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352. Issue Brief: Perspectives on the Peacebuilding Commission and Mutual Accountability
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Mutual accountability has become one of several principles that underpin the PBC's work. The commission has facilitated the articulation of mutual commitments as part of the peacebuilding frameworks developed in Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and the Central African Republic. This has begun to fill an important gap. But, the PBC has so far not fulfilled the full promise of this principle: to serve as a forum where national and international actors can hold each other to their commitments. This brief reflects on the PBC's experience with mutual accountability and puts it into a broader context to highlight why it is an area where the PBC can potentially add value.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Sierra Leone, and Burundi
353. Mediation and Peace Processes: IPI Blue Paper no. 8
- Author:
- Christoph Mikulaschek
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Today more than ever before, armed conflicts are likely to end in mediated settlements. As mediation activity has surged since the end of the Cold War, its dynamics have undergone significant change as well.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Cold War, Diplomacy, Peace Studies, and War
354. Still Under Construction Regional Organisations' Capacities for Conflict Prevention
- Author:
- Herbert Wulf (ed.)
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Development and Peace
- Abstract:
- The international community has progressively tasked regional and sub-regional organisations with conflict prevention and peacekeeping. This is largely due to an overburdened UN system. At the same time regional organisations have increasingly come to accept that violence, interstate and intra-state wars normally affect the region through destabilizing spill-over effects and that promoting peace is in their own best interest. Yet, it is argued in this report that regional organisations' peace and security functions still do not amount to an effective regional conflict management regime. Furthermore, not all regional and sub-regional organisations have begun to take on this responsibility.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Peace Studies, and War
355. Robust Peacekeeping: The Politics of Force
- Author:
- Jean-Marie Guéhenno
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Robust peacekeeping and, in particular, protection of civilians garnered significant attention in 2009. In January, the Australian and Uruguayan governments hosted a conference on civilian protection designed to convince wary member states. In November, the Security Council's open debate on protection of civilians in armed conflict consid-ered the findings of an independent panel on implementing protection mandates. Looking ahead, the Council's mandate renewal for the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), scheduled for December 2009, is expected to strengthen the mission's protection capacity. Furthermore, in April 2010, the International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations in Australia will also focus on protection issues. These discussions have taken place against the backdrop of a number of reform efforts, including the Department of Peacekeeping/Department of Field Support “New Horizon” project and the French/UKinitiative in the Security Council – itself motivated by the siege of Goma in 2008.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, Peace Studies, and War
356. Gabriel Silver Memorial Lecture with Kofi Annan
- Author:
- Kofi Annan
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Columbia University World Leaders Forum
- Abstract:
- This program features a keynote address by Kofi Annan, Columbia Global Fellow and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Human Rights, International Cooperation, United Nations, and International Affairs
357. An Israeli Strike on Iran
- Author:
- Steven Simon
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Successive Israeli governments have held that a nuclear weapons capability in the region, other than Israel's own, would pose an intolerable threat to Israel's survival as a state and society. Iran's nuclear program—widely regarded as an effort to obtain a nuclear weapon, or put Tehran a “turn of a screw” away from it—has triggered serious concern in Israel. Within the coming year, the Israeli government could decide, much as it did twenty-eight years ago with respect to Iraq and two years ago with respect to Syria, to attack Iran's nuclear installations in order to delay its acquisition of a weapons capability.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Power Politics
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Iran, Middle East, Israel, Tehran, and Syria
358. U.S. Security Engagement in Africa
- Author:
- William M. Bellamy
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Africa Center for Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Despite significant recent gains, Africa's security environment remains fragile with a wide array of ongoing and emerging threats placing great strains on already overburdened governments. United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa have realized some success in recent years, especially when they have involved direct support from members of the Security Council. Much more cohesive interagency coordination under strong White House direction is required if the United States is to contribute to Africa's sustained stability given the region's persistent conditions of poverty, inequality, and weak governance.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Security, International Security, International Affairs, and Military Strategy
- Political Geography:
- Africa and United Nations
359. Beyond Market Forces: Regulating the Global Security Industry
- Author:
- James Cockayne (ed.)
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- In late 2008, seventeen states, including the US, UK, China, Iraq, Afghanistan, and others, endorsed the Montreux Document on Pertinent International Legal Obligations and Good Practices for States related to Operations of Private Military and Security Companies during Armed Conflict (2008). This provides important guidance to states in regulating private military and security companies (PMSCs). However, there is a need to do more, to provide increased guidance to the industry and ensure standards are enforced.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Security, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, China, and Iraq
360. China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia
- Author:
- David C. Kang
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Columbia University Press
- Abstract:
- Throughout the past three decades East Asia has seen more peace and stability than at any time since the Opium Wars of 1839-1841. During this period China has rapidly emerged as a major regional power, averaging over nine percent economic growth per year since the introduction of its market reforms in 1978. Foreign businesses have flocked to invest in China, and Chinese exports have begun to flood the world. China is modernizing its military, has joined numerous regional and international institutions, and plays an increasingly visible role in international politics. In response to this growth, other states in East Asia have moved to strengthen their military, economic, and diplomatic relations with China. But why have these countries accommodated rather than balanced China's rise? David C. Kang believes certain preferences and beliefs are responsible for maintaining stability in East Asia. Kang's research shows how East Asian states have grown closer to China, with little evidence that the region is rupturing. Rising powers present opportunities as well as threats, and the economic benefits and military threat China poses for its regional neighbors are both potentially huge; however, East Asian states see substantially more advantage than danger in China's rise, making the region more stable, not less. Furthermore, although East Asian states do not unequivocally welcome China in all areas, they are willing to defer judgment regarding what China wants and what its role in East Asia will become. They believe that a strong China stabilizes East Asia, while a weak China tempts other states to try to control the region. Many scholars downplay the role of ideas and suggest that a rising China will be a destabilizing force in the region, but Kang's provocative argument reveals the flaws in contemporary views of China and the international relations of East Asia and offers a new understanding of the importance of sound U.S. policy in the region.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Arms Control and Proliferation, International Trade and Finance, Political Economy, and Power Politics
- Political Geography:
- China and East Asia
- Publication Identifier:
- 9780231141888
- Publication Identifier Type:
- ISBN