Alex Lesko, Anna Miro, Miriam Rayward, and Himayu Shiotani
2:30-3:30pm PST. To watch this presentation live please click here.
Armed violence has a variety of manifestations and as a result, there are many programs and policies in place to both prevent and combat it. This research utilizes four case studies to explore the implementation and evaluation processes of policies at different levels of governance that aim to prevent and reduce armed violence. Conclusions about challenges to policy implementation and evaluation will be drawn from the four case studies under examination, and the case studies will also be utilized to determine a set of tools that can function globally to reduce armed violence.
The first case study is preventative in nature, and examines the power of education at the local level in preventing armed violence before it occurs. Specifically, it examines the implementation of Israeli national education policy through the study of the agents of implementation, the teachers. The second case study is reactionary in nature, and examines principle regional security concerns in Central America. Specifically, it examines the role of regional organizations and their efforts to combat these security concerns, including arms, drugs and human trafficking, and the implementation of their policies.
The third case study combines preventative and reactionary measures, and examines national and international efforts to reduce a particular type of armed violence, terrorism. Specifically, the research addresses the successes and failures of each program, the challenges to implementation and evaluation, and broader implications for reducing armed violence. The fourth case study is a combination of preventative and reactionary in nature, and aims to address armed violence through the combating the illicit proliferation and trade in weapons of violence themselves, small arms and light weapons. Specifically, this research develops the linkage between small arms control measures and reducing armed violence, identifies trends in implementation priorities in conflict-affected, non-conflict, and non-conflict settings, and offers recommendations to improve implementation support for the United Nations Programme of Action on small arms.
