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101. NATO's Cooperation with Others: A Comprehensive Challenge

Author:
Agata Szydelko
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
What defines NATO when it is compared to the United Nations and the European Union? Is NATO an "institution of doing" (task-oriented), or an "institution of being" (identity-based)? While trying to define the role and reasons for NATO's existence in comparison to the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) and trying to answer whether NATO is an identity-based or task-oriented institution, it is worthwhile to reach out to the sources and find out when and why these three international institutions were established in the first place and what is the primary driver of their decision making.
Topic:
NATO
Political Geography:
Europe and United Nations

102. Assessing the Arab Spring in Libya and Syria: A Compilation of Varying Statements from Key Actors

Author:
Charles Simpson
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The situations in Syria in February 2012 and in Libya in 2011 have provided the two most recent case studies in assessing a wide variety of international topics including NATO's future role in global security, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a normative guide, the role of the League of Arab States (LAS) in the post-Arab Spring world, and the role of emerging powers on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Given the rapid proliferation of academic and professional examinations of the 2011 Libya and 2012 Syria cases, there appears a need for a compilation of the varying policies, resolutions, actions, and statements made by all relevant actors in both scenarios. The table below attempts to provide such a compilation in a concise and clearly structured format.
Topic:
NATO
Political Geography:
Arabia, United Nations, and Syria

103. Recent Trends in Security and Stability in the South Caucasus

Author:
Richard Giragosian and Sergey Minasyan
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
After twenty years of independence, the three counties of the South Caucasus-Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia-continue to struggle with a daunting set of challenges. In light of several unresolved conflicts and profound deficiencies in efforts directed at democratic and economic reform, the South Caucasus continues to be a "region at risk." As if this rather bleak landscape was not enough, three more recent trends have emerged to further threaten the region's security and stability. The first trend, and one that is likely to have the most profound effects over the long term, is evident in a subtle shift in the already delicate balance of power in the region, driven largely by a steady surge in Azerbaijani defense spending and exacerbated by a lack of progress in the mediation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Since the 1994 ceasefire that resulted in the suspension of hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh (but that did not definitively end them), this unresolved or "frozen" conflict has been subject to an international mediation effort conducted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) so-called Minsk Group. This tripartite body co-chaired by France, Russia, and the United States seeks to engage and prod the parties to the conflict toward a negotiated resolution of the conflict.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Security
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Caucasus, France, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

104. The Evolution of Azerbaijani Identity and the Prospects of Secessionism in Iranian Azerbaijan

Author:
Emil Souleimanov
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Conventional wisdom has it that Azerbaijanis, the largest ethnic minority in Iran, have historically tended to identify themselves with notions of Iranian statehood and Shiite religion rather than ethnic nationalism, a fact that has made them loyal subjects of Persian states. Yet recent years have shown a considerable growth of their Azerbaijani Turkic self-consciousness as part of their effort to achieve ethno-linguistic emancipation, an emancipation sometimes bordering on separatism and irredentism. Recent developments over the Tabriz-based Tractor Sazi football club (TSFC) and Lake Urmia have provided a further impetus to such developments that offer the potential to endanger the territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article is an attempt to highlight the evolution of self-consciousness of Iranian Azerbaijanis in recent decades, shedding light on the key issues that have caused this evolution with the aim of exploring the prospects of Azerbaijani secessionism or anti-regime sentiments in the strategically important northwest region of Iran inhabited by ethnic Azerbaijanis.
Political Geography:
Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Persia, and Urmia

105. GAO Report on Arctic Capabilities

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The gradual retreat of polar sea ice, combined with an expected increase in human activity-shipping traffic, oil and gas exploration, and tourism in the Arctic region-could eventually increase the need for a U.S. military and homeland security presence in the Arctic. As a result, the Department of Defense (DOD) must begin preparing to access, operate, and protect national interests there. House Report 111-491 directed DOD to prepare a report on Arctic Operations and the Northwest Passage, and specified five reporting elements that should be addressed. House Report 112-78 directed GAO to review DOD's report. GAO assessed the extent to which 1) DOD's Report to Congress on Arctic Operations and the Northwest Passage (Arctic Report) addressed the specified reporting elements and 2) DOD has efforts under way to identify and prioritize the capabilities needed to meet national security objectives in the Arctic. GAO analyzed DOD's Arctic Report and related documents and interviewed DOD and U.S. Coast Guard officials.
Topic:
Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States, Arctic, and Northwest Passage

106. The Correlation Between Non-State Actors and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Author:
Reshmi Kazi
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The probability of non-state actors acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction against vulnerable non-combatants has remained a worrisome threat since the turn of the century. How- ever, the watershed event of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on 11 September 2001 has significantly raised concerns regarding the availability of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons and their probable usage. The reasons for increased concerns are varied. They include: Widespread perceptions that the events of 9/11 marked the crossing of a threshold in terrorist constraint and lethality . Open source accounts of interest in WMD technology by non-state actors . Increased availability of WMD technology . Greater media attention . Persistent Western military presence in global affairs and an upsurge of anti-Western sentiments The vital role played by Internet technology for Al Qaida in propagating its ideology and integrating its loose networks of affiliates and sympathizers.
Topic:
Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
New York and Washington

107. Global Warming and Security: The Security Implications for NATO and the EU of a Melting Polar Ice Cap in the High North.

Author:
Udo Michel
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Environmental changes will have an impact on global and regional security communities.This article will examine the security challenges posed by the melting of the polar ice cap in the High North. Many NATO and EU members have manifest interests in this region, and parts of the Arctic belong to the NATO treaty area. Offi cial documents, political statements, and actions already taken show that the most of the Nordic countries address the effects of climate change on their region's security in specifi c policies and national security concepts. Moscow has sparked concerns in the West with displays of its will and capabilities-for example, fl ying strategic bomber patrols over the Arctic, or the hoisting the Russian fl ag on the sea bed below the North Pole. Despite a high degree of media awareness and intensive public discussions about spheres of infl uence and a possible return to classical geopolitics, both NATO and the EU try to avoid sending signals that would indicate that they regard regional security questions in the Arctic as a matter of deep concern or urgency. The motivation behind this article is to investigate this disconnect, to explain it, and todraw conclusions that argue for or against changes in the present posture. If their affected members states do not securitize the threats and vulnerabilities related to themelting polar ice cap in the High North within the organizations, NATO and the EUwill lack the incentive and legitimacy to adapt their security policies and strategies inorder to address the evolving situation.
Topic:
Security and NATO

108. The Emergence of Organized Criminal Networks as Extralegal Authorities

Author:
Priscilla Bittencourt Ribeiro de Oliveira and Plamen P. Penev
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Globalization and the contemporary global order have facilitated the emergence ofnew aspects of governance within, between, and across the state scale. The re-articulation and re-scaling of the state involves the devolution of specifi c aspects of governance capacities to supra- and sub-state scales, constituting a vast transglobal arena where a bewildering array of private, non-state actors, networks and polities take on roles previously performed by the state. This reconfi guration of the position of the nation-state transcends the Westphalian "territorial trap,"1 when it comes to produce new sites of power, new forms of authority and regulation through a reshuffl ing of traditional sociopolitical relationships.

109. The Essence of Crosscultural Security Education

Author:
Andrzej Pieczywok
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
This article presents the main factors that affect the preservation of peace andsecurity among human beings. It treats these categories as the most important goal of the education of modern man, as the basis of its performance in the world today. The core values that most signifi cantly affect human existence are structured around three basic concepts: security, peace, and education.
Topic:
Security

110. International Arms Control and Law Enforcement in the Information Revolution: An Examination of Cyber Warfare and Information Security

Author:
Yury Barmin, Grace Jones, Sonya Moiseeva, and Zev Winkelman
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Cyberspace infl uences nearly every human being in the world, as well as virtuallyevery area of government, industry, commerce, and education. The developments of the revolution in information technology have been a source of tremendous innovation, but as the world has increased its dependency on technology for its most basic functions, it has also become more exposed to the underlying vulnerabilities in cyberspace. These vulnerabilities continue to be probed and exploited at an increasing rate, and as a result, cyberspace has become not only a major area of concern for international security, but also a new de facto military arena. The United States and Russia both possess signifi cant capabilities in this realm, and their cooperation is essential to international safety and security in the era of the information revolution.
Political Geography:
Russia and United States