Social Science Research Council

INTRODUCTION
By Joanna Davidson, Alexander Glaser, Peyi Soyinka-Airewele and Sophia Woodman

It is hard to believe that over a year has passed since GSC staff, 2001 fellows and grantees met for the kick-off conference in Belfast. No one imagined that, shortly after we left Belfast ready to launch our studies of conflicts, security and cooperation around the globe, we would all shift our attention to a single site in southern Manhattan. The September 11th aftermath has affected each of us in various ways, some more personally than others. But as an internationally scattered group we have, collectively, an important set of perspectives about the way different parts of the world reacted (or didn't) to events in New York and Washington. Some of us shifted our studies in response to these events, while others continued to work on existing local conflicts on which September 11th had little bearing.

This newsletter presents various issues and perspectives, pertaining both to September 11th and other issues, which comprise a set of "notes from the field." Given that this will be the last newsletter from the 2001 GSC cohort, the editorial team decided to cast its net wide in order to include a range of articles that reflect the previous year's research. Our aim was to gather together voices from different research sites-through interviews, profiles, essays, and montages-to display the diversity of our interests and maturation of our work since September 2001. We chose to emphasize regionally specific depth over a single unifying theme, and thus solicited and compiled contributions from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, reflecting both academic and activist concerns and contexts.

The first group of articles explores the impact of 9/11 on security issues in US society and US foreign policy, as well as the implications for global security issues. In particular, we examine the status and perspectives of the field of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. Hugh Gusterson draws attention to what he calls the discourse of "patriotic victimization" that developed in the US during the past twelve months and which made possible a foreign policy revolution that would have been difficult or impossible otherwise.

This perspective is complemented by a contribution on the arms control community from Gregory Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group, an NGO based in Santa Fe (NM). He asks whether, in times dominated by a culture of unilateralism, real progress in nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament is possible, concluding that a principled approach can still achieve results, despite the fact that the aims of different arms control groups continue to diverge. An interview with a leading figure from the US peace movement of the 1980s, Randall Forsberg, adds another practitioner's perspective. In the light of analysis of recent transformations in the global security context and post Cold War paradigms, as well as how the agendas of disarmament NGOs changed after 9/11, Forsberg suggests what a 21st century peace movement might look like.

A more "technical" perspective highlights the challenge for such a peace movement: in a strange and ironic twist of history, while the US public fears falling victim to nuclear terrorism, a renewed, public discussion on the acquisition of "useable" nuclear weapons has gained momentum after September 2001-in particular, after the US Nuclear Posture Review was leaked to the public in December 2001. A piece by physicist Frank von Hippel questions whether the United States needs new nuclear weapons, and calls for a new generation of "activist scientists" to provide sound advice and critique for policy makers and the public.

Two articles on Asia reflect different dimensions of the continuing debate on what is meant by security in an era of globalization. An interview with James T. H. Tang explores the extent to which governments and academics in East Asia are taking up alternative conceptions of security, concluding that while events such as the Asian financial crisis of 1997 have highlighted the need for regional cooperation on a range of non-traditional security issues, the lack of regional institutions creates barriers to this. From the regional to the local, Nicolas Becquelin writes of how Beijing's policies in the western region of Xinjiang pose threats to the long term security of Central Asia. The combination of social and economic discrimination against the majority ethnic groups; extensive state repression; and economic policies that jeopardize the fragile ecology of the Xinjiang oases are likely to lead to increased violence and inter-ethnic tensions. On both levels-the academic and the human-the post-September 11th emphasis on traditional security-style solutions may derail efforts towards more human-focused policies.

In a comment on the association of academic study on human rights in Chinese universities and research institutions with political dialogues on human rights between governments, Sophia Woodman explores the way scholars-wittingly and unwittingly-are being used by governments to avoid the reality of human rights violations in China.

Two additional contributions focus on West African countries with longstanding conflicts. Joanna Davidson writes about a new initiative in the Casamance in southern Senegal to address the 20-year violent conflict in this area. In the wake of the recent Ziguinchor-Dakar boat disaster, she examines the long history of neglect, and resultant grievances, in the Casamance, and profiles a new program that aims to change popular sentiment and achieve durable peace in this war-weary region. Danny Hoffman presents a collage of images and experiences from a Kamajor militia barracks, housed in a once-upmarket hotel in Freetown. Both of these articles explore the institutionalization of violence, and the lingering effects of war even after peace has been officially declared.

And finally, Peyi Soyinka-Airewele invites a revisiting of the GSC research and collaboration vision through two intersecting pathways. First, through a continuing discourse on unresolved dilemmas in the study of conflict zones and second, through a closer look at the unfolding experiences of displaced scholar-practitioners. Peyi's call is taken up by Leigh Payne, in an initial exploration of the personal and professional dimensions of working with perpetrators and victims of state terrorism.

We hope the GSC community enjoys the final newsletter from this cohort of fellows, and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.