Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. A Major Component of 'New Wars'. The Example of the Civil War in Liberia

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1,3, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: For the last few decades, wars all over the world have not been the same as they used to be. Their appearance has changed fundamentally, and thus it seems inaccurate to call them just the same as wars as we know them. 'Old Wars' until the beginning of the 20th century were what we would perceive as the 'classic' type of war, with two states fighting against each other on a military level. They are, what Clausewitz called "a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means". Those disputes usually ended after a huge, final battle, which ultimately led to a political decision of some sort. Today, this type of warfare is almost non-existent anymore when it comes to conflicts all over the world. So, what do we call these wars? Kaldor and later Münkler both suggested the term 'New Wars' as the most fitting for what we see on a global scale today. But what are these 'New Wars', what makes them so significantly different? This question will be answered in this essay, with a specific focus on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and especially on violence against women as one of the most important and shocking factors of those new types of conflicts. It will be highlighted on the example of the African state Liberia, which has recently found its way out of conflict, but is still struggling with the consequences and results of the civil war that has eroded the country with all its institutions and even more importantly, its society. Can this conflict be classified as a 'New War' when considering the dimension of SGBV? And how far has the state come in terms of gender equality and the fight against SGBV since the end of the 15-year period of civil war that has impacted the country on so many levels?