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New avenues for research in the study of DDR

The increase in the scope and number of peace operations since the early 1990s has entailed an expansion in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) initiatives. This growth has spurred efforts to systematise and professionalise the way DDR strategies are formulated and implemented. Yet, as Nat Colletta and Robert Muggah point out in this volume, systematised and uniform approaches, even as they aspire to more coherent responses, may render practitioners unable to address complex ground realities. This special journal issue on DDR takes this uneasy dilemma as its starting point and engages with the following overarching question: what happens when a technocratic blueprint is inserted into complex social, political and economic settings? The authors explore the compelling stories that surface in the encounters between intervention and context, and highlight findings on, among other issues, the re-emergence of a post-war political order and its relation to DDR; the importance of family and fighter networks; the relevance of identity and feelings of deception among fighters; and the centrality of gender configurations. Some of the contributions engage directly with DDR programming, by assessing how standard concepts, after having been applied conventionally in a given context, have spurred innovation and setting-specific experimentation in the course of implementation. Others explore the complex programming context in which DDR is often implemented and highlight how the aims and modes of DDR may run counter to other aspects of peace-building programmes, such as initiatives associated with justice and reconciliation. The diversity of approaches and themes preclude a unified message