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2. Georgian Security Sector: Achievements and Failures
- Author:
- David Darchiashvili
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Currently, the term security sector is not only understood in terms of traditional military-political institutions such as army, external intelligence, and command and control systems. As the edition of the UK Department for International Development "Understanding and Supporting Security Sector Reform" puts it: "[...] in broad terms the security sector comprises all those responsible for protecting the state and communities within it." Accordingly, police, justice, public and nongovernmental organizations and human rights protection institutions can also be included in the security actors' list.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, and Central Asia
3. The Paradox of Policy: American Interests in the Post-9/11 Caucasus
- Author:
- Peter K. Forster
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- For the decade preceding September 11, 2001, the Caucasus were a "C list" foreign policy priority for the United States. The region neither presented an imminent threat to the United States nor its security interests. American policy was focused on "securing the Cold War victory" whilst regional interests in the Caucasus were defined by economic considerations and a pseudo-policy of neo-containment of Russia. However, 9/11 changed American perspectives on its security interests. The sources of terrorism, the reality of the threat posed by failed states, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction became the new foreign policy dogma. Under these new circumstances, the Caucasus, arguably, migrated to a "B list" priority or one in which American interests were threatened.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Central Asia
4. Status Report on Security Sector Governance in Georgia
- Author:
- Antje Fritz
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Security Sector Governance in Georgia is a topic which is certainly not easy to explore. First of all there is no up-to-date literature, at least none which considers the entire complexity of the relevant aspects and elements influencing security sector governance and security sector reform (SSR) in the country. Second research work on security sector governance relevant issues looks like a patch-work quilt. There is no comprehensive evaluation of the standing of security sector reform: Studies mainly focus on singled-out aspects and the various threads are not brought together, at least not in a way which would allow an evaluation of the overall situation of security sector governance in Georgia. The closest to those needs comes the Center for Civil Military Relations and Security Studies (CCMRSS) in Tbilisi. The research work of David Darchiashvili and Tamara Pataraia provides crucial insights and profound background information on security sector relevant issues.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Central Asia, and Georgia
5. Armenia as a Factor of Balance in the Southern Caucasus Region
- Author:
- Aram Harutyunyan
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The Southern Caucasus is a crucial region situated between Central Asia and Europe. Therefore, its political stability, security and economic development are important to the West. Rich in oil and gas, the region is certainly of great interest for the energy needs of the West. But on the other hand, ethnic and religious tensions and an increasingly impoverished and embittered populace make that the South Caucasus requires sustained attention from world policymakers over the next several decades.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Central Asia, and Armenia
6. The Role of Civil Society in Security Sector Governance in the South Caucasus
- Author:
- Duncan Hiscock
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Over the last ten years, there has been an increasing amount of interest in the issue of security sector reform, and, as a subset of this, a specific focus on the question of democratic governance over the security sector. It has been widely recognised that if security institutions are not fully under democratic civilian control, they can impede the development of the state in a number of ways. This may involve the squandering of scarce national resources because there is little civilian oversight over how they spend their money. It may be a matter of poorly trained and badly paid staff turning to corruption in order to supplement their income, with no mechanisms in place to stop them doing so. In extreme cases, the security sector may become so independent of external control that it starts to become a 'state within a state' or threatens to take over the state in order to better pursue its own objectives. Emphasis has thus been placed on ensuring that all the state institutions that are involved in the provision of security have clearly defined roles and remits within society, are professional and accountable, and that they are overseen by capable civilian administration and democratically-elected bodies.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central Asia
7. Security Sector Reform in the Southern Caucasus
- Author:
- Garry Johnson
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The dissolution of the Soviet Union left its former nations and those of the Warsaw Pact with a mammoth task of reform and restructuring to be carried out in all the political, social and economic spheres of national life. The fundamental challenge facing these countries was simple: could they modernise all the relevant aspects of their society well enough, and quickly enough, to claim a space in the successful community of the Western nations which had emerged strengthened from the Cold War while the window of integration opportunity remained open?
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Cold War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Central Asia, and Soviet Union
8. Security Sector Governance in the Southern Caucasus-Towards an EU Strategy
- Author:
- Dov Lynch
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The EU Commission's Communication on Conflict Prevention of April 2001 attributes importance to security sector reform as a key part of a conflict prevention strategy. The Communication states: 'The security sector has not traditionally been a focus of Community cooperation. However, in many countries achieving structural stability may require a fundamental overhaul of the state security sector (i.e. the police, the armed forces and democratic control of the security forces as a whole).' The Communication concludes that: 'Within the limit of its competencies, the Commission intends to play an increasingly active role in the security sector area. This will take the form of activities aimed at improving police services, promoting conversion and decommissioning both as regards weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons. The Commission could support human rights training for the whole security sector.' At the declaratory level, therefore, the EU has recognised the role of healthy security sector governance in conflict prevention, and for ensuring the structural stability of states and supporting conflict settlement.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central Asia
9. Visions of the Caucasus
- Author:
- S. Neil MacFarlane
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- When I prepared for this presentation, I assumed that the bulk of the conversation would deal with concrete issues of security sector reform. I could then, in looking at the future, step back and discuss the evolving political, economic, and social context in which security sector reform proceeds or does not proceed. However, the preceding papers mainly deal with the strategic, political and economic context. In contrast little was said about security sector reform.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central Asia
10. Visions and Aims for Security Sector Governance in Southern Caucasus
- Author:
- Irakli Mchedlishvili
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The traditional understanding of security covers two basic fields – defense and foreign policy, while the modern understanding of security is more encompassing and includes also topics related to stability and sustainable development.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central Asia
11. Perspectives of Security Development in the South Caucasus
- Author:
- Elkhan Mehtiyev
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Many observers emphasize the importance and strategic location of the Caucasus region in the struggle for access to Central Asia. For Turkey and Western countries, the Caucasus is a linkage to Central Asia and, after the collapse of the Taliban regime in November 2001, to Afghanistan. For Central Asia, the Caucasus is a vital route to both the West and Turkey for transportation of energy resources, goods and commodities. For Russia, the Caucasus has always been a gateway to the Middle East.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Central Asia, Turkey, Middle East, and Taliban
12. Security Sector Governnance in the South Caucasus: Visions and Aims
- Author:
- Gayane Novikova
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Security Sector Governance is a new challenge for the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, including the Southern Caucasian states. After 70 years of strong control by a totalitarian regime with powerful security forces, the three countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia –some serious and unexpected problems.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Central Asia, and Soviet Union
13. The Southern Caucasus: In Quest of a New Vision for Cooperative Security Strategy
- Author:
- Elkhan E. Nuriyev
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Twelve years after the collapse of the USSR, scholars and political scientists are still puzzled. The post-Soviet life of the three independent states of the South Caucasus remains critically complex. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are still in transition and despite reform efforts, they are not more than weak nations with fragile statehood and a long way to go until peace, stability and viable democracies will be irreversibly established. For today, however, the question is whether the three countries have developed strategic visions and made available the necessary resources to attain this primary goal.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Central Asia, Armenia, and Georgia
14. Introduction: Economic and Social Challenges in South East Europe
- Author:
- Frédéric Labarre
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- At a moment when the international community is dealing –struggling, actually– with new security challenges, some of which are internal disputes between members of two of the most powerful (and successful) military and economic organisations in history, NATO and the EU, it is worth r emembering that some things do evolve in a positive direction.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Central Asia
15. South East Europe and the Trade Potential of Croatia
- Author:
- Boris Vujcic and Vedran Sosic
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The question of the trade regime for Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) has during the last decade been the subject of an intense discussion amongst the policymaker s and academia from both within the region and from the EU. The main issues around which the discussion has concentrated w ere those of enhancing the catching-up process by the means of trade liberalization, and protection of the "sensitive" industries within the EU.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Central Asia
16. Promoting Democracy-building and Security through Private Investments
- Author:
- Franz-Lothar Altmann
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- In principle, private investments can be domestic as well as foreign ones, having of course in many respects quite different effects on democracy-building and security. On the other hand, certain features are also common in general, and I will first try to make some remarks on general effects of private investments, regardless of their domestic or foreign contents. First of all, one can certainly state in general that in order to increase private investments, legislation, legal enforcement and public administration in the respective countries must become transparent and with regard to public administration also more effective. Labor market regulations must become flexible, liberalized for reducing the risk of investors to become chained to encrusted labor laws from former times.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central Asia
17. Imposing Ideology as "Best Practise": The Problematic Role of the International Financial Institutions in the Reconstruction and Development of South East Europe
- Author:
- Milford Bateman
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The reconstruction and development of post- communist South East Europe since 1988 has taken place within the framework of the neo-liberal policy model that was effectively imposed upon the region by the Bretton Woods institutions - the World Bank and IMF. As elsewhere in central and eastern Europe ( see Sachs, 1990), the confident prediction made by both institutions was that their preferred policy framework would ensure both a rapid and a sustainable post-communist, and then after 1995 and 1999 a post-conflict, reconstruction and development trajectory. What has transpired instead is something quite different: unstoppable de-industrialisation, dramatically rising poverty, unemployment levels now officially among the highest in the world, high levels of inequality, declining life expectancy, rising employee insecurity and deteriorating working conditions for many, an unprecedented rise in the level of corruption and criminality, drastically declining levels of solidarity and tolerance within already distressed communities, increasingly unsustainable trade and foreign debt levels, and collapsing public health, recreation and welfare services. In spite of such overtly negative results, the World Bank and IMF (hereafter, the International Financial Institutions, IFIs), as well as associated regional development institutions, such as the EBRD, do not appear to have become at all discouraged with the standard neo- liber al policy model. On the contrary, it retains the unequivocal support of the IFI s in South East Europe, as indeed it does just about everywhere else in the world, most recently with respect to the reconstruction of Iraq.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Europe, and Central Asia
18. The Role of Competitiveness for Stability in South East Europe
- Author:
- Kresimir Jurlin
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) was initiated by the EU for countries not covered by European agreements, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro. The process is realized through Stabilization and Association Agreements (S AA) that the EU already concluded with Croatia and Macedonia, which have important implications for international trade and investment. The SAAs focus on respect for democratic principles and strengthening links of the countries of the region with the single market. They foresee the establishment of a free trade area with the EU and set out rights and obligations in areas such as competition and state aid rules, intellectual property and rights of establishment, which will allow the economies of the region to begin to integrate with the EU. Therefore, the SAP should be regarded as a tool for integration of the countries of South-East Europe into the emerging pan-European free trade area, resulting in removals of trade barriers between all countries that are gaining associate membership status. It should be regarded as a process of transformation of small, closed national economies to countries integrated in a wide area of free movement of goods, services and investment.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Central Asia, and Albania
19. Economic Recovery and Security: Two Important Challenges for the EU in South East Europe
- Author:
- Predrag Jurekovi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- The main issue of the workshop was how economy can contribute to the stabilisation process in the region. A broad consensus could be reached that economic reforms, democratisation and strengthening of security are interactive processes, which strongly depend on each other. On the one hand it is difficult to imagine that a social market economy in South East European societies can evolve without creatings table political institutions in a secure environment. On the other hand the economic performance of the South East European countries and especially external economic influence seem to have a very strong impact on institution building and the bilateral and multilateral relations in the region.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Central Asia
20. The Role of Foreign Direct Investments
- Author:
- Zvonimir Savi and Ante Igman
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a resident entity in one economy investing in an enterprise entity in another economy and thus obtaining a lasting interest in an enterprise resident in another economy. Under the definition of the International Monetary Fund in the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual, foreign direct investment is at hand when a direct investor (non-resident) owns 10% or more of ordinary shares or voting power in the resident (economic entity) of another country. The level of 10% is set arbitrarily because it is presumed that an investor with a higher ownerships hare has also a more significant influence in reaching decisions connected with managing a company. FDI is distinguished from other types of investments in that it is based on the fact that the e is a permanent interest of the investor in the enterprise as well as interest in the management of the company. The IMF permits the possibility of an individual country deciding subjectively whether or not a particular investment belongs to the group of foreign direct investments. For example, if an investor owns more than 10% of an economic entity in a country but does not have an effective influence in the management of this entity, such an investment cannot be deemed FDI. Investors (non-residents) may be private or legal entities, groups of individuals or legal entities, governments or government agencies or any other similar foreign organisation that has a share in the domicile economic entity pursuant to the above definition. One more characteristic of FDI is that the foreign investor reaches the decision on the investment on the highest, strategic level. In contrast, there are also portfolio investments, where the investor has no long term interest in the company that is taking part in reaching decisions. In its definition of portfolio investments the IMF includes shares, bonds, money market instruments and financial derivatives such as options as their basic instruments. Portfolio investments, in contrast to FDI, assume that an investment is conducted in an effort to maximise the value of the investor portfolio and achieve the expected yield against the least possible risk.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Central Asia