Search

Begin New Search Topic Civil Society Publication Year within 10 Years

121. Citizens of Ukraine on Security: Personal, National, and its Elements - Survey 1 (2016)

Author:
Alla Chernova and Valeriya Klymenko
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Razumkov Centre
Abstract:
Results of a nationwide sociological survey conducted by the Razumkov Centre KYIV-2016 This publication presents the results of a nationwide sociological survey conducted by the Razumkov Centre’s Sociological Service in the framework of Ukraine’s security governance challenges monitoring project, implemented by the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), jointly with Razumkov Centre, with support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The survey and the publication were made possible through financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The assessments and conclusions made by the authors do not necessarily coincide with official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The survey was conducted by the Razumkov Centre’s Sociological Service on 27-31 May 2016, in all regions of Ukraine, except Crimea and the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 2,019 respondents aged above 18 years were polled. The sampling error does not exceed 2.3%.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, Sociology, and Survey
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe

122. Proceedings from the First International Conference: Monitoring Ukraine's Security Governance Challenges

Author:
Philipp H. Fluri and Oleksiy Melnyk
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Razumkov Centre
Abstract:
Proceedings from the First International Conference “Monitoring Ukraine’s Security Governance Challenges – Status and Needs” 21-22 January 2016, Kyiv, Ukraine KYIV-2016 This publication offers the proceedings of the International Conference “Monitoring Ukraine’s Security Governance Challenges – Status and Needs” sought to examine and document challenges to the Ukrainian security sector, while explaining again the notion of the security sector governance and reform, along with such concepts as transparency and accountability, efficient and effective management, and the dangers posed to security by corruption. General assessments, conclusions and proposals are those of the participants and contributors and do not necessarily coincide with the positions of DCAF or the Razumkov Centre. Publication was made possible in the framework of the joint DCAF-Razumkov Centre Project sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, Governance, and Media
Political Geography:
Europe and Ukraine

123. Nanotechnology and Global Security

Author:
Adrian M. Ionescu
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Nanotechnology enables new solutions with numerous civilian and military applications. This paper provides an introduction to nano­technology as a strategic research and industry field, presents trends with key potential impact and examines related policy and security implica­tions. In lieu of conclusion, the author provides a number of policy con­siderations in regard to the security application of nanotechnology.
Topic:
Civil Society, Science and Technology, Military Strategy, and Nanotechnology
Political Geography:
Global Focus

124. Humanitarian capacity-building in Mozambique: Improving living and health conditions in Zambézia

Author:
Marcos Do Amaral
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Mozambique is described as the third most exposed African country to the risks of disaster, particularly floods, cyclones and drought. It is one of the world’s worst affected countries in terms of climate change, resulting in high levels of poverty and vulnerability, and major impacts on natural resources and physical infrastructures. Oxfam is building the capacity of Mozambique’s civil society so it can effectively participate in disaster management, directly support affected and vulnerable people, and, in terms of the humanitarian situation, have a critical vision and voice.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Poverty, and Natural Disasters
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa

125. Backlash against International Courts in West, East and Southern Africa: Causes and Consequences

Author:
Karen J. Alter, James T. Gathii, and Laurence R. Helfer
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article discusses three credible attempts by African governments to restrict the jurisdiction of three similarly situated sub-regional courts in response to politically controversial rulings. In West Africa, when the Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) upheld allegations of torture by opposition journalists in Gambia, that country’s political leaders sought to restrict the Court’s power to review human rights complaints. The other member states ultimately defeated Gambia’s proposal. In East Africa, Kenya failed in its efforts to eliminate the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and to remove some of its judges after a decision challenging an election to a sub-regional legislature. However, the member states agreed to restructure the EACJ in ways that have significantly affected the Court’s subsequent trajectory. In Southern Africa, after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ruled in favour of white farmers in disputes over land seizures, Zimbabwe prevailed upon SADC member states to suspend the Tribunal and strip its power to review complaints from private litigants. Variations in the mobilization efforts of community secretariats, civil society groups and sub-regional parliaments explain why efforts to eliminate the three courts or narrow their jurisdiction were defeated in ECOWAS, scaled back in the EACJ and largely succeeded in the SADC.
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Rights, International Law, and Courts
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Gambia

126. Maintien de l’ordre public et community policing à Beyrouth: Le cas du commissariat de Ras Beirut (Public Order and Community Policing in Beirut: Ras Beirut Police Station as a Case Study)

Author:
Leila Seurat
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
There is ample literature devoted to the sociology of the police in the western world, yet little research focuses on Arab countries. This study tries to fill this gap by offering an ethnographic study of Ras Beirut police station, the first and the only police station in Lebanon that has been reformed according to the community policing model. The academic works focusing on the importation of this model in developing countries point out how difficult it is to implement and emphasize its negative outcomes due to the local characteristics of each country. Fragmented on a sectarian and a political ground, Lebanon remains a perfect field to explore this hypothesis. Indeed the divisions of the Lebanese state weaken the interactions between the public and the private security forces. Nevertheless, many others factors, beyond the religious and the political divisions, explain Ras Beirut’s failure. The internal dynamics at work inside the police station and the influence of the patronage networks reduce considerably the chances of its success.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, Corruption, Crime, Sociology, Governance, Transnational Actors, and State
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

127. Guerre, reconstruction de l’Etat et invention de la tradition en Afghanistan (War, Reconstruction of the State and Invention of Tradition in Afghanistan)

Author:
Fariba Adelkhah
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
War since 1979 and the reconstruction of the state under Western tutelage since 2001 have led to a simplification of the identity of Afghan society, through an invention of ethnicity and tradition – a process behind which the control or the ownership of the political and economic resources of the country are at stake. Hazarajat is a remarkable observation site of this process. Its forced integration into the nascent Afghan state during the late nineteenth century has left a mark on its history. The people of Hazara, mainly Shi’ite, has been relegated to a subordinate position from which it got out of progressively, only by means of jihad against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the US intervention in 2001, at the ost of an ethnicization of its social and political consciousness. Ethnicity, however, is based on a less communitarian than unequal moral and political economy. Post-war aid to state-building has polarized social relations, while strengthening their ethnicization: donors and NGOs remain prisoners of a cultural, if not orientalist approach to the country that they thereby contribute to “traditionalize”, while development aid destabilizes the “traditional” society by accelerating its monetization and commodification.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil Society, Religion, War, History, Sociology, Peacekeeping, Identities, State, and Anthropology
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Central Asia, Asia, and United States of America

128. The Complaint-Handling System and Civilian Oversight of the Palestinian Security Sector

Author:
Mahmoud Alawna, Nora-Elise Beck, Vlatko Cvrtila, Fatima Itawi, Saša Janković, Arnold Luethold, Frederic Maio, and Felix Tusa
Publication Date:
08-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This working paper aims to support the ongoing efforts of the Palestinian executive authorities, security forces, independent institutions, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media to strengthen the Palestinian complaints system. It identifies deficits in the complaints system of the Palestinian security sector and proposes recommendations to rectify them. It particularly stresses the need to improve coordination between the vast number of complaints units and calls for greater clarity on the role of civil society and the media. It hopes to raise awareness for these issues among Palestinian decision-makers and citizens and international actors. When fully functioning, the complaint handling system can be an effective source of information for the government to improve its performance and develop its services. The paper builds upon the discussions of the complaints working group, consisting of Palestinian government officials and representatives of the security forces, civil society and the media. DCAF presented the recommendations to senior Palestinian decision-makers in late September 2016, providing these with cases of international best practice.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, Human Rights, Governance, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Geneva, Europe, Palestine, and West Bank

129. Civil Military Relationship: Pakistan and India in Comparison

Author:
Shahid Ahmed Afridi
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Having drawn the inheritance of colonialism, both Pakistan and India have adopted very different course of Civil Military relations. The research attempts to analyze the developmental pattern of Civil Military relations of both countries through examination of inter connected roles of both military and political class. Despite their similarities at the time of partition, these two militaries and civilian institutions took completely different political trajectories. The argument is tested with paired-comparison case studies of Indian and Pakistani Civil-Military relations since independence. Both cases reveal how structures of domestic politics interact with military threat perceptions in order to explain civilians’ ability to maintain varying levels of control over the military. This present work is net assessment of Civil Military relations and influencing events and occurrences in both countries.
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, Armed Forces, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, India, and Punjab

130. Let the Sunshine In An Assessment of the Open Government Partnership

Author:
Molly Elgin-Cossart, Trevor Sutton, and Kathryn Sachs
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
It is tempting to think that in a globalized, interconnected world, values such as democracy, human rights, and freedom would naturally converge. Instead, there is divergence, with some countries becoming more open and inclusive and others more closed. The past few years, especially, have seen the growing repression of civil society by authoritarian leaders. Repressive regimes block Internet activities; control online content; and use the Internet and mobile communications to track, target, harass, and prosecute activists. Shifts in geopolitical power toward governments such as China—those that embrace illiberal models and narrow space for civil society—have challenged the spread of norms such as openness and participation. Crackdowns in Russia, Hungary, Venezuela, and many other places show an alarming suppression of freedom of expression and a resurgence of authoritarianism. Yet in the midst of this seeming retrenchment, a promising initiative has shown that the global appetite for transparent, participatory, and accountable governments remains unsatiated.
Topic:
Civil Society, Multiculturalism, Repression, Transparency, Participation, and Illiberal Democracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus