Gustav E. Gustenau, Jean-Jacques de Dardel, and Plamen Pantev
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:
The purposeful efforts to explain and define the changes of the Cold War system of international relations continue for a second decade. Certain referent studies stimulate the thinking on these topics, including in the post-9/11 period. Understanding better the transformation of the international system would provide us with a better view on the changes in its regulative sub-system, including the international legal component of the latter.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, NATO, Development, Human Rights, and International Cooperation
Dennis J.D. Sandole, Predrag Jureković, Christian Haupt, Petar Atanasov, Gordana Bujišić, Dušan Janjić, Savo Kentera, Matthew Rhodes, Erwin A. Schmidl, and Wim van Meurs
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:
More than 15 years after the end of the Cold War, it is clearer than ever that the 'New World Order' has failed to bring about eternal peace, and that we are nowhere near the 'end of history'. People are talking about third and even fourth generation peace operations (erroneously, in this author's opinion, by the way). So a historical perspective to this topic may be justified.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, NATO, and International Cooperation
Mastora Stanikzai, Zikria Barakzai, and Mohammad Hashim
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
After IEC establishment in 2005 the main objectives have been the capacity building of IEC staff. IEC is actively taking major steps toward this objective with cooperation of different international organizations (UNDP, IFES, TAF).
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Democratization, Government, and Politics
In the 1990s, Thailand led the way in democracy and human rights in Southeast Asia. The military largely withdrew from politics, allowing a stable democracy to develop in place of a succession of coups and military governments. The government strengthened its commitment to human rights through a new constitution in 1997 and ratification of four key international human rights instruments.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Democratization, Human Rights, and Armed Struggle
Both Thailand and the Philippines are home to Muslim minorities which have been engaged in persistent, at times virulent, conflict with the central Thai and Philippine governments for decades. While these drawn-out internal conflicts have primarily been ethno-nationalist in character, they appear to be taking on a more explicit religious dimension as a result of a range of factors. These include the failure of secular nationalism in achieving the ends of the respective rebellions, the resultant search for alternative (and presumably more effective) ideological impetus, the role of exogenous stimuli and catalysts such as the radicalization of local mujahideen volunteers involved in the international jihad waged in Afghanistan against Soviet occupation, and the impact of post-9/11 events on Muslim worldviews. Against the backdrop of ongoing international concern for Islamic terrorism, which is increasingly manifesting itself as a transnational phenomenon built on collaboration between jihadi terrorist and militant groups that capitalize on grievances throughout the Ummah, interest in the religious character of local conflicts, such as those under scrutiny in this monograph, have, not surprisingly, taken on greater urgency. Accordingly, what was not previously seen to be conflicts with decidedly religious contents are today being increasingly portrayed and understood in numerous policy, media, and security studies circles as a phenomenon driven and defined by Muslim radicalism, militancy, and international jihadi terrorism.
From 2000 to 2005 a UN-sponsored tribunal in East Timor sought to achieve accountability for violence associated with the 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia. Despite criticism of the tribunal's performance the UN has maintained that it was a success. In fact the East Timor tribunal represents a virtual textbook case of how not to create, manage, and administer a hybrid justice process. It was handicapped from the beginning by a debilitating lack of resources, an unclear mandate, inadequate recruitment, ineffective management by a peacekeeping mission that had other priorities, and above all a lack of political will both at UN headquarters and at the mission level. Trial practices and jurisprudence were too often deeply flawed, in important respects did not meet international standards, and, in a significant number of cases, undermined the rights of the accused to a fair trial. Because the UN risks repeating some of the same mistakes in Cambodia it is particularly important now to assess the failings of the East Timor trials.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Crime, and Treaties and Agreements
The Tsalka district of Georgia, situated in the west of the province of Kvemo Kartli, is home to a highly diverse population and has, since Georgia gained independence, been affected by three interconnected and potentially destabilising trends. First, after the collapse of the USSR, the local economy disintegrated. During the Soviet era, Tsalka had been a highly productive agricultural region, but after the Soviet internal market broke down and the roads and railway links fell into disrepair, most inhabitants of Tsalka district were forced to eke out a subsistence living from what they could grow and raise on their own parcels of land. Secondly, the state-society relationship in Tsalka district has changed radically over the last twenty years; from a highly regulating state in the Soviet period, to its virtual withdrawal in the 1990s and early 2000s, to a re-establishment of state authority in the aftermath of the November 2003 'Rose Revolution'. Finally, Tsalka has been the epicentre of successive waves of in-migration and out-migration; from a large-scale exodus of Greeks that began in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and continues unabated today to the rapid in-migration of Georgians from Adjara and Svaneti that began to gain pace in the late 1990s and reached its peak during the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in 2003-2004.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, and Ethnic Conflict
The first half of 2006 witnessed continuing sectarian violence and domestic insurgency in Iraq and the inability of Iran and the international community to find a politically acceptable means for ensuring adequate transparency and confidence that Iran's nuclear technology program would not be diverted to military purposes. To that end, the Pugwash Conferences and the Center for Strategic Research in Tehran co-sponsored an international conference in April 2006 covering both Iran's nuclear energy program and the equally important issue of Iraq and regional stability (see p. 35). Unfortunately, little progress was made on either issue, whether at the conference or by the international community. When added to the continuing stalemate in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process occasioned by the election of a Hamas government, the outlook for Middle East stability could not have been more bleak.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
South Africa has entered the most difficult political period since the end of apartheid in 1994. At the heart of the crisis is the question of the future direction of the country.
Twinning has become the cornerstone of the European Union's assistance to Acceding, Candidate or Potential Candidate Countries. Recently, Twinning has also started benefiting countries included in the programme of enhanced co-operation (European Neighbourhood Policy countries). The original aim of Twinning was and largely remains to be the building of capacity of these countries to adopt, implement and enforce the full acquis communautaire before joining the European Union (EU).