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162. (Not) Reconciling International Security (IS) with Non-traditional Security (NTS) Studies: Westphalia, the 'West' and the Long Shadow of 1944
- Author:
- Shaun Breslin
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Abstract:
- Understandings of what constitutes international security have been largely influenced by the historical experiences of the great powers. The failed attempts to prevent war in Europe from the 17th century onwards, and latterly the more successful (in its own terms) prevention of a third World War in the second half of the 20th century, did much to establish what was to be secured and how this security could best be achieved.
- Topic:
- Cold War, War, International Security, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Europe
163. Nordic-Baltic Security in the 21st Century
- Author:
- Robert Nurick
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Look at the security arrangements for the eight countries of the Nordic and Baltic region and two things are immediately apparent. The countries that have the greatest needs have the worst security. And the countries that have the strongest defense are divided.
- Topic:
- NATO, Diplomacy, Energy Policy, and International Security
164. NATO's Fight Against Terrorism: Where Do We stand?
- Author:
- Claudia Bernasconi
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- Terrorism has played a major role in shaping the global security landscape over the last decade, one important manifestation of this being its consequences for NATO. The 9/11 attacks resulted in a considerable and unexpected commitment for the Alliance, which subsequently experienced a reorientation towards new challenges; within a very short time, terrorism reached the very top of NATO's agenda. A decade after 9/11 - and with the Alliance nourished by the lifeblood of the New Strategic Concept - it is time for a critical assessment. What has NATO done? What are the shortcomings of its actions? What is left to do? The role played by the Alliance, together with the goals thus achieved, will be brought into focus in the first part of this study. Following this, an investigation into the real limits NATO encounters in combating terrorism will lead us to ponder the efforts which are still to be undertaken, highlighting potential future recommendations.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, Terrorism, International Security, and Reform
165. The Future of NATO
- Author:
- Whitney Shepardson
- Publication Date:
- 02-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) did not exist today, the United States would not seek to create it. In 1949, it made sense in the face of a potential Soviet invasion to forge a bond in the North Atlantic area among the United States, Canada, and the west European states. Today, if the United States were starting from scratch in a world of transnational threats, the debate would be over whether to follow liberal and neoconservative calls for an alliance of democracies without regard to geography or to develop a great power concert envisioned by the realists to uphold the current order.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, NATO, International Cooperation, International Organization, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Canada, and Soviet Union
166. Nuclear Weapons after the 2010 NPT Review Conference
- Author:
- Camille Grand, Ian Anthony, Mark Smith, Lukasz Kulesa, and Christian Mölling
- Publication Date:
- 04-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The eighth review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will be held in New York between 3 and 28 May 2010. Three Preparatory Committee sessions, held in 2007, 2008 and 2009, laid the groundwork for the agenda and the areas of the treaty regime the States Parties wish to develop further.
- Topic:
- Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- New York
167. Combining Realism with Vision Options for NATO's new Strategic Concept
- Author:
- Riccardo Alcaro
- Publication Date:
- 05-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- Elaborating a Strategic Concept is a delicate undertaking which implies a good deal of resolve, far - sightedness, and realism. Allies should neither search for a new North Star nor give in to the temptation of de facto acceptance of the status quo as the optimal solution. Instead, they should make choices reflecting a synthesis, not just a list, of their security priorities. In particular, they should consider the future of the allied deterrence and defence strategies in a security environment characterised by significant political and technological changes, including by thinking about steps towards withdrawing US nuclear weapons in Europe and creating an integrated missile defence system; learn the lessons from the Balkans and Afghanistan and accord greater priority to stabilisation than to rapid reaction capabilities; recognise that compromises will be inevitable if they are serious about considering Russia as a partner, and start by pausing for a while with enlargement. Allies should also make it clear that they have no ambition of turning NATO into a world gendarme and shift towards cooperative crisis management.
- Topic:
- NATO, Treaties and Agreements, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Russia, United States, and Europe
168. Africa's Irregular Security Threats: Challenges for U.S. Engagement
- Author:
- Andre Le Sage
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- The United States has a growing strategic interest in Africa at a time when the security landscape there is dominated by a wide range of irregular, nonstate threats. Militia factions and armed gangs are ubiquitous in the continent's civil wars, fighting both for and against African governments. Other security challenges include terrorism, drug trafficking, maritime threats such as piracy in the Indian Ocean, and oil bunkering in the Gulf of Guinea. Organized criminal activities, particularly kidnapping, human smuggling and trafficking in persons, weapons smuggling, and environmental and financial crimes, are increasingly brazen and destructive. These are not isolated phenomena. Rather, they create a vicious circle: Africa's irregular threat dynamics sustain black markets directly linked to state corruption, divert attention from democratization efforts, generate or fuel civil wars, drive state collapse, and create safe havens that allow terrorists and more criminals to operate
- Topic:
- Political Violence, International Cooperation, Poverty, International Security, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, and India
169. Security Sector Reform: A Case Study Approach to Transition and Capacity Building
- Author:
- Sarah Meharg and Aleisha Arnusch
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
- Abstract:
- Failing and failed states are not able to provide equitable safety, security, and justice to their people through the traditional state mechanisms of police, judiciary, courts, and penitentiaries. In such situations, state mechanisms are ineffective, predatory, or absent. Security sector reform, commonly referred to as SSR, emerged as an activity in the 1990s in recognition of the changing international security environment and the limitations of reform approaches among interveners working in failing and failed states. SSR is a relatively new discipline in the context of peace and stability operations, whether these operations are United Nations (UN)-led or otherwise managed and supported. The coherence of strategies is improving, but the 1990s and 2000s have been witness to unsustainable and inconsistent security sector reforms in places like Kosovo, Liberia, and Haiti, among others. As time passes, the meta-narratives of legitimacy, accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness influence SSR activities within the international community of states involved with such reforms.
- Topic:
- Security, International Security, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Kosovo, United Nations, and Liberia
170. (Information) Revolution in One Country
- Author:
- Anthony Olcott
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- Speaking in China on November 16, 2009, President Barack Obama said, “I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves” [video—transcript]. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quoted most of the same phrase two months later in her own ringing endorsement of Internet freedom, delivered in a speech at the Washington, DC, Newseum on January 21, 2010.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Globalization, International Security, and Power Politics
- Political Geography:
- China and Washington
171. The EU's Contribution to the Effectiveness of the UN Security Council: Representation, Coordination and Outreach
- Author:
- Nicoletta Pirozzi
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- This paper aims to assess the EU's contribution to the work of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and outline the prospects for future developments under three main dimensions: representation, coordination and outreach. The first part analyses the EU's presence in terms of its unitary representation and coordination among the EU members of the UN Security Council, with a particular focus on the innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. The second part is dedicated to the EU's contribution, in terms of process and outreach, to the main policy areas within the SC's competence. These include traditional SC matters, such as peacekeeping and non-proliferation, as well as emerging and still contested competences of the UN's supreme organ, such as climate change. The paper was prepared for the second meeting of Working Group I on “The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?”, held in Rome on 14 May 2010, in the framework of the IAI-University of Kiel project on “The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations” (Effective Multilateralism).
- Topic:
- United Nations and International Security
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Lisbon
172. Report of the Seminar "The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?"
- Author:
- Jacopo Leone
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- In the framework of the IAI-University of Kiel project on “The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations” (Effective Multilateralism), the present report offers an account of the positions and ideas that emerged during the second meeting of Working Group I on “The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?”, held in Rome on 14 May 2010. With its concise overview of all the papers presented at the conference and the relative debates, this report is meant to provide a basis for fruitful further reflection in view of the project's final conference, to be held in Berlin at the beginning of 2011.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, United Nations, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Europe
173. STRATCON 2010: An Alliance for a Global Century
- Publication Date:
- 04-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- In the late 1940s, a visionary generation of transatlantic leaders – shaped by the experience of the most devastating war in human history – decided to build a new world based on respect for universal human values and cooperation among nations. Thus was born the United Nations, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, the Bretton Woods Institutions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the European Coal and Steel Community and, of course, NATO.
- Topic:
- International Relations, NATO, International Political Economy, International Security, and Reform
174. Russia and its 'New Security Architecture' in Europe: A Critical Examination of the Concept
- Author:
- Andrey S. Makarychev
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- The paper first summarises Russia's present critique of the international security architecture and its aspiration to build something new and better. The author then presents a matrix of four models of international society as a framework within which to try and discern what Russia may be seeking. While it is clear that Russia objects to one of these models, that of a unipolar US-led world, its current foreign policy discourse and actions offer no clear guidance as to what its aims are in this regard, as there are confusions and contradictions in the different elements of official Russian discourse.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
175. NATO at 60: A Hollow Alliance
- Author:
- Ted Galen Carpenter
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 60th birthday, there are mounting signs of trouble within the alliance and reasons to doubt the organization's relevance regarding the foreign policy challenges of the 21st century. Several developments contribute to those doubts. Although NATO has added numerous new members during the past decade, most of them possess minuscule military capabilities. Some of them also have murky political systems and contentious relations with neighboring states, including (and most troubling) a nuclear-armed Russia. Thus, NATO's new members are weak, vulnerable, and provocative—an especially dangerous combination for the United States in its role as NATO's leader.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Russia and North Atlantic
176. Rapid Deployment of Civilians for Peace Operations: Status, Gaps, and Options
- Author:
- Bruce Jones, Shepard Forman, Jake Sherman, Rahul Chandran, Yoshino Funaki, Anne le More, and Andrew Hart
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- The May 2008 thematic debate in the UN Security Council debate identified three primary weaknesses in international performance to support stabilization and early recovery from conflict: A strategic gap – there was no evidence of strategy that encompassed political, security, development and humanitarian tools across bilateral and multi-lateral actors, and no framework for prioritization. A financing gap – the instruments of international assistance are neither flexible nor dynamic enough. Further, and specific gaps were identified for: standing capacity for strategic planning at country level; support to political processes and implementation of agreements; funding that is realistic, flexible and responsive; there is a gap in the ability to spend development money early. A series of capacity gaps – in leadership and implementation, in sheer availability of civilian resources, and in purposeful training.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Security, International Cooperation, Peace Studies, United Nations, and International Security
177. What can Europe do in Iraq?
- Author:
- Richard Gowan, Heinrich Boell Stiftung, and Daniel Korski
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Relations between the European Union (EU) and Iraq have normalized over the last couple of years. But despite committing more than € 900 million to reconstruction efforts since 2003 and having set up a European Commission office in Baghdad in 2005, the European bloc will need to step up its engagement if the country is to manage forthcoming challenges, such as integrating the “Sons of Iraq” into the Iraqi security forces, holding provincial elections, and maintaining security while President Obama leads a drawdown of US combat forces.
- Topic:
- Peace Studies, War, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Europe, Middle East, and Arabia
178. North Korea, Inc.: Gaining Insights into North Korean Regime Stability from Recent Commercial Activities
- Author:
- John S. Park
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Assessing regime stability in North Korea continues to be a major challenge for analysts. By examining how North Korea, Inc. — the web of state trading companies affiliated to the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), the Korean People's Army (KPA), and the Cabinet — operates, we can develop a new framework for gauging regime stability in North Korea. Insights into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) regime can be gained by examining six core questions related to the DPRK state trading company system. First, what are DPRK state trading companies and how did they emerge? Second, how do DPRK state trading companies operate? Third, what roles do they play? Fourth, why are DPRK state trading companies important? Fifth, what major transformations are taking place in the DPRK state trading company system? Sixth, what are the implications of the manner in which this system is currently functioning?
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Communism, International Security, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- North Korea
179. U.S.-EU Counterterrorism Responses Post 9/11: Time for Strategic Cooperation
- Author:
- Bryan Groves
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
- Abstract:
- The lead up to the Iraq War and its conduct has highlighted significant differences in traditional perspectives, capabilities, and methods. While terrorism has been America's central fixation since 9/11, Europe still sees terrorism as one of several important threats today, with proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, failed states, regional conflicts, and organized crime among other top tier threats. The U.S. possesses a comparative advantage in intelligence gathering and kinetic strike cabability. This military strength has enabled the U.S. to favor it as its top tool in waging its global war on terrorism (GWOT). On the other hand, Europe's tendency toward employment of troops for nation-building and peacekeeping missions is in line with its strengths and its preferences. Europe countries also favour an extensive consensus building period of diplomatic maneuvering to establish a widely accepted multilateral response to threats, America under the current administration, however, has insisted on remaining.
- Topic:
- Security, Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, America, Europe, and Middle East
180. Pirates off the port side! Old problem - new topicality
- Author:
- Bjørn Møller
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- Piracy is an old problem which is now again attracting attention, mainly because of the surge of pirate attacks off the coasts of Somalia. Closer analysis shows the problem to be of quite modest proportions. The international naval protection of merchant shipping holds out some prospects of containing the problem, but it is most likely to solve itself. If international shipping opts for the route south of Africa, piracy will die out for a lack of targets. Maritime terrorism is, likewise, a problem of very limited proportions. It is often conflated with piracy, but there are significant differences between the two phenomena, the latter being undertaken for selfish reasons, the former for the sake of some higher cause. Whereas it is conceivable that maritime terrorists will gradually transform themselves into pirates, a transformation in the opposite direction is well Nigh inconceivable. Besides the analysis of these two phenomena, the overlap between them and certain naval strategies are also briefly touched upon.
- Topic:
- Security, Crime, International Law, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Somalia