CIAO DATE: 03/02

Youth as Social and Political Agents: Issues in Post-Settlement Peace Building

Siobhán McEvoy-Levy*

December 2001

Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies

Abstract

McEvoy-Levy examines the role of youth in the post-agreement phase of conflict transformation. She makes the case for a focus on youth both as dependent and independent variable in peace processes and particularly in the post-agreement phase. She argues that youth frequently turn to socio-political violence when a peace process does not sufficiently integrate their interests and does not use their skills and experience. But this does not mean such youth are 'lost' to society or irredeemably disaffected, as is often presumed. McEvoy-Levy develops scholarly findings on resilience and political engagement as crucial pointers in the search for ways to constructively engage youth in peacebuilding.

Full Text (PDF, 40 pgs.)

Endnotes

Note *: Siobhán McEvoy-Levy is a co-director of the Kroc Institute's Research Initiative on the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict (RIREC) and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana.  Back