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7221. Russia, EU, U.S. and the Balkans: What Future?

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Unlike what has happened with Central-eastern Europe and the Eastern Balkans, policies conducted by the West towards Western Balkans after the end of the Cold War have had a largely reactive character. By and large, although the fragmentation of Yugoslavia had been widely feared and anticipated, developments in Western Balkans took the West aback because of their violent and uncompromising character. For this reason, with respect to this area the European countries and the United States have shown continuous hesitations and oscillations on how their interests in the area had to be understood, how much they had to feel involved and what they had to do.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Yugoslavia, and Balkans

7222. Redefining Sovereignty . The Use of Force After the End of the Cold War. New Options, Lawful and Legitimate?

Publication Date:
11-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The conference was organised by the Institute for International Affairs (IAI) with the support of the Centre for High Defence Studies (CASD), the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the NATO Office for Information and Press and the Thyssen Foundation. It was held in Rome, at the Centre for High Defence Studies, on 24 and 25 November 2000.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, NATO, Cold War, Human Rights, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
United States, Germany, and Rome

7223. EU's Emerging Military Policy and the Mena Areas

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
11-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The American component in the EU Middle East Policy cannot be considered in isolation. The transatlantic relationship has a complex character and, for this reason, there are linkages between different issues. The influence of transatlantic relations and the U.S. on what the EU does or does not do in the Middle East is not necessarily tied to the Middle East itself and to specific Middle Eastern issues debated in transatlantic relations. It may stem from other issues.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and NATO
Political Geography:
United States, America, Middle East, and North Africa

7224. The Role of International Organisations in the Mediterranean

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The Mediterranean is an area where many different political, societal and cultural entities happen to stay in touch with one another. In some respects it may be regarded as a region in itself, in particular because of environment and a number of dwindling premodern, subcultural similarities. In general, though, it can hardly be regarded as a regional entity, i.e. endowed with a significant inner coherence. There is no doubt, that what characterises the Mediterranean area is its quintessential inter-regional structure. If we look at the initiatives to institutionalise inter-Mediterranean relations in the last few decades, we see that they are in fact of both regional and inter-regional character. In the functional realm, a clear example of Mediterranean regional organisation is the “Blue Plan”, set out within the framework of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) with a view to manage common environmental resources relating to the sea. An example referring to the political realm can be drawn from the Cold War, namely the Mediterranean component of the Non-Aligned Movement. At that time, within that Movement there was a Mediterranean feeling shared by Southern European as well as Third World countries belonging to the area. Such common feeling was motivated by the perception of a cultural and political oppression enforced by imperialist quarters (the West, USA, NATO). This gave way to a search for a Mediterranean region de-linked from Western dominance.
Topic:
Security, Environment, and International Organization
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

7225. The WTO and its Institutional Future - Evaluating the Lessons of Seattle

Author:
Isabella Falautano
Publication Date:
06-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
There has been a lot of talk in the last months about the results of the third ministerial meeting of the WTO, held in Seattle from November 30th to December 3rd, 1999. In Seattle, the WTO was expected to adopt a proposal for the launching of a comprehensive new Round – the so-called Millennium Round – encompassing a broad and ambitious range of topics, from the more traditional challenges to the new trade issues. Instead, the meeting finished in a dramatic failure and the risk now is that the trading system of the twenty-first century will drift into a fog of uncertainty. One should point out that, at the end of the Uruguay Round a renegotiation was foreseen in the two key sectors of agriculture and services, the so-called "built-in" or progressive agenda. While the scenario for a global round, as I will try to clarify, is improbable to say the least in the short term, sectoral negotiations in agriculture and services will be starting in the year 2000. Nevertheless, the general context in which such negotiations are being launched, and in which the pro-Round coalition is trying to built consensus, is undoubtedly difficult.
Topic:
Globalization, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

7226. Iran and Iraq: Sanctions and Dual Containment - A View from the European Union

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
05-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In recent years, many (non-American as well as American) analysts have put in question the wisdom and rationale of the US doctrine of the “dual containment” towards Iraq and Iran. Rather than being a strategic doctrine, the “dual containment” is a state of affairs reflecting the fact that the US was left without viable political options in the region by a set of mistakes whose cost it will be able to recover only in a more or less distant time: in particular, the full and blind support to the Shah's regime against any nationalist, liberal and religious groups in the country and the support to Iraq in the war against Iran, which convinced the Iraqi ruling regime of being entitled to exercise in the region a kind of proconsular power and prepared the country politically and militarily to its unfortunate attempt at swallowing Kuwait.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, America, Iran, Kuwait, and Arab Countries

7227. Including Libya? EU, Arab World, and the U.S.

Author:
Roberto Aliboni
Publication Date:
02-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The Libyan leadership's decision to hand over the two citizens suspected of carrying out the terrorist attack against a Pan Am civilian aircraft over Lockerbie on December 12, 1988 undoubtedly marks a change in Tripoli's foreign policy. It remains to be seen how durable this change will be and whether international policies may consolidate it or make it less reversible than Tripoli's record would suggest. While one can only speculate on how long Libya's new foreign policy direction will last, the second question-whether this direction can be consolidated - is the basic matter addressed in this paper. Libya is a special and, to some extent, extreme case in a range of post-Cold War developments and changes which concern a good number of Arab countries. The Libyan case must be put in this more general perspective.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
United States, Libya, and Arab Countries

7228. Challenges for a New Administration

Author:
Aleksandar D. Jovovic
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:
The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy hosted the fall 2000 meetings of the Schlesinger Working Group on the topic of possible foreign policy strategic surprises facing the incoming Administration. To provide a starting point for the discussion, working group members identified more than a dozen scenarios that could: Take a new administration by surprise (an event not covered in the transition briefing books). Present a considerable challenge to the President. Pose a significant discontinuity or shift in the current trend line.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

7229. Colombia at the Crossroads

Author:
Aleksandar D. Jovovic
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:
The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy hosted the spring session of the Schlesinger Working Group on the topic of strategic surprise in Colombia. After a presentation on four potential scenarios that may face Colombia (see next page), Schlesinger Working Group core members and Colombia specialists examined the key factors driving events in this conflict-scarred country, as well as possible outcomes for current political initiatives. Among other issues, the participants touched on the range and dynamics of the present conflict, its effects on Colombian institutions, the country's neighbors, as well as on the role of powerful outside players, primarily the United States. Upon defining these key factors, participants identified a broad outline for future policy towards Colombia, which would safeguard key U.S. interests, defined as an end to the conflict, political and economic stability in the region, and the suppression of the drug trade. The following report is based on the informal and general findings of the group and is therefore not a consensus document.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Colombia, South America, and Latin America

7230. U.S. Immigration Policy: Unilateral and Cooperative Responses to Undocumented Immigration

Author:
Marc R. Rosenblum
Publication Date:
01-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Abstract:
This paper addresses the problem of undocumented immigration to the UnitedStates from Mexico, and current and proposed policies designed to control these undocumented flows. Undocumented migration from Mexico is a subject that already receives disproportionate attention in the sense that many-and probably most-undocumented immigrants in the United States do not illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border, yet INS enforcement efforts focus overwhelmingly on these border crossers. Although undocumented Mexican migration to the United States is disproportionately targeted, the subject merits analytical attention for three reasons. First, undocumented immigration from Mexico to the United States is the largest illicit migration flow in the world, at about one million crossings per year. Second, partly for this reason, U.S. enforcement efforts devoted to controlling Mexican immigration cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and have resulted in the transformation of the INS into the largest civilian gun-carrying force in the world. And third, immigration remains central to U.S.-Mexican bilateral relations (Binational Commission 1997, Rico 1992, Rosenblum 1998) as U.S. immigration policy-making takes on an increasingly transnational character (Rosenblum 1999 and forthcoming).
Topic:
Human Rights and Migration
Political Geography:
United States and Mexico