Search

Begin New Search Topic Security

3201. Thailand's Emergency Decree: No Solution

Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The Muslim-majority region of southern Thailand continues to experience a relatively low-level insurgency but a state of emergency imposed on three provinces is no solution to the conflict that has claimed more than 1,000 lives since January 2004. The decree has deepened mistrust of the security forces, worsened public discontent with the government's approach to the insurgency and heightened the risk of human rights abuses. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra should take immediate steps to moderate the decree or risk plunging the area into worse violence.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, and Religion
Political Geography:
Thailand and Southeast Asia

3202. A Congo Action Plan

Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
More than two years into the transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the peace process remains at risk. As many as 1,000 people a day still die from war-related causes -- mainly disease and malnutrition, but also continuing violence. While the main belligerent leaders are all in the transitional government, their corruption and mismanagement threaten stability during and after the forthcoming national elections, now postponed from June 2005 to March 2006. The international community needs to maintain pressure on a wide front, making specific security sector reform, transitional justice and good governance measures prerequisites for the elections, not allowing them to be postponed until there is a new government.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe and Democratic Republic of the Congo

3203. Weakening Indonesia's Mujahidin Networks: Lessons from Maluku and Poso

Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
In the wake of a second terrorist attack on Bali, the need to understand Indonesia's violent jihadist networks is greater than ever. Two incidents in May 2005 -- the execution of paramilitary police in Ceram, Maluku, and the bombing of a market in Tentena, Poso -- offer case studies of how those networks are formed and operate. Weakening the networks is key to preventing further violence, including terrorism. In Maluku and Poso, sites of the worst communal conflicts of the immediate post-Soeharto period, one place to start is with programs aimed at ex-combatants and imprisoned mujahidin due for release. These men are often part of networks that extend beyond the two conflict areas, but if they can be "reintegrated" into civilian life, their willingness to support mujahidin elsewhere in Indonesia and engage in violence themselves might be lessened. Addressing broader justice and security issues would also help.
Topic:
Security, Religion, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Southeast Asia

3204. Bridging Kosovo's Mitrovica Divide

Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The international community has properly decreed that Kosovo's final status must not involve division of its territory. But this declaration has not been followed by sufficient action. Belgrade's policy of pursuing some form of partition is far advanced in the restive northern city of Mitrovica and its hinterland, and a major security, political and financial effort is required to save the situation. Capacity should be built immediately, and its implementation should begin once the Contact Group has declared its support for Kosovo's future as a functional, conditionally independent state within its present borders.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Government
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

3205. Can Haiti Hold Elections in 2005?

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Massive technical, political and security obstacles must be overcome very quickly or Haiti's elections -- municipal and local in October, parliamentary and presidential in November -- will have to be postponed. In particular the UN mission (MINUSTAH), other international actors and the transitional government need to move faster at registering voters, persuading the failed state's citizens that the exercise is meaningful, and disarming both urban gangs and former military. Otherwise, turnout is likely to be unsatisfactory, credibility of the outcome will suffer, and the government's legitimacy will be in question.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Government
Political Geography:
United Nations, Caribbean, and Haiti

3206. Evolving Threats, Evolving Policy: US Attitudes and Multilateral Institutions for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemicals Weapons

Author:
Natasha Bajema
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
The strategic environment underlying international policy responses to the proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons (NBC) has undergone dramatic and rapid transformation since 1990. This process was catalyzed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and more recently by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The threat of proliferation has emerged from the Cold War era as a multidimensional threat involving multiple and distinct classes of weapons (nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as well as radiological devices), increasing access to dual-use technology and materials, exponential advances in science and technology and greater numbers of actors (proliferating states and nonstate actors). Accordingly, the new dimensions of the proliferation threat require diverse and multi-faceted international responses, i.e. a comprehensive strategy at the global, national and sub-national levels.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:
United States

3207. Discussion Paper on the High Level Panel on Threats Challenges and Change

Author:
Shepard Forman
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
There is by now ample evidence of substantial gaps in the planning, financing and implementation capacities for the critical civilian components of complex missions. While substantial improvements have been made over the years in the international community's peacebuilding capacities, concepts, policies and practice continue to evolve within the UN system, including the international financial institutions, and among bilateral donors. In proposing the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission and related Peacebuilding Support Office in the Secretariat, the High Level Panel is seeking to build on and consolidate these advances in order to strengthen national as well as the UN's and international community's shared capacity to prevent state failure and more effectively manage post ‐ conflict peacebuilding.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Security, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

3208. Here There Be Dragons: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Author:
Benjamin Goldsmith
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, the task of wiping out radical Islamist groups and their support networks gained a new urgency for the United States. U.S. attention landed squarely on Afghanistan and Central Asia, the home base of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and several other radical Islamic groups. The war in Afghanistan created the need for large number of U.S. troops in the region and a base from which to operate, while the newly proclaimed “War on Terror” created a strategic interest in maintaining this presence to suppress further Islamic radicalism.
Topic:
Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Europe, and Asia

3209. Reinforcing Lebanon's Sovereignty

Author:
Robert Rabil
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
The United States has been lobbying the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution about reinforcing Lebanon's sovereignty, building on the October 25, 2005, report by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559. That resolution, adopted on September 2, 2004, called for the disbanding and disarmament of all militias in Lebanon, the extension of Lebanese government control over all Lebanese territory, and the strict respect of Lebanese sovereignty. Important as each might be in light of recent developments, the Resolution 1559 requirements are closely interconnected.
Topic:
Security, Sovereignty, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East

3210. The Countdown for Bashar al-Asad and Lebanon

Author:
Robert Rabil
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On September 25, 2005, Lebanese journalist May Chidiac nearly lost her life in yet another car bomb attack on prominent Lebanese figures who are critical of Syria. Led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, the international commission charged with investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri is expected to issue a report on its findings to the UN Security Council on October 21. Many Lebanese fear that during the countdown to the report, which reportedly may implicate senior Syrian officials in Hariri's assassination, Syria and its allies in Lebanon might try to destabilize the country in an act of retribution against the Lebanese opposition and the "ungrateful" country.
Topic:
Security, Terrorism, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, Lebanon, and Syria