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231. Strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime: Proposals and Problems

Author:
Masahiko Asada
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Under the combined action of global warming and energy security requirements, the world is entering a nuclear renaissance. At the same time, there is growing concern that more and more countries will have access to sensitive nuclear technologies that could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Such concern is not unfounded. In fact, since around the turn of the century, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has suffered fundamental challenges from several quarters. Most notable are North Korea's non-compliance with its Safeguards agreement and its withdrawal from the NPT, as well as Iran's non-compliance with its Safeguards agreement and its suspected nuclear weapons development.
Political Geography:
Kiribati

232. Combating WMD Terrorism: The Short-Sighted US-led Multilateral Response

Author:
Eric Rosand
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The Bush administration's strong preference for seemingly more flexible initiatives, involving a select group of countries, and limiting the size of international bureaucracies, which has resulted in three US-driven multilateral initiatives to address the threat of WMD-terrorism - the Proliferation Security Initiative, the G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 and the committee and group of experts it established - has produced mixed results so far. Although it helped to ensure a more rapid initial response to WMD terrorism, such an approach has also impeded efforts to build and sustain global support to respond to that threat.
Political Geography:
United States

233. The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism: Big Potential, Limited Impact?

Author:
Riccardo Alcaro
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) is an innovative, multi-pronged action aimed at enhancing the domestic capacities of a state, as well as its ability to interconnect internationally and to deal with the risk of a terrorist attack involving nuclear or radioactive materials. The GICNT, a joint US-Russian initiative, has now evolved into an informal network of over 70 countries. It pursues it objective of boosting the protection, detection, prosecution and response capabilities of a state by fostering cooperation on three levels: between a government and its agencies; between government and the private sector; and between like-minded states. Given its comprehensive approach to the nuclear terrorism threat, the initiative has great potential. Nevertheless, structural flaws such as the absence of any evaluation mechanism and the exclusion of military-related nuclear materials and sites are likely to make its impact far less global than expected.
Political Geography:
Russia and United States

234. Nuclear Energy Developments in the Mediterranean and the Gulf

Author:
Giacomo Luciani
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Several Arab countries have recently manifested an interest in civilian nuclear energy. For some, like Egypt, this is the revival of an old interest, for others, notably the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), it represents a clear reversal of previously held positions. This interest has been interpreted as an implicit threat to move in the direction of acquiring a military nuclear capability, in case Iran develops a bomb. Instead, the article argues that interest in nuclear energy has strong economic motivations for all Arab countries, although the position of the GCC is quite different from that of North Africa and Levant countries, from the point of view of both the cogency of motivation and the ability to concretely and rapidly launch a civilian nuclear program.
Political Geography:
Russia, Arabia, and Egypt

235. Civil Society and Peacebuilding: Mapping Functions in Working for Peace

Author:
Catherine Barnes
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Civil society play roles at every point in the development of conflict and its resolution: from surfacing situations of injustice to preventing violence, from creating conditions conducive to peace talks to mediating a settlement and then promoting it, from setting a policy agenda to healing war-scarred psyches. After situating civil society peacebuilding roles in the policy context and highlighting several critiques, this article concentrates on charting the specific functions civil society can play, focusing on initiatives by actors from a conflict zone and their external supporters. It concludes identifying several recommendations and areas in need of further research.
Topic:
Civil Society

236. The Romanticisation of the Local: Welfare, Culture and Peacebuilding

Author:
Oliver P. Richmond
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The key feature of the dominant liberal approach to peacebuilding is the neoliberal marketisation of peace, rather than engagement with civil society and the agents and subjects of this peace. This is a particularly Western, liberal, and Enlightenment-derived discourse of peace, which is far from culturally and socially appropriate or sensitive, and has little chance of establishing a locally self-sustaining peace. This represents a "romanticisation of the local", of civil society, and of the liberal culture of peacebuilding. Its cultural engagement, including its support for civil society development, is therefore little more than instrumental and is used to defer responsibility for the welfare of the local.
Topic:
Development

237. Environmental and Ecological Citizenship in Civil Society

Author:
David Humphreys
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Drawing from the work of Andrew Dobson, two notions of citizenship in civil society can be distinguished: environmental citizenship, which focuses on environmental rights and seeks to redefine the relationship between the state and the citizen; and ecological citizenship, which goes beyond a rights-based notion of citizenship to advocate the fair usage of ecological space across international borders. Using civil society initiatives to conserve forests, this article argues that these two notions of citizenship should be seen as overlapping in that civil society groups seek to work through national and international law to reduce the ecological footprint of some countries on others. The article concludes by drawing a distinction between the environmental state and the ecological state.

238. New Actors on the Horizon: the International Outreach of Italian CSOs

Author:
Donatella Cugliandro
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Italian civil society organisations are holding more and more sway in the foreign policy arena, strengthening links with their counterparts both in the European Union and further abroad. Some well-organised groups are increasingly capable of wielding influence in the international scenario, mainly thanks to their initiatives directed at fuelling citizens' interests in sensitive issues and fostering transnational cooperation. In parallel with these global trends, Italian civil society is going through a period of change and reassessment, shaken by the need to protect some core values to which it is undeniably attached.
Political Geography:
Europe

239. What Will America be Like in the New post-American World?

Author:
Alberto Biginelli
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Review of: The post-American world, Fareed Zakaria, W.W. Norton, 2008
Political Geography:
America

240. Exploring the Theory and Practice of the Security Dilemma

Author:
Andrew Liaropoulos
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Review of: The security dilemma : fear, cooperation and trust in world politics, Ken Booth and Nicholas J. Wheeler, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008r