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381. Evaluating Palestinian Reform

Author:
Nathan J. Brown
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
IN PALESTINE, CITIZENS HAVE RIGHTS OF FREE SPEECH and free assembly. The most independent judiciary in the Arab world adjudicates their disputes. Palestinians select their leaders freely in competitive elections overseen by an independent electoral commission. A representative assembly monitors the executive, granting and withholding confidence from ministers and reviewing the state budget in detailed public discussions. Elected councils manage local governments that are fiscally autonomous of the center.
Topic:
Development, Government, Peace Studies, and Politics
Political Geography:
Middle East, Palestine, and Arabia

382. Evaluating Middle East Reform: How Do We Know When It Is Significant?

Author:
Marina S. Ottaway
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
This short paper launches the second set of studies in the Carnegie Papers Middle East Series. The first set, now also published as a book under the title Uncharted Journey: Promoting Democracy in the Middle East, examined the most important issues concerning democracy promotion and democratic change in the Middle East. One of the conclusions that emerged from those studies is that the Middle East still offers a rather discouraging political picture. There are some liberalized autocracies but no democratic countries in the region. The link between economic and political reform remains weak. Democratic reformers have failed to build strong constituencies, and the organizations with strong constituencies are Islamist rather than democratic. The integration of Islamists in the reform process remains poor. And the United States, now championing democracy in the region, has little credibility in Arab eyes, and still has not consistently integrated democracy promotion in its policy toward the area. Yet, despite all these problems, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a ferment of reform in the Middle East. But how significant is it?
Topic:
Development, Peace Studies, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, and Arabia

383. Africa Action Talking Points on North-South Peace Agreement in Sudan

Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
On Sunday, January 9, African leaders and world diplomats will gather in Nairobi, Kenya to witness the signing of an historic peace deal intended to end Africa's longest-running civil war. This conflict between the Sudanese government in the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Army /Movement (SPLA/M) in southern Sudan has raged for m o re than two decades. Sunday's signing ceremony marks the culmination of two years of form al peace talks and many years of periodic negotiations, sustained by regional and international diplomacy. The signing of this peace deal could mark an historic moment for Sudan, by bringing to an end decades of violence and devastation in Africa's largest country. It could similarly mark an important moment for the entire African continent. However, this peace agreement does not cover the ongoing conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, where the Sudanese government continues to wage a campaign of genocide against civilians from three ethnic groups. Over the past two years, up to 400,000 people have died, and 2 million more have been made homeless in Darfur as a consequence resulting in what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Topic:
Human Welfare and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, United States, Sudan, and Nairobi

384. Iran: The Moment of Truth

Author:
Patrick Clawson, François Heisbourg, and Vladimir Sazhin
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The definition of European policy objectives and strategies vis-à-vis Iran's nuclear ambitions must take into account the specificities of the case, setting, as it were, its problématique. First, we have the unusual situation of a basically three-way game: the EU (and notably the EU-3, comprising the UK, France and Germany), Iran and the 'significant other', the United States, which is outside of the negotiation but a key player. Any student in strategy knows that a triangle is the most unstable and tricky combination to deal with, and the presence of yet another set of outsiders (notably Russia and China) adds another element of complexity.
Topic:
Development and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Iran, Middle East, France, and Germany

385. The Financing of UN Peace Operations - An Analysis from a Global Public Good Perspective

Author:
Alexander Kocks
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The present report argues on the assumption that UN peace operations represent intermediate international public goods that yield a number of positive externalities – such as peace and security, enhanced international stability and respect for human rights. The potential benefits that can be derived from these operations critically depend on how the international community decides to provide and finance them. Despite the fact that the financing of UN peace operations is a crucial component of their production path, there have been surprisingly few attempts to examine whether and how the UN has adjusted the international public financing system underlying the provision of its operations to the complex tasks the organization is asked to undertake. The present study contributes to a better understanding of UN peace operations as international public goods and fills this gap by providing an up-to-date analysis of the several existing international financing me chanisms and tools created by the UN to help foster better allocation to its operations. It summarizes important UN internal reform processes related to their use and offers policy re commendations for a more integrated and innovative financing approach to UN peace operations as international public goods.
Topic:
Peace Studies and United Nations

386. CIAO: War Crimes: The Posse Gathers

Author:
Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
Diverse forces are assembling to bring Bush administration officials to account for war crimes. Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Mother for Peace, insists: “We cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.” Paul Craig Roberts, Hoover Institution senior fellow and assistant secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, charges Bush with “lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers” and calls for the president's impeachment. Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and former president of the American Society of International Law, declares: “These policies make a mockery of our claim to stand for the rule of law. [Americans] should be marching on Washington to reject inhumane techniques carried out in our name.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, Peace Studies, and War
Political Geography:
Iraq and Washington

387. A Strategy for Ending the Iraq War

Author:
Tom Hayden
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
In January 2005, a group of fifty peace activists from the Vietnam and Iraq eras issued a global appeal to end the war (online at http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20996/). The appeal proposed undermining the pillars of war (public opinion, funding, troop recruitment, international allies) and building the pillars of peace and justice (an independent anti-war movement linked to justice issues, a progressive Democratic opposition, soldiers and families against the war, a global network to stop the US empire). This is an update on implementation of the strategy.
Topic:
International Relations, Peace Studies, and War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Middle East

388. Whither Ripeness Theory?

Author:
Dean G. Pruitt
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University
Abstract:
Ripeness theory, in its most common version, concerns the psychological states that encourage parties who are involved in severe conflict to move into negotiation—either bilateral or mediated. This monograph first summarizes ripeness theory as it stands today, while drawing on the writings of I. William Zartman, the founder of this field, and several other international relations scholars. Then it presents a critique, which recasts this important theory in conventional psychological terms; uses the language of variables rather than necessary states; and focuses on the psychological states of individual actors rather than on joint psychological states.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, Education, and Peace Studies

389. When Suicide Bombing Reaches the Tipping Point

Author:
Sam Grier
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
While at the macroscopic level numerous analyses have been devoted to finding the root causes of terrorism in the interest of preventing and countering terrorism as comprehensively as possible, a whole range of complementary preventive measures could be taken at a more microscopic level. It is therefore important to identify the catalysts of the forces fuelling terrorism, so as to compose a holistic menu of small and coordinated preventive actions as part of a first line of defence.
Topic:
Security, NATO, Peace Studies, and Terrorism

390. Rule of Law Programs in Peace Operations

Author:
Agnes Hurwitz and Kaysie Studdard
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Over the last fifteen years, the international community has supported the implementation of programs designed to strengthen the rule of law in countries susceptible to or recovering from violent conflict. Yet the question of how best to restore and/or implement rule of law programs in fundamentally insecure environments and to what degree the rule of law can prevent or mitigate conflict is not yet fully known.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Government, Peace Studies, and United Nations