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1402. The United Nations, the Cold War, and After: A Lost Opportunity?
- Author:
- Christopher D. O'Sullivan
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia International Affairs Online
- Abstract:
- The conclusion of the Cold War between 1989-1991 opened new horizons for the United Nations and created expectations that the UN would emerge from the margins of world events to the focus of world politics. But many events since then -- in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Iraq -- have undermined confidence in international institutions. A history of the UN's activities since the end of the East-West conflict conjures up names of recent infamy, such as Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kigali, and Srebrenica, and revisits images of failure and impotence in the face of violence. These crises undermined much of the optimism that greeted the end of the Cold War at the United Nations. The founding dream in 1945 of a community of nations defending human rights and promoting collective security still seems as far from being realized as it did during the height of the Cold War.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Cold War, Politics, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Somalia
1403. CIAO Iraq Special Section: The Year in Review
- Author:
- Sean Costigan, Adam Mausner, and Siheun Song
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia International Affairs Online
- Abstract:
- One year into the occupation of Iraq the United States and its Coalition partners remain in discussions over the country's fate. The deliberations have generally focused on the involvement of the United Nations, the schedule for handing over sovereignty to a democratic Iraqi government, and ultimately what the Iraqi government should resemble. The terms of the debate have regularly been sidelined by unforeseen events, including the recent rebellion in Fallujah, Shiite opposition in the south, grandstanding by local politicians, demagoguery, defection of Iraqi police and security forces and the wavering of Coalition partners, to name but a few. While progress is clearly being made in some areas, there are numerous signs that Iraq may not be ready for the June 30 transition of power. The top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, has suggested that by June 30 Iraqi security forces simply will not be up to the task of defending against insurgents. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is more optimistic and remains committed to the June 30 deadline.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Middle East, Arabia, and United Nations
1404. Small Arms and Light Weapons Production in Eastern, Central, and Southeast Europe
- Author:
- Yudit Kiss
- Publication Date:
- 10-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- With the accession of ten states to the European Union (EU) in May 2004, Eastern Europe strode firmly into the international spotlight. A few months earlier, Bulgaria and Romania had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), further extending the membership of Eastern, Central, and Southeast Europe in the alliance. These developments support the region's ongoing policy of integration into the West and its emergence as a socio-political landscape entirely distinct from that imposed by the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) until its demise in 1991. Not surprisingly, these drastic changes are vividly reflected in the national defence industries of the region.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Arms Control and Proliferation
- Political Geography:
- Europe and North Atlantic
1405. Kyrgyzstan: A Small Arms Anomaly in Central Asia?
- Author:
- S. Neil MacFarlane and Stina Torjesen Torjesen
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- Central Asia is often portrayed as a hotbed of potential conflict. With this report, the Small Arms Survey seeks to determine whether the Kyrgyz Republic, by virtue of its location, should indeed be grouped with its friction-prone neighbours. Weak state structures, a history of ethnic tension, inequality, and poverty – features that characterize the Kyrgyz state – are factors that normally fuel the proliferation of arms. The ripple effects of the fragile situation in Afghanistan are also expected to have effects on Central Asian countries. This in-depth study has found, however, that small arms are less of a problem in Kyrgyzstan than commonly assumed: few families own arms; demand is limited; and trafficking is modest. While the proliferation of small arms may pose a serious threat in countries such as Afghanistan and Tajikistan, this assertion cannot be applied to Central Asia as a whole. This report highlights the need for the disaggregation of regional generalizations and seeks to explain why Kyrgyzstan is different from its southern neighbours.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Arms Control and Proliferation
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Tajikistan
1406. The Moro Conflict: Landlessness and Misdirected State Policies
- Author:
- Eric Gutierrez and Jr. Borras
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- The conflict in the southern Philippines is becoming increasingly complex, and untangling the knots for a greater understanding of the problem is no easy task. Yet underlying the many manifestations of a complex conflict is a straightforward political-economic explanation. This study represents a step toward a more systematic inquiry into the problem by developing a political-economic explanation of the conflict. It starts from two observations: first, the geographic areas in the southern Philippines where there is a significant if not a majority presence of Muslims are marked by a high incidence of poverty and social exclusion; second, there has been an alarming surge of "entrepreneurs in violence" in these areas determined to enforce their own nonstate systems of property relations. The study contends that these two observations result, to a significant degree, from the highly skewed distribution of ownership and control over land resources in the southern Philippines that should be traced back in the country's colonial history. Thus we argue that the continuing war, the persistence of poverty and landlessness, and the emergence of entrepreneurs in violence are mere symptoms of something that has not yet been sufficiently addressed by a succession of Philippine governments or even by mainstream Moro revolutionary organizations: the highly skewed distribution of land-ownership and control in the southern Philippines. Doctoral candidate at the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- Philippines and Caribbean
1407. The Tibet-China Conflict: History and Polemics
- Author:
- Elliot Sperling
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- This paper is a guide to the historical arguments made by the primary parties to the Tibet-China conflict. Given the polarization that has characterized this issue for decades, it is surprising that little has been done to analyze or at least disentangle the strands of historical argumentation that the parties have been using. This paper attempts to do this by relying as much as possible on the key assertions as they have been framed in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Chinese- and Tibetan-language materials dealing with the historical status of Tibet are often more detailed and better documented, and hew more closely than English-language materials do to the thinking of the people most directly concerned with (and affected by) the Tibet-China conflict.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Tibet
1408. Cyprus Settlement Initiative Project. Addressing the Settlement of Self-Determination Conflicts through Complex Power Sharing: The case of Cyprus. Antalya, Turkey.
- Author:
- Tove H. Malloy and Tankut Soykan
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- Abstract:
- With negotiations on the basis of the Annan Plan, complex power-sharing mechanisms were again on the agenda for the re-unification of Cyprus. Complex power-sharing mechanisms constitute an alternative approach which seeks to go beyond the traditional juxtaposition of consociational or integrative models and provide a more open approach in terms of a matrix of tools. This matrix covers multilevel governance, political representation, autonomy regimes, special rights for communities, moderating conflicts of authority, executive representation and generating equal opportunities. However, complex power-sharing arrangements cannot be achieved, nor will they take root in a society, unless they are understood, supported, and most crucially, developed further by local constituents. Hence, the parties directly involved in an attempted settlement must be enabled to take ownership of their own process and settlement. Putting the Northern Cypriot negotiation teams in this position was the overall aim of the FIRST Technical Expert Seminar on Complex Power-Sharing Mechanisms in Cyprus.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Government
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Balochistan
1409. Between Integration and Resettlement: The Meskhetian Turks
- Author:
- Tom Trier and Oskari Pentikäinen
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- Abstract:
- The Meskhetian Turks is a population, which was deported to Central Asia, along with seven other ethnic groups in the Soviet Union during World War II. Whilst other deported people, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachais and Kalmyks were rehabilitated after Stalin's death and allowed to resettle in their pre-deportation territories, three groups were not permitted to return. These included the Crimean Tatars, who were only to be rehabilitated with the demise of the Soviet Union, and have subsequently returned in significant numbers to Crimea in Ukraine over the past 15 years. Another group, the Volga Germans, originally deported from the Soviet Volga German Republic, have largely emigrated to Germany in the post Soviet Era, and do not have territorial aspirations in the Volga region. Hence, the Meskhetian Turks are the last of the 8 deported peoples, for whom rehabilitation and resettlement remains unresolved.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Ethnic Conflict
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Central Asia
1410. Russian-Speaking Minorities in Estonia and Latvia: Problems of Integration at the Threshold of th European Union
- Author:
- Peter Van Elsuwege
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- Abstract:
- The restoration of the Baltic states' independence, back in 1991, brought about a number of political and legal challenges. The presence of large nontitular communities in Estonia and Latvi has proven to be the most pressing of these. Notwithstanding the fact that the European Commission already in 1997 concluded that 'on the whole the rights of the Russian-speaking minorities are observed and safeguarded', the legal status of these living relics of the Soviet period remains controversial. A resolution of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, adopted on 13 June 2002, criticised the protection of national minorities in Estonia. In the lead-up to the December 2003 parliamentary elections, the Russian Duma adopted a resolution 'on gross violations of human and minority rights in the Republic of Latvia'. Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of the Parliamentarian Committee on International Relations, announced that Russia should consider the weapon of economic sanctions to put pressure on the Baltic state, which he described as 'a land of hooligans' where 'Nazis have come to power'. Whereas these statements have to be situated within the context of the ongoing election campaign, the remarks of Alvaro Gil-Robles, European Council Commissioner for Human Rights, are to be taken more serious. During his visit to Riga in October 2003, the High Commissioner criticized the lack of citizenship for more than twenty per cent of Latvia's population and recommended the granting of voting rights to non-citizens in municipal elections. On the other hand, Günter Verheugen, EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement, declared that Latvia fulfils all the criteria in the field of societal integration and has complied with all international requirements regarding its ethnic minorities.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Ethnic Conflict
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe