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431. 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

432. 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

433. Climate Change and Conflict: The Migration Link

Author:
Nils Petter Gleditsch, Idean Salehyan, and Ragnhild Nordås
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
In October 2003, a report to the US Department of Defense received wide public attention for presenting a grim future scenario with warring states and massive social disturbance as a result of dramatic climate change. Although not intended to be a prediction, the authors nevertheless argued the plausibility of a scenario for rapid climate change which could result in a significant drop in the human carrying capacity of the earth's environment—food, water, and energy shortages, as well as extreme weather patterns. In turn, resource constraints and environmental damage could lead to geopolitical destabilization, skirmishes and even war.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States

434. Conflict Prevention and Development Cooperation

Author:
Robert Picciotto and Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
Abstract:
Violent conflicts are concentrated in the countries farthest behind in achieving the MDGs. Much work has been done to develop a better understanding of conflicts and their relationship to development, but the development community has yet to engage fully with the need for new policy approaches that can help prevent conflict. Structural conditions that increase vulnerability to political violence and conflict are rarely addressed by current conflict prevention policy work. Without addressing the root causes, sustainable peace cannot be achieved. Surprisingly few studies have analyzed the contribution of aid to the full human security agenda and the current aid policy framework still favors countries with institutional and policy characteristics that are deemed to generate good growth performance. As a consequence, many fragile states (who are also the most vulnerable) have ended up with limited little donor support. A systematic study of aid in relation to conflict prevention is proposed as a policy objective to help fill a significant dimension of the current knowledge gap. Specifically, this project will seek to demonstrate that only by targeting structural risks and state fragility will development cooperation achieve human security. Engagement with fragile states requires a coherent combination of aid and non-aid policies in areas such as international trade and debt.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Development, International Cooperation, and War

435. Africa: Confronting Complex Threats

Author:
Kwesi Aning
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Africa is grappling with several difficult security challenges. These difficulties result not only from the magnitude of these challenges, but also from the lack of capacity of African states and organizations to respond quickly and effectively to them. While wide swathes of Africa are compelled to deal with problems in an ad hoc manner, there are indications that some states, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Union (AU) are undertaking promising steps to respond. Some of Africa's core security challenges are (a) the legacy of historic notions of state sovereignty; (b) the rise of regionalism in the absence of common regional values; (c) the difficulty of managing hegemonic regionalism; (d) elitism in the form of regional integration occurring only at the level of leaders without permeating the consciousness of the people; (e) the creation of institutions with little or no capacity to manage them, resulting in a merely formal regionalism; and finally (f) the perception of regionalism as an externally driven project.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

436. New Russia, New Ally: A Bilateral Security Agenda Beyond 2008

Author:
Greg Austin, Simon Saradzhyan, Daniel Bautista, and Jeff Procak
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Russia and the US agree on many more security issues than cause dispute between them. Neither expects war or major conflict with the other as an act of deliberate policy. The two states agree they are not military enemies. They have no military strategic interests of a bilateral nature that are fundamentally antagonistic.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

437. US, Russia Need to Work Together, Opinion pieces

Author:
Jeff Procak
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
At month's end, Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., will lead a U.S.-Russia Inter parliamentary Group is one of the few open channels for a broad dialogue by the two countries on the state of the badly frayed relationship. The visit, therefore, on the heels of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent meetings in Moscow, presents an important opportunity for the United States and Russia to pull back from an emerging pattern of unnecessary and possibly dangerous disputation.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

438. PROTECT! Civilians and Civil Rights in Counter-Terrorist Operations

Author:
Greg Austin and Aisha Sabadia
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
In their efforts to defeat well-organized and well-armed terrorist groups, state agencies face difficult choices about how much force to use and how to distinguish between possible terrorists and the civilian populations amongst which they operate clandestinely. Terrorists lack scruples about locating themselves in or launching their operations from civilian areas.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Human Rights, International Cooperation, and Terrorism

439. Ambitious New Initiative on Preventive Diplomacy

Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The EastWest Institute (EWI) organized an informal roundtable discussion with the goal of presenting the Conflict Prevention Program's flagship project, the International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy (ITFPD) to the international community based in Brussels. The roundtable also aimed to engage the Brussels community in a brainstorming exercise that would generate constructive feedback on the project. The roundtable convened 15 participants from NGOs based in Brussels, European institutions and foreign governments – all of whom attended in their personal capacities as specialists in the fields of conflict prevention and/or preventive diplomacy.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Diplomacy, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Brussels

440. US-Russia Constructive Agenda Roundtable

Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
On April 25, 2007, the EastWest Institute, together with the Kennan Institute, organized in Washington DC a two-hour roundtable discussion on the current state and outlook for US-Russia relations. The roundtable used President Putin's speech presented to the 43rd Conference on Security Policy in Munich on February 10, 2007 as a point of reference. The purpose of this gathering was to examine strategies and approaches to reverse the significant decline in Russian-American relations over the last several years. The seminar was attended by 20 prominent experts from the US and Russia, including foreign policy advisors, representatives of the academic, business, and NGO communities, and mass media. Topics discussed included the most important issues on the US Russia geostrategic agenda: arms control and nuclear nonproliferation, international energy, Russia's WTO accession, trade and economic cooperation, mutual perceptions and role of the media.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia