Search

Begin New Search Topic Security Political Geography Afghanistan

201. The Impact of Spoilers on Peace Processes and Peacebuilding

Author:
Edward Newman and Oliver Richmond
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Many ceasefires and peace agreements in civil wars are initially unsuccessful and give way to renewed violence. In other cases, peace processes have become interminably protracted: lengthy and circular negotiations in which concessions are rare and even if agreements are reached they falter at the implementation phase. State-building and peacebuilding processes are also often subject to outbreaks of violence, as recent experience in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo and East Timor illustrate. Given the huge material and human costs of a failed peace process, the consolidation of conflict settlement and dealing with threats to peacebuilding are critical challenges for the international community. After a history of painful experience in cases such as Angola and Bosnia, the importance of this was finally addressed in December 2005 by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1645 which calls for the creation of a UN Peacebuilding Commission. Th is new organ is expected to improve coordination amongst, and effectiveness of, all agencies involved in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, disarmament and demobilization, development, human rights issues, and the administration of former conflict zones.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Peace Studies, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Kosovo

202. Building State and Security in Afghanistan and the Region

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
In this fifth LISD meeting on Afghanistan, international experts – the discussants ultimately contributing to the content of this publication – have analyzed and debated critical issues facing the new Afghan state after the inauguration of the first democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai, in 2004. In terms of state-building, issues include the conduct of the soon to be held parliamentary elections, institutional design, culture and education, as well as the establishment of infrastructure and vital economics. Regarding security issues, areas of concern included narcotics, disarmament and re-integration of former combatants, PRTs, and more generally, the role and impact of the international community. Discussions have focused on the pragmatic details of these policy debates and developed larger, more theoretical questions of state-building, legitimacy, and viable institutions. It has become clear that in the shadow of international attention to the elections in Iraq and now the natural catastrophe of the recent tsunami in Asia, continued international attention paid to Afghanistan has varied– both in terms of actual assistance and financially. The Phase II LISD Vienna meeting has generated a number of recommendations and lessons for Afghanistan and the international community, which are also relevant for building state and security elsewhere.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Government, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Central Asia

203. The Iraq War: Do Civilian Casualties Matter?

Author:
Les Roberts
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
A disturbing thing happened to me in Afghanistan last May while working on a project to install wells in villages. After a delightful month of working in a rural province, filled with welcoming leaders and offers of tea at every house, the mood suddenly changed. A young man walked up to my 42-year-old female American colleague and bashed her in the face. As we collected our interviewers and headed back to the vehicles, children from the village pelted us with stones. This violence against anything foreign played out in hundreds of locations across Afghanistan that day.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, and America

204. The War against Reserves

Author:
Frederick W. Kagan
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
U.S. defense policy today rests heavily on two basic assumptions: that the American armed forces will make perfect decisions and take perfect actions, and that the enemy will never surprise us or offer us unexpected opportunities to exploit. These assumptions can be seen in the elimination of reserve forces from all echelons of the military structure and the heavy burden that the current war has placed on the Army Reserves and National Guard. The result of these decisions has been to leave the United States with little ability to react to unforeseen difficulties, either in Iraq or Afghanistan or elsewhere. If this policy continues, it will place American national security in grave jeopardy for years to come.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Government, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and America

205. Shocked and Awed: Defense Transformation in Iraq and Afghanistan

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
One hundred days into the second term of President George W. Bush, a clear national security agenda and policy team have emerged. While there has been some change—most notably, the elevation of Condoleezza Rice to secretary of state and primary policy pilot—there is also a great deal of continuity, particularly in the Pentagon, where Donald Rumsfeld still rules supreme. In addition to fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the defense secretary is leading the charge on a third front—the internal fight to transform the U.S. military. Yet two recent books by experienced war correspondents tell important stories that call parts of the transformation program into question. David Zucchino and Sean Naylor, both “embedded” with units in the thick of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively, perform the traditional journalist's function of telling truth to power. Their books and their messages deserve careful scrutiny.
Topic:
Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Iraq

206. The Defense Monitor, Secretary of defense donald rumsfeld, dec. 8, 2004

Author:
Daniel Smith
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
If made 63 years and one day earlier – Dec. 7, 1941 – that assertion would have reflected reality as the United States suddenly found itself an active participant in World War II. It arguably was the case on Oct. 8, 2001, when U.S. cruise missiles targeted Taliban and al-Qaida installations and personnel in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Taliban

207. CERI: Human Security: Concepts and Implications - with an Application to Post-Interventions Challenges in Afghanistan

Author:
Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Is the concept of human security, which has been discussed and debated in international organizations and academic circles since 1994, simply hot air, as its critics claim? Or does it provide a suitable framework for proposing multi-sectoral, integrated solutions in a world that is increasingly interconnected? While there is no consensus as to the exact definition of the term, human security goes beyond traditional notions of security to focus on such issues as development and respect for human rights. To some the concept is attractive, but analytically weak since it introduces too many variables that are not necessarily linked together. To others, human security concerns should be limited to situations marked by the threat or outbreak of violence. For those who favour a broad definition (as does this author), the human security agenda provides the means to assess the root causes of conflict (whether intra-state or inter-state), to propose adequate policies for resolving crises, and to provide the means for sustainable peace-building. In so doing human security policies focus on social and economic issues as they affect the individual, arguing that security (in the narrow sense of the term) is dependent on a wide-ranging network of factors that require a comprehensive approach to be effective. The paper introduces the various documents on the subject produced by international organizations, takes up the problem of the relation between academic research and policy-making, and points to a certain number of cases in which nations or regional organizations have included human security as a foreign policy option. Throughout the paper reference is made to the case of Afghanistan that is treated in the study reproduced in annex.
Topic:
Security, Development, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

208. Al-Qaeda's North African Franchise: The GSPC Regional Threat

Author:
Emily Hunt
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On September 29, Algerians will vote on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a policy that would provide amnesty for most of the one-thousand Islamic terrorists the government believes are still hiding in Algeria and neighboring countries. Between three hundred and five hundred of the terrorists still at large belong to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). This cadre of Afghanistan-trained, al-Qaeda-linked militants was behind the September 24 ambush of a police patrol east of Algiers that killed eight people. These holdouts have shown no interest in a government amnesty, despite the Algerian population's clearly waning interest in Islamist-inspired political violence.
Topic:
Security, Peace Studies, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and North Africa

209. Al-Qaeda Infiltration of Gaza: A Post-Disengagement Assessment

Author:
David Keyes
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Since the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, al-Qaeda has responded by splintering into affiliate groups that work along the same lines as the parent group but have a wider degree or organizational latitude. One of the newest may be taking shape in Gaza. The Israeli Ministry of Defense recently reported that al-Qaeda members had crossed from Egypt into the Gaza Strip after Israel's withdrawal from the territory. If al-Qaeda gains a foothold in Gaza, it would be a most disturbing development not only for the Arab-Israeli peace process, but for America's counterterrorism efforts as well.
Topic:
Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Africa, Middle East, and Egypt

210. Travel Advisory: Military Personnel and British Courts

Author:
Simon Henderson
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
On September 11, retired Israeli maj. gen. Doron Almog declined to disembark from an arriving Israel El Al airliner at London's Heathrow airport and flew back to Israel, thereby avoiding British police waiting with a warrant for his arrest. The warrant, instigated in part by pro-Palestinian groups, alleged that Almog had committed war crimes while head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Southern Command operating in the Gaza Strip in 2002. The airport incident has serious implications, the full extent of which will only become clear in time, for visitors to Britain from Israel and possibly America (due to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq). Israelis, Americans, and, indeed, British citizens could be vulnerable when visiting other countries as well. London's role in the Middle East peace process could also be constrained.
Topic:
International Relations and Security
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United Kingdom, America, Europe, Middle East, London, and Palestine