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102. Kenya's elections: the peace lobotomy?
- Author:
- Jean-Christophe Host
- Publication Date:
- 06-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- This Africa Policy Brief will look at the Kenyan elections of March 4th 2013 and examine what lessons can be learned from them. The argument that will be developed throughout this paper is that, although the violence was contained, the elections were not a success, because the drivers of conflict in Kenya remain untouched. The underlying reason being that the informal power of the political class still outweighs all the formal institutions and plans put in place. The ruling elite has acknowledged the drivers of conflict in Kenya for years but has shown very little interest in resolving them, because that could influence the drivers of their power.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Democratization, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Kenya and Africa
103. Mali: filling the void
- Author:
- Hans Hoebeke
- Publication Date:
- 06-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- Mali, from model of democracy to a deep political, institutional crisis and war in the course of a few months. This policy brief offers an analysis of the Malian conflict looking into the national political dimension as well as the entire region where already present dynamics were reinforced by the Libyan war of 2011. It also looks into the regional and international response mechanisms.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Democratization, Islam, and Insurgency
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Libya, and North Africa
104. Dealing with land issues and conflict in eastern Congo: towards an integrated and participatory approach
- Author:
- Koen Vlassenroot
- Publication Date:
- 06-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- There is an increased recognition that land issues are a key driver and sustaining factor of conflict in eastern DRC. Scholars and practitioners have identified a number of critical land-related factors contributing to violence and conflict, including a huge diversity of land governance forms; the existence of overlapping legal frameworks and the weakness of the statutory land law; competition between indigenous and migrant communities; limited access to arable land in demographically dense areas; the weak performance of the administration and justice system in the reconciliation and arbitration of land disputes; growing stress on local resources caused by massive displacement; the expansion of artisanal and small-scale mining; and increased competition between elites for the control over land and the consequent land concentration.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Peace Studies, Post Colonialism, War, and Natural Resources
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo
105. An Arab springboard for EU foreign policy?
- Author:
- Sven Biscop
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The Arab Spring is a revolutionary event on the EU's doorstep, of importance comparable to the end ofthe communist regimes in Eastern Europe some two decades ago. First it has ended the Arab exception to the proposition of democracy and human rights as universal values. Second it has demonstrated to all remaining authoritarian and/or grossly corrupted regimes around the world the power of the new technologies of social networking in undermining such regimes. Third it renews the challenge for both political scientists and practitioners to work out feasible political reform strategies for bridging the transition between authoritarianism and sound democratic governance.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Islam, and Regime Change
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Arabia
106. Setting a Standard for stakeholdership. Industry Contribution to a strengthened Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
- Author:
- Jean Pascal Zanders (Ed.)
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, more commonly known as the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), was opened for signature on 10 April 1972. Upon entering into force on 26 March 1975, it was the first treaty ever to ban completely a whole category of weapons. Together with the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the BTWC forms one of the pillars through which the international community deals with weapons of mass destruction.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Arms Control and Proliferation, Peace Studies, Treaties and Agreements, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Europe
107. Financing the answer to climate change: challenging but feasible
- Author:
- Clémentine d'Oultremont
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- An agreement on climate finance is crucial to ensure an equitable approach between developed and developing countries in the fight against climate change. Given their economic capabilities and their historical responsibility for global warming, developed countries are expected to bear the majority of the costs associated with global climate action. The Cancun Agreements formalise a commitment by developed countries to jointly provide USD 30 billion for the period between 2010 and 2012 and USD 100 billion annually by 2020 for developing countries. This funding will be balanced between adaptation and mitigation and is destined primarily for the most vulnerable developing countries. The objective is to help developing countries adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and to undertake mitigation actions so as to bring them towards a low-carbon economy.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Industrial Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
108. Europe deploys towards a civil-military strategy for CSDP
- Author:
- Sven Biscop (Ed) and Jo Coelmont (Ed)
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- Why does Europe develop the military and civilian capabilities that it does? Why does it undertake the military and civilian operations that it does? And why in other cases does it refrain from action?
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Arms Control and Proliferation
- Political Geography:
- Europe
109. Worse, not Better ? Reinvigorating Early Warning for Conflict Prevention in the Post Lisbon European Union
- Author:
- John Brante, Chiara De Franco, Christoph Meyer, and Florian Otto
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The number and lethality of conflicts has been declining significantly since the end of the Cold War, but five new armed conflicts still break out each year. While costly peace-making, stabilisation and reconstruction efforts have helped to end conflicts, no comparative efforts have gone into preventing them from occurring in the first place. The international community appears stuck in the never-ending travails of managing crises, finding it difficult to act early to prevent new conflicts from escalating. Encouraging signs that this is changing include the United Nations (UN) promotion of the preventive arm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the United States' efforts to improve its capacity to prevent conflicts and mass atrocities emerging from the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Similarly, since the launch of the Gothenburg programme in 2001, the European Union (EU) has embraced the case for conflict prevention in policy documents as well as in the Lisbon Treaty itself, making it a hallmark of its approach to international security and conflict in contrast to conventional foreign policy. Yet, it has fallen significantly short in translating these aspirations into institutional practice and success on the ground. It suffers from the 'missing middle' syndrome between long-term structural prevention through instruments such as conditionality for EU accession and development policy, and short-term responses to erupting crisis through military and civilian missions.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Diplomacy, Peace Studies, War, Armed Struggle, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United Nations
110. The Reform of European Economic Governance : Towards a Sustainable Monetary Union?
- Author:
- Stijn Verhelst
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- The euro is a rather unusual currency as it is shared by a union of largely independent states. This results in a single supranational monetary union, while most 'economic' matters are decided on a national level. A key challenge in such a system is to ensure that the different levels of decision-making do not undermine the advantages of the common currency. For this reason, the European monetary union has been buttressed by economic integration, resulting in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
- Topic:
- Debt, Economics, Monetary Policy, Financial Crisis, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Europe