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Begin New Search Topic Arms Control and Proliferation Political Geography Europe

101. Bi-Annual Report: 01 January - 30 June 2004

Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
In November 2001 the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe adopted a Regional Implementation Plan on Combating the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in South Eastern Europe, which provides a framework of approaches and measures to tackle SALW issues that can be adopted by the countries of the region and supported by international organisations and bi-lateral donors. The Implementation Plan included provision for the establishment of a regional clearinghouse to support its implementation, and on the basis of this mandate SEESAC was officially launched in Belgrade on the 08 May 2002 as a joint UNDP and Stability Pact initiative.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

102. Public Perceptions of Small Arms and Security in South Serbia

Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
This report summarises the main findings of a research study implemented by Strategic Marketing and Media Research Institute (SMMRI) on behalf of SEEASAC / UNDP Serbia and Montenegro from 27 July to 06 August 2003 in the South Serbian municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. The purpose of the research was to clarify the attitudes and perceptions of ordinary citizens regarding small arms, in order to better judge whether a SALW collection project would prove successful. In addition to providing valuable information about perceptions of SALW, the survey results also shed light on related matters, including the state of inter-ethnic relations, public perceptions of international agencies working in the area, the developmental needs of communities, and levels of trust in security providers.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Civil Society
Political Geography:
Europe and Serbia

103. SALW Ammunition Destruction - Environmental Releases From Open Burning (OB) and Open Detonation (OD) Events

Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
Until the mid-1980s, almost all surplus and unserviceable munitions and propellants (energetic materials (EM)) were either dumped at sea or destroyed by open burning (OB) or detonation (OD). These disposal techniques were chosen because of their simplicity, low cost, effectiveness and safety. As our knowledge and understanding of the chemical and biological processes essential to the health and well-being of humans and ecosystems expanded, the perception arose that the dusty, brown plumes produced by OB and OD could endanger human health and the environment (HH).
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Civil Society
Political Geography:
Europe

104. A Fragile Peace: Guns and Security in post-conflict Macedonia

Publication Date:
01-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
It is an understatement to say that the presence of small arms and light weapons is a significant problem in the Balkans. Guns contributed significantly to the violence, death, and destruction that surrounded the inter-ethnic conflicts of the 1990s and early 21st century. Since the conclusion of hostilities, the effects of violent conflict persist in the area, as does the circulation of many SALW. In fact, these weapons continue to cause civilian injuries and deaths, constrain social and economic development, enhance criminal capability, and contribute to ethnic and societal tensions that may incite future conflicts throughout the Balkans.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Europe and Macedonia

105. Bi-Annual Report: 01 July - 31 December 2003

Publication Date:
01-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
In November 2001 the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe adopted a Regional Implementation Plan on Combating the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in South Eastern Europe, which provides a framework of approaches and measures to tackle SALW issues that can be adopted by the countries of the region and supported by international organisations and bi-lateral donors. The Implementation Plan included provision for the establishment of a regional clearinghouse to support its implementation, and on the basis of this mandate SEESAC was officially launched in Belgrade on the 08 May 2002 as a joint UNDP and Stability Pact initiative.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Civil Society, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

106. Small Arms and Light Weapons Production in Eastern, Central, and Southeast Europe

Author:
Yudit Kiss
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
With the accession of ten states to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, Eastern Europe strode firmly into the international spotlight. A few months earlier, Bulgaria and Romania had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), further extending the membership of Eastern, Central, and Southeast Europe in the alliance. These developments support the region's ongoing policy of integration into the West and its emergence as a socio-political landscape entirely distinct from that imposed by the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) until its demise in 1991. Not surprisingly, these drastic changes are vividly reflected in the national defence industries of the region.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:
Europe and North Atlantic

107. Strengthening International Arms Control/Disarmament Regimes and the Democratic Oversight and Reform of the Security Sector

Author:
Philipp H. Fluri
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The effort to universally promote and apply multilateral disarmament and arms control treaties requires public understanding of the contribution of such treaties to international security. All too often specialized knowledge of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation treaties remains concentrated with the executive and a few specialized departments of the Ministries of Defense or Foreign Affairs: whilst parliamentarians and the public remain largely ignorant about them. However, without either comprehensively informed and committed parliamentary oversight and guidance, or scrutiny by an empowered civil society, arms control and disarmament treaties will neither be sufficiently understood nor successfully implemented.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Civil Society, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

108. Armament and Disarmament in the Caucasus and Central Asia

Author:
Zdzislaw Lachowski, Björn Hagelin, Sam Perlo-Freeman, Petter Stålenheim, Dmitri Trofimov, and Alyson J. K. Bailes
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
The international attention paid to the nations of the South Caucasus region and Central Asia—a group of post-Soviet states beyond Europe's conventional frontiers but included in the Conference on/Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE/OSCE)—has been fitful at best over the past decade. During the last years of the 20th and at the start of the 21st century, after the conflicts in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh became (at least partly) 'frozen', security concerns about the regions tended to decline and to become overshadowed both by 'oil diplomacy' and by concern about developments within Russia itself, in Chechnya and Dagestan. In 2002–2003 a constellation of changes in the outside world has started to reverse this pattern. Chechnya is no longer a regular topic of high-level political debate between Russia and the West, and President Vladimir Putin has played the anti-terrorist card with some success to secure his freedom to deal with it as an internal security matter. The factors prompting greater international attention to Russia's south-western and southern neighbours, by contrast, have the potential to undermine—perhaps for good—any Russian pretension to decisive influence or an exclusive droit de regard in these regions. At the time of writing, however, this latest shift could again be called in question by a new diversion of focus to the 'greater Middle East' following hostilities in Iraq.
Topic:
Defense Policy and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:
Russia, Iraq, Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, Middle East, Chechnya, and Georgia

109. Reducing Threats at the Source: A European Perspective on Cooperative Threat Reduction

Author:
Ian Anthony
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Security Information Service
Abstract:
While states are responsible for honouring any commitments to one another that they make, it has become obvious that they are not always capable of doing so. Where the failure to implement agreed undertakings reflects a lack of financial or technical capacity rather than a deliberate effort to undermine the terms of an agreement it is preferable for all parties to offer assistance rather than criticism and punishment. During the period after the end of the cold war a new type of international cooperation has appeared as states have been willing to render practical assistance to one another in order to reduce common threats. In broad terms military activities have been of three types: facilitating the dismantlement and destruction of weapons; the establishment of a safe and secure chain of custody over weapons or other items; and demilitarization and conversion projects.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Arms Control and Proliferation, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

110. The European Union: Tackline the threat from Weapons of Mass Destruction

Author:
Gerrard Quille and Stephen Pullinger
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Security Information Service
Abstract:
This is the first in a series of Discussion and Policy Papers - published by ISIS Europe and Saferworld - that will trace, analyse and contribute towards developments in the European Union's emerging strategy against the proliferation of weapons and materials of mass destruction (WMD). This first paper has been written for circulation at the EU's Inter - Parliamentary Conference on the 'Non - proliferation and Disarmament Co - operation Initiative' within the framework of the G8 'Global Partnership against Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction', launched in Kananaskis, Canada in July 2002. The authors welcome the initiative by the European Commission to promote Parliamentary interest in this important area of non - proliferation.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Europe and Canada