Political Geography: / Publication Year: within 25 Years / Topic: Security

3801. Bryan Mabee, The Globalization of Security: State Power, Security Provision and Legitimacy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Author:: Yuliya Zabyelina
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:: Central European University
Abstract:: In his recent book The Globalization of Security: State Power, Security Provision and Legitimacy Mabee rethinks the impact of globalization on the traditional ability of states to provide security. Representing a new generation of scholars who argue in favor of the expanded interpretation of security, the author acknowledges that threats to the state in the era of transnationalism are critical. Security in this new age is more than just an object of national strategy but a matter of global vulnerability and interdependence. The central question of his book then is to explore the ways and the means states employ to react to globalizing threats. Do states hold the capacity to resist or adapt to transnational threats? Is the state legitimacy infringed when states lack the mechanisms to provide security and exercise a sovereign hold on matters of global concern?
Topic:: Security

3802. On the Tasks of the European Stability Mechanism

Author:: Stefano Micossi, Fabrizia Peirce, and Jacopo Carmassi
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: In recent weeks pressures on the euro and eurozone sovereign debtors have subsided. Buoyant growth in the global economy, increasingly benefiting also the European economy, has of course played an important role in calming financial markets. But even more important has been the perception that France and Germany are again working constructively for a strong economic Europe. More broadly, the acute turbulence in financial markets since the spring of 2010 may have finally convinced our political leaders, notably including the German political establishment, that the benefits of a stable currency far outweigh the costs that may have to be borne to make it work properly. The euro will only be trusted if the member states effectively coordinate their economic policies not only to ensure fiscal stability, but also to eliminate persistent divergences in productivity leading to unsustainable imbalances between national savings and investment (Schäuble, 2011).
Topic:: Security, Economics, Regional Cooperation, Monetary Policy, Financial Crisis, and Governance
Political Geography:: Europe, France, and Germany

3803. Asia's Energy Future: Regional Dynamics and Global Implications

Author:: Kang Wu and Fereidun Fesharaki
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: Energy security ranks as one of the highest-priority issues in Asia and the Pacific. The East and South Asia region is the fastest-growing oil consumer in the world, and because this region has such a small percentage of the world's oil reserves, it is the most highly dependent on oil imports of any world region. In the future, Asia will become even more dependent on imports as its energy needs expand with changing life styles and overall economic growth. Asia's increasing energy needs have important implications for energy security throughout the world, and particularly in the United States. Like Asia, the United States is a large and growing importer of crude oil and petroleum products. It is also becoming a direct competitor with the East Asian economies for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). This volume is intended to provide Asians and Americans with the factual information they need for clear understanding, informed policy dialogue, and effective cooperation on issues related to energy security. The United States and Asia have much in common in terms of their basic energy situation. Both regions have enormous hydrocarbon reserves in the form of coal, but both must import huge quantities of liquid hydrocarbons in the forms of oil and natural gas. The United States has an economy and a life style highly dependent upon imported energy, and increasingly, so does Asia. The environmental implications of energy use are of growing concern in both regions. Both share a common stake in an assured supply of oil and natural gas, in price stability in international energy markets, in efficient and sustainable use of oil and gas products, and in the development of technologies and fuel alternatives that can alleviate energy security and environmental concerns.
Topic:: Security, Development, Economics, Energy Policy, and Oil
Political Geography:: United States and Asia

3804. The Death of Usama bin Ladin: Threat Implications for the U.S. Homeland

Author:: Philip Mudd
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: CTC Sentinel
Institution:: The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:: With the death of Usama bin Ladin in May 2011, Americans will be safer in the long-term. Without Bin Ladin's magnetic appeal, al-Qa`ida's revolutionary movement will likely wither and its message, combined with the peaceful revolutions in the Arab world, will lose credibility. In the short-term, however, the U.S. homeland remains at risk. In many ways, U.S. security services today face more challenges than ever before because the threat profile has become so diverse, with multiple terrorist groups and individuals—many with no connection to established terrorist organizations—intent on striking the United States.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States and Arabia

3805. Redefining Food Security in the Face of Foreign Land Investors: The Philippine Case

Author:: Ben Shepherd
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: The Philippines is a country targeted by foreign investors seeking agricultural land. It is promoting itself to them in the hope of securing their business. These investors frequently use food security language to justify their competitive pursuit of scarce agricultural resources in poorer countries on the basis of shoring up their own domestic food supplies. The usual understanding of food security in economic terms of supply, demand and competition largely validates these strategies. Instead, this paper proposes to redefine food security in terms of protecting vulnerable populations from the structural violence of involuntary hunger. By viewing food security in terms of hunger, it becomes clear that the land deals are more likely to worsen than improve the situation for the Filipino rural poor. Rethinking food security this way also offers the opportunity to re-examine the challenges facing Philippine agriculture. This new framing is particularly instructive for thinking about alternative approaches to applying foreign agricultural investment in ways that not only benefit the rural poor and alleviate involuntary hunger but also increase overall food availability, including surpluses for export.
Topic:: Security, Agriculture, Poverty, and Food
Political Geography:: Israel and Philippines

3806. Optimizing Africa's Security Force Structures

Author:: Helmoed Heitman
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Abstract:: There is much happening in Africa that is positive— economically, socially, and politically. But a large share of the continent remains fragile, putting those gains at risk. The most pressing challenges facing many African states are paramilitary threats— threats that are beyond the ability of most police forces and frequently transcend national borders. Organized crime, rural banditry, piracy, local warlords, guerrillas, ethnic and religious violence, and extremist Islamist groups are just a few of an array of such threats.
Topic:: Security, Political Violence, Crime, Ethnic Conflict, Poverty, Insurgency, and Piracy
Political Geography:: Africa

3807. Differentiated Policies: Indonesia's International Leadership and Internal Challenges

Author:: Alistair D.B. Cook
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: Indonesia's position as a regional champion of democracy and human rights has become prominent in international forums since the resignation of President Suharto in 1998 and the subsequent period of internal democratic reform. Its proactive foreign policy culminated in the establishment of the Bali Democracy Forum in 2008 to promote and strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Asia through a process of learning and sharing. While Indonesia's proactive foreign policy continues, significant internal challenges remain. This policy brief offers an insight into one of Indonesia's longest running internal challenges, Papua, and suggests the use of the human security lens as an alternative to the dominant traditional security lens used by many policymakers, in an effort to promote conflict resolution and match developments at home with its proactive strategies abroad.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: Indonesia, Asia, and Southeast Asia

3808. Sudan's Aspirational Army: A History of the Joint Integrated Units

Author:: Aly Verjee
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: Southern Sudan's vote for secession in January 2011 effectively terminates the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between northern and Southern Sudan. A principal objective of the CPA, which ended the civil war between the north and south, was to maintain the government's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) based in the south, as two independent armies. The CPA also set out the provisions to form jointly managed and integrated armed units that would become the foundation of a new national army — the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs).
Topic:: Security, Civil War, Treaties and Agreements, and Territorial Disputes
Political Geography:: Africa, Sudan, and South Sudan

3809. The Future of the G20 and Its Place in Global Governance

Author:: Paul Heinbecker
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: This paper examines the Group of 20 (the G20) from a perspective of global governance, reviewing the G20's history to date and seeking to answer two sets of questions: Is the G20 succeeding, and what does the future likely hold for it? Is it still necessary for the G20 to meet at the leaders' level, or should the enterprise be returned to finance ministers? Presuming that it endures at the leaders' level, will the G20 stick to a largely economic and financial agenda, or should it address other pressing issues? Will it complement or conflict with the Group of Eight (G8), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations (UN) and other global institutions with economic and security vocations?
Topic:: Security, Climate Change, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Cooperation, Global Recession, Food, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United Nations

3810. Security Sector Reform in Haiti One Year After the Earthquake

Author:: Isabelle Fortin
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: When the January 12, 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, the country was in the midst of a second round of security and justice system reforms supported by the international community. The quake killed hundreds of thousands of people, including some who played a critical role in implementing these reforms. Damaged infrastructure and casualties in key justice and security positions hindered the existing security institutions' ability to respond to the problems caused by the destruction. This paper examines how the security and justice reforms were affected by the earthquake, and the new security challenges faced by the population in the post-earthquake period. The disaster provides an opportunity to consider security justice matters through a new lens. Security and justice reform is the responsibility of everyone - the public, businesses, the police, judges and civil society organizations. Cooperation between all of these groups is needed to establish the accountability mechanisms required to effectively steer Haiti's transformation process.
Topic:: Security, Natural Disasters, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:: Caribbean

3811. Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste

Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: The third edition of the Security Sector Reform (SSR) Monitor: Timor-Leste acknowledged that the national justice system continues to face major obstacles, even though recent strategic planning and initial efforts to improve access to justice have showed promising signs for future justice system development (see The Centre for International Governance Innovation [CIGI], 2011). Two increasingly serious challenges to the justice system — and also the broader security sector — are the political intervention in the justice system and the lack of accountability for both past crimes and more recent crimes associated with the 2006 internal crisis.
Topic:: Security, Crime, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:: Southeast Asia

3812. Cooperating to Build Peace: The UN-EU Inter-Institutional Complex

Author:: Thierry Tardy
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) are both key institutions in the peacebuilding realm. The UN has, since the end of the Cold War, embraced post-conflict peacebuilding as one of its core activities, and most of its sixteen current peacekeeping operations include a peacebuilding component. Likewise, the EU has become an increasingly important institution of peace consolidation in all its aspects, both through the role of the European Commission and more recently that of the intergovernmental Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Post-conflict peacebuilding is an all-encompassing activity, which takes place at the nexus of security and development and that requires a wide range of policy responses. This theoretically places the UN and the EU in favourable positions, as institutions that aspire to develop a holistic approach, and to cover the entire continuum of conflict management. The simultaneous involvement of these two institutions in post-conflict peacebuilding poses the question of their respective policies in different terms. From Bosnia-Herzegovina or Kosovo to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or Chad, through military cooperation or UN-led but European Commission-financed civilian programmes, questions arise as to the interaction between two different types of actors, the nature and depth of inter-institutional relations, the division of tasks and the level of mutual reinforcement or redundancy.
Topic:: Security, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:: Europe

3813. American power and identities in the age of Obama

Author:: Inderjeet Parmar
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: Although the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency represents a landmark event in the history of that country, questions remain over its broader political significance. What is the likelihood of Obama's foreign and national security policies differing fundamentally from those of the Bush administrations? Does Obama's election signal a 'post-racial' phase in American national life? What are the factors that suggest opportunities to change and expand American identities as opposed to those that limit Obama's sphere of action? This article introduces the special issue and suggests that although Obama's room for manoeuvre is limited by legacies inherited from the Bush administration, Obama's own appointments to high office as well as other actions, despite the availability of alternative courses, indicate that he is not the transformational president he claimed to be. American identities, therefore, are deeply embedded and remain heavily imbued with racial, religious and imperial features.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States

3814. Are U.S. Borders Secure?

Author:: Edward Alden and Bryan Roberts
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: In response to record numbers of illegal border crossings and the security fears triggered by the 9/11 attacks, over the past two decades the United States has steadily increased its efforts to secure its borders against illegal immigration. The number of U.S. Border Patrol agents has risen from fewer than 3,000 to more than 20,700; nearly 700 miles of fencing have been built along the southern border with Mexico; and surveillance systems, including pilotless drones, now monitor much of the rest of the border. In a speech in El Paso, Texas, in May, U.S. President Barack Obama claimed that the United States had "strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible." Yet according to spring 2011 Rasmussen poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans think the border is no more, or even less, secure than it was five years ago. Some administration critics claim that the United States' frontiers have never been more porous. This contradiction stems in part from the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never clearly defined what border control means in practice. A secure border cannot mean one with no illegal crossings -- that would be unrealistic for almost any country, especially one as big and as open as the United States. On the other hand, the borders cannot be considered secure if many of those attempting to enter illegally succeed. Defining a sensible middle ground, where border enforcement and other programs discourage many illegal crossings and most of those who try to cross illegally are apprehended, is the challenge. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has failed to develop good measures for fixing goals and determining progress toward them. Since 2005, the DHS has reported how many miles of the country's land borders are under its "operational control," but it has done so without having clearly defined what that standard means and without providing hard data to back it up. The lack of sound measurement has left the administration touting its efforts rather than their results: during a press conference in 2010, Obama noted, "We have more of everything: ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], Border Patrol, surveillance, you name it. So we take border security seriously."
Topic:: Security and Border Control
Political Geography:: United States and America

3815. From the Editor

Author:: Rashid Khalidi
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:: Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:: A number of the essays and other items appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Palestine Studies have direct or indirect bearing on Palestinian strategy and the stalled “peace” process.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, Palestine, and Central America

3816. Documents and Source Material: International

Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:: Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:: A1. International Coalition of Development, Human Rights, and Peace-Building Organizations, "Dashed Hopes: Continuation of the GAZA Blockade," 30 November 2010 (excerpts).A2. Eu Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Recommendations to Reinforce Eu Policy on East Jerusalem, 7 December 2010.A3. Unrwa and the American University in Beirut, Socioeconomic Survey of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, Executive Summary, Beirut, 31 December 2010.A4. Un Security Council Draft Resolution Condemning Continued Israeli Settlements, New York, 18 February 2011.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: New York, Israel, and Jerusalem

3817. Achieving Greater Disclosure in the Oil Gas Industry

Author:: Craig Fagan
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Transparency International
Abstract:: Globally, petroleum and its derivatives account for 15 per cent of the world's trade. Oil and gas production serves to meet nearly 60 percent of the energy consumed worldwide. Demands on the industry are only rising as expanding economies such as China and India require more energy to grow.
Topic:: Security, Industrial Policy, Oil, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:: United States and United Nations

3818. Liberia: Progress Made and Challenges for the Future

Author:: Ellen Margrethe Løj
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Council of American Ambassadors
Abstract:: As Liberia reaches almost eight years of unbroken peace since the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) deployed in 2003, I had the opportunity in March 2011 to brief the Security Council on the remarkable progress the country is making, and highlighted Liberia's need for continued support from the international community. Amid its numerous challenges, and as the country strives to consolidate peace, the support of the international community is paramount to consolidate the outstanding achievements of the Liberian people.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, United Nations, and Liberia

3819. Climate Insecurities in Indonesia: Implications and Challenges for Defence Transformation

Author:: Evan A. Laksmana
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:: This paper seeks to identify and assess key climate insecurities in Indonesia and further explore how they could potentially influence the process of defence reform that has been ongoing in Indonesia since Suharto's downfall in 1998. Key climate insecurities in Indonesia are related to energy and food security, large-scale disasters, drought, changing climate patterns and rising sea levels. Furthermore, this paper argues that given these security implications, the Indonesian National Defence Forces (TNI) has yet to seriously assess and incorporate climate change into its force development plans. Finally, this paper outlines some of the key challenges and prospects for TNI's defence reform process, as it relates to climate change.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Climate Change, and Food
Political Geography:: South Asia and Indonesia

3820. Mission-Wide Strategies for the Protection of Civilians

Author:: Cedric De Coning, Andreas Øien Stensland, and Walter Lotze
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The protection of civilians (PoC) has received increasing levels of attention in United Nations (UN) mandated peacekeeping operations over the course of the past decade. Since 1999, eleven UN peacekeeping operations have been provided with increasingly robust protection of civilians mandates, and the UN System has over the past years focussed increasing levels of attention on the protection of civilians, not only in peacekeeping operations, but indeed across the range of activities undertaken by the UN in support of conflict management, resolution and transformation efforts. Although the wording of the clauses that address the protection of civilians in UN Security Council resolutions has been quite similar to date, the ways in which different missions have implemented these mandates have varied. Because missions operate within differing contexts, each mission is required to develop a unique strategy through which to achieve the common principles and aims of protecting civilians in conflict situations according to the unique setting in which it operates.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Human Rights, United Nations, and Peacekeeping

3821. Securing the trade supply chain

Author:: Nazery Khalid
Publication Date:: 02-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Maritime Institute of Malaysia
Abstract:: The recent report on the staggering value of cargos stolen in Malaysia may have triggered “Shiver me timbers!” expressions of surprise among many . It seems jarring for a progressive country like Malaysia to be ranked unfavorably in terms of the security of its trade supply chain, the network of resources, information and capital that links importers and exporters.
Topic:: Security, Crime, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: Malaysia

3822. Easier to walk the plank?

Author:: Melda Malek
Publication Date:: 02-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Maritime Institute of Malaysia
Abstract:: There has been no effective government in Somalia since the fall of the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Currently, the country has only an interim, provisional government and is undergoing severe economic difficulties exacerbated by decades of factional fighting, floods, drought, and famine. Due to its barely functioning state, unscrupulous parties have taken advantage of the situation by depleting fish stocks in Somali waters by their illegal fishing activities, or worse, dumping drums of toxic wastes into the sea.
Topic:: Security, International Law, Maritime Commerce, and Piracy
Political Geography:: Africa

3823. Rising to the occasion

Author:: Nazery Khalid
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Maritime Institute of Malaysia
Abstract:: The announcement by Minister of Transport, Dato' Seri Chong Kong Ha on 11 January 2011 that Malaysian p orts handled a total of 18. 4 mil. TEU in 2010 should bring a smile to port operators in the country.
Topic:: Security, International Trade and Finance, and Maritime Commerce
Political Geography:: Asia and Southeast Asia

3824. Global Matrix: A conceptual and organisational framework for researching the future of global governance

Author:: Daniel Gros, Richard Youngs, Michael Emerson, Christian Egenhofer, Nathalie Tocci, Giovanni Grevi, and Jean-Pierre Cassarino
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: Conceptually, Global Matrix advances in a systematic and structured inter-disciplinary (matrix) framework a research agenda for examining the stance of major world actors on the key policy dimensions to world politics (political ideologies, economics, migration, climate change, security and world view); drawing out evidence of cross-cutting linkages (between sectors and among major actors); and evaluating the evolution and adequacy of existing multilateral institutions in relation to the emerging multi-polarity, and formulating recommendations.
Topic:: Security, Climate Change, Economics, Globalization, International Cooperation, International Organization, and Governance
Political Geography:: Japan, South Africa, Brazil, and Korea

3825. Strategic Oil Stocks and Security of Supply

Author:: Giacomo Luciani and François-Loïc Henry
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: Holding strategic oil stocks is at first sight an obvious tool to address potential disturbances in supplies. Rationally defining the desirable size of stocks and designing rules for their predictable use is an elusive task, however. A key conceptual difficulty arises in the distinction between commercial and strategic stocks, because a physical shortfall in the oil supply will inevitably lead to an increase in prices. But if strategic stocks are utilised when prices increase they become indistinguishable from commercial stocks. This paper reviews the legislation in force in the US and the EU on the use of strategic oil stocks as well as the emergency response systems of the International Energy Agency. It finds that such measures have been activated rarely and in dubious circumstances. Alternative approaches are proposed consisting of encouraging companies and major consumers to hold larger stocks and seeking a cooperative agreement with oil-producing countries for mutually beneficial stock management.
Topic:: Security, Energy Policy, Markets, and Oil
Political Geography:: United States and Europe

3826. Armed Conflicts and Security of Oil and Gas Supplies

Author:: Giacomo Luciani
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: The paper offers a systematic analysis of the impact of international or civil wars and violent non-state groups on global oil and gas supplies. Statistical evidence points to the fact that international wars are becoming increasingly rare, while civil wars remain frequent. The paper discusses the cases of the Iraq-Iran war and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, showing the limits to the damage that belligerents were able to inflict on oil installations and illustrating how the world was able to compensate for this damage. The Iraqi insurgency following international intervention to replace the Saddam Hussein regime is discussed together with other cases of civil wars in Nigeria, Angola and Sudan. The analysis supports the conclusion that oil and gas installations appear to be much more resilient to armed conflict than is normally acknowledged. History shows that civil wars have caused limited damage to existing installations, but they have hindered the desired investment in new development and attainment of target production levels. However, it is very obvious that government's inability to overcome or reabsorb violent opposition discourages international oil company investment even if the violence does not affect the areas around oil and gas installations.
Topic:: Security, Civil War, Oil, Insurgency, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:: Kuwait and Nigeria

3827. The Functioning of the International Oil Markets and its Security Implications

Author:: Giacomo Luciani
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: The paper discusses the link between security of oil supplies and the functioning of international oil markets. It is argued that wide and frequent variations in price are in themselves a source of insecurity for individual consumers and national economies alike. Furthermore, the impossibility of predicting future prices discourages investment and increases the fragility of the system. The paper puts forward several policy proposals to reduce excessive price fluctuations and improve security of supply at reliable prices.
Topic:: Security, Economics, Markets, and Oil
Political Geography:: North America

3828. The EU and China's engagement in Africa: the dilemma of socialisation

Author:: Liu Lirong
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: China's engagement in Africa has obliged the EU to re-evaluate its own relationship with Africa. Since 2008, in an attempt to resolve the conflicts of norms and interests, the EU has proposed establishing a trilateral dialogue and cooperation mechanism between the EU, China and Africa, which so far has not yielded any substantial results. The differences between China's and the EU's Africa policies are mainly visible in two areas: aid and security. The contradiction between their respective aid policies lies in China's 'no-strings-attached aid' versus European 'conditionality' or emphasis on 'fundamental principles'. The contradiction between their security approaches in Africa lies in China's non-interference policy and the European concept of human security. Promoting common normative values and principles is at the core of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which is important for the EU's self-construction at present. China's non-interference policy is related to its domestic security and stability and in this context it engages in its own rhetoric. In matters of principle it is difficult for both sides to make compromises or accept limitations imposed by the other.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:: Africa, China, and Europe

3829. The role of EU defence policy in the Eastern neighbourhood

Author:: Ariella Huff
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: The launch of the EU's Eastern Partnership in 2009 intended to signal a new, elevated level of EU engagement with its Eastern neighbourhood. Yet there remain several long-simmering and potentially destabilising conflicts in the region, with which EU engagement thus far has been sporadic at best. The Union's use of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in the region and to help solve these disputes has been particularly ad hoc and inconsistent, wracked by inter-institutional incoherence and undermined by Member States' inability to agree on a broad strategic vision for engagement with the area.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: Europe

3830. The internal-external security nexus: more coherence under Lisbon?

Author:: Florian Trauner
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the EU has intensified its efforts to establish closer coordination between the internal and external dimensions of the EU's security policies - i.e. between the fields of justice and home affairs (JHA) and foreign and security policy - based on the assumption that this serves the interests of all actors involved. More inward-looking actors, typically from the ministries of the interior and justice in individual Member States, believe that they can strengthen their internal problem-solving capacities if the EU uses its foreign policy instruments and capabilities in a targeted and focused way to improve internal security and to engage third countries in achieving its goals in the JHA domain. At the same time, JHA expertise and actors have become an indispensable resource for traditional foreign policy actors in terms of dealing with today's security challenges and achieving the EU's main foreign policy objectives, such as promoting the rule of law and preventing state failure.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: Europe and Amsterdam

3831. Joint Interagency Task Force-South: The Best Known, Least Understood Interagency Success

Author:: Evan Munsing and Christopher Lamb
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South) is well known within the U.S. Government as the "gold standard" for interagency cooperation and intelligence fusion, despite its preference for keeping a low profile and giving other agencies the credit for its successes. It is often cited as a model for whole-of-government problem-solving in the literature on interagency collaboration, and other national security organizations have tried to copy its approach and successes. Despite the plaudits and attention, the way that JIATF-South actually operates has only received superficial analysis. In fact, few people actually understand why JIATF-South works as well as it does or how its success might be replicated.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, War on Drugs, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:: United States

3832. Chinese Military Transparency: Evaluating the 2010 Defense White Paper

Author:: Phillip C. Saunders and Ross Rustici
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: The People's Republic of China (PRC) State Council Information Office released the seventh edition of its biennial defense white paper, "China's National Defense in 2010," on March 31, 2011. This document aims to communicate the latest information on China's military development, strategy, capabilities, and intentions. China began publishing defense white papers in 1998, partly as a means of increasing transparency in response to regional concerns about the growing capabilities and actions of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Despite the systematic release of these documents, many of China's neighbors and other regional powers continue to express concerns about China's lack of military transparency. The Chinese maintain that they are becoming more open over time and highlight the importance of transparency about strategic intentions rather than capabilities.
Topic:: Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: China and Israel

3833. Analysis of the Threat of Genetically Modified Organisms for Biological Warfare

Author:: Jerry Warner, James Ramsbotham, Ewelina Tunia, and James J. Valdes
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: Evaluating the potential threats posed by advances in biotechnology, especially genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and synthetic biology remains a contentious issue. Some believe that, inevitably, these advances will lead to a catastrophic biological attack. Others believe that, despite these advances, the scientific and technical requirements, as well as the fundamental laws of natural selection will prevent such an attack.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Terrorism, and Biosecurity
Political Geography:: United States

3834. The Privatisation of Security in Failing States: A Quantitative Assessment

Author:: Željko Branović
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Failing and collapsed states are a common marketplace for the private military industry, which has grown significantly in size and scope over the last decade. Today the private sector supplies a broad spectrum of military and security services to governments facing a lack of territorial control and law enforcement capacities. These services range from combat support to training for military and policing units, logistics and the protection of individuals and property. Yet a quantifiable picture of the extent to which these private security services are being used by failing or weak governments and the implications this use might have for the security environment has not been properly painted.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Cold War, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, and United Nations

3835. The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda: Lessons in Post-September 11 Transnational Terrorism

Author:: Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Al Qaeda rose and fell between 1989 and 2011. Ten years after it conducted its most lethal operation in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001, it had mutated into a movement that no longer resembled what it started as. From a hierarchical and centralised group, led by the bicephalous leadership of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Dhawahiri, it had become a regionalised and decentralised organisation with several competing leaders following the death of Bin Laden in May 2011.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Islam, Terrorism, Armed Struggle, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:: New York and Washington

3836. Assessing Human Insecurity Worldwide. The Way to a Human (In)Security Index

Author:: Sascha Werthes, Corinne Heaven, and Sven Vollnhals
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:: The idea of human security has been presented and discussed in international academic and political fora for more than a decade. Yet, despite its popularity, the analytical usefulness as well as the political appropriateness of the concept is frequently criticized. In arguing for and presenting a Human (In)Security Index we address both aspects.
Topic:: Security, Development, Human Rights, and Political Theory
Political Geography:: United Nations

3837. Charticle: The Bolivarian Alternative

Author:: Joel Hirst
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Americas Quarterly
Institution:: Council of the Americas
Abstract:: What is ALBA and what does it do? A guide to President Chávez and Fidel Castro's regional project.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: Colombia, Caribbean, Venezuela, and Ecuador

3838. The Opportunities and Challenges for President Dilma Rousseff

Author:: Roberto Setubal
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Americas Quarterly
Institution:: Council of the Americas
Abstract:: Gradually and firmly over the past 15 years, Brazil has consolidated a stable democracy, broken free from macroeconomic instability, and taken remarkable steps toward alleviating poverty and reducing a historically high level of income inequality. The country that welcomed Dilma Rousseff as its new president on January 1 is also the country that will host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Ms. Rousseff has a chance to push Brazil further along the road to development. To get there, she must maintain the achievements of the past and persevere in making the changes that Brazil needs. The opportunities are big—so are the challenges. Brazil's political, economic and social advances have paved the way for the development of a large consumer market. This puts the country in a position to benefit from today's global marketplace. Consumer spending in advanced economies is flattening out. At the same time, with their large potential consumer markets, emerging markets are becoming “consumers of last resort,” attracting an increasing share of global resources. Brazil is one of them. A new, larger middle class is now emerging. From 2003 to 2009, about 35.7 million people joined Brazil's middle-class income bracket. By 2014, Brazilian economists and business leaders estimate that another 30 million will have made that move. This development will have far-reaching implications for businesses, but also for society as a whole. Investment is very likely to rise in the years ahead. New projects now follow the expected consumer patterns of this new middle class. Investment is spurred by macroeconomic stability and other developments that have increased confidence and enabled a slow but steady decline in real interest rates. This has lowered the cost of capital and stimulated credit and capital markets. Investments will also increase for more specific reasons. First, the new deepwater oil fields will require vast financial resources and new technology, allowing Brazil's oil production to double by 2020. Second, pent-up demand for housing will be a catalyst for investment, since a significant number of Brazilians still live in sub-standard homes. Third, the World Cup and Olympics will require investments on a considerable scale. Preparing for these large sports events will benefit diverse sectors of the economy, through spending on ports and airports, urban transportation, sports facilities, hotels, telecommunications, energy, and security. Tourism is likely to benefit during the games, and also afterward. Nevertheless, with public and private domestic savings at their current low levels, Brazil will need to continue tapping external savings to finance growth. That means a larger current-account deficit and an exchange rate appreciated by capital inflows. Brazil will have to make the most of its available resources. It will be essential to create an environment that is conducive to private sector saving and investment. Ensuring stable macroeconomic conditions is critical. Remaining market-friendly in a well-regulated environment is also crucial for healthy and abundant financing. A well-established institutional design for regulatory agencies, which instills the necessary confidence that the private sector can undertake major, long-term projects, is indispensable. A great deal can be achieved through small but focused changes, instead of ambitious but often unrealistic regulatory agendas. The advance in credit regulation in Brazil is one such example. Developing a deeper market for private, fixed-income securities is important, but there needs to be a liquid secondary market, so that families have more confidence in extending the maturities on their investments. Just as we have such a market for equities, we can have one for fixed-income securities...
Topic:: Security and Economics
Political Geography:: Brazil

3839. His Dark Materials Trilogy

Author:: C.A. Wolski
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: While religious leaders want to establish the kingdom of heaven on Earth, the heroes of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) seek to overthrow the oppressive “kingdom” of heaven and establish a “republic” in its stead. This is the driving action in Pullman's “young adult” fantasy series. And although the books are marketed to teens, the stories will, like all good literature, reward readers with more years and a few gray hairs as well. The first novel, The Golden Compass (originally published in the United Kingdom as The Northern Lights) opens on a parallel Earth where humans and their daemons—the physical manifestations of their souls—live under the suffocating control of the Church and its security apparatus, the Magisterium. But oppression is furthest from the mind of twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her daemon (pronounced “demon”) Pan: They're too busy getting into trouble and having adolescent adventures in and around Oxford, in particular hassling the children of the Gyptians, wanderers who visit yearly on their barges. The Oxford kids and the Gyptian youngsters engage in a good-natured conflict in which they “gobble” each other, “Gobblers” being this Earth's bogeymen. But things take a decidedly more grown-up turn when Lyra gets wrapped up in the machinations of her uncle, Lord Asriel, an explorer and iconoclast. After saving Asriel from an assassination attempt and learning from him and his colleagues a bit about the mysterious “Dust,” a subject that the other adults avoid discussing at all costs, Lyra is introduced to the malevolent Mrs. Coulter and is subsequently sent to live with her. Before she leaves Oxford, Lyra is given a truth-telling device called an altheiometer—the golden compass of the title. Powered by Dust, it can discern what's hidden in the heart of any man, woman, or beast. While living with Mrs. Coulter—who, naturally, covets the altheiometer—Lyra discovers that Gobblers actually exist and have been kidnapping children for a dark purpose related to Dust. Eventually, Lyra goes north to rescue a kidnapped friend and makes the acquaintance of aeronaut Lee Scoresby and his rabbit daemon Hester, as well as witches and militaristic armored polar bears. The novel ends on a cliffhanger—and a dark revelation about the nature of Lord Asriel's work. .
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

3840. The Challenge of Keeping Haitians Safe

Author:: Robert Maguire and Courtney McCreesh
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: President Michel Martelly takes office at a time when Haitians are frustrated with the pace and scale of earthquake recovery and insecure about the future. Haitians are uncertain what to expect from their new leader who has promised much and who now must address a broad range of immediate needs. Progress toward improved personal, social, economic, environmental, political and energy security for Haiti's citizens has been mixed. The Haitian National Police comprise an important building block for improving Haiti's personal safety and security environment. A greater effort is needed to deal with Haiti's chronic problems with jobs, education, healthcare and housing.
Topic:: Security, Political Violence, Crime, and Economics
Political Geography:: Caribbean and Haiti

3841. EU Conflict Prevention Revisited

Author:: Jonas Claes
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: So far the European Union has not operated as the leading actor on prevention that it aims to be. The recent launch of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in December 2010 could present a breakthrough in this regard. Most of the existing prevention instruments will be relocated to the new Service. A tentative organogram of the EEAS also reveals the establishment of a Directorate for Conflict Prevention and Security Policy. It remains to be seen whether this institutional innovation can address the challenges that have constrained the EU's role in prevention so far, including the EU's coherence, consensus, conceptual clarity and ambition.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: Europe

3842. The United States in Iraq: Options for 2012

Author:: Sean Kane and William Taylor
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: With U.S. military forces scheduled to depart Iraq in December of this year, the State Department and other civilian agencies are being asked to assume a scale of operational and programmatic responsibilities far beyond any other embassy in recent memory. The capacity of the U.S. civilian agencies to assume these responsibilities does not now fully exist. Notably, securing and moving U.S. civilians will require more than 5,000 security contractors. A limited U.S. military contingent post-2011 may well be more cost-effective than private security guards and could also relieve State and other civilian agencies of logistical and security responsibilities. This would enable them to focus on their comparative advantages: diplomacy and development assistance. Planning for the post-2011 U.S. mission in Iraq, however, remains hampered by uncertainty as to whether the Iraqi government will request an extension of the American military presence in the country. A small follow-on U.S. military force would appear to safeguard Iraqi stability and make the achievement of U.S. strategic objectives in Iraq more likely, but cannot be counted on. Should such a request not be received from the Iraqi government, the U.S. may need to reduce the planned scale and scope of its operations and goals in Iraq.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution and Security
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Arabia

3843. Family Planning and U.S. Foreign Policy: Ensuring U.S. Leadership for Healthy Families and Communities and Prosperous, Stable Societies

Author:: Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: Global demographic and health trends affect a wide range of vital U.S. foreign policy interests. These interests include the desire to promote healthy, productive families and communities, more prosperous and stable societies, resource and food security, and environmental sustainability. International family planning is one intervention that can advance all these interests in a cost-effective manner. Investments in international family planning can significantly improve maternal, infant, and child health and avert unintended pregnancies and abortions. Studies have shown that meeting the unmet need for family planning could reduce maternal deaths by approximately 35 percent, reduce abortion in developing countries by 70 percent, and reduce infant mortality by 10 to 20 percent.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, Environment, and Health
Political Geography:: United States

3844. European Security Practices vis-à-vis the Mediterranean: Implications in Value Terms

Author:: Pinar Bilgin, Eduard Soler i Lecha, and Ali Bilgic
Publication Date:: 08-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:: This paper analyses the implications of European security practices vis-à-vis the Mediterranean in value terms as deduced from an analysis of 'facts on the ground' and local actors' perspectives (based on interviews conducted in Algeria, Egypt and Morocco). It is argued that European security practices have had adverse implications for various security referents in the South. While it is too soon to tell whether the so-called 'Arab Spring' has been delayed or brought on by such collaboration, our research shows how Euro-Mediterranean security collaboration has rendered more defenceless the already vulnerable individuals and societies in the South and how Southern Mediterranean states/regimes and societies have become further alienated from each other following such collabo-ration. The paper also highlights how the very practices adopted by European actors to secure the Union and its values may have rendered it less secure insofar as they have had consequences for the very meaning of what it means to be 'European'.
Topic:: Security and Popular Revolt
Political Geography:: Europe, Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco

3845. Sifting Through the Layers of Insecurity in the Sahel: The Case of Mauritania

Author:: Cédric Jourde
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Abstract:: Until recently, the Sahel (as-Sahil), literally the “shore” of the Saharan “sea,” rarely made headlines. Nevertheless, the expanding nexus of illicit trafficking and transnational Islamist terrorism—and the increasingly serious risk this poses to stability in the region and to international security—is attracting growing attention. These concerns will likely mount as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) attempts to use the window of opportunity presented by the Arab Spring to reestablish itself in North Africa while transitional governments there devote much of their energy to rebuilding state institutions. In turn, an unstable North Africa, especially Libya, could further exacerbate insecurity in the Sahel as unsecured weapons and trained mercenaries filter their way into the region.
Topic:: Security, Crime, and Narcotics Trafficking
Political Geography:: Africa, Libya, Arabia, and Mauritania

3846. Emergence of a "Big Brother" in Europe: Border Control and Securitization of Migration

Author:: Çiğdem H. Benam
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: The European Union (EU) has been devising new methods to manage irregular migration and border control. In the last few decades, a clear link has been established between migration, borders and security in Europe. The paper critically examines this link and the EU's response to the problem through the implementation of two methods: the externalization of border control and increased surveillance. Both these instrument mainly aim at eradicating risk with the help of surveillance tools such as databases and profiling people travelling from third countries, preventing irregular migrants from reaching the EU through pre- emptive measures, and dealing with them outside of the Union as much as possible. However, these methods create other forms of insecurities while claiming to attain a more secure Europe, such as empowering states at the expense of individual liberties and making individuals part of a total surveillance system where their daily actions and preferences are recorded.
Topic:: Security and Migration
Political Geography:: Europe

3847. The new politics of protection? Côte d'Ivoire, Libya and the responsibility to protect

Author:: Alex J Bellamy and Paul D Williams
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The international responses to recent crises in Côte d'Ivoire and Libya reveal a great deal about the UN Security Council's approach to human protection. The Council has long authorized peacekeepers to use 'all necessary means' to protect civilians, in contexts including Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Côte d'Ivoire. But Resolution 1973 (17 March 2011) on the situation in Libya marked the first time the Council had authorized the use of force for human protection purposes against the wishes of a functioning state. The closest it had come to crossing this line previously was in Resolutions 794 (1992) and 929 (1994). In Resolution 794, the Council authorized the Unified Task Force to enter Somalia to ease the humanitarian crisis there, but this was in the absence of a central government rather than against one—a point made at the time by several Council members. In Resolution 929 (1994), the Security Council authorized the French-led Operation Turquoise to protect victims and targets of the genocide then under way in Rwanda; this mission enjoyed the consent of the interim government in Rwanda as well as its armed forces. In passing Resolution 1973, the Council showed that it will not be inhibited as a matter of principle from authorizing enforcement for protection purposes by the absence of host state consent. Although its response in Libya broke new ground, it grew out of attitudes and processes evident well before this particular crisis. Most notably, the Council had already accepted—in Resolutions 1674 (2006) and 1894 (2009)—that it had a responsibility to protect civilians from grave crimes, and this was evident in a shift in the terms of its debates from questions about whether to act to protect civilians to questions about how to engage.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: Paris, Libya, United Nations, Balkans, Netherlands, Rwanda, Alabama, Ninewa, and Lower Dir

3848. The new politics of protection? Côte d'Ivoire, Libya and the responsibility to protect

Author:: Alex J Bellamy and Paul D Williams
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: In March 2011, the UN Security Council authorized the use of force to protectcivilians in Libya. This was the first time that the Council has ever authorized theinvasion of a functioning state for such purposes. International society's relativelydecisive responses to recent crises in Côte d'Ivoire and Libya has provoked significantcommentary, suggesting that something has changed about the way the worldresponds to violence against civilians. Focusing on these two cases, this articleexamines the changing practice of the UN Security Council. It argues that we areseeing the emergence of a new politics of protection, but that this new politics hasbeen developing over the past decade. Four things are new about this politics ofprotection: protecting civilians from harm has become a focus for internationalengagement; the UN Security Council has proved itself willing to authorize theuse of force for protection purposes; regional organizations have begun to play therole of 'gatekeeper'; and major powers have exhibited a determination to workthrough the Security Council where possible. However, the cases of Côte d'Ivoireand Libya also help to highlight some key challenges that might halt or reverseprogress. Notably, states differ in the way they interpret mandates; questions arebeing asked about the UN's authority to act independently of specific SecurityCouncil authorizations; the overlap of regional organizations sometimes sendsconflicting messages to the Security Council; and there remains a range of difficultoperational questions about how to implement protection mandates. Withthese in mind, this article concludes with some suggestions about how the futurechallenges might be navigated in order to maintain the progress that has been madein the past decade.
Topic:: Security and United Nations
Political Geography:: Libya

3849. Asia's century and the problem of Japan's centrality

Author:: Brendan Taylor
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Japan has long been regarded as a central component of America's grand strategyin Asia. Scholars and practitioners assume this situation will persist in the face of China's rise and, indeed, that a more 'normal' Japan can and should take on anincreasingly central role in US-led strategies to manage this power transition. Thisarticle challenges those assumptions by arguing that they are, paradoxically, beingmade at a time when Japan's economic and strategic weight in Asian security isgradually diminishing. The article documents Japan's economic and demographicchallenges and their strategic ramifications. It considers what role Japan mightplay in an evolving security order where China and the US emerge as Asia's twodominant powers by a significant margin. Whether the US-China relationshipis ultimately one of strategic competition or accommodation, it is argued thatJapan's continued centrality in America's Asian grand strategy threatens to becomeincreasingly problematic. It is posited that the best hope for circumventing thisproblem and its potentially destabilizing consequences lies in the nurturing of anascent 'shadow condominium' comprising the US and China, with Japan as a'marginal weight' on the US side of that arrangement.
Topic:: Security and Economics
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, China, and America

3850. How Japan matters in the evolving East Asian security order

Author:: Evelyn Goh
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article argues that Japan matters crucially in the evolving East Asian security order because it is embedded both in the structural transition and the ongoing regional strategies to manage it. The post-Cold War East Asian order transition centres on the disintegration of the post-Second World War Great Power bargain that saw Japan subjecting itself to extraordinary strategic constraint under the US alliance, leaving the conundrum of how to negotiate a new bargain that would keep the peace between Japan and China. To manage the uncertainties of this transition, East Asian states have adopted a three-pronged strategy of: maintaining US military preponderance; socializing China as a responsible regional great power; and cultivating regionalism as the basis for a long-term East Asian security community. Japan provides essential public goods for each of these three elements: it keeps the US anchored in East Asia with its security treaty; it is the one major regional power that can and has helped to constrain the potential excesses of growing Chinese power while at the same time crucially engaging with and helping to socialize China; and its economic and political participation is critical for meaningful regionalism and regional integration. It does not need to be a fully fledged, 'normal' Great Power in order to carry out these roles. As the region tries to mediate the growing security dilemma among the three great powers, Japan's importance to regional security will only grow.
Topic:: Security and Cold War
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, China, and East Asia

3851. Globalizing West African oil: US 'energy security' and the global economy

Author:: Sam Raphael and Doug Stokes
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article examines the nature of US oil intervention in West Africa and in particular the ways in which US strategic policy is increasingly being wedded to energy security. It argues that academic debates of a 'new oil imperialism' overplays the geostrategic dimensions of US policy, which in turn underplays the forms of globalization promoted by Washington in the postwar world. Specifically, the US has long sought to 'transnationalize' economies in the developing world, rather than pursue a more mercantilist form of economic nationalism. This article argues that US oil intervention in Africa conforms to this broader picture, whereby processes of transnationalization and interstate competition are being played out against the backdrop of African oil. The recent turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa will add to these dynamics in interesting and unpredictable ways.
Topic:: Security and Oil
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, Middle East, North Africa, and West Africa

3852. The invasion of Iraq: what are the morals of the story?

Author:: Nigel Biggar
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: It is uncontroversial that the invasion and occupation of Iraq involved the following errors: the misinterpretation of intelligence; the underestimation of the number of troops requisite for law and order; the disbanding of the Iraqi army; and indiscriminate debaathification of the civil service. The first error was one of imagination rather than virtue; the others were caused by 'callousness', impatience, and consequent imprudence. These vices were partly responsible for massive civilian casualties, which many wrongly assume to teach the fundamentally erroneous character of the invasion. Nonetheless, we should beware such moral flaws in tomorrow's policy-makers and renounce the managerial mentality that fosters them. Another lesson is that, in so far as nation-rebuilding requires substantial and long-term commitments, it must command the support of the nation-builder's domestic electorate; and to do that, it must be able to justify itself in terms of the national interest. From this we should not infer the further lesson that morality's reach into foreign policy is limited, since, according to Thomist ethics, the pursuit of the national interest can itself be moral. Finally, one lesson that we should not learn from Iraq is never again to violate the letter of international law and intervene militarily in a sovereign state without Security Council authorization. The law's authority can be undermined as much by the UN's failure to enforce it, as by states taking it into their own hands. It is seriously problematic that the current international legal system denies the right of individual states to use military force unilaterally except in self-defence, while reserving the enforcement of international law to a body, whose capacity to act is hamstrung by the right of veto. Given this situation, military intervention without Security Council authorization could be morally justified on certain conditions.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:: Iraq

3853. Collective conflict management: a new formula for global peace and security cooperation?

Author:: Pamela Aall, Fen Olser Hampson, and Chester A Crocker
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article surveys current security challenges and identifies obstacles to effective global and regional responses and cooperation in an era when security has become increasingly divisible. The new situation is partly explained by the complexity and variety of security challenges, both traditional and new, and by the linkages between them. It argues that a new pattern of improvised, ad hoc and often casespecific security mechanisms has developed, which it calls Collective Conflict Management (CCM). The argument is illustrated by reference to cases of CCM where a wide range of actors—multilateral institutions at the global and regional levels, individual states or ad hoc coalitions, professional and commercial bodies, and non-governmental organizations—collaborate in an effort to manage specific security threats and challenges, bringing together a variety of relationships, resources and skills. The urge for collective action, rather than unilateral or single actor-led, is motivated by a number of factors and 'drivers', not all of them necessarily positive or constructive. The article concludes that the success or failure of CCM will depend in part on the severity of the problems it faces and in part on the motives and incentives behind collective responses. This new pattern raises interesting and important questions for the future of international security. While CCM may be untidy and lack clear norms and standards, in many cases it may be the best available in an increasingly fractured world.
Topic:: Security

3854. Indian foreign policy and contemporary security challenges

Author:: Rohan Mukherjee and David M Malone
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: India is fast emerging as an important player in regional and international arenas. However, it continues to be beset by a number of security challenges, both internally and externally. On the assumption that India's foreign policy has evolved in step with its domestic politics, this article briefly surveys the evolution of Indian domestic politics and foreign policy before discussing some of the domestic and international (including regional) security challenges India faces today. The article concludes that although economic diplomacy does at present serve India well in projecting power internationally, achieving great power status in the future will rest on the resolution of key political and security challenges.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, and Economics
Political Geography:: India

3855. Seeking peace and security in the Horn of Africa: the contribution of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development

Author:: Sally Healy
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article assesses the contribution that IGAD has made to regional security in the Horn of Africa since the adoption of its peace and security mandate in 1996. It describes the evolution of IGAD and its mandate in the context of regional conflict and wider African peace and security processes. It explores the local dynamics of the two major IGAD-led peace processes, in Sudan (1993–2005) and in Somalia (2002–2004), and discusses the effectiveness of IGAD's institutional role. A consideration of the wider impact of the peace agreements highlights the way IGAD has enhanced its role by setting the agenda on peace support operations in Somalia. The article concludes that IGAD's successes are more the result of regional power politics than of its institutional strength per se. Despite the obvious need for a better regional security framework, the scope for the IGAD Secretariat to develop an autonomous conflict-resolution capability will remain limited. However, IGAD brings a new diplomatic dimension to conflict management that locks in regional states and locks out interested parties beyond the region. With regard to Somalia, the organization has played a pivotal role in directing African and wider international responses to conflict in the region.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: Africa, Sudan, and Somalia

3856. Campaign disconnect: operational progress and strategic obstacles in Afghanistan, 2009–2011

Author:: Rudra Chaudhuri and Theo Farrell
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Success in war depends on alignment between operations and strategy. Commonly, such alignment takes time as civilian and military leaders assess the effectiveness of operations and adjust them to ensure that strategic objectives are achieved. This article assesses prospects for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. Drawing on extensive field research, the authors find that significant progress has been made at the operational level in four key areas: the approach to counterinsurgency operations, development of Afghan security forces, growth of Afghan sub-national governance and military momentum on the ground. However, the situation is bleak at the strategic level. The article identifies three strategic obstacles to campaign success: corruption in Afghan national government, war-weariness in NATO countries and insurgent safe havens in Pakistan. These strategic problems require political developments that are beyond the capabilities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). In other words, further progress at the operational level will not bring 'victory'. It concludes, therefore, that there is an operational- strategic disconnect at the heart of the ISAF campaign.
Topic:: Security, NATO, and Governance
Political Geography:: Pakistan and Afghanistan

3857. Iraq, Afghanistan and the future of British military doctrine: from counterinsurgency to Stabilization

Author:: Stuart Griffin
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have had profound effects on both the British and US militaries. Among the most important is the way in which they have challenged traditional assumptions about the character of unconventional conflict and the role of the military within comprehensive strategies for encouraging sustainable peace. In the UK, the most important doctrinal response has been JDP 3-40 Security and Stabilisation: the military contribution. Security and Stabilisation is an ambitious attempt to synthesize elements of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, peace support and state-building within a single doctrine that reflects the lessons learned from recent British operational experience. This article examines the purpose, impact and potential value of this important innovation in British doctrine. To do so, the article explores the genesis of Stabilization; analyses its impact upon extant British doctrine for counterinsurgency and peace support; discusses its relationship with the most important related US doctrines, FM 3-24: the counterinsurgency field manual and FM 3-07: the stability operations field manual; and debates the function of doctrine more broadly. It concludes by summarizing the primary challenges Security and Stabilisation must overcome if it is to make a serious contribution to the theory and practice of such complex interventions.
Topic:: Security and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and United Kingdom

3858. Dr Fox and the Philosopher's Stone: the alchemy of national defence in the age of austerity

Author:: Paul Cornish and Andrew M. Dorman
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The history of British defence reviews has been one of repeated disappointment: a cycle in which policy failure is followed by a period of inertia, giving way to an attempt at a new policy framework which is then misimplemented by the defence leadership. Each failed defence review therefore sows the seeds of its successor. With this in mind, in 2010 the new coalition government embarked upon an altogether more ambitious exercise: a strategy review comprising a National Security Strategy and a Strategic Defence and Security Review. This article suggests, nevertheless, not only that the 2010 strategy review looks likely to follow past performance, but also that it is coming unstuck at an unprecedented rate. This is a pity since the 2010 review had much to commend it, not least the adoption of a risk-based approach to security and defence policy-making. What is the explanation for this outcome? Is it that the British have, as some have suggested, lost the ability to 'do strategy', if ever they had it? The authors offer a more nuanced understanding of the policy process and argue that the coalition government in fact has a very clear and deliberate strategy—that of national economic recovery. Yet the coalition government cannot allow national defence and security to fail. The authors conclude with an assessment of the options open to the defence leadership as they seek to address the failing 2010 strategy review and suggest a variety of indicators which will demonstrate the intent and seriousness of the political, official and military leadership of the Ministry of Defence.
Topic:: Security, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:: Britain

3859. Rethinking security: a security analysis of the Strategic Defence and Security Review

Author:: Nick Ritchie
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: In 2010 the coalition government conducted a major review of defence and security policy. This article explores the review process from a critical perspective by examining and challenging the state-centrism of prevailing conceptions of current policy reflected in the quest to define and perform a particular 'national role' in contrast to a human-centric framework focused on the UK citizen. It argues that shifting the focus of policy to the individual makes a qualitative difference to how we think about requirements for the UK's armed forces and challenges ingrained assumptions about defence and security in relation to military operations of choice and attendant expensive, expeditionary war-fighting capabilities. In particular, it confronts the prevailing narrative that UK national security-as-global risk management must be met by securing the state against pervasive multidimensional risk through military force, that military power projection capabilities are a vital source of international influence and national prestige and that the exercise of UK military power constitutes a 'force for good' for the long-term human security needs of citizens in both the intervened and intervening state.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

3860. Contesting danger: a new agenda for policy and scholarship on Central Asia

Author:: John Heathershaw and Nick Megoran
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Western geopolitical discourse misrepresents and constructs Central Asia as an inherently and essentially dangerous place. This pervasive 'discourse of danger' obscures knowledge of the region, deforms scholarship and, because it has policy implications, actually endangers Central Asia. This article identifies how the region is made knowable to a US-UK audience through three mutually reinforcing dimensions of endangerment: Central Asia as obscure, oriental, and fractious. This is evidenced in the writings of conflict resolution and security analysts, the practices of governments, the activities of international aid agencies and numerous lurid films, documentaries and novels.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution and Security
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, and Central Asia

3861. A New Road for Preventive Action: Report from the first Global Conference on Preventive

Author:: Matthew King
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: EastWest Institute
Abstract:: A gap continues to exist between the international community's rhetoric about conflict prevention and its responsibility to protect people from severe human rights violations. The record of human misery caused by violent conflict is testimony to the chronic lack of political will to respond collectively to new and emerging threats to peace. The ineffectiveness of many global efforts at preventive diplomacy is evidence that traditional diplomatic approaches, including the use of force, simply may not work.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, International Cooperation, and Peacekeeping

3862. The Western Balkans and the EU: 'the hour of Europe'

Author:: Jacques Rupnik (ed)
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: Today, more than fifteen years after the end of the wars of Yugoslavia's dissolution, the 'Balkan question' remains more than ever a 'European question'. In the eyes of many Europeans in the 1990s, Bosnia was the symbol of a collective failure, while Kosovo later became a catalyst for an emerging Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In the last decade, with the completion of the process of redrawing the map of the region, the overall thrust of the EU's Balkans policy has moved from an agenda dominated by security issues related to the war and its legacies to an agenda focused on the perspective of the Western Balkan states' accession to the European Union, to which there has been a formal political commitment on the part of all EU Member States since the Thessaloniki Summit in June 2003. The framework was set, the political elites in the region were – at least verbally – committed to making Europe a priority and everyone was supposedly familiar with the policy tools thanks to the previous wave of Eastern enlargement. With the region's most contentious issues apparently having been defused, the EU could move from stability through containment towards European integration.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Ethnic Conflict, Political Economy, Sectarian violence, and Self Determination
Political Geography:: Europe, Bosnia, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Balkans

3863. Minorities in Postcolonial Transitions: The Ndebele in Zimbabwe

Author:: Khanyisela Moyo
Publication Date:: 01-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:: The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:: This article argues that there is a legal and political basis for attending to concerns of ethnic minorities in postcolonial transitions. If left unattended, this issue may prompt members of minority groups to resort to preservative measures, including violence to the detriment of the security which is a fundamental objective of the transition. This reaction is often generated by an axiomatic fear of assimilation. The case of the Ndebele of Zimbabwe illustrates this. The article's position is confirmed by post-colonial state practice that implements minority rights and accords affected groups a right to self-determination or autonomy in tandem with liberal democratic reforms.
Topic:: Security and Reform
Political Geography:: Zimbabwe

3864. Future Options for NATO Nuclear Policy

Author:: Jeffrey A. Larsen
Publication Date:: 08-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: NATO released a new Strategic Concept in November 2010 that maintained its traditional call for continued reliance on nuclear weapons as the ultimate guarantor of its security. But finalizing that document was not easy. Several compromises took place at the Lisbon Summit, including a decision by the Alliance to conduct a Deterrence and Defense Posture Review (DDPR) by 2012. In addition, the allies chose not to repeat some key wording that had remained unchanged since it was introduced in the 1991 Strategic Concept that the Alliance would "maintain adequate sub-strategic nuclear forces based in Europe." This may provide a political opening for the Alliance to eliminate forward-deployed US nuclear weapons in Europe, should it decide to do so. This brief examines options for NATO nuclear deterrence and assurance policy if that occurs.
Topic:: Security, NATO, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:: Europe and North America

3865. How Reliable is Intelligence on Iran's Nuclear Program?

Author:: Barbara Slavin
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: For a country that has been accumulating nuclear know-how since the Eisenhower administration, Iran has hardly been sprinting toward a bomb. Indeed, repeated prognostications that Tehran was on the verge of becoming a nuclear power have a Chicken Little quality: The sky did not fall over the past decade, and it seems unlikely to do so for the next year or two or three. Still, Iran has made steady progress accumulating the elements and expertise required to make nuclear weapons, and it would be naive and irresponsible to discount what appears to be a cottage industry of piecemeal proliferation.
Topic:: Security, Intelligence, Nuclear Weapons, and Nuclear Power
Political Geography:: Iran and Middle East

3866. US Declaratory Policy and Striking Back in Cyber Conflict

Author:: Jason Healey
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: If you pull a knife on a gunslinger, don't be surprised if you get shot. This is one of the messages of the president's International Strategy for Cyberspace. Some media outlets have taken to extreme headlines, such as OBAMA RESERVES RIGHT TO NUKE HACKERS, or HACK US AND WE'LL BOMB YOU. These headlines, although perhaps intended as hyperbole, highlight the routine misunderstandings that take place when applying national security concepts to the technical domain of cyberspace. This issue brief will analyze the relevant part of the Strategy, especially focusing on whether, and how, the United States might respond to cyber attacks, and under what circumstances, if any, such responses would be nuclear.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: United States

3867. Building a new military? The NATO Training Mission-Iraq

Author:: Florence Gaub
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: NATO Defense College
Abstract:: The military is the cradle of the state - simply because security precedes any social or economic development. In the 1990s, this consideration led to the advent of Security Sector Reform, essentially the consequence of the perception that building up strong and viable security institutions under civilian control is a precondition of state consolidation. The multiple defense reforms NATO assisted in many former Warsaw Pact member states, and the NATO Training Cooperation Initiative launched in 2006, are part of the consequent logic of military development aid, which is not entirely altruistic. Security is an intertwined construct, and the Alliance relies on stability and security in other states in order to ensure its own. In this context, NATO's Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I) is just a logical step - although surprising to some, given that it was Iraq that caused the Alliance a "near-death experience." Four years later it was followed by a sister mission in Afghanistan, indicating a trend in security force assistance that is likely to grow.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Middle East

3868. Russia's strategies in Afghanistan and their consequences for NATO

Author:: Marlène Laruelle
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: NATO Defense College
Abstract:: In July 2011, the first U.S. troops started to leave Afghanistan - a powerful symbol of Western determination to let the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) gradually take over responsibility for national security. This is also an important element in the strategy of Hamid Karzai's government, which seeks to appear not as a pawn of Washington but as an autonomous actor in negotiations with the so-called moderate Taliban. With withdrawal to be completed by 2014, the regionalization of the "Afghan issue" will grow. The regional powers will gain autonomy in their relationship with Kabul, and will implement strategies of both competition and collaboration. In the context of this regionalization, Russia occupies an important position.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Russia, and United States

3869. Disrupting the Supply Chain for Mass Atrocities

Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Human Rights First
Abstract:: Mass atrocities are organized crimes. Those who commit genocide and crimes against humanity depend on third parties for the goods and services—money, matériel, political support, and a host of other resources-that sustain large—scale violence against civilians. Third parties have supplied military aircraft used by the Sudan Armed Forces against civilians, refined gold and other minerals coming out of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and ensured a steady flow of arms into Rwanda. Governments seeking to prevent atrocities cannot afford a narrow and uncoordinated focus on the perpetrators of such violence. Rather, an effective strategy must include identifying and pressuring third-party enablers— individuals, commercial entities, and countries—in order to interrupt the supply chains that fuel mass violence against civilians.
Topic:: Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, and Genocide
Political Geography:: Africa and Sudan

3870. Patronage versus Professionalism in New Security Institutions

Author:: Kimberly Marten
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: PRISM
Institution:: Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:: Where do effective military and police institutions come from in a society that is not already based on the rule of law? In particular, can informal militias based on patron/ client relations be successfully reformed or integrated into professional and effective state security institutions? We do not have good answers to these questions. Yet the United States and its allies are wrestling with them daily in many locations around the globe. My goal in this article is to examine what we do know about historical and recent situations that to some degree mirror these current challenges, and to draw out some unexpected practical suggestions about what might work on the ground.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Afghanistan and United States

3871. Regional Engagement in Africa: Closing the Gap Between Strategic Ends and Ways

Author:: Laura R. Varhola and Christopher H. Varhola
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: PRISM
Institution:: Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:: The East African Standby Force (EASF) is East Africa's contribution to the African Union's African Standby Force, which is an international and continental military force with both a civilian and police component to be deployed in Africa during times of crisis. Although the EASF is still under development and in need of capacity-building assistance, the United States does not have the authorities to provide direct assistance to this regional force. Instead, Washington must rely on bilateral assistance mechanisms that are cumbersome and less efficient than dealing directly with the EASF.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, and Washington

3872. NATO Countering the Hybrid Threat

Author:: Michael Aaronson, Sverre Diessen, Yves de Kermabon, Mary Beth Long, and Michael Miklaucic
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: PRISM
Institution:: Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the most successful collective security arrangement among states in the 20 th century. Having deterred and outlasted its primary adversary, the Soviet Union, NATO now faces the challenge of redefining its roles and purposes in the 21 st century. Like all pluralist organizations, the Alliance must reflect the common interests of its 28 members, and defining common interests that motivate all members to sacrifice for the good of the whole has been difficult. In the absence of a direct common military threat, disparate interests, commitments, and visions of the transatlantic future have fragmented Alliance coherence.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: North Atlantic

3873. Security Sector Reform and the Dilemmas of Liberal Peacebuilding

Author:: Louise Riis Andersen
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:: In recent years, Security Sector Reform (SSR) has emerged as a key component of international post-conflict reconstruction efforts. At the same time, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that the holistic approach to SSR that is outlined in policy papers is very difficult to translate into effective interventions in fragile states. This paper identifies two competing approaches for a 'contextualized' SSR-agenda: A monopoly model that focuses on restoring the state's monopoly on the means of violence and a hybrid model that seeks to strengthen local community-based security and justice solutions. The paper argues that as a strategy for intervention, the choice is not simply between a top-down 'imposition' of a universal state model and a bottom-up approach of 'working with what is there'. It is also a choice between direct and indirect forms of rule. This makes the dilemma real for liberal-minded practitioners and observers who for good reasons remain reluctant towards the colonial practice of ruling through middle-men. The paper does not offer a solution to the dilemma. When two imperatives pull in opposite directions, 'answers' are bound to be ad hoc: Specific and contextual, rather than principled and generic. The paper does, however, suggest that part of the way forward may be to move towards a more 'entry-oriented' mode of operation that recognizes that the role of external actors is to help establish a space for security and development solutions, rather than to fill that space.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, Peace Studies, Governance, and Law Enforcement

3874. Arms Flows to Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:: Siemon T. Wezeman, Pieter D. Wezeman, and Lucie béraud-Sudreau
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:: Concerns regarding arms transfers to sub-Saharan Africa are widespread and have motivated worldwide efforts to control arms flows. Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) accounted for 1.5 per cent of the volume of world imports of major arms in 2006–10. Although this is low by global standards, with little indigenous arms-production capacity in the region, most countries are fully dependent on arms imports.
Topic:: Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, International Cooperation, Peace Studies, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:: Africa

3875. From Compliance to Practice: Mining Companies and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Author:: Jana Hönk and Tanja A. Börzel
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:: Transnational institutions increasingly commit multinational companies to human rights and social standards on a voluntary basis. Our paper investigates the security practices of multinational companies and whether these comply with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. Analysing the case of mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo we evaluate the impact of the Principles on local security practices and critically analyse the effects of these practices. We argue that one needs to go beyond compliance studies, which focus on the implementation of formal programs (output) and rule-consistent behaviour (outcome), in order to evaluate corporate governance contributions. We therefore develop a conceptual framework that looks at companies' local security practices, including non-compliant practices, and their effects on local security. Our approach leads to a more differentiated evaluation of the effects of voluntary standards and the potential for corporate governance contributions than much of the literature on business and governance does.
Topic:: Security, Human Rights, Natural Resources, and Neoimperialism
Political Geography:: Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo

3876. India in Afghanistan: Valuable Partner of the West

Author:: Patryk Kugiel
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: On 4 October 2011, India and Afghanistan signed the Agreement on Strategic Partnership, the first of its kind to be endorsed by President Hamid Karzai's government with any foreign country. This comprehensive deal envisages strengthening cooperation between both partners in four key areas: politics and security; trade and economy; capacity development and education; and social, cultural, civil society and people-to-people relations. It foresees more coordination in regional and international forums, including Afghan support for a permanent seat for India in the reformed UN Security Council; establishes a regular Security Dialogue to coordinate the fight against international terrorism, organized crime, illegal trafficking in narcotics and money laundering; calls for more trade, investments and the promotion of regional economic cooperation. Moreover, the deal stipulates joint efforts to develop the Afghan economy and civil service, improve women's rights and in other areas. The deal is the natural fruit of India's decade-long, low-profile engagement in Afghanistan. During these years, India was extending strong political support and significant development assistance to the Afghans. It has risen to the position of a major trade and investment partner of Afghanistan and an “all-weather” friend.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, Peace Studies, War, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, India, and United Nations

3877. Willing and (un)able. New Defence Policy Guidelines and Reorientation of the Bundeswehr

Author:: Ryszarda Formuszewicz and Marcin Terlikowski.
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: On 18 May, after two and a half months in office, defence Minister Thomas de Maizière presented updated cornerstones of the ongoing Bundeswehr reform, which has been rebranded as a “reorientation” (Neujustierung). On the same day, new Defence Policy Guidelines (DPG) were published, replacing the previous document of 2003. The core message directed to internal public opinion and to international partners both disappointed and displeased with Germany's troubled record in the security policy domain is laid out in the title of the DPG: “Safeguarding National Interests – Assuming International Responsibility – Shaping Security Together.” The DPG delivered a conceptual foundation for the armed forces' transformation process, which will now be based on defined security policy assumptions—a feature lacking in the original reform announced in 2010 under the pressure of a financial consolidation plan. The document is both an outcome of the deteriorating German stance on the international security stage and an opportunity to push Berlin on the road towards assuming a new, more visible role, as a security actor.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Europe, and Asia

3878. Security Council Reform: Past, Present, and Future

Author:: Shashi Tharoor
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Even though it has been more than a year since I left the service of the United Nations, the one question people have not stopped asking me here in India is when our country, with 1.2 billion people and a booming economy, is going to become a permanent member of the Security Council. The short answer is "not this year, and probably not the next." But there are so many misconceptions about this issue that a longer answer is clearly necessary.
Topic:: Security and United Nations
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, and China

3879. Completing the ICTY Project Without Sacrificing its Main Goals. Security Council Resolution 1966 – A Good Decision?

Author:: Donald Riznik
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:: Almost two decades after having established the ad-hoc criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this institution is about to fulfill its mandate and will close its doors in the near future. Looking back on 20 years of legal and political struggle, the overall result of this institutional project is positive. This article analyses the way the Security Council and the ICTY have chosen to bring the tribunal to an end by implementing the Completion. The problematic aspect, the Security Council was faced with before its final Resolution 1966, adopted on 22 December 2010, has been outlined together with the chosen path to avoid commitments, especially with regard to its major goal to end impunity for serious breaches of international law, and to bring justice and peace to the people living on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This (so far) last resolution, which implemented the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), was adopted at a time, when the last two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic were still at large. Only a few months ago, the two were caught and transferred to the tribunal. The author argues that not shutting the institutional doors entirely until all remaining fugitives are arrested, was a complex situation in a legal and practical sense. Facing and solving this problem through Resolution 1966 was the best choice at that time. This article will give a brief description about the practical impact of the IRMCT on the ICTY's further work, and the relation between these two judicial institutions during their coexistence.
Topic:: Security and International Law
Political Geography:: Yugoslavia and United Nations

3880. The International Residual Mechanism and the Legacy of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Author:: Gabrielle Bardall
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:: By Security Council Resolution 1966 (2010), the Security Council established the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals as the legal successor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In the creation of the Residual Mechanism, the Security Council appears to have intended to ensure the continuation of the work of the Tribunals and thereby safeguard their legacies. Accordingly, the Statute of the Residual Mechanism continues the jurisdiction of the Tribunals, mirrors in many respects the structures of the Tribunals, and ensures that the Residual Mechanism's Rules of Procedure and Evidence are based on those of the Tribunals. However, the Statute of the Residual Mechanism is silent with regard to the weight the Judges of the Residual Mechanism must accord to ICTY and ICTR judicial decisions. While there is no doctrine of precedent in international law or hierarchy between international courts, this omission by the Security Council does have the potential to negatively impact the legacies of the Tribunal by allowing for departures by the Residual Mechanism from the jurisprudence of the Tribunals, which lead to similarly situated persons being dissimilarly treated. Nevertheless, even if the Residual Mechanism does adopt the jurisprudence of the Tribunals as its own, as a separate legal body it will still have to answer constitutional questions regarding the legitimacy of its establishment by the Security Council. While it can be anticipated that the Residual Mechanism will find itself validly constituted, the wisdom of the Security Council's decision to artificially end the work of the Tribunals by the establishment of the Residual Mechanisms will ultimately turn upon the question of whether any inherent unfairness could be occasioned to persons whose proceedings are before the Residual Mechanism. It will be suggested that the Security Council has provided the Residual Mechanism with sufficient tools to ensure that its proceedings are conducted in para passu with those of the Tribunals and that the responsibility of ensuring the highest standards of international due process and fairness falls to the Judges of the Residual Mechanism.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Yugoslavia and Rwanda

3881. Tadic Revisited: Some Critical Comments on the Legacy and the Legitimacy of the ICTY

Author:: Mia Swart
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:: This article will return to questions raised during the establishment of the ICTY and particularly the Tadic case. It will be argued here that the aspect of Tadic that remains unresolved is the fundamental question of whether the ICTY has been established legitimately. The legitimacy argument forms an important part of the legacy debate of the ICTY. Although the Tadic Appeals Chamber has formally answered the question of the legitimacy of the ICTY it will be argued that the reasoning of the Appeals Chamber was not sufficiently strong or persuasive. The legitimacy debate reflects the wider influence of the ICTY's jurisprudence since some of the arguments made by the Tadic Appeals Chamber have been replicated or repeated in the trials of Saddam Hussein and Charles Taylor. The legitimacy question is crucial since it affects the very foundations of the ICTY. If the legitimacy of the ICTY is not established satisfactorily, it affects how one considers the achievements mentioned above. In a sense the substantive and procedural achievements of the ICTY are dependent on the legitimacy of the ICTY. This article will consider the difference between the ICTY's self-perception and the way the work of the Tribunal over the last sixteen years has been perceived from the outside. The focus of the article will be on the lingering question of the legitimacy of the Tribunal. It has argued that legitimacy can also be acquired after the initial establishment. The article will consider whether the ICTY's initial defect in legitimacy could subsequently be remedied by the fairness of the proceedings and the moral power of the ICTY.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Yugoslavia

3882. The ICTY Legacy: A Defense Counsel's Perspective

Author:: Michael G. Karnavas
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:: The ICTY's achievements are as impressive as they are irrefutable. Less impressive is the uneven quality of procedural and substantive justice that the Tribunal has rendered. The author highlights several shortcomings at the Tribunal, including the appointment of unqualified judges, excessive judicial activism, its disparate application of law, procedure, and prosecutorial resources to different ethnic groups, and its tinkering with the rules of procedure to promote efficiency at the cost of eroding the fundamental rights of the Accused. Drawing on specific examples, from the approach adopted concerning the admissibility of testimonial evidence to specific areas of substantive law where judicial activism has been pronounced – the development of joint criminal enterprise and the requirements for provisional release at a late stage of the proceedings – this article is one defense counsel's perspective of some of the most unfortunate shortcomings of the ICTY, which regrettably form part and parcel of the Tribunal's legacy.
Topic:: Security and Law
Political Geography:: Yugoslavia and United Nations

3883. The Winding Down of the ICTY: The Impact of the Completion Strategy and the Residual Mechanism on Victims

Author:: Giovanna M. Frisso
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:: Even though not clearly spelled out in its constitutive instrument, one characteristic of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is its temporary character. This characteristic presents the ICTY with a significant challenge, the complexity of which is increased by the fact that the tribunal has a multi-faceted mandate. This article examines the effects of the completion strategy of the ICTY on the victims of the crimes under its jurisdiction. Initially, it considers the impact of the completion strategy on the victims who participated, as witnesses, in the proceedings before the ICTY. It argues that the pressure to comply with the timeframe established by the Security Council has resulted in the reduction of the victims to their forensic usefulness. The victims were considered primarily in light of their instrumental relevance to the proceedings. Then, the article suggests, through the analysis of the referral of cases to domestic courts and the value of the archives of the ICTY, that the completion strategy can or might have a positive effect on the implementation of the rights of the victims who have not had direct contact with the ICTY. In this context, this article argues that the termination of the ICTY does not necessarily mean that the struggle for the implementation of the rights of the victims has finished.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Yugoslavia

3884. Intervention hangovers in stabilisation operations: Case studies from Afghanistan and Iraq

Author:: Dr. Ann M Fitz-Gerald and Christian Dennys
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:: This paper argues that the emergence of stabilisation as a concept out of peace-building, state- building and counter-insurgency theories has carried with it some of the key weaknesses of international intervention, in particular the idea that imposing western liberal systems on non- western societies will contribute towards stability. With reference to two case studies, the Wheat Seed project in Afghanistan and a gas cylinder distribution project in Iraq, the paper argues that stabilisation activities do not engage fully with the underlying premise that stabilisation must support and engender local political legitimacy, in part because of the conceptual baggage that stabilisation has adopted from other areas. The paper concludes by arguing that greater use should be made of the knowledge and histories of non-western state formation, characterized as being non- Weberian, as a counter to the overuse by interveners of the desire to support rational Weberian state structures in other countries.
Topic:: Security, Development, Foreign Aid, and Neoimperialism
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Arabia

3885. Côte d'Ivoire: Continuing the Recovery

Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: International Crisis Group
Abstract:: Despite a marked improvement, the situation in Côte d'Ivoire remains fragile. The transfer to The Hague of former President Laurent Gbagbo – indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – only twelve days before the parliamentary elections of 11 December 2011, has stoked political tensions. After a vote characterised by low turnout, the country remains deeply divided and still faces grave threats. The weakness and imbalance of the security apparatus and the two-tiered justice system, both of which reinforce the convictions of extremists, are the two main challenges the government must overcome in the months ahead. Although voting itself was peaceful, an electoral campaign marred by incidents serves as a reminder that political violence is still an everyday reality. The installation of a new Assembly marks a further step towards normalisation, but the country has yet to escape trouble.
Topic:: Security, Democratization, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:: Africa

3886. The Problematic Fields in European Neighborhood Policy: Human Security and Neighborhood Relations

Author:: Murat Necip Arman
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: With the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, the EU reached at borders with new neighbors stretching from Northern Africa, to Middle East and Southern Caucasus. Despite their structural instability, those three regions possess rich energy resources. The EU promulgated the blue prints of the Union's future relations with the new neighbors in March 2003 with the paper on "Wider Europe Neighborhood: a New Framework for Our Relationships with the Eastern and Southern Neighbors." The framework redefined the basic parameters of the so-called neighborhood policy. The major difference that differs the neighborhood policy from the rest of the Union policies with non-member countries is its unique approach to the concept of human security. Human security is a distinct security approach distancing "the state" from being the major subject of security and instead individuals have been placed gradually in the center of relations between the EU and Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This study which tries to lure attention to the symbiotic bonds between human security and security community approaches, unfolds the problematic aspects of the neighborhood policy which is based on human security and offers some solutions to those problems.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Europe, Middle East, and North Africa

3887. Global Warming and Security: The Security Implications for NATO and the EU of a Melting Polar Ice Cap in the High North.

Author:: Udo Michel
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: Environmental changes will have an impact on global and regional security communities.This article will examine the security challenges posed by the melting of the polar ice cap in the High North. Many NATO and EU members have manifest interests in this region, and parts of the Arctic belong to the NATO treaty area. Offi cial documents, political statements, and actions already taken show that the most of the Nordic countries address the effects of climate change on their region's security in specifi c policies and national security concepts. Moscow has sparked concerns in the West with displays of its will and capabilities-for example, fl ying strategic bomber patrols over the Arctic, or the hoisting the Russian fl ag on the sea bed below the North Pole. Despite a high degree of media awareness and intensive public discussions about spheres of infl uence and a possible return to classical geopolitics, both NATO and the EU try to avoid sending signals that would indicate that they regard regional security questions in the Arctic as a matter of deep concern or urgency. The motivation behind this article is to investigate this disconnect, to explain it, and todraw conclusions that argue for or against changes in the present posture. If their affected members states do not securitize the threats and vulnerabilities related to themelting polar ice cap in the High North within the organizations, NATO and the EUwill lack the incentive and legitimacy to adapt their security policies and strategies inorder to address the evolving situation.
Topic:: Security and NATO

3888. The Essence of Crosscultural Security Education

Author:: Andrzej Pieczywok
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Connections
Institution:: Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:: This article presents the main factors that affect the preservation of peace andsecurity among human beings. It treats these categories as the most important goal of the education of modern man, as the basis of its performance in the world today. The core values that most signifi cantly affect human existence are structured around three basic concepts: security, peace, and education.
Topic:: Security

3889. A Governmentality Approach to Peace Operations

Author:: Elisa Lucia
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: In this book, Laura Zanotti uses Foucault's governmentality theory and genealogical method to trace the formation of the political rationale of the post-Cold War international security regime. Interestingly, she goes beyond the literature focusing on the capacity and legitimacy of international organisations to question how the legitimisation of discourses of international order developed. She convincingly demonstrates that, in the 1990s, discourses of democracy converged with discourses of collective security: democratisation became a means to create a peaceful world and non-democratic states were constructed as ''political monsters'' to be ''normalized''. Democracy was operationalised through the doctrine of ''good governance'', which became the organising principle for UN intervention as a universalised technical solution to achieve peace, democracy and development. In addition, at the beginning of the 2000s, the concept of ''human security'' emerged and converged with these previous discourses. It expanded the definition of international threat and shifted ''the referent and source of legitimacy of international organizations from states to population'' (19). As a consequence, political monsters endangering the human rights of their own population s lost, to a certain extent, their right to full sovereignty, and this opened the way for legitimizing forcible intervention through the ''responsibility to protect'' concept.
Topic:: Security

3890. Women in Afghanistan: A Human Rights Tragedy Ten Years after 9/11

Author:: Hayat Alvi
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:: Ten years after the September 11th attacks in the United States and the military campaign in Afghanistan, there is some good news, but unfortunately still much bad news pertaining to women in Afghanistan. The patterns of politics, security/military operations, religious fanaticism, heavily patriarchal structures and practices, and ongoing insurgent violence continue to threaten girls and women in the most insidious ways. Although women's rights and freedoms in Afghanistan have finally entered the radar screen of the international community's consciousness, they still linger in the margins in many respects.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Human Welfare, War, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:: Afghanistan and United States

3891. Zimbabwe's Militarized, Electoral Authoritarianism

Author:: Eldred Masunungure
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Affairs
Institution:: School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:: Authoritarianism in Zimbabwe survives because a coalition of political and military elites stands ready and willing to employ violence to execute the Machiavellian vision of President Robert Mugabe and perpetuate his control of the state. Several variables reinforce the durability of this regime—chief among them the mass out-migration and the large inflow of remittances that has decimated the middle class and dampened the political voice of those who remain in the country. Beginning in 2000, Zimbabwe's authoritarianism became militarized with the overt intrusion of the security sector into the political arena, a process that reached its peak before the June 2008 presidential runoff election. The electoral dimension of its authoritarianism stems from the fact that the regime unfailingly holds elections in search of popular legitimacy but then manipulates them for its own ends. This article dissects Zimbabwe's militarized form of electoral authoritarianism with specific reference to the 2008 reign of terror. It concludes that the factor that best explains the regime is the symbiosis between the party and the security sector, with Mugabe providing the glue that binds them together in pursuit of regime survival.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Zimbabwe

3892. Interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP: avenues for the future

Author:: Corine Caballero-Bourdot
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: This report examines a number of possible future orientations with regard to the interparliamentary scrutiny of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It sets out the democratic challenges facing European integration and the new context surrounding the CFSP in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty, focusing in particular on the existing legal provisions for the interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP. The paper surveys previous initiatives as well as current discussions regarding the future interparliamentary scrutiny of the CFSP. The author analyses the various options on the table and makes a number of recommendations for the best possible organisation of such interparlamentary scrutiny in the future.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Regional Cooperation, International Affairs, and Governance
Political Geography:: Europe

3893. Great Expectations: UN Peacekeeping, Civilian Protection, and the Use of Force

Author:: Alan Doss
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The proliferation of intra-state conflicts in the post-Cold War era has led to a substantial increase in the number of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations, resulting in the creation of forty-eight peacekeeping missions since 1990. The unprecedented challenges faced in the 1990's – and in particular, the failures in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Somalia – obliged the UN to revisit and rethink its peacekeeping strategies.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, Cold War, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: Rwanda and Somalia

3894. For a Renewed Consensus on UN Peacekeeping Operations

Author:: Thierry Tardy
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Contrary to some predictions of decline in United Nations (UN) involvement in peacekeeping (alongside the increasing role of regional organizations), the last decade has been characterized by a constant increase in personnel deployed in UN peacekeeping operations, demonstrating both the legitimacy of the UN for this type of activity, and its flexibility and adaptability. More precisely, the wide range of instruments at the disposal of the UN in the field of conflict management makes it a permanent option as well as a facilitator of burden sharing among organizations.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, United Nations, and Peacekeeping

3895. Reinforcing Disarmament: Combating Illicit Trade in Weapons and Materials

Author:: Marc Finaud and Philipp Annawitt
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Illicit trade in weapons and materials poses serious challenges to states and disarmament regimes. Although small arms and light weapons (SALW) are quite different from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), both categories are in increasing demand by violent non-state actors, often in relation to organized crime and terrorist activities.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:: Europe

3896. The Role of Parliaments in Arms Control, Disarmament, and the Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Author:: Marc Finaud
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: From 30 March to 1 April 2011, a high-level workshop was organized for parliamentarians from countries belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Partnership for Peace (PfP). The topic of this event was “The Role of Parliaments in Arms Control, Disarmament, and the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)”. It was a joint initiative of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the WMD Non-Proliferation Centre of NATO. Some thirty-five parliamentarians (including several former government ministers) from twenty-three countries attended the workshop along with the same number of staffers, government representatives, and independent experts.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:: Europe

3897. Nuclear Policy Gridlock in Japan

Author:: Jacques E.C. Hymans
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Prior to the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, international observers frequently posed the question of whether Japan might convert its large stockpile of plutonium into nuclear weapons. Since March 11, their main question has shifted to whether Japan will decide to exit from the nuclear energy field altogether.
Topic:: Security, Energy Policy, Natural Disasters, and Nuclear Power
Political Geography:: Japan and Israel

3898. Shaky Foundations: An Assessment of the UN's Rule Of Law Support Agenda

Author:: Bruce Jones and Camino Kavanagh
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:: As we began the process of drafting this review, citizens across the Middle East and North Africa took to the streets to demand an end to the abusive practices of the security services, more representative and responsive government institutions, the protection of their rights, greater access to economic opportunity, participation in decision-making, and access to justice. They began demanding, in short, the rule of law.
Topic:: Security, Cold War, Democratization, International Cooperation, Post Colonialism, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: Middle East, Arabia, and North Africa

3899. Engagement on Development and Security: New Actors, New Debates

Author:: Jake Sherman, Megan M. Gleason (ed), W.P.S. Sidhu (ed), and Bruce Jones (ed)
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:: In the past several years, key governments and multilateral institutions have devoted considerable effort to the task of more effectively integrating development and security policy responses to the related challenges of countries affected by conflict, post-conflict peacebuilding, and conflict prevention. The looming deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, has focused attention on this important nexus and the near impossibility of crisis-and conflict-affected states achieving these goals unless development and security is more effectively integrated. Despite progress on several fronts, including at the United Nations and at the international financial institutions, developing policy for effective development and security engagement remains a challenge in both conceptual and operational terms – not least because discussion of political, security, economic, and humanitarian issues traditionally has occurred in different multilateral fora, among different sets of stakeholders.
Topic:: Security, Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, International Trade and Finance, and United Nations

3900. Strengthening Oversight of the Security Sector in Georgia: an Agenda

Author:: Erik Sportel (ed) and Vasili Tchkoidze (ed)
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Book
Institution:: Centre for European Security Studies
Abstract:: Since the 2003 Rose Revolution, Georgia has undertaken serious reforms, moving the country towards becoming a democracy anda market economy. Instead of proceeding at a steady pace, Georgia haschosen to take an accelerated path to reform. Since coming to office,the Saakashvili administration has underlined its ambition to bring Georgia into Euro-Atlantic structures. After an energetic start, Georgia ran into difficulties in late 2007 and 2008. During this period, the democratic credentials of the Saakashvili government were put to the test for the first time.The government was faced with massive public demonstrations, to which it responded in a heavy-handed fashion. The security forces attacked protesters, and the government declared a state of emergency, blaming the unrest on Russia. Many domestic and foreign observers feared that Georgia was abandoning the road to democracy. However, the state of emergency was soon lifted, and the government called an early presidential election. International observers judged the election to be largely democratic, despite some irregularities, but opposition forces claimed that the president's results had been boosted by fraud. Mr Saakashvili won an absolute majority in the first round of polling. The subsequent parliamentary elections in the spring of 2008 gave the ruling United National Movement party a landslide victory. With 119 out of 150 seats, theparty currently holds a two-thirds majority in parliament. The two major opposition parties (winning 17 and six seats respectively) refused to take their seatsin parliament.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Civil Society, and Democratization
Political Geography:: Russia, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Georgia

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS