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Begin New Search Topic Conflict Resolution Content Type Special Report Publication Year within 25 Years Publication Year within 10 Years

11. An Update on Preventing Violent Extremism in the Horn of Africa

Author:
Rahma Dualeh
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Five years have passed since the UN global mandate on preventing violent extremism (PVE) was launched and rapidly adopted by the Horn of Africa (HoA) countries. Since then, mostly small and medium international organizations funded by foreign, largely Western, donors have pioneered work in this space. Notably, the African Union (AU) Peace & Security Council has tried to lead the region’s path to PVE – it has championed the inclusion of youth and called for gender mainstreaming in programming. The AU has also attempted to connect East and West Africa’s lessons learned in combatting violent extremism. Yet, challenges remain with regard to implementing both regional and international PVE-related commitments.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, War, Violent Extremism, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Africa and Horn of Africa

12. 2020 Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture African Regional Consultation Report

Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
The 2020 United Nations (UN) peacebuilding review takes stock of the progress made over the first 15 years of the UN’s Peacebuilding Architecture (PBA). ACCORD consulted a number of stakeholders in Africa on their experiences to date with the PBA between March and May 2020, culminating in a virtual webinar consultation that took place on 10 June 2020 in partnership with the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the African Union (AU) Commission. The 2020 UN peacebuilding review has a special interest on the impact of peacebuilding efforts at the field level. In this regard, ACCORD decided that the theme for its African Regional Consultation will be “Sustaining Peace in Africa: Local Capacities for Peace”. Inputs received for the African Consultation show that despite policy commitments to local ownership and investments in local and national capacities for peace, the funding, coordination, planning, and the state-centric decision-making structures still favour UN agencies, international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and national authorities. Local peacebuilders are not sufficiently involved in the identification of needs, the framing of the issues or the design of the programmes and results frameworks. The majority of those who were consulted for this report had little knowledge of the Sustaining Peace concept. Those who are more familiar with the concept feel that the degree to which it emphasizes local and national ownership, early preventative action, and system-wide cooperation, collaboration, and coherence is exemplary. However, they felt its implementation strategies or mechanisms were weak.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Africa and African Union

13. A Platform of Top Peace, Security & Foreign Policy Issues Concerning Women of Color in the United States

Author:
Bonnie Jenkins
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS)
Abstract:
The policy priorities outlined in this document will hopefully provide useful information to candidates for the 2020 Presidential election on issues of importance to women of color in the areas of peace, security, conflict transformation and foreign policy. The information included here is based on surveys with over 100 women of color (WOC), the majority of whom are members of WCAPS but also WOC who came across the survey through online platforms and the WCAPS website. While the original purpose of this survey is to provide information to the candidates, this survey will be repeated regularly, the next one prior to the 2020 election, to gauge once again the priority of women of color on the important issues of peace and security.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Foreign Policy, Gender Issues, Women, Peace, Girls, and Women of Color
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. The Trump-Iran Showdown: A Conflict Resolution Perspective

Author:
Richard E. Rubenstein and Oakley Thomas Hill
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Al Jazeera Center for Studies
Abstract:
Why would Trump run the risk of a war by assassinating Iran’s most effective general? Conventional Realist explanations do not answer the question adequately. The imperial strategy and the American Empire’s decline points toward a more convincing (and alarming) explanation.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Geopolitics, Donald Trump, and Qassem Soleimani
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, North America, and United States of America

15. A Plan to End the War in Syria: Competing with Russia in the Levant

Author:
Aaron Stein
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Abstract:
The United States has an interest in allowing the Russian Federation to “win” an outright victory in Syria, so long as it secures from Moscow an agreement that is favorable to the Syrian Kurds, builds in negative consequences for an external actor targeting the Syrian Democratic Forces, and establishes a “deconflict plus”-type mechanism to continue to target Islamic State- and Al Qaeda-linked individuals in Syria. A forward-looking policy that the incoming Biden administration could consider is to deprioritize the nascent threat of the Islamic State as a key factor in driving U.S. national security strategy, and instead focus more intently on long-term competition with great powers. This approach would seek to shape how Moscow spends finite defense dollars—at a time of expected global defense cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic—in ways that are advantageous to the United States. It also would seek to limit the cost of the U.S. presence in Syria—to include secondary and opportunity costs not accounted for in a basic cost breakdown of the U.S. war against the Islamic State. This approach is not without risk, particularly from a nascent Islamic State insurgency in Russian-controlled territory, but seeks to match U.S. strategic priorities with action and to impose upon a long-term competitor the costs of victory for its intervention in Syria.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, War, Syrian War, and Strategic Competition
Political Geography:
Russia, Middle East, Syria, and United States of America

16. Preventing Organized Crime. The Need for a Context-Sensitive, System-Wide Approach.

Author:
Kari M. Osland and Arthur Boutellis
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Recent years have seen important developments regarding the UN Security Council and the UN Secretariat. The Security Council, which has increasingly recognized organized crime as a serious threat to international peace and security—especially in relation to terrorism—has begun using sanctions to deal with organized crime and trafficking in Mali and Libya. Further, serious and organized crime (SOC) police units have been established in several UN field operations, including in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mali. However, there is still no UN-wide policy on organized crime, and the issue has been conspicuously absent from recent strategic documents such as the Action for Peacekeeping Declaration (A4P). This report argues that there is need for a UN system-wide approach to peace operations for preventing and addressing organized crime, and its links to terrorism. To achieve this, UN member states and the UN Secretariat should seek to consolidate and broaden its nascent law enforcement capacity- building police approach into a context sensitive, system-wide approach. Six specific recommendations for the way forward are offered.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, International Organization, United Nations, Peace, and Organized Crime
Political Geography:
Global Focus

17. The Role of the Youth in Mitigating the Armed Conflict in Anglophone Cameroon

Author:
Tazoacha Francis
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The youths of any nation can be both a productive or destructive force depending on which side of the spectrum that society optimizes. They are the epitome of hope and the future of a nation and deserve to be encouraged and streamlined towards galvanizing their role in nation-building and sustainable development through an integrated approach. Youth would play very important roles in the advancement of their societies if they are given the least opportunity to do so and could ruin a society if they are alienated. Policymakers around the world have not yet attuned themselves to this compelling rhetoric which demands investing increasing attention to the youth as a way of engineering their role in shaping their societies. Almost half of the world’s population has been estimated to fall into the youth bracket. And with unemployment figures remaining extremely high, frustrating young people represent a ticking time bomb in the developing world [1]. Saddled with this reality, we can see the young generation playing a major role in the on-going conflict in the South West and North West regions of Cameroon. This is because the productive side of the spectrum has not been properly harnessed compelling them to pick up arms to fight and against the state of Cameroon to facilitate the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroon.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Youth, and Armed Conflict
Political Geography:
Cameroon

18. TIME TO STEP UP EU MEDIATION?

Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
European Institute of Peace (EIP)
Abstract:
The need and scope for conflict resolution and mediation is going up. The numbers of people affected by violence and conflict is increasing. The world is disfigured by prolonged, internationalised civil wars and growing civil unrest. Great power politics are resurgent, the conventions regulating states’ behaviour are fraying, and international law and human rights are being eroded. Profound demographic and climatic changes, the emergence of new technologies and of threats are changing the global landscape in ways that should bring humanity together but too often are exploited for commercial and political gain, driving insecurity and a sense of injustice. The EU has an enormous role to play in this context. It is a powerful global actor pursuing multiple objectives on the world stage. It is committed to human rights, gender equity, sustainable development and a rules based global order, and to supporting others that are taking action, whether inter- governmental and regional bodies such as the UN and AU, or civil society including at the very local level. But the EU also recognises, as the High Representative has put it, the need to learn “to use the language of power”, to deploy its capabilities, whether political, security, economic or regulatory, more strategically to shape reality, address the agents and drivers of violence, and secure peace. So what should the EU’s role in mediation be in this context? The review of the EU’s concept on mediation provides an excellent opportunity to generate debate and to define the parameters of the future of EU mediation frameworks. This study provides a snapshot of the views within the Brussels diplomatic and policy community. Even within this relatively confined universe, there is a very broad diversity of opinions.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Civil War, Human Rights, Peacekeeping, European Union, Sustainability, Mediation, and Civil Unrest
Political Geography:
Europe

19. Conflict and Coronavirus: How COVID-19 is Impacting Southeast Asia’s Conflicts

Author:
Jennifer Howe
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Pacific Forum
Abstract:
Since COVID-19 spread out of China in January 2020, it has caused unprecedented damage to the global economy and national health systems. The virus also having serious ramifications for conflicts throughout the world. This paper reviews the literature up to its time of writing in July 2020 in order to assess how the coronavirus crisis has impacted conflicts in Southeast Asia. The paper found that the pandemic has been detrimental to conflict resolution in the region—it has hampered peacebuilding efforts and contributed to rising tensions. Moreover, the outbreak has enabled extremist organizations to operate more freely and make government lockdowns and the economic downturn a part of their recruitment messaging. Conflict-affected populations are confronted by the dual impact of disease and violence—health systems have been weakened by years of conflict, violence is obstructing the delivery of aid, and forcibly displaced communities are living in unsanitary and crowded camps, incapable of handling a viral outbreak. Women in unstable settings are particularly vulnerable as gender-based violence increases, while services essential to their health and wellbeing are being forced to close. The paper concludes with policy recommendations in view of the effects the virus is having on Southeast Asian conflicts. Recommendations emphasize the importance of supporting local peacebuilders and implementing response and recovery measures that work towards a fairer post-pandemic society.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Economy, Conflict, COVID-19, Peacebuilding, and Gender
Political Geography:
Southeast Asia

20. Amérique latine - L’année politique 2018

Author:
David Díaz Arias, Luisa Cajamarca, Maya Collombon, Olivier Dabène, Gaspard Estrada, Manuel Gárate, Marie-Laure Geoffray, Damien Larrouqué, Frédéric Louault, Maria Teresa Martínez, Anaís Medeiros Passos, Kevin Parthenay, Gustavo Pastor, Carlos A. Romero, Pierre Salama, and Sebastián Urioste
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Amérique latine - L’Année politique is a publication by CERI-Sciences Po’s Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). The study extends the work presented on the Observatory’s website (www.sciencespo.fr/opalc) by offering tools for understanding a continent that is in the grip of deep transformations.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Civil Society, Corruption, Crime, Democratization, Nationalism, Political Economy, Religion, Governance, Peacekeeping, Economy, Political Science, Regional Integration, Memory, and Transnational Actors
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Latin America, Nicaragua, Caribbean, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Bolivia