The contributors critically interrogate the nature of the region’s political economy, socio-economic trends and trajectories over the past two decades. This collection also accentuates the lessons learnt, prospects for self-determination, socio-economic and environmental justice and peace in the aftermath of the hanging.