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972. Rethinking The Nature of Security: The U.S. Northern Europe Initiative
- Author:
- Edward Rhodes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- That U.S. policy toward the Baltic region should merit discussion is in itself an indicator of how much has changed in the last decade. That U.S. policy toward the Baltic should have come to embody an intellectual revolution is nothing less than extraordinary. Nonetheless, this is in fact the case.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
973. Competing or Complementary Policies? Understanding the Relationship between the NEI and NDI
- Author:
- Christopher S. Browning
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- In recent years the relationship between the European Union and the United States has become increasingly contentious. The principal European critique laments what many Europeans see as America's blatant disregard of global norms and what Chris Patten, the EU's External Affairs Commissioner, has labelled America's "neuralgic hostility to any external authority over its own affairs". In its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol and the establishment of an International Criminal Court, its reluctance to pay its dues to the United Nations, and its eagerness to scrap the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Europeans often see America as lurching towards a unilateralist stance based on America's military preponderance, whilst multilateral organisations, legal conventions and international norms are pushed aside.
- Topic:
- Security, NATO, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
974. Managing Asia Pacific's Energy Dependence on the Middle East: Is There a Role for Central Asia?
- Author:
- Kang Wu and Fereidun Fesharaki
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- The Middle East is Asia Pacific's largest energy supplier, satisfying a demand for oil that must keep pace with the region's continued economic growth. This dependence on the Middle East has caused Asia Pacific to join the United States and other Western nations in the hunt for alternative suppliers. Central Asia, located between the Middle East and Asia Pacific and already an oil and gas exporter, is an attractive possibility. With energy production projected to rise rapidly over the next decade, Central Asia is poised to become a major player in the world energy market. But the land-locked region's options for transporting oil and gas to Asia Pacific markets are limited and problematic. Passage via pipeline east through China presents construction challenges; south through Iran, or through India and Pakistan via Afghanistan, is fraught with political difficulties. Not until geopolitics become more favorable to the south-bound options, or technologies make the China route possible, will Asia Pacific be able to tap the energy resources of Central Asia.
- Topic:
- Security and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, China, Iran, Middle East, and Asia
975. Iraq: The Transatlantic Debate
- Author:
- Philip H. Gordon
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- Most Americans see the regime of Saddam Hussein as a major threat to regional and international security that must be thwarted, even if that means threatening or even using military force. If Saddam were to acquire nuclear weapons, they fear, he would seek to use them to dominate the Middle East, possibly invading his neighbours as he has in the past and perhaps deterring the United States from stopping him. His nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, moreover, might end up in the hands of Islamic terrorists who would show no compunction about using them against the United States, or Saddam himself might do so out of a thirst for vengeance. Whereas failure to act in Iraq would make a mockery of the United Nations Security Council and international law, a decisive action to topple Saddam would liberate the Iraqi people, allow the United States to lift sanctions on Iraq and withdraw its forces from Saudi Arabia, and perhaps make progress toward a freer and more democratic Middle East.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Europe, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and United Nations
976. The United States: The Empire of Force or the Force of Empire?
- Author:
- Pierre Hassner
- Publication Date:
- 09-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- There is no society or policy that does not have its contradictions, but some have more than others, and that is certainly true of the United States. Raymond Aron evoked a classic paradox in giving his book on the United States the title The Imperial Republic. That paradox has two aspects. Firstly, are the republic's institutions (which are designed to guarantee citizens' rights and a separation of powers) suited to the running of an empire, or are they prejudicial to the decision-making ability and continuity that that implies? Conversely, does not the expenditure on empire, in terms of resources and time, and in particular the methods used to acquire and preserve it, affect the economic, political and moral health of the republican homeland? These dilemmas are made even more acute since, on the one hand, this is not a classic empire, like that of Rome, but rather a bourgeois, individualist one based on the acquisition of wealth rather than the winning of wars and, on the other hand, this is the first truly world-wide empire and has appeared at a moment when the threats facing humankind raise key questions on the interests of the international system and the planet itself, over and above those of the 'hyperpower'.
- Topic:
- Security and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
977. Enlargement and European Defence After 11 September
- Author:
- Pal Dunay, Jiri Sedivy, and Jacek Saryusz-Wolski
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The jury is still out on the extent to which 11 September has changed the concept – let alone the perception – of security. All the more so for European security at large, whose contours are still quite blurred. As for the European Union proper, 11 September has triggered a prompt response in the field of internal security, while the military reaction has been either channelled through NATO and the UN or managed individually (and bilaterally with the United States) by both member and applicant states. More indirectly, 11 September has increased the pressure towards enlargement by pushing for a faster and broader accession of the current candidates in order to further stabilise the Union's immediate neighbourhood: a quintessential case of security policy by other means, one is tempted to say, in line with a long tradition in the European integration process. Moreover, for similar reasons, the Atlantic Alliance, too, is likely to enlarge more quickly and more extensively than previously envisaged. Key decisions in those directions are to be taken in Prague (NATO) and Copenhagen (EU) later this year. For the Union, anyway, the endgame has already started. With it, the enlargement process will have come almost full circle: 'from Copenhagen to Copenhagen', so to speak, in just under ten years.
- Topic:
- Security and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and United Nations
978. The Worried Friend, or: Hegemony vs. Globalization
- Author:
- Claus Leggewie
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- How real is American hegemony, given that only a few years ago talk about the decline of American power dominated discussion? How do allied states deal with a superpower that is no longer so benign? Does the United States still provide security for Western Europe and the rest of the world at all? And is a transnational world in need of Pax Americana, or what should, from a European and transatlantic perspective, take its place?
- Topic:
- Security and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Europe
979. Voices From The Iraqi Street
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- As this briefing paper went to press, all eyes were on the United States and United Nations, the weapons inspectors, war preparations and the Iraqi regime's posture toward them. Yet, as has been true throughout this crisis, the unknown variable in the equation is the view of the Iraqi population. Living under a highly repressive and closed regime and bereft of genuine means of expression, the Iraqi people have largely appeared to the outside world as passive bystanders in a crisis that is bound to affect them more than anyone else. Speculation about how Iraqis view the current crisis has varied widely, with assessments often tailored to buttress political arguments regarding the wisdom of a U.S.-led war.
- Topic:
- Security and War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Arabia, and United Nations
980. Moving Macedonia Towards Self-Sufficiency: A New Security Approach for NATO and the EU
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Macedonia's 15 September 2002 election suggests the country may have turned a corner on the road to stability. Widely anticipated fraud and violence mostly did not materialise. Unlike in neighbouring Kosovo a few weeks later, a cross section of voters from all ethnicities streamed to the polls. They elected a government that has embraced the Framework Agreement brokered by the European Union (EU), the U.S. and NATO at Ohrid in August 2001 to end the incipient civil war and that has pledged to manage inter-ethnic issues through consensus, not simply division of spoils, to overhaul the scandal-plagued “Lions” security unit, and fight massive, endemic corruption.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Macedonia