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2601. Evaluating Iraq's Provincial Reconstruction Teams While Drawdown Looms: A USIP Trip Report

Author:
Sam Parker and Rusty Barber
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Since their 2005 inception in Iraq, PRTs have struggled to fully define their mission, overcome structural problems, learn to work alongside their military counterparts and assist Iraqis down the path to self-governance and stability so that U.S. forces can withdraw. While the concept was born in the Afghan conflict, PRTs in Iraq bear little resemblance to their Afghan cousins, which are led and largely staffed by military officers. PRTs in Iraq are largely civilian-led and are required to address a host of issues including local governance, economic and women's development, health, agriculture, rule of law and education. In this respect, they resemble mini development task forces, harnessing civilian expertise sourced from the U.S. and augmented by military civil affairs officers.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Economics, Health, Terrorism, War, and Governance
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and Middle East

2602. Disaster in the DRC: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in North Kivu

Author:
Catherine Morris and Go Funai
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
This USIPeace Briefing discusses a recent event that focused on human security implications of resurgent violence which left hundreds dead, thousands displaced and millions destitute in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The conclusions and recommendations from this event highlight the importance of going beyond traditional short-term humanitarian interventions to adopt more comprehensive and sustainable solutions that effectively balance security and development.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Political Violence, Ethnic Conflict, Genocide, Humanitarian Aid, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo

2603. Countering Violent Extremism: Videopower and Cyberspace

Author:
J. Rami Mroz
Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The development of global communications technology, in this case digitial video and cyberspace, has diminished the importance of geographic proximity for violent extremists. It is now possible for them to communicate instantly with supporters (or potential supporters) in nearly all parts of the world. Violent extremists are limited far more by their access, or their supporter's access to, technology than by geography. The characteristics of the Internet, its potential anonymity, however temporary, and its high speed, create problems in developing counter-strategies. Violent extremists use these mediums in very similar ways regardless of culture, beliefs, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, Science and Technology, and Terrorism

2604. The Role of Epistemic Communities in Offering New Cooperation Frameworks in the Euphrates-Tigris Rivers System

Author:
Aysegul Kibaroglu
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
The Euphrates-Tigris region has faced significant political changes since the late 1990s. These changes can be attributed to improvements in bilateral relations, mainly in the security domain, between two of its major riparians, Turkey and Syria. In the meantime, another major riparian, Iraq, has lived through devastating war and occupation, which has had implications for regional water issues. These changes have brought new actors, involved or interested in the hydropolitics of the two-river basin, to the region.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Iraq, Turkey, and Syria

2605. EU and the Comprehensive Approach

Author:
Eva Gross
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
EU efforts at implementing a comprehensive approach – and what it has termed Civil-Military Coordination (CMCO) – must be understood in the context of both the growth of the EU as a security provider by means of civilian and military crisis operations under the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), and of a changing security environment in which state failure and international terrorism increasingly require both civilian and military solutions. Operational experience in the Balkans, sub-Saharan Africa and more recently Afghanistan has further demonstrated the need to combine civilian and military crisis management in order to address security challenges that include the fight against organized crime, the need to reform the police and justice sector, or the provision of military forces on a short-term basis in support of larger peace-keeping missions.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Africa, and Europe

2606. Georgia: Breakdown of Vision the West Had for a New Europe

Author:
Robert E. Hunter
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
European Affairs
Institution:
The European Institute
Abstract:
The post-cold war vision proffered by the U.S. and its allies in NATO was an inclusive model of security for all the countries in Europe and for Russia and its neighbors to the south. Russia's leadership has turned away from it, but the vision remains sound and open to Moscow – if the Kremlin thinks wisely about the future.
Topic:
Security, NATO, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Georgia

2607. Initiation of the Consortium by US Secretary of Defense William Cohen during an intervention at the meeting of the Euro - Atlantic Partnership Council Defence Ministers (EAPC-D) in Brussels, Belgium, on June 12, 1998.

Author:
William Cohen
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
Our ultimate goal for the 21st century should be a cooperative security network of Allies and Partners, with PFP as the cornerstone. Therefore, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to PFP's evolution as an independent framework for European security, worthy of membership in its own right, as well as its preparatory role for Alliance membership for those who desire it. While PFP will remain a primary vehicle for preparing aspiring NATO members for the military obligations that Alliance membership entails, it is not just a stepping stone and should not be portrayed simply in these terms. In other words, PFP is not a means to an end. It is an end in itself. As we continue the process begun in 1991 of recognizing that new challenges mean new missions for the Alliance, we should always look for opportunities for Partner participation in those missions. Thus the increasing role of Partners should be reflected in the updated Strategic Concept.
Topic:
Security and NATO
Political Geography:
Belgium

2608. Energy Security and NATO: Any Role for the Alliance?

Author:
Zurab Khamashuridze
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
This paper is meant to address issues related to energy security in the twenty-first century, and to identify areas where NATO could add value to the world's overall energy security environment, and in particular how it can improve the security of critical energy infrastructures. Increased demand on energy resources, driven mainly by economic growth and demographic developments in Asian countries, particularly China and India, has removed spare capacity from the energy market, which has translated into price hikes for energy resources, thus causing immense economic damage to nations that are heavily dependent on energy imports.
Topic:
Security and NATO
Political Geography:
Russia, China, North Atlantic, India, and Istanbul

2609. The Divide Over European Security

Author:
C.D. Van Aller
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The war in Iraq continues to divide the Western democracies, nations once optimistic that the post-Cold War environment might lead to a more secure world. Even if solutions proved difficult to achieve, many hoped that these societies would share common viewpoints on threats to peace. Yet there have been contrasting security perspectives that have been highlighted by the conflict in Iraq, such as that of former European Union High Commissioner for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, who stated in 2003 that “Europe is not at war.” One of the main cleavages is between Europe and the United States generally, with the former considering that the U.S. has increasingly been too dedicated to the unilateral use of force, views held by both elites and the general public in Europe. Even before the Bush Administration, Samuel Huntington de-scribed U.S. foreign policy as one of “world unilateralism,” with a single-minded devotion to its own interests while minimizing those of other countries. Since the Iraq war, Harold Pinter has stated, the U.S. “has become a fully-fledged, award-winning, gold-plated monster. It has effectively declared war on the world....” Many people in Western Europe have some sympathy with this view, if not its hyperbolic quality, and the war in Iraq appears to have amplified long-held convictions about the world's sole remaining superpower.
Topic:
Security and Cold War
Political Geography:
Iraq and Europe

2610. NATO's Comprehensive Approach to Crisis Response Operations: A Work in Slow Progress

Author:
Peter Viggo Jakobsen
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The aims of this report are to analyse the evolution of the Alliance's Comprehensive Approach (CA) to date, to identify the principal obstacles standing in the way of further progress and to suggest how they can be overcome or circumvented. CA is based on the premise that operations aimed at creating a sustainable peace must employ the relevant civilian and military instruments in a coordinated and concerted manner in order to succeed. Ideally, the civilian and military actors involved in such operations should agree on the political end-state and engage in the joint planning, execution and evaluation of their operational activities in order to achieve it. Since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) does not have the civilian capacities that a fully-fledged CA requires, the Alliance is faced with a dual challenge as it seeks to develop its contribution to CA. It must get its own house in order by creating a common understanding of its role in CA, as well as the mindset, doctrine and procedures that will enable it to employ its own resources in accordance with CA requirements for success. In addition, it must also develop an understanding of and cooperative relationships with the organizations and local actors it is likely to cooperate with in the field. NATO must, in short, conduct its own activities in accordance with CA requirements, and at the same time be both willing and able to plug and play with other actors who can bring to the table the capacities that are required to meet the political objectives of a given operation.
Topic:
Security and NATO