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92. Independent Oversight for Mining in the Eastern Congo?
- Author:
- Jason Stearns and Steve Hege
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- The Center on International Cooperation (CIC) convened a group of leading non-governmental experts, on 3-4 December 2009, in a two-part discussion entitled: “Practical Mechanisms to Combat the Militarization of Natural Resources in the DR Congo.” This workshop aimed to facilitate constructive dialogue on the issue of natural resources and conflict in the DRC. Participants sought to identify common ground regarding existing and potential measures to combat the militarization of mining in the short to medium term. Over the course of these discussions, a clear consensus emerged surrounding the added value of independent oversight in order to both prevent mining from fuelling conflict as well to strengthen state capacity in the eastern Congo. In their most recent report, released days after this CIC event, the United Nations Group of Experts also included a recommendation for the establishment of such a mechanism. Through this concept note, CIC seeks to further develop how to operationalize this idea within the complex political and economic context of the eastern Congo.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and War
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo
93. Negotiations and Strategy: Understanding Sanctions Effectiveness
- Author:
- Michael Chaitkin
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Despite extensive and ongoing debate about economic sanctions, policy makers disagree about their effectiveness. This is to some extent surprising given the frequency and ceremony with which states sanction each other to achieve their policy goals. Analytically, this confusion is understandable; the multitude of factors that influence the outcome of a conflict involving sanctions confounds the task of evaluating the impact of sanctions.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Human Rights, and Sanctions
94. Is a Regional Pact to Stabilize Afghanistan Possible?
- Author:
- Tom Gregg
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- At the London Conference on Afghanistan held on January 28, 2010, the government of Afghanistan and the international community stated that regionally owned and steered initiatives stood the best chance of success. President Karzai and President Obama echoed that theme during the former's May 2010 visit to Washington – their joint statement “underscored the importance of regional cooperation in promoting regional security and in combating illicit financial, criminal, and terrorist networks.”
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, War, and Insurgency
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Washington
95. Conflict Prevention in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific
- Author:
- Elsina Wainwright
- Publication Date:
- 04-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- The Asia Pacific has experienced thirty years without interstate conflict, but a number of long-running, low-level internal conflicts continue in Southeast Asia, and several South Pacific states have recent experience of instability. Tensions also remain at the inter-state level, and shifting power dynamics between the US, China, and other Asian states have the potential to foster regional instability. In addition, a raft of transnational threats, such as resource scarcity and climate change, are creating new uncertainty.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Political Violence, International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Australia/Pacific, and Southeast Asia
96. Back to Basics: The UN and crisis diplomacy in an age of strategic uncertainty
- Author:
- Richard Gowan and Bruce D. Jones
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Conflict prevention is getting harder. In an increasingly complex international order, tensions between major powers complicate efforts to avert or mitigate civil wars. There has been a proliferation of potential mediators including regional organizations, individual governments and non-governmental organizations—often bringing specific expertise and political leverage to emerging crises, but risking duplication and turf wars. But while the United Nations is constrained by tensions among member states and challenged by the array of alternative institutions, it still has an important role in prevention. The UN has a unique “reach” into many unstable countries through its aid and development networks. Whatever the internal and external limitations on the UN, there is a widespread expectation that the Secretary-General and his officials can and should intervene in escalating crises, either to halt violence or at least to limit the suffering that it causes.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Civil War, Peace Studies, and United Nations
97. The African Union in Darfur: Understanding the afro-arab response to the crisis
- Author:
- A. Sarjoh Bah
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Darfur, an arid region in western Sudan, has become synonymous with genocide, though many have been reluctant to describe the situation there in such terms, not least the African Union (AU). As the conflict between Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) raged on for over two decades, long-standing tensions in Darfur were neglected. Meanwhile, negotiations led by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) culminated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, marking the end of Africa's longest running civil war; a conflict that had claimed the lives of approximately two million people and displaced millions more. However, the marginalisation of Darfur meant that the celebrations marking the end of the north-south conflict were short-lived, as news of mass murder involving government soldiers and their infamous militia allies, the Janjaweed, eclipsed the much celebrated deal. In Darfur, the Government and Janjaweed were pitted against the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the two groups that had taken up arms against the Islamist government in early 2003.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Peace Studies, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Sudan, Middle East, and Arabia
98. Preparing For A Second Nuclear Age
- Author:
- Ian Johnstone, Christine Wing, Bruce Jones, Elsina Wainwright, and Fiona Simpson
- Publication Date:
- 04-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- At the time of finalizing this report, the US and Russia have signed an agreement on a replacement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), just days before the opening of a high-level Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. After years of divisiveness and lack of progress, it is tempting to conclude that the nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament regime is on the upswing.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, Treaties and Agreements, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Washington
99. Drug Production and Trafficking, Counterdrug Policies, and Security and Governance in Afghanistan
- Author:
- Jonathan P. Caulkins, Mark A.R Kleiman, and Jonathan D. Kulick
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Drug production and drug trafficking are effects as well as causes of political instability. They flourish under weak states and sustain that weakness by financing insurgency and warlordism and by intimidating or corrupting the officials of enforcement agencies and security forces. Afghanistan is a primary instance of this complex of social and political pathologies.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, War on Drugs, Counterinsurgency, Narcotics Trafficking, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
100. Globalization and Scarcity: Multilateralism for a world with limits
- Author:
- Alex Evans
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Globalization has improved the living standards of hundreds of millions of people – but growing resource scarcity means it risks becoming a victim of its own success. Left unaddressed, scarcity of food, energy, water, land and other key 'natural assets' has the potential to trigger intensifying zero sum competition between states – in the process, increasing poverty, state fragility, economic instability, inflation, and strategic resource competition between major powers.
- Topic:
- Security, Agriculture, Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, Natural Resources, Water, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus