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12. Peace, Aid Renewed Anti-Colonial Resistance: The Development of Secular Palestinian NGOs in the post-Oslo Period
- Author:
- Michael Irving Jensen
- Publication Date:
- 02-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Soon after the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DoP) in Washington on September 13, 1993 some forty donor states and organisations met and pledged to donate US$ 2.4 billion over a five-year period (i.e. coinciding with the transitional five year (1994-1999) period of the Oslo process). As the peace process during the late 1990s was characterised by stalemate, the donor community in October 1998 (coinciding with the signing of the Wye River memorandum) decided to extend their aid and to support the Palestinians with another US$3.3 billion for the period of 1999-2004 (Sayigh Shikaki, 1999). Although not all the promised aid has been disbursed, the PNA has during the past decade become increasingly dependent on foreign aid, and today the Palestinians are among the most receiving entities per capita worldwide.
- Topic:
- Development, Human Welfare, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Washington, Middle East, and Palestine
13. The Pros and Cons of Subsidiarity: The Role of African Regional and Subregional Organisations in Ensuring Peace and Security in Africa
- Author:
- Bjørn Moller
- Publication Date:
- 12-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The paper critically analyses the emerging international norm of subsidiarity according to which "Africa are responsible for African conflicts", which is found to be a possible justification for "buck-passing" on the part of the West, leaving the continent with the fewest military means to deal with the largest number of the most destructive armed conflicts. The paper then provides an overview of the various regional and subregional organisations in Africa, including the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as well as a host of less important organisations. It concludes with a survey of the various forms of support promised to these organisations by the West.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Africa
14. Cooperation or Democratisation? The EU's Conflicting Mediterranean Security Discourses
- Author:
- Helle Malmvig
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper argues that the EU's strategy towards the Southern Mediterranean states has been marked by a simultaneous presence of two conflicting and mutually incompatible security discourses. Each of these discourses entail different conceptualisations of how security is to be achieved, who is the referent object of security, and which type of relationship exists between Self/the EU and Other/the Southern Mediterranean. This, the paper suggests, has resulted in an uneasy and contradictory EU policy toward the region, while at the same time causing suspicion and mistrust on part of the Mediterranean states.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Security, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Europe
15. Strengthening African Security Capacities
- Author:
- Lousie Mørup
- Publication Date:
- 10-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- In preparation for the expected Danish membership of the UN Security Council in 2005 DIIS organised a conference to discuss how to strengthen African conflict prevention and management capacities and make the most of Denmark's Africa Programme for Peace. This brief sums up some of the main ideas which were presented at the conference. The discussion bore witness to the complexity of the issue and the tremendous tasks ahead facing the African regional organisations, and made it clear to this author that Denmark has to prioritise its efforts to a few areas where it can make a difference in the two years of its expected UN Security Council membership.
- Topic:
- Security, Peace Studies, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Africa
16. The Commodification of Violence, Private Military Companies, and African States
- Author:
- Anna Leander
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This article argues first that there is an increasing commodification of the use of force in many African states and it takes the example of the increased role of private military companies (PMCs) on the continent as epitomizing this development. Moreover, it points out that this commodification is widely accepted as both African and foreign governments, international organisations, NGOs, and private firms are relying on private firms. The article proceeds to spell out how this commodification affects state authority. It argues that the commodification of force poses problems for state authority both by undermining the direct control of states over the use of force and by undermining the basis of its authority. The article does not claim that state authority and the use of public force in Africa are unproblematic, nor that PMCs are the sole responsible for a situation they invariably worsen. Its aim is to underscore that it is a chimera to believe that reliance on PMCs is unproblematic for state authority and to clarify some of the mechanisms by which public authority is undermined by processes privatizing the use of force. Ultimately, the particularity of African states is likely to be reinforced rather than reduced by the commodification of the use of force on the continent.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Africa
17. Disenchanted Conscription: A Military Recruitment System in Need of Justification
- Author:
- Anna Leander
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Economist's point of view is a widely shared one. It also seems warranted by current trends in policy-making in developed democracies. The US, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have abolished or are phasing out conscription. Even France, mother of citizens armies through the revolutionary levée en masse, just saw (literally as the event was broadcasted as a main feature of the evening television news) its last conscript leave the armed forces. The Nordic countries and Germany have not abolished conscription, but conscripts make up a shrinking share of the armed forces, which governments plan to shrink even further. For many observers this confirms that they simply lag behind. They will soon be brought to reason and abolish conscription. But this is a simplistic understanding of what determines the fate of conscription.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Government, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and Portugal
18. Conditional Legitimacy, Reinterpreted Monopolies: Globalisation and the Evolving State Monopoly on Legitimate Violence
- Author:
- Anna Leander
- Publication Date:
- 03-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The article argues that globalisation is altering the nature and meaning of the state monopoly on legitimate violence. It is accentuating the tensions around the meaning of “legitimacy”. The relativism implied in the idea that states can define which use of violence is “legitimate” (and which is not) is increasingly contested both by the international society of states and in a world society of transnational actors. At the same time a profound redefinition of what it means to have a “monopoly” of violence is going on. Increasing the private ownership and allocation of the means of coercion are blurring the responsibility of states beyond their own borders and, for some states, even within them. As a consequence the differentiation among states is growing, private actors are central to war and peace, and the system of national states might be undergoing a fundamental change.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, Globalization, Peace Studies, and War
19. Resolving the Security Dilemma in the Persian Gulf
- Author:
- Bjørn Moller
- Publication Date:
- 03-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The paper is introduced by an analysis of the concept of region, followed by an application of this analytical framework to the Persian Gulf region. Several problems in this region are identified, including a seemingly open-ended arms race and a significant risk of war. As a possible remedy to these problems, the author proposes a policy of Common Security, intended to satisfy the legitimate security problems of all states in the region. As a consequence, he recommends efforts to ensure the strictly defensive nature of the military postures of regional states, to be implemented unilaterally as well as by means of arms control negotiations and regulations of the international arms trade. The paper concludes with a Postscript on the Iraqi crisis of 1997/98.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Middle East, and Persia
20. Mediation Activities by non-State Actors: an Account of Sant'Egidio's Initiatives
- Author:
- Marta Martinelli
- Publication Date:
- 03-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- In 1993 Bouthros Bouthros-Ghali expressed his admiration for the methods performed by a group of Catholic peace-lovers, called Community of Sant'Egidio, in their attempts at mediating a deep rooted conflict like the one in Mozambique. He said: " The Community of Sant'Egidio has developed techniques which are different but at the same time complementary to those performed by professional peace-makers. The Community has discreetly worked in Mozambique for years, towards a peaceful adjustment to the situation...It has practised its techniques characterised by confidentiality and informality, together and in harmony with the official work of international governments and inter-governmental organisations. Starting from the Mozambican experience the term "Italian formula" is used to explain this mixture, unique in its kind, of commitment to peace, governmental and not. Respect for the parties to the conflict and all those involved in the field is fundamental for these initiatives to be successful"
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Diplomacy, and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Italy, and Mozambique
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