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71. The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Turkish Parliamentary Debates (1992-1995): A Constructivist Approach

Author:
Didem Ekinci
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
While fully engaged in efforts of suppressing the armed violence in the former Yugoslavia at the turn of the century, Ankara could foresee the coming events, repeatedly called for immediate multilateral action, and argued adamantly about who the aggressor and victim were as opposed to the relevant ambiguity in the West. Central to policy formulations at political parties were Turkey's Balkan heritage/identity, stance against aggression, and the significance of Balkan routes for Turkey. Drawing upon detailed empirical data obtained from parliamentary discussions in three frames, this study examines under which circumstances the Turkish 'state', its identity, interests and intersubjectivities we re at work shaping Turkey's foreign policy towards Bosnia. Finally, it is emphasized that Ankara's foreign policy towards the war was competent despite coalition governments composed of different political mainstreams.
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Turkey, and Serbia

72. Pious Words, Puny Deeds: The "International Community" and Mass Atrocities

Author:
Rajan Menon
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Most of the large-scale violence in the world will continue to occur within societies rather than between or among states. Yet the international community still has not developed the ethical-legal consensus or the institutions required to manage this terrible problem.
Political Geography:
Iraq, Bosnia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia, and Rwanda

73. Office of Security Sector Reform (OSSR): Joint Force Command Naples (JFCN)

Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The Office of Security Sector Reform was established in the Joint Force Command Naples in March 2006, and is staffed by a mixture of military and civilian staff. This article explains the role of the Office and how it operates. Security Sector Reform (SSR) in the Western Balkans is now a major line of operation for the Joint Force Command Naples, a NATO operational headquarters. The Office of Security Sector Reform is focused geographically on the three Membership Action Plan countries (Albania, Croatia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) in the region and the three new Partnership for Peace countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia).
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro

74. Facing the Future

Author:
Jamie Shea
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:
Preserving international security in the 21st century is harder than it was in the 1990s. In those days, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the international system as a whole seemed to be moving towards democracy and a free-market economy, even if it was ridiculously premature to proclaim “the end of history.” The problems which inevitably arose from time to time were not that difficult to manage. Intervening in the Balkans, for instance, was really a matter of political will. Once the NATO allies had overcome their hesitations about using air power against Milosevic in Bosnia and later on in Kosovo, military victories were achieved relatively quickly. In short, the NATO allies had the power to determine outcomes, even if common vision and will were often lacking. There were no major countervailing forces willing and able to frustrate the policy goals of the Alliance.
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Kosovo, and Balkans

75. "We're all Smarter than Any One of Us": The Role of Inter-Agency Intelligence Organizations in Combating Armed Groups

Author:
Jeanne Hull
Publication Date:
05-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Woodrow Wilson School Journal of Public and International Affairs
Institution:
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Abstract:
Non-state armed groups present a direct threat to U.S. national security at home and abroad. Their decentralized structures, informal and formal logistics networks, and ability to merge with and hide among the world's civilian populations make them extremely difficult targets for threatened states and their intelligence and security organizations to address. Joint interagency and international intelligence and security efforts are arguably necessary to respond to such threats; however, despite the obvious advantages of intelligence collaboration at all levels of a conflict, obstacles to inter-agency and international cooperation remain. These obstacles arise from lack of capability, a lack of will, or a combination thereof. This paper discusses three lack-of-will challenges related to collective action and two capability problems using as case studies tactical-operational joint-agency task forces in Bosnia and Northern Iraq Based on lessons learned from these cases, I recommend that Joint- Inter-Agency Task Forces (JIATFs) become integrated into U.S. joint doctrine, that lead agencies or personnel for these organizations be established at their inception, that JIATFs at the strategic level focus more on the importance of networking and cooperation than operations, and the incentive mechanisms for participants be restructured to promote teamwork over individual accomplishment. These recommendations address a variety of problems with inter-agency collaboration; other problems—personalities paramount among them—require a more long-term approach.
Political Geography:
Iraq and Bosnia

76. The Yugoslav Tragedy

Author:
L. Kerestejiyants
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
East View Information Services
Abstract:
History of the Balkan Slavs can be described as never ending disunity and disagreements frequently developing into mutual repulsion and even enmity. Throughout the last six centuries the states of the Southern Slavs have not merely failed to consolidate - they distanced from one other. Slovenia was developing first under a strong German influence and, from the 13th century on, under the Austrian Habsburgs. Venice dominated over the Adriatic coast, mainly over what is now Croatia. In the 12th century, Hungary established its influence in the continental part of Croatia and later in Bosnia. By the mid-15th century, the Turks had captured Serbia, by the end of the century they established themselves in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Germany, Serbia, Balkans, Austria, and Slovenia

77. North Caucasus Weekly: Ingushetia's Parliament Confirms New Presiden

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Ingushetia's parliament on October 31 confirmed Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as the republic's president, replacing Murat Zyazikov, who resigned the previous day (North Caucasus Weekly, October 31). According to Itar-Tass, 16 legislators out of the 18 who attended the session voted to confirm the 45-year-old colonel, while one voted against and one ballot was invalidated. The news agency reported that Yevkurov was born into an ethnic Ingush family in North Ossetia and graduated from the Ryazan Higher School of Airborne Troops in 1989. In 2004, he graduated from the Academy of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Russia's highest military education institution. In 1999, Yevkurov commanded a unit of Russian paratroopers that entered Kosovo and took control of the international airport ahead of the forces of other countries. As the Moscow Times wrote on November 1, Russian media reported that Yevkurov led the 200-man contingent that caught NATO off guard by racing from Bosnia to Kosovo to occupy the airport in Kosovo's capital of Pristina, an operation at the end of the Kosovo war that “risked a dangerous confrontation with NATO troops, who were also heading to the airport.” According to the English-language newspaper, it was later revealed that an armed clash was only averted because the local NATO commander, British General Michael Jackson, refused to be involved in a conflict that could “start World War III.” However, Itar-Tass, in its description of the incident, wrote that the Russian race to occupy the airport in Pristina “went down in the history of the Russian Airborne Troops as one of the most successful peacekeeping operations.”
Topic:
Security, NATO, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Bosnia, Asia, and Kosovo

78. US Policy on Small Arms Transfers: A Human Rights Perspective

Author:
Susan Waltz
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
From Somalia and Afghanistan to Bosnia, Haiti, Colombia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo, small arms and light weapons were a common feature of the human rights calamities of the 1990's. More than a hundred low-intensity conflicts flared across the globe in that final decade of the bloodiest century, and virtually all of them were fought with small arms and light weaponry. Hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and bazookas, mortars, machine guns, and shoulder-fired missiles were the common weapons of warfare, along with the ubiquitous AK- 47--as readily slung over the shoulder of a 14 year old boy as a 40 year old man. Human rights and humanitarian organizations pondered the evidence: there was an inescapable linkage between the abuses they sought to curb, and the prevalence of these easy to handle, durable, and imminently portable weapons. In many instances the weapons were used as direct instruments of repression and devastation. In others, armed groups and government-sponsored militia used them to facilitate assaults with cruder weapons, spread fear, and create insecurity that effectively deprived people of their livelihood. Ironically, none of the countries in turmoil produced their own small arms. Behind the plethora of weapons lurked shadowy arms dealers looking for a profit, indifferent to the public's moral outrage and UN-imposed arms embargoes.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Bosnia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Somalia

79. Crime and Punishment: Holding States Accountable

Author:
Anthony F. Lang, Jr.
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Should states be held responsible and punished for violations of international law? The recent ruling by the International Court of Justice that Serbia cannot be held responsible for genocide in Bosnia reflects the predominant international legal position. But, such a position leaves open the possibility that states or non-state agents can never be held responsible for international crimes. This article argues that they can and should be. While most international ethicists and legal theorists reject the punishment of corporate entities such as states, this article argues that certain types of international violations can only be undertaken by states, and, as a result, states must be bear the responsibility for them. Drawing on some neglected strands in international law and political theory, the article sketches a potential institutional framework for the punishment of state crimes, particularly genocide and aggression.
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Serbia

80. A Balkan divorce that works? Montenegro's hopeful first year

Author:
Paul Hockenos and Jenni Winterhagen
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Among old Balkan hands, it is said tongue-in-cheek that the surest way to start a war in former Yugoslavia is to hold a referendum on independence. Indeed, in Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia, armed conflict did follow popular votes and declarations of statehood in the early 1990s. But Montenegro, a mountainous republic of just 630,000 in the western Balkans, was and remains different, for a variety of reasons. One year after its declaration of independence, it boasts stability and macroeconomic growth. Yet the question of exactly what kind of democracy Montenegro will be still looms large. The newly independent country is in the process of making critical choices with implications that will impact its political culture for decades to come.
Topic:
Culture
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Croatia