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61. G20 Monitor: G20 outreach to society in 2015

Author:
Tristram Sainsbury
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
The G20 engagement groups represent a cross-section of society at the G20. They have an important role in publicly holding the G20 to account, assessing the forum’s performance, and contributing to the G20 agenda. The groups have differing agendas and vastly different priorities ahead of the Antalya Leaders’ Summit in November. However, there are some areas of overlap, such as calls from several groups for G20 leaders to respond to the Syrian refugee crisis and be more active in addressing gender inequality. Open and effective outreach to broader society should be an important priority of the 2016 Chinese G20 Presidency. China should look to improve the efficiency of the engagement processes in 2016, so that engagement groups are more focused on recommending fewer, but more pragmatic and high-impact policy solutions.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
China

62. The Crimean conundrum: What has happened and what to expect in the future

Author:
Oleksandr Fisun
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Abstract:
The Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula represents a radical transformation of the system of international security on the European continent and in the wider context of the postwar “Yalta system” of interstate boundaries and their guarantees by major international players. The most important takeaway is that for the first time since World War II, one of the founders of the Yalta system of international boundaries has considered it within the realm of possibility to revisit its provisions by directly augmenting its own territory. This paper aims to analyze the outcomes of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the features of the newly formed regional political regime in Crimea, the role of Crimea in contemporary Ukrainian politics, as well as to present scenarios for the development of the geopolitical situation surrounding the “Crimean issue” in the context of the possible actions that primary geopolitical players may take.
Topic:
International Relations, International Organization, International Security, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Russia, Ukraine, and Crimea

63. Ukraine As A Buffer Zone? History Lessons For The New Geopolitics Of Eurasia

Author:
Thomas Graham, Rajan Menon, and Jack Snyder
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Abstract:
Amidst calls for containing an assertive Russia, politicians and pundits have been debating whether Ukraine should serve as a “buffer zone” between the Russian and Western spheres of influence. Based on a survey of the history of buffer zones in Ukraine and elsewhere, we argue that buffer strategies are most likely to succeed in promoting international stability when three mutually reinforcing conditions obtain. First, the buffer state has the material strength, defensible geography, and social cohesiveness necessary to resist penetration, annexation, or partition. Second, states that may contemplate using war as a means to annex or dominate the buffer zone anticipate high risks and costs. Buffers survive when flanking powers are relatively weak, satisfied, skeptical that “offense is the best defense,” and chary of commitments to reckless allies and clients. Third, whether the major powers have agreed, implicitly or explicitly, on rules to regulate their rivalry in the buffer region may also affect the likelihood of a collision. Based on these findings, we are doubtful that Ukraine can serve as a reliable buffer.
Topic:
International Relations, International Organization, International Security, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Russia and Ukraine

64. The Role of Donbas Universities in Reconciliation and Prevention of Future Conflicts in Ukraine

Author:
Olena Lennon
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Abstract:
Ukraine’s future depends in part on whether a formula for re-integrating the breakaway Donbas “republics” into the Ukrainian state can be devised. Most treatments of this problem dwell on decentralization and consider the forms that might take in eastern Ukraine. Olena Lennon examines the prospects for reintegration from an original angle. What role, she asks, might higher educational institutions in the Donbas play in that process?
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, International Relations, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Ukraine

65. Organization Theory and Complex Peacekeeping

Author:
Joao Marcelo Dallas Costa
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
How far Organization Theory can shed light on complex peacekeeping operations, observing the explanatory power and differences among more hierarchically-based approaches and network theory? It also makes the case for further research on why and how local elites, experienced with foreign intervention, hijack international organizations to advance their own interests.
Topic:
International Organization, Peacekeeping, and Military Intervention
Political Geography:
Global Focus

66. 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

67. Tana Johnson. Organizational Progeny. Why Governments are Losing Control over the Proliferating Structures of Global Governance

Author:
Matthias Goldmann
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
According to mainstream functionalist theories of international law and relations, international organizations are vehicles of states, tied to their masters by meticulous legal instructions. As Jan Klabbers recently pointed out in this journal,1 functionalism was based on the idea of establishing peace by channelling international relations into the purportedly technical, a-political realm of international organizations. Research of the last couple of decades has profoundly rebutted the assumption that international organizations are a-political. They have been discovered, among others, to serve as platforms for the formation of epistemic communities, as agorae for political deliberation and contestation or to use their bureaucratic potential and the flexibility of their mandates to establish a degree of independence from their principals. The book by Tana Johnson, professor of political science at Duke University, adds another important perspective that has not been explored so far. She turns our attention to the fact that institutional design might matter for the international organization’s independence from member states. As chief witness for her thesis, she summons the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Originally a brainchild of the US government, it is today a fairly independent institution fallen from grace with its master. Johnson argues that it owes its independence to the influence of international bureaucracies – that is, staff of other international organizations, upon the process that led to its establishment. The thesis puts the spotlight on the fact that a majority of new international organizations that saw the light of the day during the last decades was fostered by pre-existing international organizations.
Topic:
International Relations, Climate Change, International Law, International Organization, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

68. The International Civil Servant in Theory and Practice: Law, Morality, and Expertise. Review of Carsten Stahn and Henning Melber (eds). Peace Diplomacy, Global Justice and International Agency: Rethinking Human Security and Ethics in the Spirit of Dag Hammarskjöld; Roger Lipsey. Hammarskjöld: A Life; Lise Namikas. Battleground Africa: Cold War in the Congo, 1960–1965; Anne Orford. International Authority and the Responsibility to Protect

Author:
Guy Fiti Sinclair
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Reflecting upon the ambiguous relationship between international civil servants and international law in both theory and practice, this review essay examines several recent books that address the life and legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. Drawing upon recent theoretical work regarding international organizations, the essay argues that the authority of international civil servants should be understood as operating through three distinct yet interconnected modalities of discourse and practice: legal, moral and expert. Moreover, a comprehensive account of the authority exercised by international civil servants must take account of how they respond to any tensions that arise between their bases of authority as well as of their shifting relations with other ‘global governors’. The essay considers the depiction of Hammarskjöld by each of the books under review, highlighting the sometimes overlooked interconnections between the different sources of authority upon which he drew and suggesting some starting points for an alternative, integrated account of his thought and practice.
Topic:
Civil Society, Diplomacy, International Law, International Organization, and Humanitarian Intervention
Political Geography:
Africa and Europe

69. Isabelle Ley. Opposition im Völkerrecht: Ein Beitrag zur Legitimation internationaler Rechtserzeugung [Opposition in International Law: A Contribution to the Legitimation of International Law-Making]

Author:
Jan Klabbers
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Isabelle Ley, in her exemplary dissertation defended at Humboldt University, takes the emergence of regulatory international law as her starting point and aims to investigate how its democratic legitimacy could be enhanced. For her, democracy is not just a matter of particular institutions or practices but, rather, of open and possibly oppositional politics. Building on the work of Claude Lefort and, in particular, Hannah Arendt, she develops a framework for discussing democracy in international law conceptualized as the possibility for opposition. A democratic polity is one where every participant has the possibility of helping to take care of the common world, as Arendt might have put it, and presupposes open politics. This politics is, so to speak, politics for the sake of politics or politics in the Olympic spirit: what matters is not so much winning but taking part; what matters is not so much which policies will be adopted but the political process itself. Following Aristotle, taking part in public affairs is viewed as the most salient manifestation of human excellence: man being a political animal, he can do no better than take part in the political process – this is where individual happiness is achieved and, therewith, the ultimate justification of democracy.
Topic:
International Law, International Organization, Political Theory, and Democracy
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

70. Functionalism! Functionalism! Do I Look Like Functionalism?

Author:
Laurence Boisson de Chazournes
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
In his EJIL Foreword, Jan Klabbers argues that the contemporary application of functionalism, understood as organizations being assigned functions, in order both to realize the common good and to deepen inter-state cooperation, is something of a theoretical straitjacket. However, can functionalism really be described as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ concept? It is the contention of this Comment that there are, in fact, different manifestations of the concept, including neo-functionalism and formal or informal functionalism. New realities in this field also reflect an evolved conception of functionalism, such as the increasing diversity of actors affected by, and influencing, international organizations, as well as the fact that institutions have become authorities in their own right. As a consequence, we may also observe the emergence of principles, often referred to as global administrative law principles, aimed at dealing with these new realities. The article recognizes that a functional orientation in designing the mandates of international organizations has contributed to overlaps and inefficiency. However, it argues that efforts have been made in pursuance of greater efficiency.
Topic:
International Law, International Organization, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Europe and Global Focus