This report considers civil society's role in monitoring Security System Reform (SSR) and counterterrorism both in policy and in practice. The report argues that civil society engagement, particularly with local actors, is central to ensuring proper civilian oversight and the overall effectiveness of both SSR and counterterrorism efforts and examines how efforts to engage civil society may be improved.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, Terrorism, United Nations, and Counterinsurgency
On 22-23 September 2008, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Academy, Bishkek, organised a forum for security policy experts from Eurasia, East and South-East Asia, Europe and the United States, to analyse and discuss the continued interaction of key regional security dynamics and functional issues in Central Asia over 2008. A series of panels identified major emergent themes, linkages and trends, and reflected on their strategic impact and security policy implications. The focus included panels on the Afghan factor and Georgian crisis in Central Asian security politics, energy geopolitics, the role of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the region, as well as US and Russian policies towards Central Asia. The seminar highlighted and analysed some of the key security tendencies and practical aspects of security in the region including emerging trends and themes, their interplay and contradictions as well as their likely strategic influence and consequences.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and Security
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This paper discusses the role of intelligence, intelligence services and intelligenceled operations as crucial components of the efforts to counter the new risks, dangers and threats to states and their population.
Topic:
Security, Cold War, Intelligence, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
The multilateral system has struggled to respond to the changing nature of conflict and its increasingly brutal effects on civilians. Countless eloquent speeches have been made and ink spilled on the urgent need to prevent conflict and protect civilians. Yet the gulf between rhetoric and reality is still unacceptably wide.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and War
The spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) remains a key challenge to international peace and security. Yet the member states of the United Nations are still deeply divided on how to meet this challenge.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Security, Defense Policy, Nuclear Weapons, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Small arms and light weapons (SALW) enable and facilitate armed conflict, terrorism, and crime. Today, they remain among the cheapest and most easily accessible instruments for participating in violence. Despite our understanding of the threat posed by SALW to peace and security, development and human rights, deep-rooted differences remain on how to stem their ill effects, in particular the passage of weapons from the licit realm to the illicit. Even the domestic passage of SALW to the illicit realm can, ultimately, have transnational effects, fueling conflict, crime, and terrorism.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Security, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Over the coming decade and beyond, the United States and the international community will face enormously complex security challenges and threats, some of which are not traditionally viewed as security issues. Given the emerging nature of and interdependencies between these threats and challenges, world leaders are increasingly operating in terra incognito.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, and Defense Policy
On February 6, 2009, CNA China Studies and the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University convened a panel discussion on China's sixth defense white paper, which had been released by Beijing on January 20, 2009. The following are the main observations that emerged from that roundtable.
L'offensive militaire conduite conjointement par la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) et le Rwanda contre les rebelles hutu rwandais s'est conclue sur un bilan mitigé. Quinze ans après le génocide rwandais et leur établissement à l'Est du Congo, ces rebelles n'ont toujours pas été désarmés et restent à l'origine de violences extrêmes perpétrées contre la population civile. Bien qu'elle n'ait plus les capacités militaires de déstabiliser le Rwanda, leur troupe forte de plus de 6 000 combattants – parmi lesquels se trouvent encore des génocidaires – continue de représenter un obstacle politique majeur à la consolidation de la paix dans la région des Grands Lacs. L'Est du Congo ne pourra être stabilisé sans que ces rebelles ne soient désarmés et démobilisés.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Peace Studies, and War
The politics of peacekeeping: crisis and opportunity. United Nations peace operations face an extended and dangerous period of strategic uncertainty. A series of setbacks have coincided with military overstretch and the financial crisis, raising the risk that UN peacekeeping may contract, despite high demand.
Topic:
Security, Peace Studies, United Nations, and Financial Crisis