Molloy, Desmond. Desarme, desmovilización y reinserción. Teoría y práctica. Barcelona: Institut Català Internacional per la Pau, 2020.
Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs are an essential component of post-conflict peacebuilding. But in practice these programs have generated more questions than answers. Do they really contribute to post-conflict stabilization and the reintegration of former combatants?
Desmond Molloy has written an essential book on one of the most important aspects of working for peace: turning rebels and soldiers into citizens. Drawing on his extensive personal experience and academic research, Molloy reviews the successes and failures of the many DDR campaigns in which he has worked.
Bridging the wide gap between theory and practice is not easy, especially in the field of peace work. The author stresses that these programs are often a matter of trust: if a soldier puts down his gun, it is not so much the result of the design of DDR or of other intricate models, but because he is confident that weapons will no longer be needed in the future. DDR programs can only make a modest – but vital – contribution to that perception. A must-read for academics and practitioners alike.
The author
Desmond Molloy is Senior Program Director with The Nippon Foundation in Myanmar, where he focuses on the design and management of integrated peacebuilding programs. A scholar specializing in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), his work has contributed to the evolution of innovative approaches for ex-combatants and members of armed groups in many post-conflict environments.
He worked for twenty years as an officer in the Irish Defense Forces and participated in several UN missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kosovo and East Timor. He was head of the UN DDR section in Sierra Leone and in Haiti, where he tested innovative approaches to reducing community violence. He has subsequently worked in the Niger Delta and with UNDP in Somalia, Sri Lanka and Nepal.