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222. From Ankara to Annapolis: Turkey and the Middle East Peace Process
- Author:
- Selin M. Bölme
- Publication Date:
- 12-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
- Abstract:
- The two-day summit in Annapolis ended on 29 November, 2007. Israel and the Palestine Authority agreed to start a new peace initiative. The Annapolis Summit has a special significance for Turkey. Israeli President Shimon Peres and President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas came together in Ankara before the Annapolis Summit. This important and progressive initiative represents the changing vision of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey had been keen to get involved in the peace process for a long time. Now, Turkey has a chance to be a new actor in the process, one with fresh and new ideas.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution
- Political Geography:
- Turkey, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine
223. Turkey's War on Terror
- Author:
- Bülent Aras
- Publication Date:
- 11-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
- Abstract:
- In an age of war on terror, Turkey pursues its own war against the escalating PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) terror. The dynamics that led to a parliamentary motion for a cross border operation into Northern Iraq will have implications for Turkey's relations with Washington, Baghdad and other capitals in the region. The Expanded Meeting of the Neighboring Countries of Iraq held in Istanbul on 2-3 November 2007 coincided with Turkey's intensive regional diplomacy. There are serious challenges to ending PKK terrorism and finding a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem. The Erdogan Government must fight terrorism in a way that will not jeopardize the process of democratization and political reforms in Turkey.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Democratization, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Washington, Turkey, Middle East, and Baghdad
224. NATO and 21st Century War
- Author:
- Samuel Grier
- Publication Date:
- 10-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- NATO Defense College
- Abstract:
- There is an expectation that the West, and the United States in particular, faces catastrophe in Iraq and Afghanistan. Confronted with significant casualties arising from the employment of asymmetric warfare by determined adversaries, the United States and its NATO and Coalition partners have found decisive solutions to both conflicts elusive. Similarly, the challenges confronting Iraqis are daunting, and according to the recently released declassified Key Findings of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, dependence on Coalition forces as an essential stabilizing element in Iraq will continue.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Cooperation, and War
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and Middle East
225. UNIFIL: Old lessons for the new force
- Author:
- Richard Gowan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Peacekeeping is a repetitive business. All too often, international forces are required to return to crumbling states that have already played host to one or more peace operations – and in some cases seem to have become dependent on outside interventions. Take Haiti, to which five separate UN missions have been deployed in the last fifteen years. Or Timor-Leste, which remained stable for less than five months after the UN departed in December 2005 – UN police are back there now, alongside Australian troops. Or, looking at a longer timeframe, think of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the 1960s, the UN deployed nearly 20,000 troops to the former Belgian colony. Today, it has similar-sized force back in the country - few analysts believe it should withdraw soon. And then there is Lebanon. Next year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the UN's first deployment to the south of the country. After last summer's crisis and the ensuing surge of UN troops, there may be blue helmets around to mark such anniversaries for a while yet. And it is possible to identify a series of recurring patterns in Lebanese peacekeeping.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Turkey, Middle East, and Lebanon
226. The Pugwash Newsletter: To the Pugwash Community
- Publication Date:
- 07-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
- Abstract:
- Celebrations in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs are occurring around the world in 2007. National groups from Denmark to Russia, Sri Lanka to the United States, and Spain to Japan, are organizing events to commemorate the very first meeting, held in July 1957 at the home of Cyrus Eaton in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, and to remind the world of the ever-present threat posed by nuclear weapons.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Japan, Iraq, Middle East, Denmark, and Spain
227. The Pugwash Newsletter: To the Pugwash Community
- Publication Date:
- 12-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
- Abstract:
- The year 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Little could the original 21 participants at the July 1957 meeting in Pugwash, Nova Scotia have imagined that, fifty years later, the Pugwash organization would have convened over 320 workshops, symposia and conferences on major security issues, have national groups and representatives in more than 50 countries around the world, and have been honored with the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Middle East
228. Water, Conflict, and Cooperation: Lessons From the Nile River Basin
- Author:
- Patricia Kameri-Mbote
- Publication Date:
- 01-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- In 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water.” In 1988 then-Egyptian Foreign Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who later became the United Nations' Secretary-General, predicted that the next war in the Middle East would be fought over the waters of the Nile, not politics. Rather than accept these frightening predictions, we must examine them within the context of the Nile River basin and the relationships forged among the states that share its waters.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, and Environment
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Egypt
229. Building State and Security in Afghanistan
- Author:
- Wolfgang Danspeckgruber
- Publication Date:
- 11-2007
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
- Abstract:
- Afghanistan represents one of the most unique combinations a country and its society may offer. It is a country with a challenging and unforgiving but majestic geography which favors independence both to the central authorities in the capital but also to potential intruders from the outside. It holds a unique geopolitical location south and east of the Hindukush connecting Central Asia to South Asia, and the Middle East to each of them. It is home to a proud, independent people with a history of ages-old religions and diverse cultures, but also of conflict and war. The Afghans and their country stand out in terms of drama, disadvantages and sometimes even simple suffering, witnessing nearly three decades – an entire generation – of warfare and civil strife. Afghanistan too is home to one of the most archaic societies north of the Indian Ocean. It has very little transportation or energy infrastructure, one of the world's highest rates of poverty, and some of the lowest levels of literacy, health care and GDP per capita. However, Afghanistan is today the world's most important opium producer and is centrally located in a region marked by high population and poverty with tendencies toward fundamentalist religious expression. Afghanistan itself became a base of Islamic militancy.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Political Violence, Civil Society, and War
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Middle East
230. Making Sense of a Senseless War
- Author:
- J. Peter Pham
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
- Abstract:
- In a report on the United Nations-supervised disarmament process in Sierra Leone, veteran Washington Post correspondent Douglas Farah described the pathos of the ragged Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters: many were barely into their teens, straggling into a processing center in the diamond-rich eastern district of Kono with little more than ill-fitting rags draped over their emaciated bodies (Farah 2001). There was little evidence that these broken youths had, just a short while earlier, been part of one of the most brutal and effective insurgencies in the world, one whose strategy was predicated on terror in its most primordial expression. Farah's piece was headlined, “They Fought for Nothing, and That's What They Got,” a succinct description of a conflict that struck many as senseless, despite its heavy toll in lives and property.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, United Nations, and War
- Political Geography:
- Iraq and Middle East