The project, in english

So, I realize that my ISP proposal is a pretty dense piece of nonsense. I've been attempting to free write a bit to get myself on task and figure out exactly what it is I want to know about this topic. This is what I've got.

In 1983 the Contadora group, afraid the conflicts in Central America would spread to neighboring countries attempted to begin a peace process. Little was accomplished until 1987 when Escipulas II was signed by all five Central American presidents. Escipulas II provided for several immediate changes. What was the spirit of Escipulas II? Did it actually accomplish anything? The war in Nicaragua went on until 1990, El Salvador until 1992 and Guatemala until 1994. Did Escipulas have anything to do with the negotiated elections in Nicaragua? A real, permanent ceasefire in Nicaragua didn’t happen until two months after the elections when the incoming government recognized the RN and worked out a real demobilization process. They then demilitarized the country, from the government to the peasantry. At each stage of this process, what did they see? What was guiding them? What were their goals? What did they want the legacy to be? What was the point of struggling for peace? What did this peace look like?

Now, twenty years after Escipulas II what do they have? No one is shooting, perhaps, but this country is certainly not at peace. Very few people support the government, the majority of the populace is uneducated, far too many people are starving and more live well below the poverty line. The model of democracy used here is unsatisfying to the majority of the population. The country is still divided, if not along the same lines. What is the legacy of the peace process? Did it happen, create the impetus for national ceasefires and a regional conflict resolution body and then disappear? As far as ending the armed conflict is concerned, the peace process has a legacy in that people aren’t killing one another anymore. But is this peace? Has the conflict been transformed? Can Nicaragua stay away from the sauce, so to speak? Is there a lasting legacy to this peace process which attempts to create real peace? From at least 1983 to 1990 people worked on both the regional and national level to achieve peace in Nicaragua. Were they just trying to stop the bleeding and catch their breath? Did they have a real idea of peace in mind?

And what is going on now? Do those who fought for peace twenty years ago look at Nicaraguan society today with pride? Do they shudder when they think of what they tried to build? Do they feel like it’s moving in the right direction? Would they call this peace? If not, who is working to make it so? And how? And would they say that their working for peace in Nicaragua would be part of a legacy from those who worked for peace in Nicaragua in the 80s? Would they say they were standing on the shoulders of Escipulas? Or would they say that Escipulas did very little for the Nicaraguan people and that their roots lie instead with Martin Luther King and Oscar A Romero? Did they start from scratch? And what things have improved? Why? Are those improvements due to the spaces opened by the Central American peace process? Are they due directly to the peace processes? Do they have a completely different beginning?

Hope that is easier to read and makes more sense. It helped me a bit.

One week in...

So, one week of ISP work, and what do I have to show for it?

Well, I've conducted two real interviews, one somewhat interview, had two meetings with my advisor, written nothing, transcribed nothing, analyzed nothing and I seem to gradually be slipping behind schedule. I wanted to have something written by Friday. I have an interview Friday morning, I have a potentially cool event on Central American integration and the role of the EU tomorrow evening, I have one interview pretty much good for Tuesday, another I'm doing my best with, one that has yet to get back to me, one that's going to be set up by someone else, and I finally made the reservations for my Mom and Ms. Clark to stay in a nearby hotel.

So, general state of mind: I think I'm losing it. Not in a terrible way because everything seems to be going my way. Very much my way. I'm happy again, not just okay but actually very much happy. I just have to find a way to do the work I need to do. I think once I get to transcribe these interviews (much more difficult, I've found, when one is not all too familiar with the tongue in which they are conducted) or get someone else to do it for me (if I were so lucky) I'll feel like I'm getting the ball moving. Or rolling. Or whatever it is that balls tend to do.

I'm getting good with Managua, but still dislike taking the bus. I'll pay the extra 20-30 cords to take a cab. The potential loss on the bus is still greater, for if I lost my tape recorder or any of the tapes to it, I'd be so very screwed.

My interviews thus far have had the opposite power relations we were trained in. By and large, people do projects on women's cooperatives and NGOs and grassroots stuff. I'm doing something elitist and theoretical. I've interviewed an ex-Minister of the Presidency and a member of a leading Human Rights organization in the country and they both had more control over the interview than I did. Which seems to be something I'm going to have to deal with. On Friday I interview a legislator in the Central American Parliament. Tuesday, I may interview a leading personality in the reconciliation movement. I'm attempting to schedule interviews with legislators, diplomats, and ex-militants. These people have practice with interviews. They tend to deal with my questions and then move into what they consider more important. Which is cool, but I still want to focus on my question. We'll see how this turns out.

Anyway, back to work.

Thus far with the ISP

So, I am now two days into my ISP period, and I get the feeling this is going to be how it goes. Yesterday, the first day of the ISP period, I spent most of the day translating my proposal (which you can read below). I was supposed to have a phone interview with Johnny Hodgeson (a man very involved with the autonomy process on the Caribbean Coast. Didn't work out. So I watched an episode of Sienfeld, which is not nearly so funny as I'd like it to be. For all of you die hard Sienfeld fans, you're nuts. The writing needs work and the acting wouldn't convince my three year old sister. Even Friends is a better show. Because it is funny, despite it's bad writing and acting. At least Friends has Mathew Perry.

Today I finsihed up the translation, and I've been working on setting up interviews. Still not really taking. So it goes. Hopefully next week will be more fruitful. I still need to write up an interview guide for the different interviews I have going. That should be easy enough, I simply need to sit down and do it. I also have my final essay for classes due come monday and I need to finish my research. The research bit is the most amorphous and difficult to define. I don't want to do too much book research and cut out the voices of my contacts in my final product. This is supposed to be a paper which brings together a variety of voices over one controlling theme, and then provides a theoretical framework with which to work with those voices. I think. We'll see.

I just seem to be waiting for my ISP to really start, and in the mean time existing in academic limbo. I'm certainly not bored, for when I get sick of working (not uncommon) I can simply continue on with the conversation of a lifetime I'm having with one of my closest friends via electronic mail, or watch a movie (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was this afternoon, I'm hoping for Roman Holiday or Lucky Number Sleven this evening, we'll see).

So, wish me luck!

ISP Proposal

So, this is my Independent Study Project proposal. I should stick relatively close to this in my investigation, but we'll see. Any questions, comment.

Chris Hammond
Nicaragua: A Legacy of Peace?
Managua, Nicaragua
1)
A) For my ISP I will explore and analyze the Central American peace process of the 80s through the lens of its legacy today in Nicaragua. I will begin with a brief discussion of the peace process itself, its causes, proceedings and immediate effects in order to give a working framework and context to the discussion of its legacy. The central preoccupation of this paper is whether or not the Central American peace process had a lasting effect on Nicaraguan daily life. Was it the impetus for or did it open the spaces for the growth and legitimization of regional conflict resolution institutions, demobilization and efforts at reconciliation within the country, the comparatively high level of citizen security of the country, a negotiated settlement with the Autonomous region of the Caribbean Coast, and the creation of a culture preoccupied with the question of human rights and the movement for a culture of peace?
B) The central questions to be answered by this study are; the long term legacy of a peace process, if it exists and in what forms, and if it doesn’t exist, where did these current movements I perceived to be a legacy come from. The investigation of these questions can inform and strengthen future long-term peace making efforts. A serious study on the successes and failures of a peace process in a historically violent and exploited region can add to the discourse and body of knowledge necessary to more appropriately respond to these conflicts in the future. Just as El Salvador learned from the mistakes and successes of the Nicaraguan demobilization process and Guatemala learned from El Salvador, so too should other conflict transformation processes learn from the Central American experience.
C) The major themes of my ISP research will be the intersection of history and international relations in the context of the Central American peace process and its legacy, the role of conflict transformation in the peace process and more so in its legacy, and the question of what is peace. In addition to these larger theoretical themes which may change as I conduct my research, I have more specific themes within my two broader analyses of the context of the peace process and the legacy of the peace process. Within my account and analysis of the Central American peace process I’d like to discuss its context and influential factors. Within the legacy theme I’d like to specifically explore the regional conflict resolution institutions created or legitimized in the wake of the peace process, the level of citizen security here in Nicaragua, the demobilization and reconciliation process, the autonomy process on the Caribbean Coast, and the culture of Human Rights and the push for a culture of peace.
2)
This will be a study analyzing the long term effects of a peace process on the daily life of a nation. As such, it is located within the field of study that brings together history and international relations, and specifically within international relations, conflict resolutions studies. There have been studies conducted on several parts of this study, for example Victor Hugo Tinoco wrote Conflicto y Paz on the proceedings of the Central American and Nicaraguan peace processes from his involved standpoint. There have been studies done on the legacy and long term effects of peace processes in Guatemala and on the effects of certain mediations techniques in Israel and Palestine as well. Some of the books I’ve read already and some that I intend to read which have sections pertaining to the historical context of this project are as follows:
Berdoña, Alejandro. Globalización y Construcción de Paz. Managua: CEI, 1996.
Booth, John A; Walker Thomas W. Understanding Central America, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993.
Demobilized Soldiers Speak: Reintegration and Reconciliation in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mozambique. Managua: Centro de Estudios Internacionales (CEI), 1996.
Global Peace Index. www.visionofhumanity.com as well as Report of Findings, May 2007.
Grupo Sur. “A diez años de los acuerdos de Paz en Guatemala.” http://www.gruposur.eu.org/A-diez-anos-de-los-acuerdos-de-Paz.html. Published May 2007. Checked October 2007.
“Informe Annual 2006.” Procuradora Para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos. 2006.
Kelman, Herbert C. “The Role of National Identity in Conflict Resolution: Experiences from Israeli-Palestinian Problem-Solving Workshops.” From Ashmore, Richard D. Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict and Conflict Reduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Kinloch Tijerino, Frances. Historia de Nicaragua. Managua: Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamerica de la Universidad Centroamericana, 2005.
Lacayo Oyanguren, Antonio. La Difícil Transición Nicagaüense. Columbia: Colección Cultural de Centro América, 2005.
Lederach, John Paul. The Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2003.
McCaughan, Edward J.; Sisanne, Jonas. Latin America Faces the Twenty-First Century: Reconstructing a Social Justice Agenda. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.
Ortega, Zoilamérica. Desmovilizados de Guerra en la Construcción de la Paz en Nicaragua. Managua: CEI, 1996.
Pastor, Robert A. Not Condemned to Repetition. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 2002.
Tinoco, Victor Hugo. Conflicto y Paz: El Proceso Negociador Centroamericano. México: Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicos y Sociales, 1989.
Walker, Thomas W. Nicaragua: Living under the shadow of the eagle. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003.
Woodward, Jr., Ralph Lee. Central America. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
I will use and have used to construct a working framework of my topic various articles from La Prena and El Nuevo Diario, websites, and smaller publications from various institutions.
3)
My methods of investigation will primarily be interviews. I need to collect information on people’s personal experiences with the peace process in Central America, how they feel it has changed or not changed the daily life in Nicaragua, and how it exists or doesn’t exist today. This information would be best gathered by qualitative research methods such as personal interviews with subjects and observations of current institutions. If possible, I would like the opportunity to have a participatory observation with some kind of interaction that highlights the legacy or lack thereof as related to the peace process. My interviewees will be individuals involved in the peace process in Central America, such as Victor Hugo Tinoco and Francisco Lacayo; individuals involved in the peace process in Nicaragua such as Antonio Lacayo; individuals involved in the demobilization and reconciliation process such as Zoilamérica Naveara and her associates at the CEI as well as Dr. Enrique, a member of the RN; members of the PARLACEN and perhaps people involved in the construction of a Zona de Paz in Central America; Police officers and others involved in citizen security; Wesley Williams and Johnny Hodgeson who have a keen perspective on the autonomy process and it’s possible links to the peace process; and those involved in Human Rights organizations like CENIDH and those involved in the construction of a Cultura de Paz like those at the UPOLI-IMLK. Observation and participative observation could take place in institutions like PARLACEN and the CEI. I intend on using Steinar Kvale’s seven step process as a base for the design of my study. I have begun the Thematizing and Design stages. Next I will begin the Interviewing stage, and this should last about three weeks. As I interview I will be Verifying, Analyzing and possibly Transcribing the information. Lastly I will begin to write the second week in, attempting to give structure to what information I have always keeping the final presentation in mind.
4)
Outline:
01) Nicaragua: A Legacy of Peace?
a) Introduction
001) Historical context
002) Who, what, when, where, how of Peace Process
003) External influences/contexts
b) Methods
001) My methods upon entering
002) What actually happened
003) Failures, mistakes and such
c) Research Presentation
001) Institutional Legacy
002) Demobilization/reconciliation
003) Citizen Security
004) Autonomy of the Caribbean Coast
005) Human Rights and a Culture of Peace
d) Conclusions
001) Interaction of methods and research
002) Was there a legacy? What does it look like?
e) Footnotes/endnotes
f) Bibliography
5)
Feasibility
Money- $70 a week for housing and an additional $30 a week for lunches and transportation is $400 for the month in living costs, leaving $100 for academic expenses such as internet café, printing, possible transcription costs, and other miscellaneous fees that are sure to arise.
Time frame- This is better laid out in the calendar, but the first three weeks will be dedicated to research. Writing will begin on the second week so that the research begins to take shape and form early on. A final detailed and annotated outline will be completed by the 21st which points out what holes still exist in my research. I should be done with research by the 28th, and done writing a few days before the 7th, ideally.
Contacts- The contacts I have at the moment are as listed above. Any I don’t have contact with as yet will be made through Aynn and Guillermo as well as through my Advisor, Anastacio Lovo.
ISP Advisor- My advisor is Anastacio Lovo, Lic. He is someone I believe will be good to help me frame my work. I want to be able to bounce ideas off of him and further refine and define my ideas and my theories. Also, I believe he will be a good resource as to the culture of peace and human rights section of my paper.