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321. CERI: The United States and Europe and the conflict in Colombia

Author:
Frédéric Massé
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
The conflict in Colombia has, in the space of a few years, become a real headache for the United States as well as for Europe. Countless human rights violations, forced population displacement, drug trafficking and terrorism make Colombia a textbook case for examining the entire range of security problems today. With the launching of Plan Colombia in 1999, the United States considerably increased its aid to the country. Today, the American administration actively supports Alvaro Uribe's government in its fight against guerilla movements, labeled "narcoterrorists," and rumors of armed intervention regularly resurface. Having long remained on the sidelines of the "Colombian tragedy," Europe seems to be relegated to playing second fiddle. The military option represented by Plan Colombia had opened up a political spaced that the Europeans began to occupy. But with the break-off of peace negotiations, this space has shrunk and has maybe even disappeared for good. In the face of American efforts to monopolize management of the Colombian conflict, it is in fact hard to see how the European Union can return to the forefront in this area of the world that remains the United States' preserve. All the more so since virtually no voices can be heard asking the Europeans to counterbalance the United States.The situation in Colombia is a new illustration of the state of U.S.-European relations today, between competition, a search for complementarity and a mutual lack of understanding.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States, America, Europe, Colombia, and South America

322. The United States, the European Union, and International Human Rights Issues

Author:
Esther Brimmer
Publication Date:
05-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Transatlantic Relations
Abstract:
As pillars of the transatlantic community, the United States and the European Union often talk about their shared values derived from their common heritage in the western liberal democratic tradition. Both claim to base their domestic and external policies on their values; and both play a role in international affairs. Their common values suggest that they would support similar policies on international human rights issues. Yet on the international stage they have surprisingly different approaches. This paper will analyze areas of commonality and divergence in United States and European Union policies on international human rights and examine the implications of these differences for human rights and for transatlantic relations.
Topic:
Human Rights, Human Welfare, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

323. Monitoring of the Norwegian Secret Services

Author:
Leif Mevik
Publication Date:
05-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
In Norway, monitoring of the secret services (EOS services) is carried out by a parliamentary monitoring body, the Committee for Monitoring of Intelligence, Surveillance and Security Services. The Committee conducts continuous monitoring of the Norwegian Police Security Service, the Norwegian Intelligence Service and the Norwegian National Security Authority (NoNSA). The monitoring arrangement is independent of the EOS services and the remainder of the administration. The Committee's members are elected by the Storting (the Norwegian parliament), and the Committee reports to the Storting annually. The arrangement was established in 1996. The continuous monitoring takes the form of regular inspections of the secret services. The Committee also deals with complaints from private individuals and organizations that believe the secret services have committed injustices against them.
Topic:
Security, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

324. Asylum Policy in the West: Past Trends, Future Possibilities

Author:
Matthew J. Gibney and Randall Hansen
Publication Date:
09-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This article examines the policy responses of Western countries in the realm of asylum. We begin by explaining the reasons why the asylum issue has made its way up the political agendas of liberal democratic countries in recent years. While applications for asylum have risen in the last two decades, we also highlight the way rights-based constraints and financial costs have contributed to controversy around the issue. We then examine in detail the major policy responses of states to asylum, grouping them into four main categories: measures aiming to prevent access to state territory, measures to deter arrivals, measures to limit stay, and measures to manage arrival. Moving then to explore the efficacy of these measures, we consider the utility of policy making from the viewpoints of states, asylum seekers and refugees, and international society. The article concludes with the presentation of four new directions in which policies could move in order better to square the professed interests of Western states with the needs of refugees for protection.
Topic:
Human Rights and Migration
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

325. Chechnya Weekly: Chechen Security Sweep Victims Still Alive?

Author:
Lawrence Uzzell
Publication Date:
10-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Many of the Chechens who have disappeared in “zachistki” security sweeps are still alive in Russian captivity, in the view of human rights activist Kheda Saratova. The head of the Vozvrashchenie (“Return”) foundation told correspondent Aleksandr Kolesnichenko of Novye izvestia that the organization has assembled more than a thousand individual case files. Vozvrashchenie was created only a month ago in Grozny, for the purpose of finding as many of the kidnapped as possible.
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Chechnya

326. Defining a People: How Do International Rights Influence the Identity Formation of Minority Groups?

Author:
Reetta Toivanen
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
This paper looks at the macroeconomic performance of EMU since it started in 1999. It argues that Euroland has benefited from a benign environment, appropriate monetary policy and structural reforms. However, there is no institution clearly in charge of formulating coherent economic policies in Euroland and this is reflected in the euro's external value.
Topic:
Government, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and International Law
Political Geography:
Europe

327. Continuity as the Path to Change: Institutional Innovation in the 1976 British Race Relations Act

Author:
Erik Bleich
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
Institutional innovation can, paradoxically, be a product of institutional continuity. New institutions often emerge in a bifurcated manner in which formal institutions (such as laws and written rules) are accompanied by informal institutions (such as ideas that motivate and help determine the precise nature of specific policies). When informal institutions include ideas that track policy developments in other spheres or other countries, they can influence innovations in formal institutions. The development of the 1976 British Race Relations Act illustrates this dynamic. When British race institutions were established in the 1960s, they reflected the prevailing idea that British policies should incorporate lessons learned from North America. When Britain revisited its anti-racism provisions in 1976, policy experts looked again to North America and found that much had changed there in the interim. They subsequently altered Britain's formal institutions to include U.S.-inspired “race-conscious” measures.
Topic:
Government and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and North America

328. Conference-Workshop on the Northern European Initiative

Author:
Denise M. Horn
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Security and Democracy
Abstract:
Heather Conley began the session with a report regarding the current plans for US policy in the region. Generally NEI is considered a success story, thus the US is now retooling its policies by asking where the US should go in a post-enlargement world, and asking how to use this policy elsewhere.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Genocide, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

329. Onward, Liberal Soldiers? The Crusading Logic of Bush's Grand Strategy and What Is Wrong with It

Author:
Edward Rhodes
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Security and Democracy
Abstract:
As pressures mount to strike before summer weather forecloses military options for the year, the debate whether the United States should undertake a preventive war against Iraq moves inexorably toward the center of the American political stage, despite the understandable reluctance of many Americans to think about the difficult trade-offs and troubling questions such a war would raise. Proponents of the war focus on the dangers of leaving Saddam Hussein in power. Opponents focus on the morality, military risks, and international political costs of undertaking a preventive war, on the possibilities of containing Saddam Hussein's influence and deterring his use of weapons of mass destruction without resort to war, and on the difficulties of building stable political institutions in the region after a victory.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Genocide, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

330. Rape as Genocide: The Legal Response to Sexual Violence

Author:
Dr. Frances T. Pilch
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Security and Democracy
Abstract:
The last decade has witnessed a profound transformation in the treatment of sexual violence in international law. The overwhelming evidence of the widespread use of rape as a policy tool in the former Yugoslavia, combined with the tragedy of the genocide in Rwanda, in which rape was also widely prevalent, has led to a legal reconceptualization of sexual violence in internal and international conflicts. The ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, have genuinely broken new ground as they have confronted cases dealing with the complexities of rape, torture, and genocide. They have struggled with determining the legal definition of rape and finding a balance between the rights of witnesses and defendants. The revolutionary changes that have taken place in this area of the law in large part reflect the growing mobilization and influence of non-governmental organizations articulating the importance of the rights of women, and the increasing importance of the presence of women advocates, prosecutors, and judges.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Genocide, Human Rights, and International Law
Political Geography:
Europe, Yugoslavia, and Sierra Leone