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81. The Flow of Foreign Fighters to the Islamic State

Author:
Hardin Lang and Muath Al Wari
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
Foreign fighters have long been a key element of transnational jihad. In the 1980s, foreigners flocked to South Asia to fight alongside the Afghan mujahedeen. The same thing occurred to a lesser extent in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s and again following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the Syrian civil war and the subsequent rise of the Islamic State—also known as IS, ISIS, or ISIL—have broken new ground. Never before have jihadi foreign fighters rallied at the speed and scale as they have in the territory that IS now controls. Today, between 31,000 and 27,000 fighters from more than 86 countries are estimated to have made the journey to join the ranks of IS and other extremist groups, doubling the 2014 numbers. These foreign fighters fill leadership roles within the organization’s hierarchy and seem to be disproportionately responsible for the atrocities and brutality for which IS has become infamous. IS uses this extreme violence to create a climate of impunity and to intimidate both civilian populations and potential enemies. In addition, the recent attacks in Paris vividly demonstrated the international terrorist threat that foreign fighters pose. Finally, these fighters present a long-term challenge to their source countries if and when they return. In response, the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Counter ISIL has prioritized the flow of foreign fighters as one of its five major lines of effort. In 2015, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2178, or UNSCR 2178, was adopted with the specific aim of addressing the foreign fighter threat. Similarly, the coalition has established a working group to coordinate multilateral efforts to impede the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq and to implement the UNSCR. But much work remains to be done.
Topic:
Terrorism, Islamic State, Multilateralism, and Foreign Fighters
Political Geography:
Global Focus

82. Economic and Strategic Dimensions of Mega-FTAs: A Perception Survey of Asian Opinion Leaders

Author:
Xianbai Ji, Pradumna B. Rana, Wai-Mun Chia, and Changtai Li
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:
The advent of mega-free trade agreements (mega-FTAs) including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a defining feature of global trade governance in the 21st century. What are the costs and benefits of mega- FTAs? What is the political and strategic calculus behind mega-FTAs? Is there a “domino effect” triggering off the mega-FTA troika in a chain of reactions? Does mega-regionalism reinforce or undermine multilateralism? Since commonly used econometrics models cannot shed light on non-economic issues, this paper examines mega-regionalism by conducting a perception survey. This survey received responses from 648 opinion leaders located in 31 Asian countries. Respondents felt that mega-FTAs are good trade policy instruments that are “building blocks” to multilateralism. Linked by a “domino effect”, the mega-FTAs have important political and strategic dimensions. The United States wants to socialise China by writing high- standard “rules of the road” through the TPP. China then pivoted to RCEP to counter the TPP. Brussels through TTIP wanted to join the mega-FTA bandwagon to stay relevant. Additionally, remaining questions on decentralising global economic architecture highlight the need for regional and global institutions to complement each other.
Topic:
European Union, Multilateralism, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Free Trade, and Decentralization
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, Asia, and Global Focus

83. Global Peace Operations Review 2015: Annual Compilation

Author:
Jim Della-Giacoma, Richard Gowan, Alischa Kugel, Jean Arnault, W.P.S. Sidhu (ed), and Alexandra Novosseloff
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Peace Operations Review
Abstract:
The Review covers more than one hundred multilateral peace operations active in the previous year including missions fielded by the UN, AU, EU, ECOWAS, OSCE, OAS and coalitions. It uses a broad definition of peace operations that includes multilateral and ad hoc military and police missions, as well as civilian led political missions. Neither type of mission has a simple definition. Alongside more straightforward peacekeeping missions, the Review, mindful of the need for peace operations to adjust to the changing nature of conflict, also includes peace enforcement operations that employ the use of force and engage in active combat. Under political missions, we include multilateral civilian-led missions that have political engagement in the form of launching and supporting political processes at their core. This includes, for example, the EU’s Special Representatives and the African Union Liaison Offices that support the implementation of peace agreements and accompany political processes. We have excluded missions, such as EU delegations and other liaison offices that may engage in political activities, but as their core function serve more as regular diplomatic or developmental presences. Along the same reasoning, we have also excluded election observer and human rights monitoring missions.
Topic:
Security, International Cooperation, Politics, United Nations, Peacekeeping, Women, Multilateralism, Peacebuilding, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

84. A Proposal for a New Regional Financial Arrangement: The Reserve Liquidity Line

Author:
Young-Joon Park
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
This paper examines the limitations of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) as a regional financial safety net in East Asia, and proposes a new regional financial arrangement. To overcome the drawbacks of the CMIM, which has never been activated so far, a new regional financial arrangement suggests that ASEAN+3 members establish a regional reserve system based on a supranational regional reserve asset. The new regional financial arrangement, so-called “Reserve Liquidity Line” (RLL), guarantees a degree of automaticity in liquidity facility, based on upfront funding instead of pledge funding. As a backdrop of the regional reserve system, some market movements have been manifested to reduce excessive U.S. dollar dependency in East Asia and to enhance the use of local currencies. Establishing the RLL mechanism could find a way of making up for the weak points of the CMIM and responding to the regional needs for effective regional financial arrangements. The proposed operational mechanism of RLL comprises (i) institution building of ASEAN+3 Reserves System (ARS) to manage the Regional Reserves Asset (RRA), (ii) an Operations Account and a Substitution Account, and (iii) a sort of basket exchange rate for RRA valuation.
Topic:
Finance, Economy, Multilateralism, International Reserves, and Liquidity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

85. The Meaning of "Assist, Encourage, or Induce" in the Weapons Ban Context

Author:
Christina Koningisor
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Legal Challenges, Yale Law School
Abstract:
More than half of all multilateral disarmament treaties currently in force prohibit member states from “assist[ing], encourag[ing], or induc[ing]” another party in its pursuit or use of the prohibited weapon. This report examines this provision across five major disarmament treaties and arrives at three key findings
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Treaties and Agreements, Military Strategy, and Multilateralism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

86. The Role of Human Rights in Ensuring Universal Access to HIV Testing and Counselling

Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Recent years have seen a significant expansion of HIV testing and counselling, a necessary pre-condition for achieving the goal of universal access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support. However, HIV testing and counselling is not implemented fully and correctly unless human rights approaches are integrated into all aspects of its delivery. This includes not only respect for the "three C's" of pre-test information or counselling and post-test counselling, informed and voluntary consent to testing, and confidentiality of test results, but also ensuring an enabling environment that protects people from discrimination, violence, abandonment, ostracism, and other potential negative consequences of a positive test result. On October 12-13, the Open Society Public Health Program, the Secretariat of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS Secretariat), and the World Health Organization cosponsored the meeting, “The Role of Human Rights in Ensuring Universal Access to HIV Testing and Counselling." The purpose of the meeting was to bridge the gap between international guidance on HIV testing and counselling and the implementation of this guidance. The meeting participants represented a wide variety of constituencies, including people living with and affected by HIV, implementers of HIV testing programs, donors and representatives of multilateral agencies, researchers, and human rights advocates. They sought to reach a consensus on concrete strategies and specific activities to overcome two types of barriers to ensuring human rights in the practice of HIV testing and counselling: political/systemic barriers and technical barriers.
Topic:
HIV/AIDS, Health, Human Rights, Health Care Policy, Multilateralism, Advocacy, and Public Health
Political Geography:
Global Focus

87. Globalisation and Higher Education

Author:
Simon Marginson and Marijk van der Wene
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Economic and cultural globalisation has ushered in a new era in higher education. Higher education was always more internationally open than most sectors because of its immersion in knowledge, which never showed much respect for juridical boundaries. In global knowledge economies, higher education institutions are more important than ever as mediums for a wide range of cross-border relationships and continuous global flows of people, information, knowledge, technologies, products and financial capital. Even as they share in the reinvention of the world around them, higher education institutions, and the policies that produce and support them, are also being reinvented. For the first time in history every research university is part of a single world-wide network and the world leaders in the field have an unprecedented global visibility and power. Research is more internationalised than before and the mobility of doctoral students and faculty has increased. The specifically global element in academic labour markets has gained weight, especially since the advent of global university rankings. This working paper explores the issues for national policy and for individual institutions. Part I provides an overview of globalisation and higher education and the global responses of national systems and individual institutions of higher education. Part II is focused on certain areas of policy with a strong multilateral dimension: Europeanisation, institutional rankings and typologies and cross-border mobility.
Topic:
Education, Globalization, Multilateralism, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Global Focus