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221. What Does New Momentum For UN Peace and Security Really Mean

Author:
Gustavo De Carvalho and Jonathan Rozen
Publication Date:
05-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Peace Operations Review
Abstract:
A famous maxim of uncertain origin defines insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly, but expecting different results. In her opening statement at the United Nations (UN) High-Level Thematic Debate on Peace and Security, Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee used this definition to describe challenges faced by UN engagements in peace operations and peacebuilding. The 10-11 May meeting, called by the president of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and themed In a world in risks: a new commitment for peace, provided a platform to reflect on current challenges to international peace and security. These focused, in particular, on responses to the 2015 reviews on peace operations, peacebuilding, and women, peace and security.
Topic:
Security, International Cooperation, United Nations, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

222. Demystifying Intelligence in UN Peace Operations: Toward An Organizational Doctrine

Author:
Alexandra Novosseloff
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Peace Operations Review
Abstract:
n a way, the title of our research paper “Demystifying Intelligence in UN Peace Operations: Toward an Organizational Doctrine”, speaks for itself. We all know that the UN secretariat has been walking on eggs with this issue of intelligence for years; doing it without saying it and without realizing it. But with peace operations involved in increasing complex and demanding situations and one senses that this “fog about intelligence” can no longer be sustainable. This report complements other earlier attempts to “demystify” that charged term of intelligence and to define what “intelligence” means in the UN context and its peace operations.
Topic:
Intelligence, International Cooperation, United Nations, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

223. No Caveats, Please? Breaking a Myth in UN Peace Operations

Author:
Alexandra Novosseloff
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Peace Operations Review
Abstract:
or years, the UN Secretariat said caveats were not allowed in peacekeeping operations. Mentioning them was a kind of “taboo”. They existed on the ground but were rarely acknowledged at the political level in New York. But when operations faced a crisis and troops needed to take more risks than usual, the hitherto hidden restrictions quickly appeared, creating obvious command and control issues. Unfortunately, with peacekeeping operations now facing increasingly challenging environments, contingents refusing to follow orders, or waiting for their national authorities to confirm or countermand orders received from the UN mission’s authorities, has become the norm rather than the exception. Should we condemn this or understand the reasons why UN missions are facing such situations? It is time to stop lamenting that caveats exist and try to better learn how to manage them.
Topic:
United Nations, Military Strategy, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

224. Research Spotlight: Beth A. Simmons

Author:
Meg Murphy
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The International Criminal Court is saving civilian lives in multiple countries, according to research that provides the first quantitative evidence. The study by professors at Harvard University and Texas A&M, which will be featured in the summer issue of the journal International Organization, has drawn widespread attention from people on either side of a polarized debate about the ICC’s role in international justice. Vocal critics have long claimed the ICC is an ineffective obstacle to peace processes while enthusiasts believe it useful in advancing global peace and security. The underlying question: is the ICC irreparably flawed or an institution worth investing in? Now researchers Beth A. Simmons and Hyeran Jo have contributed a systematic study that can impartially inform this pressing debate in international affairs.
Topic:
United Nations, Legal Theory, Peace, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

225. Women, Gender and Terrorism: The Missing Links

Author:
Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and Michael E. Brown
Publication Date:
08-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Women In International Security (WIIS)
Abstract:
In March 2016, WIIS launched the Women, Terrorism, and Violent Extremism program. With the generous support of the Embassy of Liechtenstein in Washington, D.C., WIIS will facilitate a series of expert roundtables to explore the role of women in terrorist and violent extremist organizations, including the gendered dimensions of radicalization. These round tables will provide a forum for bringing together an international group of experts and policymakers from the counter-terrorism and Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) communities. Key takeaways and recommendations of expert roundtables will be captured and disseminated in the form of policy briefs. The first Policy Brief draws on the first roundtable discussion, held on March 20, 2016. This roundtable featured four noted experts: Ms. Sanam Anderlini, Co-founder and Executive Director of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN); Dr. Kathleen Kuehnast, Senior Gender Advisor at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP); Dr. Paul Pillar, former official of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and now a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, Director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, Terrorism, Women, Radicalization, Violence, and Peace
Political Geography:
Middle East and Global Focus

226. A fractured way forward for a Global Peace and Security Agenda

Author:
Priyal Singh
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
In 2015, the United Nations (UN) took stock of three key global peace and security review processes, all of which contain various observations and recommendations to better prepare, inform, and potentially reform, the organisation. This Policy and Practice Brief (PPB) seeks to unpack these reviews, identify common threads and elements and provide insight on some of the deeper, underlying challenges and concerns that the organisation will need to address during this considerable period of institutional introspection – amidst growing international disillusionment and dissonance over the current state of global peace and security. The PPB begins by illustrating what led to the reviews and how each had been conducted. This is followed by an examination of the content of each of the reports, with particular regard to the respective central arguments, observations and general recommendations. The PPB then underscores the common threads contained in each report and provides an analysis of whether these reviews adequately consider the UN’s institutional responses, structure, and capabilities in light of the most pressing emergent international peace and security trends and developments. The PPB concludes by qualifying and drawing attention to the two overarching policy directions that currently confront the organisation, either toward some form of greater structural expansion or something more geared toward a deeper institutional rationalisation.
Topic:
United Nations, Peacekeeping, Global Security, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

227. Violence and Peace

Author:
Trevor Sutton
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
One of the most profound developments in international affairs since the end of the Cold War has been the rise of a global accountability movement that seeks to hold political authorities responsible for abuses inflicted on their own citizens and those of neighboring countries.1 During the decades between the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes tribunals of the late 1940s and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world’s great powers demonstrated little interest in establishing international justice mechanisms to redress gross human rights abuses.2 That changed in 1993, however, when the United Nations passed a resolution establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY.3 The decade that followed saw the creation of supranational tribunals to try the perpetrators of atrocities in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, East Timor, and Cambodia, and also the founding of an International Criminal Court, or ICC, whose jurisdiction has been recognized by more than 120 nations.4 The purpose of these institutions was to end impunity—that is, the absence of criminal liability—in countries where political and military authorities had committed horrific violence against civilians.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Violence, Accountability, Peace, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

228. Terrorism: Undefinable and Out-of-Context?

Author:
Jochen Hippler
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Terrorism studies have developed since the 1970s. But the research field still suffers from several weaknesses: the inability to formulate a consensus on what exactly “terrorism” is; the vagueness and arbitrariness of the practical usage of the term “terrorism”; its politicization and the habit to use it as a moral label instead as an analytical tool; and the tendency to use the term outside of any political context. This study firstly reconsiders these conceptual weaknesses, and proposes how to deal with them. Secondly, it suggests to focus terrorism studies more on the political contexts, which produce domestic and international terrorism, by using the key example of terrorism resulting from a context of civil wars and insurgencies. The study argues that terrorism is not an ideology, not a type of warfare, rarely a strategy, but mostly a tactical instrument, which has to be analyzed in the respective political contexts.
Topic:
Civil War, Development, Terrorism, Conflict, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

229. Peace Education as a Post-conflict Peacebuilding Tool

Author:
Vanessa Tinker
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This article provides a critical analysis of the literature and reports on peace education programmes in countries emerging from violent conflicts. First, it begins with an overview of peace education’s history. Next, it examines how peace education has been conceptualised, and highlights why it remains poorly defined. The article then proceeds by looking at the development of the international community’s use of peace education as a tool to contribute to their peacebuilding efforts in countries emerging from protracted contexts. After that, it reviews the research and evaluation work that has been done on peace education programmes. The article concludes with a survey of peace education programmes in ethnically/religiously linked post-conflict environments that have made mainstreaming their goal, and identifies areas of future research.
Topic:
Education, Reconstruction, Peace, Post-Conflict, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

230. Peace Education: Training for an Evolved Consciousness of Non-violence

Author:
Alev Yemenici
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
This paper aims to present a preliminary, brain-based model of peace education. In addition to subjects that current peace education models emphasize such as human rights education, environmental education and conflict resolution education, this model aims to introduce another level, namely the cellular level, at which neurobiological causes of violence and its early prevention can be addressed. Specifically, the model advocates dissemination of information on neurobiological causes and prevention of violence, and the impact of early trauma on the developing brain during the pre-natal, birth, and postnatal periods. These early periods are when a foundation of love chemicals or chemicals of violence is established and the fundamental brain architecture is laid down. In other words, through the education of children, adolescents, and adults, the model opens up a cellular dimension where violence can be prevented.
Topic:
Education, Trauma, Peace, Nonviolence, and Empowerment
Political Geography:
Global Focus