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2361. Secure Borders: The European Experience - A Roundtable with Jonathan Faull

Author:
Mark R. Shulman
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The EastWest Institute hosted a roundtable discussion with Jonathan Faull, Director-General, Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) of the European Commission. Mr. Faull discussed various important, innovative and effective initiatives that JHA is pursuing to cultivate security while promoting freedom and justice throughout Europe and its new neighborhood. He also discussed impending changes to the US visa regime and their potential impact on transatlantic trade, educational and cultural exchanges, tour ism and relations generally. Other participants included leading experts and scholars from the media, universities, think tanks, and human rights organizations.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Education, Human Rights, and Culture
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

2362. 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

2363. 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

2364. 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

2365. An India-Pakistan Detente: What It Could Mean for Sustainable Development in South Asia and Beyond

Author:
Toufiq A. Siddiqi
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
India and Pakistan have had volatile relations ever since they became independent of Britain in 1947. Frequent hostility has stifled cooperation between the two countries and inhibited development in the region. Recently, however, tensions show signs of easing. In March 2004, India's then prime minister visited Pakistan to attend a South Asian regional summit. Flights, bus service, and cricket matches between the two countries have resumed; India's newly elected government continues to support the process. Peace could bring a wide range of benefits not only to India and Pakistan but to the wider region as well. For example, it could enable cooperation on importing energy via a natural-gas pipeline, which would support environmentally sound development. The improved road and rail system that would necessarily accompany a pipeline would also support the goal of building an Asian highway network and the resurgence of cross-border trade, another likely consequence of détente. These benefits could spread far beyond India and Pakistan into the wider west, central, and south Asian region.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and India

2366. The Politics of Environmental Policy with a Himalayan Example

Author:
Piers Blaikie and Joshua Muldavin
Publication Date:
06-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
How we arrive at knowledge—and how we draw on knowledge to make policy—have been the subject of vigorous debate and analysis. Simple models of expertise and action are gradually yielding to a more complex vision of how truth speaks to power and power talks back. The Himalayan region—where scientists, statesmen, and citizens confront a unique set of environmental challenges and political legacies—provides a powerful case study. For more than a century, it was believed that over-use by local farmers and pastoralists threatened fragile mountain and river environments. Beginning in the colonial era and continuing into the present, governments have strictly curtailed traditional land-use practices. In the 1980s, scholars began to question the science on which those restrictive laws were based. But new science has not, in most cases, led to new policy. This disconnect inspires questions about the nature of both science and policy, their influence on each other, and whether each could benefit from greater openness to the insights of people who fall outside the narrow roles of expert and politician.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
Asia, Australia/Pacific, and Southeast Asia

2367. Tourism in a 'Borderless' World: The Singapore Experience

Author:
T.C. Chang
Publication Date:
05-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The development of tourist destinations that transcend national borders, first envisioned in the 1950s, gained momentum in the 1990s. Whether facilitated by large regional organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or bilateral agreements, countries—especially smaller ones— have worked to identify and leverage their neighbor's strengths. Singapore, for example, adopted a national tourism plan based on the concept of "borrowed attractiveness." It has compensated for its limited natural resources and high costs by collaborating with Indonesia and Malaysia, which contribute cheaper labor and land in exchange for infrastructure, financing, and expertise. The city-state also aggressively sells its tourism expertise overseas and aspires to be Asia's tourism hub. But Singapore's experience demonstrates that regional tourism, while diversifying tourism development opportunities, can also perpetuate inequities between wealthier and poorer collaborators and present serious challenges to businesses operating in unfamiliar settings.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
Asia, Australia/Pacific, Singapore, and Southeast Asia

2368. Informal International Consultative Meeting in the Area of Minority Issues

Author:
Colleen French
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
In September 2002, senior representatives of intergovernmental and major nongovernmental institutions addressing minority issues gathered in Flensburg for a consultative meeting which sought to facilitate an informal exchange between the different organizations on emerging issues and strategies. As a follow up measure, the European Centre of Minority Issues (ECMI) held a second 'Informal International Consultative Meeting of Major Actors in the Area of Minority Issues', at ECMI Headquarters, Flensburg, Germany on 17 and 18 September 2004.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

2369. Global views on the European Union

Author:
Amitav Acharya, Toshiya Hoshino, Marcel F. Biato, Babacar Diallo, Francisco E. González, Terence O'Brien, Gerrit Olivier, and Yi Wang
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Over the last 25 years, the European regional integration process has advanced very quickly on four different fronts. During the 1980s, the Common Market and its associated freedoms (free movement of goods and of persons, the right to establish and freedom to provide services) were completed. The Maastricht Treaty on European Union (TEU) of 1992 added a second dimension, when it set up a monetary union and established a European Central Bank and shared budgetary rules–a development that was eventually confirmed by the introduction of the euro in January 2002. Also in the 1990s, as a result of the creation of the European Union, which was born on 1 November 1993, a third, political dimension was developed. The Union entailed inter alia a leading role for the European Council and the various councils of ministers, some coordination of member states' foreign policies through a CFSP, and the growing importance of the European Parliament, which gradually enlarged its areas of competence.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Balkans

2370. For our eyes only? Shaping an intelligence community within the EU

Author:
Bjorn Muller-Wille
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:
Developing international and cross–agency intelligence cooperation has become imperative in today's security environment. If the so–called 'new threats' are to be tackled collectively, it is not only desirable but also necessary to make collective threat assessments.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe