Working Paper No.37
Demobilising Guatemala
David Keen
Development Research Centre, LSE
November 2003
War is often seen as a
conflict between competing ‘sides’ where the aim is to win. However, the aims in a way may be quite
diverse and may include, for example, the acquisition of wealth and the
suppression of democratic forces – aims which may be better served by
prolonging the war than by winning it. Rather than assuming a sharp break between war and peace, it may be more
productive to suppose that conflict is ever-present, that conflict is shaped at
a variety of levels by various groups who create and manipulate it for various
reasons, and that conflict in peacetime is in many ways a modification of
conflict in wartime. Keen’s paper
explores the implications of such continuity in the context of Guatemala, and
in particular the effects that demobilisation have had. Beginning with an examination of the vested
interests of armed groups, the paper goes on to look at the role that shame has
played in the peacetime actions of the counter-insurgency structures, ending by commenting on how
new global ‘wars’ represent new opportunities to reframe local conflicts.
Other Crisis States papers by David Keen:
Working Paper No.14 (August 2002)
'Since I am a Dog Beware my Fangs': Beyond a 'Rational Violence' Framework in the Sierra Leonean War
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