This issue has six articles. ‘The historic contribution of the United Nations to the resolution of conflicts in Southern Africa’ focuses on the contribution of the UN, and almost two decades after the establishment of a democratic constitutional order in two Southern African countries. ‘Recent trends in peacekeeping operations run by regional organisations and the resulting interplay with the United Nations system’ presents a few statistics confirming the existing trend towards ‘decentralising’ the delivery of peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations and discusses why interest has increased among states and regional international organizations. ‘Peace agreements and the termination of civil wars: Lessons from Liberia’ looks at how after seeing the adverse impact of war on sub-regional security, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) intervened in the conflict using, among others, a peacemaking approach that revolved around various peace accords. ‘Conflict and environmental insecurity in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’ argues that, notwithstanding natural factors such as the volcanoes, poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment, environmental insecurity in North Kivu is caused by the ‘relative scarcity’of land. ‘Horizons of peace and development in northern Uganda’ concludes that the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) is ill-equipped to comprehensively address the over two decades of deep-seated human anguish, devastation and psychosocial trauma caused by the civil war. ‘Labour arbitration effectiveness in Zimbabwe: Fact or fiction?’ notes that disputes between employees and employers unavoidably arise because of differing class interests.
