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71. 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

72. 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

73. 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

74. 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

75. 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

76. 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

77. 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

78. 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

79. 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

80. 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