Political Geography: United Nations / Publication Year: within 10 Years / Topic:

1. The Pandemic Exposes and Exacerbates Existing Problems of Inequality and Polarization

Author:: Joshua Kurlantzick
Publication Date:: 01-2022
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:: During the COVID-19 pandemic, while some democracies (such as Canada and Australia) have been able to respond effectively, the five large democracies of the United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines have suffered severe effects on public health. In this commentary, Joshua Kurlantzick, a Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, explains how social and economic inequalities in these countries are the cause of their ineffective responses to the pandemic. He then points out how populist politicians in these countries have exacerbated inequality during the pandemic with their rhetoric and policy. The author then argues that despite political, economic, and social problems in these countries, leaders have an opportunity to alleviate inequality through major democratizing reforms, as there is a public sentiment of wanting to work together to overcome the pandemic.
Topic:: Democracy, Inequality, Populism, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:: Indonesia, India, Brazil, Philippines, and United Nations

2. The Impact of Sanctions Imposed by the European Union against Iran on their Bilateral Trade: General versus Targeted Sanctions

Author:: Mahdi Ghodsi and Hüseyin Karamelikli
Publication Date:: 05-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:: Economic sanctions are intensively used by international institutions to enforce political objectives. Since 2006 the EU has been implementing general sanctions against the whole economy of Iran, affecting their trade relations. Since 2007, and following the imposition of sanctions by the UN Security Council, the EU has also implemented smart sanctions targeting Iranian entities and natural persons associated with its military activities. In a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL), this paper investigates the impact of general and targeted EU sanctions against Iran on quarterly bilateral trade values between the 19 members of the euro area (EA19) and Iran between the first quarter of 1999 and the fourth quarter of 2018. The results indicate that general sanctions have strongly hampered trade flows between the two trading partners. The impact of general sanctions on the total imports of the EA19 from Iran is more than four times stronger than on the total exports of the EA19 to Iran. Moreover, the EU’s general sanctions have hampered trade in almost all sectors, except for the primary sectors. Furthermore, our study finds that the impact of smart sanctions targeting Iranian entities and natural persons is much smaller than the impact of general sanctions on total trade values and the trade values of many sectors. Smart sanctions affect the exports of most sectors from the EA19 to Iran, while they are statistically insignificant for the imports of many sectors from Iran. Thus, this paper provides evidence on the motivations behind smart sanctions, which target specific individuals and entities rather than the whole economy, unlike general sanctions, which have a negative impact on ordinary people.
Topic:: United Nations, Sanctions, Trade, and Trade Policy
Political Geography:: Europe, Iran, United Nations, and European Union

3. Responsibility to Protect and the World in 2020

Author:: Simon Adams
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: This year the world will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Charter of the United Nations. But celebrations recognizing this historical landmark will occur at a time when the entire post-1945 structure of human rights, humanitarianism and multilateral diplomacy are under threat. Not since the UN was first formed have so many people been displaced by persecution, conflict and war. Not since the peak of the Cold War has the UN Security Council appeared so bitterly divided and incapable of decisive action. And as a new decade begins, there are renewed threats to international peace and security, and fresh assaults on human dignity.
Topic:: Genocide, Human Rights, Social Movement, Refugees, Syrian War, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and UN Security Council
Political Geography:: China, Yemen, United Nations, Syria, Chile, Myanmar, Global Focus, and Xinjiang

4. Joint NGO Letter: The UN Human Rights Council should extend the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: A letter to the UN Human Rights Council from a number of NGOs (African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS); AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network); Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS); Center for Reproductive Rights; Central African Network of Human Rights Defenders (REDHAC) CIVICUS; Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) – South Sudan; Crown The Woman – South Sudan; DefendDefenders (the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project); Dominicans for Justice and Peace; Geneva for Human Rights / Genève pour les Droits de l’Homme; Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P); Human Rights Watch; International Commission of Jurists; FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights); International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR); International Service for Human Rights; Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada; Legal Action Worldwide (LAW); National Alliance for Women Lawyers – South Sudan; Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN); South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network (SSHRDN); World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)).
Topic:: Civil Society, Human Rights, United Nations, and NGOs
Political Geography:: Africa, United Nations, and South Sudan

5. Canada’s Campaign for a Seat on the United Nations Security Council: The Historical Context

Author:: Adam Chapnick
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI)
Abstract:: On Feb. 11, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau briefed the Ottawa press corps after a meeting with the United Nations (UN) secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. Having pledged during the 2015 election campaign to re-engage with the UN, he noted that doing so would include “looking towards a bid for the Security Council.” Perhaps this comment should not have surprised. The Conservative government’s failure to win a Security Council (UNSC) seat in 2010 had been a subject of Liberal ridicule for years. Yet, council membership was not included among the Liberals’ 167 campaign promises, nor was it mentioned specifically in then-Foreign Affairs minister Stéphane Dion’s mandate letter. One month later, Trudeau met with Ban again, this time in New York. Afterwards, with Dion looking on, Trudeau announced that Canada would be joining the 2020 Western European and Others Group (WEOG) election for one of two non-permanent seats on the Security Council in 2021-2022. The move was unprecedented. It marked the first time that a Canadian prime minister, and not the Foreign Affairs minister or a member of the foreign service, had publicly declared Canada’s initial interest in a council seat. It was also the first time that Canada had deliberately entered an already contested election: Ireland, Norway and San Marino would be its opponents for two WEOG seats. This brief history of Canadian interest in Security Council membership will suggest that attempting to return to the UNSC was the right decision, made at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Government, Politics, History, and UN Security Council
Political Geography:: Canada, United Nations, and North America

6. The Prospective and Limitations of the Syrian Constitutional Committee

Author:: Sinan Hatahet
Publication Date:: 02-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The Syrian Constitutional Committee, a UN-authorised constituent assembly, was established to reconcile the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition, in the context of the peace process, by adopting a new constitution for Syria. While it enjoys a measure of international legitimacy, it may be a mechanism to override the terms of UN Security Council’s resolutions 22541 in favour of establishing the Astana talks as the only regulator of the political process. The committee has encountered several challenges. First is the divergence of expectations between the opposition and the Syrian government; second, the lack of a clear time frame for its deliberations; third, the Syrian government’s insistence on imposing its anti-terrorism vision; finally, the lack of international commitment to its outcome, mainly from the US and its partners. This brief examines the positions of both the Syrian government and the opposition and their expectations from the constitutional process as well as the impact of the Turkish offensive in the north east of the country on the process.
Topic:: Constitution, Syrian War, Negotiation, and Transition
Political Geography:: Middle East, United Nations, and Syria

7. Russia at the United Nations: Law, Sovereignty, and Legitimacy

Author:: Philip Remler
Publication Date:: 01-2020
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: The central task for Russian foreign policy in the era of President Vladimir Putin has been to regain the undisputed recognition that Russia is a world power like the Soviet Union before it, a status to which Russia feels entitled.1 The United Nations (UN) is Russia’s most important venue for putting its global aspirations and achievements on display. Russia’s status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council boosts its claim to be part of a global oligarchy and grants it the power to veto or undermine initiatives that it deems contrary to its interests. The concepts underlying Russia’s use of the UN to promote its aspirations form the subject of this paper. Russia, like the Soviet Union before it, devotes great resources to its missions at the UN, especially New York and Geneva. It traditionally cultivates extensive expertise among its mission members, appointing them to UN postings several times over their careers and leaving them in place for long periods. Russian diplomats are noted for their abilities in drafting highly technical UN documents in English—none more so than Sergey Lavrov, currently Russia’s foreign minister and formerly its permanent representative to the UN from 1994 to 2004.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Sovereignty, Power Politics, Law, Geopolitics, and Legitimacy
Political Geography:: Russia and United Nations

8. The End of War: How a Robust Marketplace and Liberal Hegemony Are Leading to Perpetual World Peace

Author:: Michael Mousseau
Publication Date:: 07-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Security
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Permanent world peace is beginning to emerge. States with developed market-oriented economies have foremost interests in the principle of self-determination of all states as the foundation for a robust global marketplace. War among these states, even making preparations for war, is not possible, because they are in a natural alliance to preserve and protect the global order. Among other states, weaker powers, fearing those that are stronger, tend to bandwagon with the relatively benign market-oriented powers. The result is a powerful liberal global hierarchy that is unwittingly, but systematically, buttressing states' embrace of market norms and values, moving the world toward perpetual peace. Analysis of voting preferences of members of the United Nations General Assembly from 1946 to 2010 corroborates the influence of the liberal global hierarchy: states with weak internal markets tend to disagree with the foreign policy preferences of the largest market power (i.e., the United States), but more so if they have stronger rather than weaker military and economic capabilities. Market-oriented states, in contrast, align with the market leader regardless of their capabilities. Barring some dark force that brings about the collapse of the global economy (such as climate change), the world is now in the endgame of a five-century-long trajectory toward permanent peace and prosperity.
Topic:: Peace Studies, War, Hegemony, Peacekeeping, Global Security, and Liberal Order
Political Geography:: United States, United Nations, and Global Focus

9. Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth

Author:: Jayathma Wickramanayake
Publication Date:: 09-2019
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:: This World Leaders Forum program features an address by Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:: Development, Gender Issues, United Nations, Multilateral Relations, and Youth
Political Geography:: New York, United Nations, and Global Focus

10. Global Health Security

Author:: Gro Harlem Brundtland
Publication Date:: 09-2019
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:: This World Leaders Forum program features an address on global health and preparedness by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, followed by a moderated panel discussion and question and answer session with the audience. As we approach the five-year anniversary of the historic UN Security Council resolution on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the goal of this panel discussion is to assess global preparedness as the World Health Organization and World Bank deliver their first set of recommendations on the margins of UNGA 2019.
Topic:: Development, Health, United Nations, World Health Organization, and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:: New York, United Nations, and West Africa

11. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia

Author:: Nikol Pashinyan
Publication Date:: 09-2019
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:: This World Leaders Forum program features an address by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia on comprehensive government reforms, approach to regional security challenges, and Armenia's priorities at the United Nations related to peace and security, sustainable development, human rights and cooperation with the UN in promoting good governance, fight against corruption, eradicating poverty, and other areas. The Prime Minister's address will be followed by a moderated question and answer session with the audience.
Topic:: Security, Development, Human Rights, and United Nations
Political Geography:: New York, Armenia, and United Nations

12. Tool 2: Policing and Gender (Gender and Security Toolkit)

Author:: Lisa Denney
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This Tool is part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit, which comprises nine Tools and a series of Policy Briefs. Within police services, this Tool is aimed at the policy rather than the operational level, with relevance for senior police, gender units and those interested in improving police effectiveness through integrating a gender perspective. While police services are a key audience for this Tool, it is intended for a wide readership – including parliaments, government departments with policing responsibilities, civil society organizations, development partners, international police assistance providers and researchers working to improve policing and gender equality. Police reform is not solely the work of police services, but of a wider set of actors who support and influence the police and their operating environment. This Tool sets out a range of options for integrating a gender perspective and advancing gender equality in and through policing, drawing on experience from multiple contexts. While it provides guidance in terms of examples and checklists which borrow from good practices in different contexts, what is relevant will differ across time and place and require adaptation. For that reason, the Tool also sets out conditions that are important in achieving progress. The Tool includes: why a gender perspective is important for policing; what policing that advances gender equality and integrates a gender perspective looks like; how policing can advance gender equality and integrate a gender perspective; case studies that draw out learning from specific contexts; suggestions for assessing a police service’s integration of gender; other useful resources.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Governance, Law Enforcement, Women, and Criminal Justice
Political Geography:: Geneva, Europe, United Nations, Switzerland, and Global Focus

13. Gender and Private Security Regulation

Author:: Anna Marie Burdzy, Lorraine Serrano, and Megan Bastick
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This Policy Brief is part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit, which comprises nine Tools and a series of Policy Briefs. The other Tools and Policy Briefs in this Toolkit focus on specific security and justice issues and providers, with more focused attention on what gender equality looks like and how to achieve it in particular sectors. It is intended that the Toolkit should be used as a whole, with readers moving between Tools and Policy Briefs to find more detail on aspects that interest them. This Policy Brief explains why integrating a gender perspective is important to the regulation of private military and security companies (PMSCs) and provides guidance to States on doing so in national legislation, contracting and procurement policies, as well as certification, oversight and accountability frameworks for PMSCs. The Policy Brief: Outlines what PMSCs are and the role of States in their regulation; explains why a gender perspective is needed for effective regulation of PMSCs; and presents a range of priorities and entry points for States to integrate a gender perspective in regulation of PMSCs.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Law Enforcement, Women, and Inequality
Political Geography:: Geneva, United Nations, and Global Focus

14. A Security Sector Governance Approach to Women, Peace and Security

Author:: Marta Ghittoni, Léa Lehouck, and Megan Bastick
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This Policy Brief is part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit, which comprises nine Tools and a series of Policy Briefs. The other Tools and Policy Briefs in this Toolkit focus on specific security and justice issues and providers, with more focused attention on what gender equality looks like and how to achieve it in particular sectors. It is intended that the Toolkit should be used as a whole, with readers moving between Tools and Policy Briefs to find more detail on aspects that interest them. This Policy Brief explains how applying the principles of good security sector governance and engaging with security sector reform (SSR) can help to achieve the goals of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. Over the last decade the UN system and many states and international actors have recognized that SSR should be gender responsive, identifying and addressing the different security and justice needs of women and men, girls and boys, across different parts of the community. In some SSR programmes, priorities have been set to promote the participation of women in the security sector. At the same time there is a need to step up the engagement of the WPS community with issues of security sector governance. This Policy Brief argues that applying a security sector governance lens to WPS helps to reveal the key barriers to and drivers of change. This Policy Brief: Explains the principles of good security sector governance; examines how security sector governance and SSR are addressed in the WPS Agenda; outlines how a security sector governance approach can catalyse the transformative and sustained change needed to realize the WPS Agenda.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Law Enforcement, and Women
Political Geography:: Geneva, United Nations, and Global Focus

15. Tool 1: Security Sector Governance, Security Sector Reform and Gender (Gender and Security Toolkit)

Author:: Henri Myrttinen and Megan Bastick
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This Tool is part of the DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit, which comprises nine Tools and a series of Policy Briefs. Tool 1 is mainly intended for use by policymakers and practitioners working in or working with security and justice sector institutions to increase gender equality – be it equality within the institutions themselves, or achieved through the work of the institutions within society. Some users might be approaching these issues through implementation of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments, or in relation to a security sector reform (SSR) process. The Tool also aims to be of use more widely to justice and security providers, people involved in oversight and management, civil society organizations, the media and academic researchers. The other Tools and Policy Briefs in this Toolkit focus on specific security and justice issues and providers, with more focused attention on what gender equality looks like and how to achieve it in particular sectors. It is intended that the Toolkit should be used as a whole, with readers moving between Tools and Policy Briefs to find more detail on aspects that interest them. The Tool: Introduces why gender matters in security sector governance (SSG) and in SSR processes, and outlines the benefits of integrating a gender perspective. It explains key concepts that are used in the Toolkit: gender, intersectionality, masculinities, femininities, LGBTI, gender equality and gender perspective, and also SSG and SSR. It gives an overview of some of the relevant international, regional and national legal obligations with respect to gender and SSG and SSR processes. It presents a vision of what integrating a gender perspective and promoting gender equality mean for security and justice providers, for management and oversight of sector and justice services, and for SSG and SSR processes. It presents several different pathways for the security and justice sector to integrate a gender perspective into SSG and SSR processes and advance gender equality. It focuses upon: defining security needs in an inclusive, gender-responsive manner; adopting policy frameworks to integrate gender equality into justice and security governance; gender training for security and justice providers; using staff with specialized gender expertise; changing masculine institutional cultures to increase women’s participation and diversity. It offers advice on how to overcome resistance to working on gender equality within the security and justice sector. It suggests elements of an institutional self-assessment checklist on integrating a gender perspective. It lists other useful resources to support work on gender equality with the security and justice sector, and in relation to SSG and SSR.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Law Enforcement, Women, Criminal Justice, and LGBT+
Political Geography:: Geneva, United Nations, and Global Focus

16. Gender-Responsive Organizational Climate Assessment in Armed Forces

Author:: Samantha Crompvoets
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Case Study
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This guide aims to collate and share knowledge and experience from NATO, NATO Partners and other armed forces regarding good practice when developing, implementing, and evaluating a gender-responsive organizational climate assessment. This guide is structured in five parts to describe the why and how of undertaking an organizational climate assessment in armed forces. It provides step-by-step advice, along with case study examples, for progressing your climate assessment from thought to action.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Law Enforcement, and Women
Political Geography:: Geneva, United Kingdom, Canada, United Nations, Spain, and Global Focus

17. Empowerment and compassion in refugee crisis response: A conversation with UNHCR MENA Director Amin Awad

Author:: Kelsey Wise and Amin Awad
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy
Institution:: The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:: The series of refugee crises in the Middle East and North Africa has created urgent need for coordinated international responses and advocacy. To learn more about the complexities of meeting the needs of diverse refugee populations across the region, and addressing their root causes, JMEPP Levant Regional Editor Kelsey Wise sat down with Amin Awad in advance of his appearance at the Harvard Arab Conference. Mr. Awad currently serves as the Director for the Middle East and North Africa with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and has extensive experience working on refugee issues and in humanitarian relief in the MENA region. He is also the Regional Refugee Coordinator for Syria and Iraq.
Topic:: Nationalism, Refugee Crisis, Displacement, Syrian War, Resettlement, and Child Marriage
Political Geography:: Turkey, Middle East, Yemen, United Nations, North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan

18. Maps Of War And Peace: Rethinking Geography In International Affairs

Author:: Luis da Vinha
Publication Date:: 03-2019
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:: In his memoirs of his final years as one of the United States’ most prominent foreign policy decision-makers, Henry Kissinger offers an anecdote involving President Nixon and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. As part of the celebration of the UN’s twenty-fifth anniversary, Ramgoolam was invited to dine with Nixon at the White House on 24 October 1970. The gathering nearly created a diplomatic faux pas due in large part to the admin- istration’s confusion regarding the geography of Africa. According to Kissinger, the national security staff mistook the country of Mauritius—U.S. ally and island nation located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar—for Mauritania, a northwestern African nation that had broken diplomatic relations with the United States in 1967 as a result of U.S. support for Israel during the Six-Day War.
Topic:: International Relations, War, Geopolitics, Peace, and Cartography
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

19. Nuclear Weapons with 21st Century Technology: A Conversation with John Borrie

Author:: John Borrie and Fletcher Security Review Staff
Publication Date:: 07-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: John Borrie is the research coordinate and program lead at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. He’s currently working on continuing and expanding dialogues about disarmament and the impact of nuclear weapons on humanitarian affairs. He previously worked on weapons control for both the International Committee of the Red Cross and as a New Zealand diplomat. Borrie holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bradford.
Topic:: Security, Nuclear Weapons, Science and Technology, and Interview
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

20. Digitization and the Future of Trade A Conversation with Martin Labbé

Author:: Martin Labbé
Publication Date:: 07-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: Martin Labbé is the Tech-Sector Development Coordinator at the International Trade Centre and the Program Manager for Netherlands Trust Fund IV (NTF IV), a USD 10 million Export Sector Competitiveness Program. He manages NTF IV Uganda and NT IV Senegal tech-sector development projects, working closely with IT sector associations & tech hubs, SMEs and tech startups to support the internationalization of the local digital economy. He has been actively involved in designing and managing several online and offline B2B business-development and marketing activities in developing countries and transition economies as well as training small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) on technology and trade, with a focus on e-commerce.
Topic:: International Trade and Finance, Science and Technology, Economy, and Trade
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

21. Human Rights Council Investigative Mechanisms and Mass Atrocity Prevention

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 11-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: Since the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was unanimously adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit, the international community has looked to the UN Security Council in New York to respond when a government has been unwilling or unable to protect its population from war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide or ethnic cleansing. Paragraphs 138-139 of the World Summit Outcome Document recognize the Security Council’s unique role with regard to upholding the international community’s responsibility to protect as the body primarily responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. However, the Human Rights Council (HRC) and other Geneva-based mechanisms are also essential for preventing atrocity crimes. Since systematic or widespread human rights violations serve as early warning signs of possible atrocities, Geneva-based mechanisms are often the first to raise the alarm regarding situations where violations and abuses threaten to deepen or deteriorate. Such mechanisms play an important role in enabling the international community to assist states in preventing mass atrocities (R2P’s Pillar II) and respond in a timely and decisive manner to atrocity risks (Pillar III).
Topic:: Human Rights, International Law, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), UN Security Council, and Atrocities
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

22. UN Human Rights Council Elections for 2020-2022 and the Responsibility to Protect

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 10-2019
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: Today the UN General Assembly elected Armenia, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Libya, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Namibia, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Korea, Sudan and Venezuela to the Human Rights Council (HRC) for the 2020-2022 term. With the elections of Germany, Japan, Marshall Islands, Netherlands and Republic of Korea, 20 of the 47 Council members during 2020 will also be members of the Group of Friends of the Responsibility to Protect in Geneva.
Topic:: Human Rights, Ethnic Cleansing, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and Atrocities
Political Geography:: Japan, Sudan, Indonesia, Poland, Libya, Brazil, Germany, Armenia, United Nations, Venezuela, Korea, Netherlands, Mauritania, Namibia, and Marshall Islands

23. R2P and Outcomes of the Human Rights Council’s 42nd Session

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 10-2019
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The 42nd regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva between 9 and 27 September 2019. As the primary international human rights body, the HRC has the capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocity crimes, as systematic violations and abuses of human rights can be an indicator of potential genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. The summary below highlights major outcomes from the 42nd session as they relate to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from such crimes. As part of the session, the Netherlands delivered a statement on behalf of 53 members of the Group of Friends of R2P.
Topic:: Human Rights, Transitional Justice, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Atrocities, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: Sudan, Yemen, Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations, Syria, Somalia, Burundi, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Central African Republic

24. R2P and Outcomes of the Human Rights Council’s 41st Session

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 07-2019
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The 41st regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva between 24 June and 12 July 2019. As the primary international human rights body, the Human Rights Council has the capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocity crimes, as systematic violations and abuses of human rights can be potential indicators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. The summary below highlights major outcomes and relevant dialogues from the 41st session as they relate to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from such crimes. As part of the session, the Netherlands and Rwanda delivered two statements on behalf of members of the Group of Friends of R2P.
Topic:: Human Rights, International Law, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Atrocities, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: Philippines, Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations, Syria, Netherlands, Rwanda, and Eritrea

25. Summary of the Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect: Lessons Learned for Prevention

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 06-2019
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The eleventh report of the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) emphasizes the important role of prevention. The report takes stock of a range of measures that individual states and the international community can undertake while upholding their preventive responsibilities based upon best practices since the adoption of R2P at the 2005 UN World Summit. While acknowledging a growing number of contemporary atrocity situations around the world, the Secretary-General cautions that “there is a growing gap between our words of commitment and the experience of protecting vulnerable populations.” The report offers a number of practical policy suggestions based upon experiences of the last decade and serves as a call to action for member states and international institutions.
Topic:: International Cooperation, International Law, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and Atrocities
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

26. 2020-2021 UN Security Council Elections and the Responsibility to Protect

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 06-2019
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: Today, 7 June 2019, the United Nations General Assembly elected Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Viet Nam to the UN Security Council for the period of 2020-2021. With their election, 6 of the 15 members of the Council in 2020 will be “Friends of the Responsibility to Protect” – having appointed an R2P Focal Point and/or joined the Group of Friends of R2P in New York and Geneva.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Human Rights, Sovereignty, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), UN Security Council, and Atrocities
Political Geography:: Vietnam, Estonia, United Nations, Tunisia, Niger, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

27. R2P and Outcomes of the Human Rights Council’s 40th Session

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 03-2019
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The 40th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva between 25 February and 22 March 2019. As the primary international human rights body, the Human Rights Council has the capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocity crimes, as systematic violations and abuses of human rights can be potential indicators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. The summary below highlights major outcomes and relevant dialogues from the 40th session as they relate to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from such crimes. As part of the session, the Netherlands delivered a statement on behalf of members of the Group of Friends of R2P.
Topic:: International Law, State Violence, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Atrocities, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, North Korea, Palestine, United Nations, Nicaragua, Syria, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Global Focus

28. Food security and land use in the 21st century: the return of Malthusianism

Author:: Timothy M. Swanson
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:: The coming century is set to pose many important problems regarding population, food requirements and land use. In many ways, the problem facing us is a stark reminder of Malthus’ predictions regarding the importance of resource constraints in the face of population growth. Despite questions concerning the core of the problems to be solved, there is little issue concerning the manifestations of these problems. First, we are seeing the culmination of a long-term process of human population growth, which commenced in earnest about 250 years previously (about the time of Malthus) and escalated thereafter, continuing to this day. A global population that was only about a million individuals in 1750, escalated to about two billion individuals in 1950, and has since increased to approximately seven billion.
Topic:: Agriculture, Food, Population, Food Security, Land Rights, and Population Growth
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

29. Collateral Damage No More: Urban Conflict, Explosive Weapons, and a Case Study in Multilateral Norm Building

Author:: Cesar Jaramillo
Publication Date:: 11-2019
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:: Twenty years after the UN Security Council first adopted the resolution on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict—and 70 years after the Geneva Conventions—the international community has yet to adequately respond to and prevent some of the most injurious manifestations of armed conflict to date. With civilians bearing the brunt of contemporary warfare, the development of robust new standards that protect the lives and livelihoods of noncombatants must become both a policy priority and a humanitarian imperative.
Topic:: Treaties and Agreements, Weapons, Conflict, Multilateralism, Urban, and Norms
Political Geography:: United Nations, Vienna, and Global

30. A Decisive Vote for Humanitarian Support in Syria

Author:: Dana Stroul and Charles Thépaut
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: Renewing the UN cross-border mechanism is crucial to helping millions of needy Syrian civilians, preventing Russia and Assad from weaponizing aid deliveries, and safeguarding future international assistance efforts. On December 19, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on the renewal of Resolution 2449, which authorizes the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid to Syrians without the Assad regime’s permission. The outcome will determine whether the regime is allowed to approve and entirely control who receives UN aid, and in what areas of the country it is available. If the resolution is not renewed, aid delivery will become yet another tool for shifting the war’s trajectory in President Bashar al-Assad’s favor, with dire implications for civilians living in areas not under regime control. The recent Security Council debate over the resolution reflects broader developments inside Syria. Russia has coordinated with China to argue that current battlefield trends are in the regime’s favor, attempting to use the aid debate as a means of coercing political recognition of Assad. Others have proposed adding a fifth crossing along the northern border at Tal Abyad to address the increased needs of Syrian civilians trapped in the latest Turkish military operation. UN Security-General Antonio Guterres has recalled how essential the mechanism is to reaching people in need.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Humanitarian Aid, International Law, United Nations, and Syrian War
Political Geography:: Middle East, United Nations, Syria, and United States of America

31. With or Without You: How the G20 Could Advance Global Action towards Climate-Friendly Sustainable Development

Author:: Steffen Bauer, Axel Berger, and Gabriela Iacobuta
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:: With a collective responsibility for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while representing 80% of global wealth, it is imperative that the countries of the G20 throw their weight behind the implementation of both the Paris Climate Agree-ment and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Develop¬ment. In the past, the G20 has demonstrated that it can do that. The G20 Summit in November 2015 in Antalya, Turkey, provided strong support for the climate agreement signed a month later at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris. In 2016 in Hangzhou, China, the G20 adopted an Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Develop¬ment and committed to “further align its work” with the 2030 Agenda. Even though both agendas have emerged in the multilateral context of the United Nations system, the G20 is expected to exert strong political leadership to address global climate change and to achieve sustainable development. Yet, since 2017 the G20 has struggled to provide such leadership, as support for multilateral commitments, especially those involving ambitious climate actions, appears to be fading. Crucially, opposition to strong multilateral climate policy in the US and Brazil resorts to outright climate denialism at the highest levels of government. These developments are challenging the G20, and BRICS and the G7 for that matter, to sustain support for multilateral commitments on climate and sustainable development. The rise of populist and unilaterally minded parties in European club members may further the risk of side-lining climate and sustainability-related issues in the G20 process. This does not bode well at a time when the G20’s support could be a vital ingredient for the success of the United Nations’ summits on climate action and sustainable development, both scheduled to convene in New York in September 2019 – less than three months after the Osaka G20 Summit in Japan. Following our analysis, we identify four ways forward that should be conducive to harnessing the G20’s economic weight and political clout to push more ambitious global action towards climate-friendly sustainable development, in spite of apparent discrepancies between domestic agendas and global understandings.
Topic:: Climate Change, G20, Sustainable Development Goals, and Political Science
Political Geography:: Europe, Brazil, United Nations, and United States of America

32. The Relationship between the United Nations Command and Japan: 1950 to 2018

Author:: Michael MacArthur Bosack
Publication Date:: 04-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: The United Nations Command is the multinational headquarters that led the allied forces in the Korean War. The command’s Military Armistice Commission supervises the Armistice Agreement. While the United Nations Command and its activities are common knowledge in the Republic of Korea, the command’s long-standing organization and functions in Japan are less well known. This relationship began in 1950 and is codified in the 1954 United Nations-Japan Status of Forces Agreement. The command’s rear area headquarters, the aptly named United Nations Command-Rear Headquarters, has managed this relationship since 1957. After decades of few changes, the United Nations Command and its Sending States broadened traditional roles and missions from Japan beginning in the early 2000s. This led to expanded activities within the legal framework and security mandate governing the United Nations Command’s relationship with Japan, strengthening Japan’s ties with the command’s member states, and supporting the “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea. This paper examines the relationship between the United Nations Command and Japan, beginning with the institutions and interests underpinning the relationship. Next, it describes the Status of Forces Agreement and how the relationship functions. The paper concludes with a discussion of relevant policy issues, limitations to greater cooperation, and opportunities for expanded roles within the framework of the relationship.
Topic:: International Relations, History, Military Affairs, and UN Security Council
Political Geography:: Japan, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, United Nations, and United States of America

33. he Importance of Gender Parity in the UN’s Efforts on International Peace and Security

Author:: Nahla Valji and Pablo Castillo
Publication Date:: 08-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: This article highlights the continued stark absence of women from key policy spaces and sites of power and restates the case for the importance of gender parity as a fundamental building block of both gender equality and the overall effectiveness of institutions and outcomes. It does so through a focus on the area of international peace and security and the UN’s efforts, highlighting the way in which women’s inclusion is critical for efforts to secure sustainable peace. At a time when both the movement for gender equality and its backlash are ascendant political forces, and the proliferation of armed conflict is testing the credibility of multilateralism, it is significant that the UN is demanding transformation, starting with its own work force; and essential that this focus also include an emphatic insistence on the question of ‘where are the women’ in all areas of peace and security, serving as a model for other international and national actors.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Gender Issues, United Nations, Women, Inequality, and International Community
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

34. Is the Future of Foreign Policy Feminist?

Author:: Lyric Thompson and Rachel Clement
Publication Date:: 08-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: In 2014, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallström took the worldby storm when she launched the world’s first explicitly feminist foreign policy. The new policy would be a way of doing things differently in Sweden’s international affairs, organizing its approach to diplomacy, development, and defense under a 3 Rs framework of women’s rights, resources, and representation, the latter of which this journal issue seeks to explore.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Women, Inequality, and Feminism
Political Geography:: Europe, United Nations, Sweden, and Global Focus

35. Prohibitions and Export Assessment: Tracking Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty

Author:: Tobias Vestner
Publication Date:: 04-2019
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: This Geneva Paper shows that ATT states parties generally implement the ATT’s prohibitions set forth in Article 6 through national laws and policies. This paper also demonstrates that exporting states implement the ATT’s obligations regarding export assessment contained in Article 7 in many different ways. While the spectrum of how exporting states parties consider an arms exports’ potential effect on peace and security is very broad, their national frameworks contain similar or nearly identical export criteria on assessing the risk of arms being used for serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Few states parties have national export criteria regarding terrorism, transnational organized crime and gender-based violence. States also consider national criteria other than those specified in Article 7 before authorizing arms exports, including positive consequences of arms exports. Finally, states parties’ national frameworks mostly do not define clear thresholds for denying arms exports. Given this divergence in states party implementation, in addition to a remaining lack of clarity on how states apply the ATT provisions in practice, this paper recommends reinforcing dialogue on ATT implementation. This could lead to better understanding and implementation guidance that strengthens the emergence of common standards and improves the quality of national export assessments. To increase states parties’ knowledge on risks to be avoided, institutionalizing cooperation with human rights bodies and establishing an ATT internal information exchange mechanism is also recommended.
Topic:: Arms Control and Proliferation, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, and Arms Trade
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

36. Investing in ethical education to solve Burundi’s domestic governance

Author:: Gervais Rufyikiri
Publication Date:: 06-2019
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Since the 1960s, the period of independence of Burundi, the situation of human rights has remained worrying. The UN Human Rights Office in Burundi, established in 1995, at the height of the 1993 bloody civil war, has assisted the Government in order to protect and promote the human rights, until it shut down on February 28, 2019. The assistance provided by the Office was impactful mainly through the harmonization of national legislation with international human rights standards and the creation of institutions focused on the protection and defence of human rights. The closure of the Office is one manifestation of the embarrassment in which Burundian top leaders find themselves after neutral UN experts have reported serious human rights violations committed by state institutions that may constitute crimes against humanity. The short-term solution could result from a combination of increased pressure and diplomatic actions to negotiate with the government of Burundi the reinstatement of the UN Human Rights Office. Such actions could also help to mitigate the symptoms of poor governance, particularly with regard to human rights. For the long-term, a robust mechanism addressing the root cause of ineffective or bad governance is the right way towards a lasting solution. In this regard, we suggest a smart training program specifically addressing issues of leadership ethics within all levels and categories of the leaders, sustained by coaching and mentoring activities.
Topic:: Human Rights, Governance, Ethics, and Domestic Policy
Political Geography:: Africa, United Nations, and Burundi

37. Defining the Concept of ‘Violent Extremism’

Author:: Mathias Bak, Kristoffer Nilaus Tarp, and Christina Schori Liang
Publication Date:: 08-2019
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: During the last few decades, the concept of violent extremism (VE) has played an increasingly prominent role in policies and development programming on a global level. Having gone through several incarnations, the current focus for most actors deals with preventing and countering violent extremism. This terminology was constructed in an effort to repackage the Global War on Terror (GWOT) in a manner that shifted the focus away from the over-militarised responses of the 90s and early 2000s, to methods linked to social support and prevention. Where counterterrorism focuses on countering terrorists through physical means, the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) approach aims to prevent the rise of violent extremist organisations (VEOs) through less militarised methods. P/CVE programs therefore aim at developing resilience among communities that may be prone to violent extremism. According to the 2015 UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, such interventions aim to address the root causes and drivers of violent extremism, which often include: socio-economic issues; discrimination; marginalization; poor governance; human rights violations; remnants of violent conflict; collective grievances; and other psychological factors.1 The concept of violent extremism has also become increasingly mainstream in the international community, with both the UN Security Council (UNSC 2014)2 and the UN General Assembly3 (UNGA 2015) calling for member states to address VE.
Topic:: Security, Violent Extremism, Counter-terrorism, and War on Terror
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

38. Security and Sustainable Development in Cape Town, South Africa

Author:: Guy Lamb
Publication Date:: 10-2018
Content Type:: Case Study
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: SSR for Safer Cities - Supporting States to Achieve SDG 11 Safety and security has already become an urban experience for more than half of the world’s population. Against this backdrop, SDG 11 seeks to bring sustainable and peaceful development to the people who live in cities by calling on states to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Yet high rates of urban violence reflect a failure to address the challenges of urbanization in national and donor-supported strategies for security and development. Urban violence exacerbates state fragility and human suffering, endangers local and regional peace, and drives uncontrolled migration. This fact demonstrates the urgency of linking SDG 11 with SDG 5 on women’s empowerment and SDG 16 on peaceful, just and inclusive societies. Within this larger priority there is now a pressing need to address the immediate challenges of SSR in urban contexts, manifests in the purpose of DCAF’s Policy and Research Division project “SSR for Safer Cities” supported by the Human Security Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. As part of the project, three case studies on security in cities conducted by local experts over the course of 2018 examine SSR within the urban realm; the selected cities are Bogotá, Cape Town and General Santos City.
Topic:: Security, Law Enforcement, Urbanization, and Sustainable Development Goals
Political Geography:: Geneva, Africa, South Africa, and United Nations

39. Security and Sustainable Development in Bogotá, Colombia

Author:: Juan Felipe Godoy, Claudia Rodríguez, and Hernando Zuleta
Publication Date:: 10-2018
Content Type:: Case Study
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: SSR for Safer Cities - Supporting States to Achieve SDG 11 Safety and security has already become an urban experience for more than half of the world’s population. Against this backdrop, SDG 11 seeks to bring sustainable and peaceful development to the people who live in cities by calling on states to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Yet high rates of urban violence reflect a failure to address the challenges of urbanization in national and donor-supported strategies for security and development. Urban violence exacerbates state fragility and human suffering, endangers local and regional peace, and drives uncontrolled migration. This fact demonstrates the urgency of linking SDG 11 with SDG 5 on women’s empowerment and SDG 16 on peaceful, just and inclusive societies. Within this larger priority there is now a pressing need to address the immediate challenges of SSR in urban contexts, manifests in the purpose of DCAF’s Policy and Research Division project “SSR for Safer Cities” supported by the Human Security Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. As part of the project, three case studies on security in cities conducted by local experts over the course of 2018 examine SSR within the urban realm; the selected cities are Bogotá, Cape Town and General Santos City.
Topic:: Crime, Governance, Law Enforcement, Urbanization, Sustainable Development Goals, and Gender Based Violence
Political Geography:: Geneva, Colombia, South America, and United Nations

40. Enhancing Multilateral Support for Security Sector Reform:A Mapping Study covering the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Author:: Vincenza Scherrer and Alba Bescos Pou
Publication Date:: 01-2018
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Multilateral organizations are playing an important role in shaping the SSR agenda through the development of policy and guidance and by engaging in the provision of a wide range of SSR support on the ground. However, despite their significant engagement in this area, there is no predictability in terms of the type of support that multilateral organizations will take on. While policy frameworks concur that international support should be well coordinated, the support provided by these organizations tends to be compartmentalized in practice. As a result, considerable time is often lost while each organization separately assesses a conflict, maps what others are doing, and agrees on a division of labour. The report presents the findings of a multi-year research project on the approaches of the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to supporting nationally-led SSR processes. The study aims at developing an empirically-based understanding of the roles and potential comparative advantages of these organizations in SSR support, as well as avenues for enhanced cooperation. For this purpose, the study examines the following three categories related to the role of multilateral organizations in SSR support: normative frameworks, institutional capacities, and operational practices. This report was commissioned from DCAF by the Security Sector Reform Unit (SSRU) of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).
Topic:: Security, Human Rights, Peacekeeping, Reform, and Multilateralism
Political Geography:: Geneva, Africa, Europe, United Nations, European Union, and African Union

41. The role of parliaments in NATO member countries in advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda

Author:: Sarah Ferbach, Audrey Reeves, Callum Watson, and Léa Lehouck
Publication Date:: 01-2018
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Since 2007, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly has pursued an original and ground-breaking approach of mapping the distinctive contribution of its member parliaments to advancing the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda. Following on from previous reports in 2013 and in 2015, this study provides an up-to-date analysis of the 28 national responses to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly WPS survey in 2018. The main findings are as follows: 1. There was an increase in parliaments’ reported activity in the field of WPS, from 81% of respondents reporting some degree of involvement in 2015 to 100% in 2018. Countries with a National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security remain twice as active as countries without a NAP. 2. Of all participating delegations, 91% report that women recently occupied prominent functions related to peace and security in their parliament, thus contributing to enhancing women’s leadership in public debate on peace and security. 3. Parliamentary reports suggest that their engagement as legislative and oversight bodies has remained stable or slightly decreased in quantitative terms. Encouragingly, this engagement has nonetheless diversified in qualitative terms. Parliaments now report the development of legislation and resolutions on a greater variety of WPS themes and 36% mention using two or more monitoring mechanisms in overseeing the implementation of the WPS agenda, an increase from 24% in 2015. 4. Parliaments of NATO member countries have taken up NATO policy recommendations regarding dialogue with civil society organisations and cooperation with other NATO member states, with 17 delegations (61% of respondents) now reporting some activity in this area. The report includes full details and analysis of the survey responses as well as recommendations for parliaments in NATO member countries going forward.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Development, Gender Issues, Refugee Issues, Peacekeeping, Women, and Gender Based Violence
Political Geography:: Geneva, Europe, and United Nations

42. Security Sector Reform and Sustaining Peace Proceedings of the High-Level Roundtable

Author:: Vincenza Scherrer and Alba Bescos Pou
Publication Date:: 04-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: On 23 April 2018 in New York, Slovakia and South Africa, on behalf of the UN Group of Friends of SSR, co-hosted a High-Level Roundtable on Security Sector Reform and Sustaining Peace. The event took place on the eve of the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on “Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace” and was organized with the support of the Security Sector Reform Unit of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), the Bureau for Policy and Program Support at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), and the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD). The High-Level Roundtable was the third in a series of three high-level events held in the period of a year. It was preceded by a High-Level Dialogue on Global Experiences in SSR, hosted in New York in May 2017 – especially a seminar on “The Nexus between SSR, Conflict Prevention and Peace Sustainment” co-hosted by South Africa and Slovakia, and a seminar on “Conflict Prevention and Peace Sustainment on the African Continent” co-hosted by South Africa and Senegal – as well as a High-Level Conference on the “Role of Security Sector Reform in Sustaining Peace: Challenges and Opportunities” that was hosted by Slovakia on 5-6 June 2017 in Bratislava. These events served to highlight important challenges to SSR support in the context of sustaining peace that needed to be addressed, and to develop a series of recommendations worth pursuing further. The High-Level Roundtable on Security Sector Reform and Sustaining Peace held on 23 April 2018 sought to build on important insights from these past events, as well as on the body of relevant policy and research that has been developed over the past year in the areas of sustaining peace and SSR.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, Peacekeeping, and Reform
Political Geography:: Africa, New York, Europe, South Africa, United Nations, Slovakia, and United States of America

43. Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations: Baseline Study

Author:: Marta Ghittoni, Léa Lehouck, and Callum Watson
Publication Date:: 07-2018
Content Type:: Case Study
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: The proportion of female police and military peacekeepers remains well below UN targets. Research suggests that the main reason behind the small numbers seems to be a variety of challenges and barriers to uniformed women deploying to PKOs. This baseline study compiles and analyses research published to date on the topic. The study was commissioned by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in the framework of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. The main objectives of this study are to describe the current situation as concerns women’s participation in military and police roles in United Nations peacekeeping operations, document international good practice to increase such participation, and identify challenges and barriers to the recruitment, training, retention, deployment and promotion of uniformed women in peacekeeping operations.
Topic:: Gender Issues, Peacekeeping, Military Affairs, and Women
Political Geography:: Geneva, Canada, United Nations, and Global Focus

44. Tracking the Development Dividend of SSR

Author:: Elisabetta Baldassini, Robin Dyk, Mark Krupanski, Gustav Meibauer, Albrecht Schnabel, Usha Trepp, and Raphael Zumsteg
Publication Date:: 02-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: This report aims at investigating and substantiating the assumed relationship between security sector reform (SSR) activities and their impact on development prospects in order to reconcile the apparent impasse between development and SSR practitioners. Understanding the linkages between SSR and development allows researchers to generalise and produce comparable data necessary to assess and improve the suitability of SSR in helping societies achieve their development and peacebuilding objectives.
Topic:: Security, Development, Peacekeeping, and Reform
Political Geography:: Geneva, United Nations, and Global Focus

45. What’s in a deal anyway: Idlib DMZ violations harm peace process

Author:: Nicholas Norberg
Publication Date:: 01-2018
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy
Institution:: The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:: In the backdrop of negotiations over drafting Syria’s new constitution and a transition in UN representation on Syria, the conflict in Idlib continues to simmer. Unrest in Idlib and dissatisfaction there with the internationally-recognized opposition, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), leaves residents of Syria’s northwest excluded from constitutional committee. This is significant because the constitutional convention is increasingly viewed as a precondition for advancing the larger peace process. The constitutional committee is no place to hammer out granular differences between warring factions in Idlib, but the course of events there hold significant implications for the future of the broader peace process.
Topic:: Peace Studies, Conflict, Syrian War, and Negotiation
Political Geography:: Russia, Turkey, Middle East, United Nations, Syria, and Idlib

46. Islamists and Rights Activists in Egypt: The Potential for Convergence

Author:: Heba Raoul Ezzat
Publication Date:: 10-2018
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:: Animosity has been the keyword in the relationship between Islamists and rights advocates for most of the past few years in Egypt. Islamists turned a blind eye to many crimes committed by the regime and its security agencies between 25 January 2011 and mid-2013. On the other hand, some rights advocates took part in mobilizing and supporting the opposition movement that led to the June 2013 demonstrations and the military seizing power. However, the killings, executions, and other egregious rights violations, then the direct confrontation between the regime and rights groups culminating in a more restrictive NGO law, led rights defenders to take a firmer position, by condemning the regime, and monitoring and documenting its violations. More Islamists are expected to see an opportunity in resorting to human rights advocacy. As such, this would mean accepting more cooperation, especially in terms of monitoring and documentation through various initiatives and institutions established after 2013. Led by a new generation of actors, will this cooperation be free from ideological conflicts? The paper seeks to review, in broad brushstrokes, the contours and important turning points of the relationship between the two groups of actors and outline a possible future trajectory.
Topic:: Human Rights, International Cooperation, Islam, NGOs, and Repression
Political Geography:: Africa, United Nations, North Africa, Egypt, and Mediterranean

47. Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World by Paul Collier & Alexader Betts

Author:: Paul Collier, Alexander Betts, and Sabrineh Ardalan
Publication Date:: 07-2018
Content Type:: Working Paper
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: With over 65 million people forcibly displaced around the world, policymakers, academics, and advocates alike are searching for creative approaches to addressing the challenges presented.[1] Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World reflects an effort by two preeminent scholars, Alexander Betts, Leopold W. Muller Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs and Director of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, and Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Oxford University, to identify the main drivers of and responses to forced migration. Following the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) engaged in a series of discus- sions with UN member states, experts, advocacy groups, refugees, and other stakeholders, including from the private sector and financial world, to develop the “zero draft” of the global compact on refugees.[2] Released in January 2018, the draft contains a “programme of action” with prescriptions for a comprehensive refugee response framework aimed at meeting the needs of refugee communities through access to education and work, among other services. The draft focuses on investment in local solutions to integrate refugees and to provide refugees with opportunities to engage productively with the communities that host them. In their book, Refuge, Betts and Collier present several ideas for rethinking assistance to refugees echoed in the current draft of the compact. Self-reliance and autonomy, for example, are key themes in both Refuge and the zero draft. They note, in particular, the need for investment in employment opportunities and training for refugees with the dual purpose of “restor[ing] normality” and “incubating post-conflict recovery.” The draft compact likewise underscores how essential skill development is to preparing refugees for long-term, durable solutions such as voluntary repatriation when circumstances allow for it...
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Migration, Refugees, and Book Review
Political Geography:: United Nations, North America, and United States of America

48. R2P and Outcomes of the Human Rights Council’s 39th Session

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 10-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The 39th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva between 10 and 28 September 2018. As the primary international human rights body, the Human Rights Council has the capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocity crimes, as systematic violations and abuses of human rights can be potential indicators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. The summary below highlights major outcomes and relevant dialogues from the 39th session as they relate to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from such crimes. As part of the session, the Netherlands delivered two statements on behalf of 49 members of the Group of Friends of R2P.
Topic:: International Law, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Atrocities, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: Africa, Middle East, Asia, South America, United Nations, Central America, and Global Focus

49. 2019-2021 UN Human Rights Council Elections and the Responsibility to Protect

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 10-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: Today the UN General Assembly elected Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, India, Italy, Philippines, Somalia, Togo and Uruguay to the Human Rights Council (HRC) for the 2019-2021 term. With the elections of Argentina, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy and Uruguay, 20 of the 47 Council members during 2019 are also members of the Group of Friends of the Responsibility to Protect in Geneva.
Topic:: Human Rights, Elections, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Atrocities, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

50. The UN Security Council’s Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect: A Review of Past Interventions and Recommendations for Improvement

Author:: Jared Genser
Publication Date:: 09-2018
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: When it was adopted by the United Nations (UN) system in 2005, the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was meant to provide an implementation mechanism for the international community to respond to governments that were perpetrating the mass atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. As R2P is now in its second decade of existence, it is important to evaluate past implementation of R2P by the UN Security Council — the UN body charged with taking collective action when all other preventive efforts have failed and atrocity crimes are being committed or are imminent. This briefing paper is a summary of a more detailed law review article recently published in the University of Chicago Journal of International Law.
Topic:: Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing, International Community, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), UN Security Council, and Crimes Against Humanity
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

51. Defining the Four Mass Atrocity Crimes

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 08-2018
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: During the 2005 United Nations World Summit, heads of state and government accepted the responsibility of every state to protect its population from four crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The first three crimes are legally defined in various international legal documents, such as the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols, and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Their status as international crimes is based on the belief that the acts associated with them affect the core dignity of human beings, both in times of peace and in times of war.
Topic:: Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing, and Crimes Against Humanity
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

52. R2P and Outcomes of the Human Rights Council’s 38th Session

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 07-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The 38th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva between 18 June and 6 July 2018. As the primary international human rights body, the Human Rights Council has the capacity to prevent and respond to potential mass atrocity crimes. The summary below highlights major outcomes and relevant dialogues from the 38th session as they relate to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. As part of the session, the Netherlands and Australia delivered two statements on behalf of the 51 members of the Group of Friends of R2P.
Topic:: Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Atrocities, UN Human Rights Council (HRC), and Crimes Against Humanity
Political Geography:: Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations, Syria, and Eritrea

53. 2019-2020 UN Security Council Elections and the Responsibility to Protect

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 06-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: Today, 8 June 2018, the United Nations General Assembly elected Belgium, Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa to the UN Security Council for 2019-2020. With their election, 9 of the 15 members of the Council in 2019 will be “Friends of the Responsibility to Protect” – having appointed an R2P Focal Point and/or joined the Group of Friends of R2P in New York and Geneva. The global displacement of civilians due to conflict, mass atrocities and persecution is at its highest level since the end of the Second World War. As the UN body responsible for maintaining international peace and security, the Security Council must ensure that populations in every country are protected from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Topic:: UN Security Council and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: Indonesia, South Africa, Germany, Belgium, United Nations, and Dominican Republic

54. R2P and Outcomes of the Human Rights Council 37th Session

Author:: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Publication Date:: 04-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The 37th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) was held in Geneva between the 26 February and 23 March 2018. As the primary international human rights body, the Human Rights Council has the capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocity crimes, as systematic violations and abuses of human rights can be an indicator of potential genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. The summary below highlights major outcomes and relevant dialogues from the 37th session as they relate to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from such crimes. As part of the session, the Netherlands and Rwanda delivered two statements on behalf of the fifty-one members of the Group of Friends of R2P.
Topic:: International Law, Elections, Atrocities, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

55. Mobilizing Additional Funds for Pro-Poor Water Services: An Exploration of Potential Models to Finance Safe Water Access in Support of Sustainable Development Goal 6.1

Author:: Tanvi Nagpal, Ammar A. Malik, Matthew Eldridge, Yoori Kim, and Chloe Hauenstein
Publication Date:: 09-2018
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: Meeting the Sustainable Development Goal for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030 requires utilities serving the poorest households to play critical roles. Yet these utilities are frequently unable to cover their current operational costs, much less expand access, through existing tariffs and transfers. New models and approaches are needed to identify new sources of sustainable subsidies for these utilities. Drawing on lessons from other sectors, this study explores three potential models in particular – global funds, solidarity levies, and land value capture – for raising additional resources and considers ways that funding could be pooled and delivered to incentivize improved outcomes.
Topic:: Water, Sustainable Development Goals, and International Development
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

56. Business and Private Diplomacy:A Potential Catalyst for Sustainable Peace

Author:: Misha Nagelmackers-Voinov
Publication Date:: 07-2018
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Long considered a natural partner for peace through economic diplomacy and bilateral trade agreements, business has increasingly become ignored or demonised. The private sector comprises a wide diversity of organisations and is the part of the economy that is not run by a state, but by individuals and companies for profit. Small businesses/micro-companies serve as a good starting point for a conflict resolution process because they often constitute the only form of economic activity in a conflict zone. MNCs have a range of options to respond to conflict, but cannot openly take part in conflict resolution and peacebuilding initiatives, and rarely become involved officially. Track Two diplomacy is their more likely area of involvement. The United Nations has frequently supported the view that the private sector can be a powerful agent of change. However, the UN still engages only two players in conflict resolution and peacebuilding: civil society/NGOs and armed actors. UN peace operations have never been expressly mandated to consult with business or use its influence to build peace. Combining the resources, expertise and leverage of all possible actors would produce a more formidable force for peace. World affairs would benefit from integrating the private sector into a new UN system of governance; new routes are possible for a truly inclusive approach, recognising the business sector’s positive contribution to sustainable peace through informal mediation and collaborative engagement.
Topic:: International Relations, Diplomacy, Economy, Business, Peace, and Sustainability
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

57. WPS+GPS: Adding Gender to the Peace and Security Equation

Author:: Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown
Publication Date:: 11-2017
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Women In International Security (WIIS)
Abstract:: Political leaders regularly make grand, public statements about the importance of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda for promoting national and international security, but their policy actions have fallen far short of their rhetorical declarations. There are two main reasons for this. First, political leaders are the point persons for their male-dominated security establishments. These establishments do not prioritize women and gender issues in national and international security affairs. Second, the WPS agenda has been framed as a “women’s” issue, which makes it easier for the establishment to marginalize the WPS cause.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, National Security, Peace Studies, International Security, Peacekeeping, and Women
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

58. What We Can Learn from Inclusive Security: A Conversation with Ambassador Swannee Hunt

Author:: Eli Stiefel and Swannee Hunt
Publication Date:: 07-2017
Content Type:: Working Paper
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: Swanee Hunt is an activist, philanthropist, academic, author, and internationalist. She is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She was the Founding Director of the school’s Women and Public Policy Program and is currently core faculty at the Center for Public Leadership and senior advisor to the Working Group on Modern Day Slavery at the Carr Center for Human Rights. She has taught The Choreography of Social Movements at Harvard College and lectured at Harvard's business, law, divinity, and education graduate schools. Hunt also chairs the Washington-based non-profit Inclusive Security, conducting research, training, and advocacy to integrate women into peace processes. Her work in this area began when, as the US Ambassador to Austria from 1993 to 1997, she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states and advancing women’s leadership in Eastern Europe. Her fourth book, Rwandan Women Rising will be released in May 2017 (Duke U. Press).
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Civil Society, Diplomacy, Women, and Interview
Political Geography:: United Nations, Balkans, and United States of America

59. Space Cooperation and Space Security in the Asia-Pacific Region

Author:: Zhao Yun
Publication Date:: 07-2017
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: Space cooperation is already taking place in the Asia-Pacific region. At the moment, there are three ongoing space cooperation platforms in this region. Japan and India host two regional forums respectively: the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) (1993) and the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) (1995). The APRSAF is a loose platform for voluntary information exchange on an annual basis. It does not pursue any legally binding agreements, but rather provides a flexible framework “to promote regional cooperation in space development and utilization through voluntary cooperative efforts of participating countries and organizations.”
Topic:: Security, International Cooperation, Science and Technology, and Space
Political Geography:: United Nations and Asia-Pacific

60. The Art of the Deal, the AK-47 and the Arms Trade Treaty

Author:: Simon Adams
Publication Date:: 07-2017
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: When we think of the Holocaust our mind slips inexorably to dismal images of cattle cars stuffed with people, or to gas chambers, crematoria and the cruel irony of the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate. But of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust over a million were shot with rifles and other small arms. They were not killed in concentration camps, but were murdered in fields or forests and pitched into mass graves outside villages in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Before Auschwitz, Sobibor or Treblinka, the Holocaust began with bullets. The same is true of most mass atrocities carried out since 1945. From the killing fields of Cambodia to the burnt villages of Darfur, most of the killing was done with rifles and other small arms. It is for this reason that there is an enduring connection between preventing atrocities and confronting the international arms trade. The AK-47, or Kalashnikov, is the most popular weapon in the world today, with an estimated 70 million currently in existence. Numerous countries manufacture local variants of the ubiquitous assault rifle and while a new Chinese-made AK-47 might cost you $500, you can easily purchase one in many former conflict zones for as cheap as $50. When I lived in Johannesburg during the mid-1990s, leftover AK-47s from the civil war in Mozambique were still making their way through the townships and some entrepreneurial gangs were even renting out their AK-47s to other aspiring criminals at an hourly rate.
Topic:: Violent Extremism, Weapons, Arms Trade, and Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Political Geography:: Africa, Europe, Middle East, United Nations, and Global Focus

61. Australia’s Election to the UN Human Rights Council

Author:: Alan Tidwell
Publication Date:: 12-2017
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:: In mid-October, Australia was elected for the first time to the UN Human Rights Council. Australia, of course, is no stranger to working in the UN, having previously served on the Security Council five times. As a middle power, Australia has long worked to uphold international law and the international rules-based order. Australia’s stated goals for its term on the Council reflect its longstanding policies and values of equity and fairness. According to Freedom House, these policies and values make Australia one of the freest countries in the world. Pragmatically, this reputation also serves to wash away Australia’s dual sins of offshore processing of asylum seekers and continuing rise in aboriginal disadvantage.
Topic:: Human Rights, Refugee Issues, Elections, International Community, Indigenous, and UN Human Rights Council (HRC)
Political Geography:: United Nations, Australia, and Australia/Pacific

62. A Broader View of the Data Revolution and Development Agenda

Author:: G. Thomas Kingsley
Publication Date:: 02-2017
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: In 2015, the United Nations adopted an ambitious new agenda for global development, and its proponents have called for a “data revolution” to further its goals. How to mobilize this data revolution? Much of what has been written about it so far implies only the mounting of expanded surveys to track progress under each goal. Although surveys are essential, there are good reasons to believe that surveys alone would be insufficient and probably impractical.
Topic:: Science and Technology, Governance, and International Development
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

63. The United Nations Development Programme and the Two Koreas

Author:: Gabriel Jonsson
Publication Date:: 10-2017
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: This paper examines the United Nations Development Programme’s role in South and North Korea’s economic development. The UNDP is not only the UN’s lead agency for economic and social development, it is one of the few UN organizations to have worked with both countries in traditional bilateral arrangements, as well as a in multilateral initiative. Operating in South Korea from 1963 to 2009, the UNDP contributed to the nation’s economic development by complimenting the government’s policies. However, its role was minor compared to the government’s own actions. Nonetheless, South Korea has served on the UNDP board four times since its UN admission in 1991, raising the country’s diplomatic standing. After North Korea joined the UNDP in 1979, the organization’s work in the country focused on improving food production and supporting industrial development. These activities helped improve the economic crisis since the 1990s. In the 1990s, the UNDP provided humanitarian assistance and scholarships to develop human resources. Pyongyang officials restricted the UNDP’s work throughout the time it was active in North Korea. These violations led the UNDP to suspend operations in 2007. Since the early 1990s, the UNDP has supported the Tumen River Area Development Program, the only initiative that involved the two Koreas, as well as China, Russia and Mongolia. Although the UNDP facilitated initial contacts, it was unable to overcome longstanding animosities and disagreements. The successor Greater Tumen Initiative continues to languish.
Topic:: Economics, Government, United Nations, and United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Political Geography:: Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and United Nations

64. Sustainable Development as a Path to Peacebuilding: Finding Common Ground to Counter the Extremist Narrative

Author:: Austin Schiano, Juan E. Chebly, and Federico Ruiz
Publication Date:: 04-2017
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:: School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:: I deologically terrorist organizations have taken an increased prominence in the public consciousness. These organizations draw from a global support base, including young and increasingly educated populations. These organizations often take shape in the scope of a larger sentiment, and are able to rise to prominence through an ability to engage alienated individuals who are often on the margins of society. For many around the world, this issue has become an inescapable and harsh reality. It is time that we evaluate what is causing the growth of these networks, and consider sustainable development solutions to combat them. It is this paper’s attempt to highlight some examples of sustainable development solutions that successfully counter violent extremism, and to provide recommendations based on these successful examples. The answer to many of these problems can be having a bottom-up approach to building stronger communities. Inclusion and participation in public policy can empower citizens of all ages to become agents of human development and kick-start a virtuous cycle of peace that effectively eradicates extremism. It is the responsibility of public institutions to recognize best practices and support them to their best capacity with adequate policy and regulation. It is clear that we must first understand terrorism and its various foundations, before we can meaningfully fight against it.
Topic:: Development, Violent Extremism, Counter-terrorism, Islamic State, and Peace
Political Geography:: Iraq, Middle East, United Nations, and Syria

65. Shifting Sands: Power, Uncertainty and the Form of International Legal Cooperation

Author:: Timothy Meyer
Publication Date:: 01-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: This article argues that the form of international agreements – binding hard law agreements versus non-binding soft law agreements – can be partially explained by states’ interests in promoting renegotiation in the presence of uncertainty and shifting power. I make this argument in three steps. First, I explain that states regularly use unilateral non-compliance as a renegotiation strategy. Second, I argue that making an agreement soft facilitates this use of unilateral non-compliance. Third, I analyse the conditions – uncertainty characterized by common interests (but not uncertainty characterized by distributive concerns) and shifting power – under which facilitating renegotiation through soft law will appeal to states. In particular, I argue that in the presence of these conditions preventing renegotiation creates long-term costs for states that can inhibit short-term cooperation. In effect, under these conditions the shadow of the future can inhibit cooperation rather than support it, as is conventionally thought. These conditions are common to many major contemporary subjects of international cooperation in a way they were not during the latter half of the 20th century, partially explaining the increased importance of soft law to contemporary international governance.
Topic:: International Relations, International Law, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:: Europe, United Nations, and Global Focus

66. Shifting Sands: Power, Uncertainty and the Form of International Legal Cooperation

Author:: Timothy Meyer
Publication Date:: 01-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: This article argues that the form of international agreements – binding hard law agreements versus non-binding soft law agreements – can be partially explained by states’ interests in promoting renegotiation in the presence of uncertainty and shifting power. I make this argument in three steps. First, I explain that states regularly use unilateral non-compliance as a renegotiation strategy. Second, I argue that making an agreement soft facilitates this use of unilateral non-compliance. Third, I analyse the conditions – uncertainty characterized by common interests (but not uncertainty characterized by distributive concerns) and shifting power – under which facilitating renegotiation through soft law will appeal to states. In particular, I argue that in the presence of these conditions preventing renegotiation creates long-term costs for states that can inhibit short-term cooperation. In effect, under these conditions the shadow of the future can inhibit cooperation rather than support it, as is conventionally thought. These conditions are common to many major contemporary subjects of international cooperation in a way they were not during the latter half of the 20th century, partially explaining the increased importance of soft law to contemporary international governance.
Topic:: International Law, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:: Europe, United Nations, and Global Focus

67. China’s Contribution to Peacekeeping Operations: Understanding the Numbers

Author:: Dennis J. Blasko
Publication Date:: 12-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: China Brief
Institution:: The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: China’s participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) has received considerable media attention for the past several years as Beijing’s international profile has expanded. To be sure, of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), China contributes the largest number of military and civilian personnel to these missions. According to UN statistics as of August 31, 2016, China provides 2,436 troops, 30 military experts, and 173 police for a total of 2,639 personnel out of just over 100,000 uniformed and civilian personnel from all countries performing PKO duties. But this is not a new development and when the details below these surface numbers are examined, it becomes clear that, with the help of the foreign media, Beijing has garnered maximum political and propaganda value from a minimal investment in personnel and money.
Topic:: United Nations, Military Strategy, Peacekeeping, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:: China, Asia, and United Nations

68. Armed Private Security in Latin America and the Caribbean: Oversight and Accountability in an Evolving Context Regional Study

Author:: Alan Bryden, Nelleke van Amstel, Emmylou Boddi, Jean-Michel Rousseau, Mélanie Régimbal, William Godnick, Julián Bustamante, Lidia Espinoza, Alfredo Malaret, Amanda Cowl, Diego Fleitas, Ana Yancy Espinoza, Antoine Perret, Federico Moughty, and Gastón Schulmeister
Publication Date:: 01-2016
Content Type:: Case Study
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: DCAF and the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) have undertaken a regional study on armed private security in Latin America and the Caribbean, aimed at presenting an updated picture of the private security sector as well as the challenges the sector faces in terms of regulation and small arms control. The private security industry in Latin America and the Caribbean has grown significantly over the last 20 years. The study identified 16,174 private security companies in the region, with more than 2,450,000 legal employees working as security guards. Looking across the region, a number of important challenges can be identified in relation to the armed private security sector. These include a lack of specific and complete legal frameworks; informal private security markets; absence of a whole-of-government approach to regulation and oversight; insufficient institutional capacities for regulation and oversight; unclearly defined training requirements for PSC and their personnel; and the physical security and weapons management of PSCs. This newly gained knowledge is intended to support policy makers, national authorities and industry actors in their efforts to revise and strengthen their approaches to private security oversight and regulation in line with international standards and best practices. Strengthening private security regulation in the region contributes to reinforce both the rule of law and citizen security
Topic:: Security, Armed Forces, Weapons, Disarmament, and Rule of Law
Political Geography:: Geneva, United Nations, Latin America, and Caribbean

69. In Defense of The “Obama Doctrine”

Author:: John R. Murnane
Publication Date:: 10-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: American Diplomacy
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: In a series of interviews with Jefferey Goldberg in the April 2016 Atlantic, President Barack Obama provided a much-needed and sober reappraisal of the limits of American power and a realistic view of U.S. foreign policy based on a careful assessment of priorities, or what Goldberg calls the “Obama Doctrine.” The heart of the president’s approach is the rejection of the “Washington Playbook.” Obama told Goldberg, “there’s a playbook in Washington that presidents are supposed to follow. It’s a playbook that comes out of the foreign-policy establishment. And the playbook prescribes responses to different events, and these responses tend to be militarized responses.”1 According to the Playbook, military power and the “creditability” it provides is the principle instrument of American foreign policy; it has been accepted wisdom at think tanks and among foreign policy experts since the end of World War II; Obama has challenged this dictum.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Government, and Conflict
Political Geography:: Middle East, United Nations, Syria, North America, and United States of America

70. Sustainable Cities e-Participation for a Politics of Local Commons

Author:: Ulaş Bayraktar
Publication Date:: 12-2016
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:: The idea of sustainable development has been transformed into a concrete program under 17 headings within the United Nations Global Goals. According to the Sustainable Development Goals Index (SDG) prepared within this framework, Turkey ranks 48th among 149 countries with a score of 66.1. In the fulfillment of sustainable development goals, participatory city governments play a major role and new opportunities have emerged. Citizen participation can be achieved through a range of methods and scopes, such as information, consultation, inclusion, cooperation, and empowerment, and Internet technologies open up considerable opportunities for these, although preexisting structural and cultural problems that precede these mechanisms endure. This report argues that the participatory practices inspired by the idea of the commons could make a significant contribution to making these participatory practices more functional.
Topic:: Development, Governance, Sustainable Development Goals, and Urban
Political Geography:: Turkey, Middle East, and United Nations

71. Notes for the Next UN Secretary-General

Author:: Simon Adams
Publication Date:: 10-2016
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:: The United Nations faces an existential crisis. The norms that bind and ‘safeguard humanity’ are currently under threat. The deliberate bombing of hospitals and the indiscriminate killing of civilians has become almost routine in Syria and several other conflicts. Numerous governments and murderous non-state actors (like isis or Boko Haram) are defying international humanitarian and human rights law. This article argues that the solution to the current global exigency and a central challenge facing the next Secretary-General is to achieve an equilibrium shift away from crisis response and towards conflict prevention. This is especially true with regard to preventing mass atrocity crimes (genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing). Historically, no single issue has done more to tarnish the reputation of the un than the failure to halt atrocities. Under a committed Secretary-General, the un has unique capacity to prevent these crimes.
Topic:: International Law, Displacement, Conflict, Violence, and Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Political Geography:: United Nations, Syria, and Global Focus

72. A Political Economy Framework for the Urban Data Revolution

Author:: Benjamin Edwards, Solomon Greene, and G. Thomas Kingsley
Publication Date:: 04-2016
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: As the global population grows increasingly urbanized, city governments will assume ever-greater responsibility for addressing the challenges of poverty, inequality, and environmental sustainability. To meet these challenges effectively, city leaders must base their efforts on good data and reliable evidence. This paper develops a framework for understanding the conditions under which city leaders access, analyze, and apply data to solve problems. We also suggest how the new UN Sustainable Development Goals can help overcome the institutional constraints and competing incentives that cities face in using data to drive decisionmaking for sustainable development.
Topic:: Urbanization, Sustainable Development Goals, International Development, and Cities
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

73. Settler-State Political Theory, 'CANZUS' and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Author:: Kirsty Gover
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: When the UN General Assembly voted in 2007 to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), only Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA cast negative votes. This article argues that the embedding of indigenous jurisdictions in the constitutional orders of these states via negotiated political agreements limits their capacity to accept certain provisions of the UNDRIP. Once the agreement-making process is set in motion, rights that do not derive from those bargains threaten to undermine them. This is especially true of self-governance and collective property rights, which are corporate rights vested to historically continuous indigenous groups. Since these rights cannot easily be reconciled with the equality and non-discrimination principles that underpin mainstream human rights law, settler governments must navigate two modes of liberalism: the first directed to the conduct of prospective governance in accordance with human rights and the rule of law and the second directed to the reparative goal of properly constituting a settler body politic and completing the constitution of the settler state by acquiring indigenous consent. Agreements help to navigate this tension, by insulating indigenous and human rights regimes from one another, albeit in ways not always supported by the UNDRIP.
Topic:: Human Rights, International Law, United Nations, and Governance
Political Geography:: Europe, Canada, United Nations, Australia, New Zealand, and United States of America

74. State Formation, Liberal Reform and the Growth of International Organizations

Author:: Guy Fiti Sinclair
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: This article argues that the growth of international organizations over the past century has been imagined and carried out in order to make modern states on a broadly Western model. The proliferation of international organizations and the expansion of their legal powers, through both formal and informal means, raise profound questions regarding the relationship between international law’s reforming promise and its imperialist perils. The article proposes a new analytic framework for understanding these phenomena, focusing on the rationalities of international organizations’ powers and the technologies through which they are made operable. It argues that both the growth of international organizations and the cultural processes of state formation are impelled by a dynamic of liberal reform that is at once internal and external to law. That dynamic and the analytic framework proposed here are both illustrated and exemplified through a critical account of the emergence of international organizations in the 19th century.
Topic:: Imperialism, International Law, International Organization, History, and State Formation
Political Geography:: Europe and United Nations

75. James C. Hathaway, Michelle Foster. The Law of Refugee Status

Author:: Rosemary Byrne
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The claims made by migrants seeking protection under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) have created a staggering body of state practice emerging from the interpretation by national courts of what is the earliest universal human rights treaty. The first edition of James Hathaway’s The Law of Refugee Status, alongside Guy Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam’s The Refugee in International Law, is one of the essential texts on every refugee lawyer’s bookshelf. Now in its second edition, co-authored by Hathaway and Michelle Foster, The Law of Refugee Status is likely to maintain its standing.
Topic:: International Law, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, Refugees, and Courts
Political Geography:: Europe, United Nations, and Mediterranean

76. The Limits of Legality and the United Nations Security Council: Applying the Extra-Legal Measures Model to Chapter VII Action

Author:: Devon Whittle
Publication Date:: 07-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is, in many ways, a unique institution. It exercises legislative, judicial and executive powers; operates with few legally binding checks and balances and has even been described as being ‘unbound by law’. The Council has broad powers to maintain international peace and security, most notably under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and its decisions are binding on UN members. At the same time, some of the Council’s actions have been labelled as ultra vires and the lack of a binding, legal oversight mechanism to reign in Council action has been decried. Accepting that there is a difficulty in imposing legally binding checks and balances on the UNSC, this article argues that approaching the Council’s Chapter VII powers as a form of emergency powers may help to illuminate the role that non-legal restraints can play in curbing its power. In particular, this article uses Oren Gross’ ‘extra-legal measures model’ to conceptualize the Chapter VII regime and restraints upon it. It shows how the extra-legal measures model offers a descriptive account of UNSC action under Chapter VII and then builds on the gaps in the application of the model to the Council to highlight areas for the development of better restraints, in particular, in areas that may be missed by a traditional legal analysis.
Topic:: International Law, United Nations, International Security, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: Europe and United Nations

77. Applying the Extra-Legal Measures Model to Humanitarian Interventions: A Reply to Devon Whittle

Author:: Oren Gross
Publication Date:: 07-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: In ‘The Limits of Legality and the United Nations Security Council: Applying the Extra-Legal Measures Model to Chapter VII Action’, Devon Whittle analogizes the United Nations Security Council’s Chapter VII powers to domestic emergency powers. He then seeks to apply the extra-legal measures (ELM) model of emergency powers, which I developed some 20 years ago, to exercise by the Council of its Chapter VII powers. This brief comment seeks to expand the discussion of ELM in international affairs beyond the collective security system by exploring the application of ELM in the setting of unilateral humanitarian intervention.
Topic:: International Law, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, International Security, and Humanitarian Intervention
Political Geography:: Europe, Kosovo, United Nations, and Syria

78. Evelyne Schmid. Taking Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Seriously in International Criminal Law

Author:: Mara Tignino
Publication Date:: 07-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Evelyne Schmid’s new book, Taking Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Seriously in International Criminal Law, aims to provide a bridge between developing practice and existing knowledge. At the heart of her book lies the question of how, or to what extent, violations of ESCR are addressed in international criminal proceedings and transitional justice mechanisms. She criticizes the current marginalization of ESCR abuses in scholarship on international criminal law and bemoans the reality that ‘efforts to address the legacy of widespread human rights abuses display a bias towards civil and political rights’. While some have argued for an expansion of international criminal law to account more directly for violations of ESCR, Schmid claims such an expansion is unnecessary; in her view, such violations already fall within the scope of international crimes.
Topic:: Genocide, Human Rights, International Law, United Nations, War Crimes, Courts, and Transitional Justice
Political Geography:: Europe, North Korea, Cambodia, United Nations, and Myanmar

79. Tool 8: Integrating Gender in Security Sector Reform and Governance (Toolkit for Security Sector Reform and Governance in West Africa)

Author:: Aisha Fofana Ibrahim, Alex Sivalie Mbayo, and Rosaline Mcarthy
Publication Date:: 01-2015
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:: Gender equality is an international norm that stipulates the equal right of women, men and gender minorities to access opportunities and resources, regardless of the sex with which they were born and the gender with which they identify. In the context of the security sector, this means that women and men should have equal opportunities to participate in the provision, management and oversight of security services, and that the security needs of women, men, boys and girls should be equally considered and effectively responded to. While ECOWAS recommends that the specific security and justice needs of men and women, boys and girls are fully integrated into all reform processes and governance mechanisms applicable to the security sector, the transition from theory to practice often proves challenging. Tool 8 of the Toolkit for Security Sector Reform and Governance in West Africa is designed to provide practitioners with action-oriented guidance for tackling this challenge. It may be most useful to national actors involved in the governance of security institutions and to those who partake in democratic oversight. This Tool aims to facilitate the identification of effective entry points for integrating the aims of gender equality in national legislation, strategies and budgets for security; in the management of security institutions; in the delivery of justice and security services and in national defence; as well as at all stages of internal and external oversight of the security sector.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Women, Inequality, and LGBT+
Political Geography:: Geneva, Africa, United Nations, Liberia, West Africa, and Sierra Leone

80. Conflict in Cyberspace: How International Legal Norms Can Reduce Military Escalation in Cyberspace

Author:: Nikolas Ott
Publication Date:: 09-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: This paper examines the current technical and legal considerations around the development of international legal norms and confidence-building measures in cyberspace. With an emphasis on state-based armed attacks and the use of force in cyberspace, it summarizes the current status of international efforts within the United Nations and several regional organizations. The paper concludes with several suggestions on how policymakers can reduce the gap between technological and legal considerations.
Topic:: International Law, Military Affairs, and Cybersecurity
Political Geography:: United Nations, North America, and United States of America

81. Strategic Blindspots: Essentializing, Securitizing, and Empowering Women and Men to Counter Violent Extremism

Author:: Sahana Dharmapuri
Publication Date:: 09-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Fletcher Security Review
Institution:: The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:: Today, the international community has at its disposal an underutilized tool to address the multidimensional problem of violent extremism: UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security. October 2015 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the resolution, and the first time that the Security Council recognized that gender equality is a critical component of maintaining international peace and security. It is now widely recognized that conflict and peacebuilding are highly gendered activities, and that women and men experience violence and security differently. Recognizing that the roles of women vary greatly from perpetrators or victims of violence, to their role as peacebuilders and political actors, is an important first step by security actors to take into account women’s different experiences and perspectives in international security and peace decision-making. However, basing preventative approaches to violent extremism on a narrow understanding of what it means to be male or female—e.g. solely focusing on the roles of women or men—not only limits policy options but perpetuates two strategic blindspots: essentializing women and securitizing women’s roles in CVE. Both essentializing and securitizing prevents a diverse examination of how both men and women are affected by and influence the promotion and the prevention of extremist violence in of CVE policies and programs. This is because a narrow focus on the roles of women and men excludes an examination of the context-specific, socially and culturally relevant opportunities and constraints that both men and women experience. As such, an exclusive focus on men and women’s roles obscures the entry points available to understand and counter violent extremism more effectively. UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security can help shed light on these blindspots in CVE because it requires both the participation of women and a gender perspective in policies and programs related to international security and peace. As such, the resolution offers analytical tools to help CVE practitioners analyze the complex issue of violent extremism, namely the use of a gender perspective. A gender perspective helps to reveal solutions and courses of action that would otherwise be overlooked in highly localized, context-specific, socially and culturally sensitive conflicts.
Topic:: Security, Gender Issues, Violent Extremism, Counter-terrorism, and Women
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

82. International Organizations and the Frankenstein Problem

Author:: Andrew Guzman
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: In the classic novel, Frankenstein , Doctor Frankenstein creates a living creature in the hope of cheating death. The monster turns against Doctor Frankenstein and kills several people, causing the doctor to regret his decision to make the monster in the first place. When states establish an international organization (IO), they create an institution with a life of its own. In doing so, states risk the institution becoming a monster and acting contrary to their interests. In contrast to Frankenstein, however, states are aware of this risk and are able to guard against it. This article explains that much of the existing landscape of international organizations has been formed by the state response to this 'Frankenstein problem'. The effort by states to avoid creating a monster explains, among other things, why there are so many IOs, why they vary so widely in scope, and the manner in which they are permitted (and not permitted) to affect international law and international relations. The article also identifies the four types of activities that IOs are typically allowed to undertake and explains how states choose which activities to place within which organizations. In addition to providing a new analytical perspective on IOs and how states use them, the article advances the normative argument that states have been too conservative. As if they learned the lessons of Frankenstein too well, states have been reluctant to give IOs the authority necessary to make progress on important global issues. Though there is a trade-off between the preservation of state control over the international system and the creation of effective and productive IOs, states have placed far too much weight on the former and not nearly enough on the latter.
Political Geography:: United Nations

83. Engineering Peace: The Critical Role of Engineers in UN Peacekeeping

Author:: Arthur Boutellis and Adam Smith
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: The UN Security Council mandates peacekeeping operations in some of the poorest, most conflict-prone areas of the world. These locations are often also extremely remote and nearly inaccessible. In this context, engineering is one of the most critical elements to the functioning of a UN peace operation; yet, it may be the least critically analyzed aspect of peacekeeping. During the start-up phase of a mission, engineers design, prepare, and build the camps that allow the mission to exist. Very little can be achieved in peacekeeping without sanitary and secure camps with electricity and passable roads or functional air strips. When there are engineering gaps coupled with major logistical challenges (as in the UN Mission in South Sudan), key elements of the mandate, such as the protection of civilians or support to the extension of state authority, become much more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to fulfill. During the mission consolidation phase, engineers can play a central role in the peacebuilding support tasks of a mission, working with the host country, UN agencies, and others to build capacity and deliver peace dividends.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Security, Development, Peace Studies, Science and Technology, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: United Nations

84. The Median Is the Message: A Good-Enough Measure of Material Well-Being and Shared Development Progress

Author:: Nancy Birdsall and Christian J. Meyer
Publication Date:: 01-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: We argue that survey-based median household consumption expenditure (or income) per capita be incorporated into standard development indicators, as a simple, robust, and durable indicator of typical individual material well-being in a country. Using household survey data available for low- and middle-income countries from the World Bank's PovcalNet tool, we show that as a measure of income-related well-being, it is far superior to the commonly used GDP per capita as well as survey-based measures at the mean. We also argue that survey-based median measures are "distributionaware", i.e. when used as the denominator of various widely available indicators such as mean consumption expenditure per capita they provide a "good-enough" indicator of consumption (or income) inequality. Finally, as a post-2015 indicator of progress at the country-level in promoting shared development and reducing inequality, we propose that the rate of increase in median consumption per capita after taxes and transfers exceed the rate of increase in average consumption in the same period.
Topic:: Development, Diplomacy, Poverty, and World Bank
Political Geography:: United Nations

85. Arctic Security - An Equation with Multiple Unknowns

Author:: Rear Admiral Nils Wang
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: In May 2008, the five Arctic coastal states - the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and the Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands - signed the Illulissat Declaration. The declaration established that the 'Arctic Five' will lay claim to the sea territorial rights awarded to them by the 1982. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that they will settle disputes within the framework of existing international law. This was a very strong message to NGOs and external state actors, arguing that a protective treaty should govern the Arctic, just like the Antarctic.
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Japan, China, Canada, India, Norway, Denmark, United Nations, and Italy

86. Threat Perceptions and Drivers of Change in Nuclear Security Around the World: Results of a Survey

Author:: Matthew Bunn and Eben Harrell
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: Leaders at the 2010 nuclear security summit agreed on the goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear material in four years. This goal implied that many countries would change their nuclear security policies. But the factors that drive changes in nuclear security policies, and that constrain those changes, are not well understood. Matthew Bunn and Eben Harrell conducted a survey of selected nuclear security experts in countries with nuclear weapons, highly enriched uranium (HEU), or separated plutonium, to explore this issue. The survey included: perceptions of which threats are credible; approaches to nuclear security based on a design basis threat (DBT); changes in nuclear security policy in the last 15 years; factors causing and constraining changes in nuclear security policy; and policy on how much information to release about nuclear security. This paper describes the survey, its results, and implications for next steps to strengthen global nuclear security.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:: United Nations

87. A Fresh Look at Climate Change

Author:: Paul Ballonoff
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Cato Journal
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Recently The Economist (2013a), a prominent journalistic advocate of strong policies to control CO2 emissions, expressed their puzzlement on the absence of warming over the last 15 years. They observed that this flat period of global average temperature occurred despite that CO2 emissions from human sources continued at an increased rate. The total human-produced CO2 emissions in that period of flat temperatures represent a quarter of all such emissions ever produced. The standard climate models, such as those used by the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC), anticipated that such massive CO2 increases should have caused continuing increases in average global temperatures. The Economist noted that observed global average temperature is now at the lowest end of the predicted range, and that if the present trend continues, the actual temperatures will soon be below even the lowest forecasts. Most recently, Fyfe, Gillett, and Zwiers (2013) demonstrated that the current climate models have experienced a systematic failure—a finding very similar to Knappenberger and Michaels (2013).
Topic:: Environment and United Nations
Political Geography:: United Nations

88. Vertically Integrated Peace Building and Community Violence Reduction in Haiti

Author:: Timothy Donais and Geoff Burt
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: Gang-driven violence in the urban slums of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, has been a preoccupation of international peace-building efforts for the past decade, yet continues to pose a serious threat to peace and stability in the country. These communities have, in recent years, been the site of an ongoing series of experiments, involving a range of different actors, aimed at reclaiming them from armed gangs; however, the isolated and fragmented nature of these interventions has reduced their cumulative impact. This paper makes a case for greater coherence and coordination between bottom-up community violence reduction efforts and top-down police reform, based on a broader argument around the importance of "vertically integrated peace building." Based on field interviews with community leaders as well as officials from both the UN and the Haitian government, this paper suggests that, in the public security realm as elsewhere, the careful integration of top-down and bottom-up efforts represents an important avenue for strengthening state-society relations, increasingly recognized as a crucial component of any sustainable peace-building process.
Topic:: Security, Political Violence, Peace Studies, Fragile/Failed State, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: United Nations and Caribbean

89. United Nations Sanctions on Iran and North Korea: An Implementation Manual

Author:: Enrico Carisch and Loraine Rickard-Martin
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: This manual is intended as a tool for officials of UN member states, international organizations, companies, and corporations to support sanctions implementation. The manual delivers to frontline actors in the public and private sectors specific guidance to enable more effective compliance with UN non-proliferation sanctions on Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Topic:: Nuclear Weapons, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Sanctions
Political Geography:: Iran, Middle East, North Korea, and United Nations

90. Sanctions Implementation and the UN Security Council: The Case for Greater Transparency

Author:: Astrid Forberg Ryan
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: While it is the responsibility of member states to ensure that sanctions adopted by the United Nations Security Council are implemented, the council plays an equally important role in facilitating and promoting effective implementation. This paper discusses the role of the Security Council with a view to providing guidance for those involved in the council's work, making the case for greater transparency. It briefly reviews current council practices and procedures relating to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Iran sanctions regimes, including the working methods of the 1718 and 1737 Committees, and it identifies possible options for the council aimed at enhancing sanctions implementation through transparency-related measures.
Topic:: Human Rights, International Cooperation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Sanctions
Political Geography:: Iran and United Nations

91. Institutional Arrangements for Climate Finance

Author:: David Runnalls, Jessica Boyle, and Dave Sawyer
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) is unequivocal about the magnitude of the challenge posed by man-made climate change. If the world is to avoid exceeding the 2°C average increase in temperature agreed by governments in Copenhagen as the maximum safe level, it needs to move quickly to facilitate the transition to a lower-carbon economy.
Topic:: Climate Change, Economics, International Cooperation, and Governance
Political Geography:: United Nations

92. The Rising Global Thermostat: What business can do to lower the temperature

Author:: Ban Ki-moon
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Americas Quarterly
Institution:: Council of the Americas
Abstract:: The private sector has long been a key partner for the United Nations on advancing sustainable development initiatives throughout the world. Today, climate change presents one of the most urgent global challenges to sustainable development, and it will demand the support and engagement of the private sector to confront it effectively. Investing in green energy is not only the right thing to do morally, but also, for companies who take it up, benefits the bottom line.
Topic:: Environment
Political Geography:: New York and United Nations

93. The Irrelevance of Global Climate Talks

Author:: Steven Cohen
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Americas Quarterly
Institution:: Council of the Americas
Abstract:: Climate change has been called the biggest global challenge of the current generation. As scientific uncertainty has diminished, climate change has emerged as an important item on the international institutional agenda.
Topic:: Environment
Political Geography:: United Nations

94. What Drives Deforestation and What Stops It? A Meta-Analysis of Spatially Explicit Econometric Studies

Author:: Jonah Busch and Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: We have constructed a comprehensive database of 117 spatially explicit econometric studies of deforestation published in peer-reviewed academic journals from 1996-2013. We present a metaanalysis of what drives deforestation and what stops it, based on the signs and significance of 5909 coefficients in 554 multivariate analyses. We find that forests are more likely to be cleared where economic returns to agriculture and pasture are higher, either due to more favorable climatological and topographic conditions, or due to lower costs of clearing forest and transporting products to market. Timber activity, land tenure security, and community demographics do not show a consistent association with either higher or lower deforestation. Population is consistently associated with greater deforestation, and poverty is consistently associated with lower deforestation, but in both cases endogeneity makes a causal link difficult to infer. Promising approaches for stopping deforestation include reducing the intrusion of road networks into remote forested areas; targeting protected areas to regions where forests face higher threat; tying rural income support to the maintenance of forest resources through payments for ecosystem services; and insulating the forest frontier from the price effects of demand for agricultural commodities.
Topic:: Development, Economics, Environment, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:: United Nations

95. The EU's Use of 'Targeted' Sanctions: Evaluating effectiveness

Author:: Clara Portela
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:: This study analyses the use by the European Union of the novel concept of 'targeted sanctions' in the framework of its Common Foreign and Security Policy. It examines two sets of sanctions regimes featuring different degrees of efficacy: in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, the EU wielded measures in support of human rights and democracy objectives in the absence of a United Nations mandate, while it supplemented UN sanctions to stop nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. The study highlights a number of facilitators of, or hindrances to, the efficacy of sanctions, such as the degree of support by regional powers or the presence of UN legitimation. It concludes that the EU sanctions regimes could be optimised by using more robust measures, designing them on the basis of ex ante assessments, enabling faster upgrades, monitoring their impact and adjusting them regularly and improving outreach efforts.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Economics, Regional Cooperation, and Sanctions
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, United Nations, and Zimbabwe

96. Beyond Haiti: Enhancing Latin American Military and Police Contributions to UN Peacekeeping

Author:: Bianca Selway
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: With fifteen UN peacekeeping missions already in operation and another in the Central African Republic on the horizon, UN peacekeeping continues to be in high demand. Today, DPKO deploys more than 83,000 troops, 13,000 police, and 2,000 observers, contributed voluntarily by member states. A majority of these are provided by African and South Asian member states, which together provide 74 percent of the UN's uniformed personnel. Latin America has a longstanding history of participating in UN peacekeeping, stretching back more than fifty years to some of the earliest peacekeeping operations. At present, Latin America contributes almost 7 percent of all UN troops and nearly 2 percent of UN police. Two Latin American states occupy spots in the group of top twenty uniformed contributors: Uruguay with a total of 2,164 uniformed personnel and Brazil with 1,755. Latin American contributions are predominantly military contributions (as opposed to police) to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), with support to missions in sub-Saharan Africa amounting to less than 2 percent of the total uniformed deployments to the region.
Topic:: International Cooperation, United Nations, Foreign Aid, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: Africa, South Asia, Brazil, United Nations, and Latin America

97. Terminating Security Council Sanctions

Author:: Kristen E. Boon
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute
Abstract:: This report assesses the United Nations Security Council's current approach to drawing down sanctions in intrastate war situations. After examining broader questions surrounding the UN's authority to impose sanctions and the corresponding limits on these powers, this report assesses criteria used by the council to terminate sanctions. It observes that multilateral sanctions under the UN Security Council tend to last substantially longer than sanctions by regional organizations, such as the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); and it argues that short sanctions periods are preferable to long sanctions periods.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, International Relations, International Trade and Finance, and Sanctions
Political Geography:: Africa and United Nations

98. The ICC under Political Pressure: Towards Lowered Expectations of Global Justice

Author:: Katja Creutz
Publication Date:: 04-2014
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: In 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched investigations into the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya, in which some 1,200 people were killed and several hundred thousand displaced. The ICC is breaking new ground with the Kenyan cases; for the first time sitting heads of state are facing charges before the Court. Kenya's response to the proceedings has involved a number of political and judicial measures. It has obstructed the work of the Court; it has sought deferral of the cases by the Security Council; and it has threatened the ICC with mass withdrawals. Kenya's objection to the trials has gained regional support and renewed strength for the claim that the Court has an anti-African bias. Its claims that the Court should not prosecute state leaders because of concerns over regional peace and security have been met with understanding. The Security Council has, however, refused to suspend the trials. The political attack against the ICC will have broader implications for the Court. The Court will need to reconsider how it protects witnesses, safeguards evidence, and selects cases for prosecution. It may even have to retreat from the principle of prosecuting sitting heads of state. The expectations placed upon the ICC as an institution of global justice have been unrealistic. The current international political climate will not further this goal. Major powers remain outside the Court and the current Ukrainian crisis will make it hard to agree upon Security Council referrals.
Topic:: International Relations, Human Rights, International Organization, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:: Africa and United Nations

99. A strategy to rescue diplomacy on Syria

Author:: Mona Yacoubian
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:: The Syrian crisis is rapidly turning into a humanitarian and security nightmare with regional and possibly global implications. The conflict is now firmly entrenched in a military stalemate. While "stalemate" conveys a sense of stasis, the impasse translates into the deepening deterioration of conditions on the ground. Meanwhile, the supercharged sectarian dynamic emanating from Syria is severely threatening regional stability, particularly in Iraq and Lebanon, which have both witnessed significant increases in sectarian violence.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation, and Sectarian violence
Political Geography:: United Nations and Syria

100. Brazil's rising profile in United Nations peacekeeping operations since the end of the cold war

Author:: Rita Santos and Teresa Almeida Cravo
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:: Brazil's engagement in United Nations (UN)-mandated peacekeeping operations dates from 1956. Since then the country has participated in 46 of 65 UN peacekeeping operations, deploying 11,669 personnel in total. Yet until 2004-05, with the UN's peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Brazilian contributions to such operations were mainly symbolic, military based and concentrated in Portuguese-speaking countries. Recent changes in the size, type and geographical distribution of Brazil's participation in peace operations echo the reorientation of the country's foreign policy in its search for a more globalised political influence, especially under Lula da Silva's presidency. In particular, peacekeeping under UN aegis has enabled Brazil to showcase its perceived added value in terms of its expertise on stabilisation, track record on development and conflict mediation, and advocacy for the Global South. Aspiring to become a world power, Brazil has assumed a role in peace and security that is more consistent with enhanced international responsibility. Yet, as this report highlights, this transformation has been characterised by dilemmas that are a product of the country's simultaneous legitimation and contestation of the international power structures in which it operates.
Topic:: International Cooperation, International Security, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:: Brazil, South America, and United Nations

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS