• DEVELOPMENT: Human Security: Linking Development and Security in an Age of Terror • INTERVENTION: The Responsibility to Protect: East, West and Southern African Perspectives • HUMAN RIGHTS: Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma • ARMED CONFLICT: Armed Conflict and Its International Dimensions, 1946-2004 • CONFLICT PREVENTION: Disentangling the Determinants of Successful DDR • PEACE OPERATIONS: Addressing the Institutional Law and Order Vacuum • DATA SOURCES: The Frightful Inadequacy of Statistics on Civil War • GOVERNANCE: The Sierra Leonean State in 2005: Revisiting the Root Causes of the Conflict • TERRORISM: Forcing Choices: Testing the Transformation of Hamas • HEALTH: Interpreting and Using Mortality Data in Humanitarian Emergencies • GENDER: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy • ARMED GROUPS: Paramilitary Territorial Control and Political Order in Colombia DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY Human Security: Linking Development and Security in an Age of Terror European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes Human security is commonly understood as prioritising the security of people, especially their welfare, safety and well-being, rather than that of states. Instead of examining human security as a measurable or specific condition, however, the focus in this paper is how human security as a technology of governance facilitates the way that populations living within the territories of ineffective states are understood, differentiated and acted upon by aid institutions emanating from effective ones. In order to do this, development is first defined biopolitically - as a security technology related to promoting the life of populations that, compared to the inhabitants of developed societies, are essentially ‘non-insured’. The author discusses how human security as a relation of governance has continued to evolve in relation to the war on terrorism. At the close of the 1990s, human security encapsulated a vision of integrating existing aid networks into a coordinated, international system of intervention able to complement the efforts of ineffective states in securing their citizens and economies. Compared to this more universalistic notion of human security, in which development and security were regarded as "different but equal", the war on terrorism has deepened the interconnection between development and security. In particular, it is refocusing aid resources on those sub-populations, regions and issues seen as presenting a risk to homeland security. While some non-governmental organisations are concerned over growing threats to independence, for others new possibilities and opportunities for state/non-state interaction have emerged. Continue Reading More on Development and Security HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION The Responsibility to Protect: East, West and Southern African Perspectives on Preventing and Responding to Humanitarian Crises Project Ploughshares // Africa Peace Forum // African Women’s Development and Communication Network // Africa Institute of South Africa This working paper has two primary objectives. The first is to provide an overview of current efforts to develop a more effective multilateral approach to preventing and responding to serious humanitarian crises in East, West, and Southern Africa, up to and including the use of military force in extreme circumstances. This overview will be conducted with particular reference to the principles and recommendations of the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), entitled The Responsibility to Protect. It will assess the degree to which the continent’s emerging peace and security architecture reflects these principles, and also provide some recommendations on the steps that could be taken to better incorporate them, where appropriate, as that architecture develops. The second objective is to identify some of the key challenges facing the development of a more effective multilateral approach to responding to complex humanitarian crises, and to suggest some preliminary strategies for overcoming these challenges. Continue reading More on Humanitarian Intervention HUMAN RIGHTS Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary - Havel, Vacláv // Tutu, Desmond M. This report, commissioned by Vacláv Havel and Bishop Desmond M. Tutu, compares the situation in Burma to seven other countries in which the Security Council has previously intervened in internal conflicts because of the transnational issues implicated, including Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Haiti – and determines that many of the factors which trigger Security Council intervention are far worse in Burma than in other countries where the Council had previously decided to act. The report details the deterioration that has occurred in Burma stemming from the rule of the current military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). In 1990, the then-ruling military regime permitted democratic elections to take place, only to refuse to honor the results when the National League for Democracy (NLD) won over 80 percent of the seats in parliament. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who recently turned 60, remains the world’s only Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who is in detention and has spent much of the past 16 years under house arrest. Continue reading More on Human Rights ARMED CONFLICT Armed Conflict and Its International Dimensions, 1946-2004 Journal of Peace Research In 2004, there were 30 active armed conflicts, up by one from 2003. Despite this slight increase, the number of armed conflicts remains lower than at any time since the early 1970s. While seven of the conflicts from 2003 were no longer active, one entirely new conflict broke out and seven conflicts restarted, three with action taken by new rebel groups and four by previously recorded actors. A total of 228 armed conflicts have been recorded after World War II and 118 after the end of the Cold War. The vast majority of them have been fought within states. However, a little over one-fifth of the internal conflicts are internationalized in the sense that outside states contribute troops to the conflict. Less overt support, involving, for example, financial and logistic assistance, is found much more frequently. This type of support was present in nearly three-quarters of the armed conflicts after the end of the Cold War. Both governments and rebels receive support from outside states, usually neighboring states. Outside support for governments fighting rebel movements is almost always provided by other governments, not by other rebel movements. Continue reading More on Armed Conflict CONFLICT PREVENTION Better War-to-Peace Transitions: Disentangling the Determinants of Successful Demobilization and Reintegration Center for Global Development Since 1989, international efforts to end protracted conflicts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have included sustained investments in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of combatants from the warring parties. Yet, while policy analysts have debated the organizational factors that contribute to a successful DDR program, little is known about the factors that account for successful DDR at the micro level. Using a new dataset of ex-combatants in Sierra Leone, this paper analyzes, for the first time, the individual level determinants of demobilization and reintegration. Conventional views about the importance of age and gender for understanding reintegration find little support in the data. Instead, we find that an individual’s prospect of gaining acceptance from family and neighbors depends largely on the abusiveness of the unit in which he or she fought. Finally, while internationally-funded programs designed to assist the demobilization and reintegration process may have had an effect at the macro-level, we find no evidence that those who participated in DDR programs had an easier time gaining acceptance from their families or communities as compared to those who did not participate. Continue reading More on Conflict Prevention PEACE OPERATIONS Addressing the Institutional Law and Order Vacuum: Key Issues and Dilemmas for Peacekeeping Operations UN DPKO Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit UN peacekeeping operations are frequently deployed in institutional ‘law and order’ vacuums, where police, corrections and judiciary authorities have either ceased to exist or are unwilling or unable to carry out their duties. These situations can seriously endanger peacekeeping personnel, the local population, and undermine the stability and security necessary to rebuild society and achieve lasting peace. To date, responses to this problem appear ad hoc and driven by exigencies on the ground, rather than being guided by policy and planning. This paper reviews the complex issues and dilemmas raised by law and order vacuums for those planning and conducting operations. Among these are the political and legal dimensions regarding the actions of peacekeepers. There is a need to develop doctrine to ensure that peacekeepers can operate effectively and with legitimately, while also managing the expectation of host populations. The paper also explores the lack of clarity on the definition of ‘law and order’ functions, the difficulties with current military and civilian capacities and capabilities, and the need for appropriate planning methodologies. Based on this analysis, the paper recommends that DPKO and the international community develop policy options, including rules and regulations, for the deployment of effective operations to address law and order vacuums in cases where the UN is not an executive authority. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction HUMAN SECURITY DATA SOURCES The Frightful Inadequacy of Most of the Statistics: A Critique of Collier and Hoeffler on Causes of Civil War Crisis States Research Centre Over the past five years numerous cross-national statistical studies have been conducted on the causes of civil war. The most influential studies have been those by Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler.Their work has been widely cited in international reports on security and stability. This paper offers a critique of their work, arguing that their research is filled with empirical, methodological and theoretical problems that lead to unreliable results and unjustified conclusions. Their most prominent finding - that dependence on natural resources heightens a country's risk of war because it affords rebels an opportunity for extortion - is not based on any evidence of rebel behaviour; it is an inference drawn from a correlation between the onset of civil war and the ratio of primary commodity exports to GDP. To borrow a felicitous phrase from Keynes, the Collier and Hoeffler model suffers from 'a frightful inadequacy of most of the statistics'. Continue reading More on Human Security Data Sources GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY The Sierra Leonean State in 2005: Revisiting the Root Causes of the Conflict Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre This paper provides a brief account of the circumstances leading to the failure of Sierra Leone as a state and the resultant conflict of the late 20th and early 21st century. Subsequently, it outlines the steps that have been taken in the post-conflict era towards stabilizing the country – in particular with respect to building and consolidating the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) as subjugated to democratic civilian control. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that despite such measures, Sierra Leone lacks a sufficiently supportive regional state system within which to consolidate the peace process. As point of departure, the paper therefore stresses the necessity for the UN and ECOWAS to pursue a more integrated and long-term approach to regional conflict management. At the same time, however, it is also clear that region-wide approaches to security and stability will not address the ‘root causes’ within Sierra Leone that led to conflict in the first place. The paper therefore looks at two conditions of inequality in Sierra Leonean society which will have to be dealt with consistently, the institution of the paramount chief and corruption. Continue reading More on Governance and Security TERRORISM Forcing Choices: Testing the Transformation of Hamas Washington Quarterly Regardless of what happens in future Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas has already won a historic victory. The organization enjoyed tremendous success in municipal elections, and its readiness to participate on the national level constitutes nothing less than an earthquake in Palestinian politics, signaling the clear end of one-party rule. For a movement that has morphed from a militant organization into a political party in less than a generation, Hamas's participation on the national level is evidence of the organization’s adaptability and durability within Palestinian society and politics. Among foreign governments, speculation and uneasiness has surrounded Hamas’s newfound role. Despite the inherent risks, proponents of expanding Hamas’s role in Palestinian national politics argue that political activity will ultimately moderate the movement. As Hamas enters the political arena, interested observers must ensure it respects the rule of law and governing institutions of the PA. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas needs to raise the political costs of resorting to terrorism to the point where Hamas would refrain from resorting to such tactics. Hamas is clearly at a crossroads: although it will not disarm or renounce the use of violence and resistance in the near term—the ultimate test of moderation and a strategic shift—it has shown a willingness to participate within the bounds of the political establishment. That trend should be encouraged and, as much as possible, guided. Continue reading More on Terrorism HEALTH AND SECURITY Interpreting and Using Mortality Data in Humanitarian Emergencies: A Primer For Non-Epidemiologists Humanitarian Practice Network // Overseas Development Institute Mortality data, properly collected, interpreted and used, have much to contribute to the appropriateness and effectiveness of humanitarian action in emergencies, and to advocacy on behalf of populations in crises. Most actors involved in relief will one day be confronted by such data, but the different ways in which this information can be collected, and their potential pitfalls, are not yet common knowledge among non-epidemiologists. This Network Paper describes the practice and purpose of that branch of epidemiology concerned with population mortality. It sets out the key indicators used to express mortality data, different options for how to measure mortality rates and suggestions for how to assess, interpret and use mortality reports. The paper also discusses the politics of mortality figures. The paper’s aim is to enable readers to critically interpret mortality study reports, and to understand how these are used (or misused) to formulate policy. The intended audience is therefore all humanitarian actors, policy-makers, the media and members of affected communities, who may be called upon to comment on or make use of mortality studies, regardless of their technical background. Continue reading More on Health and Security GENDER AND SECURITY The Unequal Burden of War: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy London School of Economics Most combatants in armed conflict are men, so naturally men are the major direct victims of military operations. Yet, armed conflicts have important indirect negative consequences on agriculture, infrastructure, public health provision and social order. These indirect consequences are often overlooked and under-appreciated. They will also affect women and arguably more so than men. This article provides the first rigorous analysis of the impact of armed conflict on female relative to male life expectancy. We find that over the entire conflict period interstate wars, civil wars and internationalized civil wars on average affect women more adversely than men. In peace times, women typically live longer than men. Hence, armed conflict tends to decrease the gap between female and male life expectancy. For civil wars, we also find that ethnic wars and wars in ‘failed’ states are much more damaging to women than other civil wars. Our findings challenge policy makers as well as international and humanitarian organizations to develop policies that tackle the large indirect and long-term negative health impacts of armed conflicts. Continue reading More on Gender and Security NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS Re-stating the State: Paramilitary Territorial Control and Political Order in Colombia (1978-2004) Crisis States Research Centre This paper is devoted to the description of the paramilitary intent of establishing a distinct social order in a specific region of Colombia (Puerto Boyacá and its hinterland), and the way in which it coexisted and interacted with state structures. We want to understand how and why such structures and political order coevolve, and how such evolution was related to the type of provision of security offered by the State and other actors. There are three key questions regarding these transformations that must be acknowledged. First, how and why does the privatisation of the provision of security take place in the midst of a civil conflict. Indeed, this is a meaningful theoretical question, with practical resonances as well, given the increasing privatisation of security, repression, and organised violence. Second, how does state building promoted by private agents relate to criminality? Once again, this is important both because it is an essential part of our understanding of the genealogy of the state, and because in several parts of the world globalised illegal markets and the privatisation of the provision of security coexist and mingle in multiple ways. Third, how do violence and repression constitute social order? This paper will describe the evolution of Puerto Boyacá’s paramilitarism from these three perspectives: privatisation of the provision of security, state transformations triggered by private organised coercion, links between organised violence and social conflicts, and the way these links are reflected in forms of governance. Continue reading More on Armies, Paramiltiaries and Non-State Armed Groups Compiled by Robert Hartfiel Human Security Research is produced by the Human Security Centre at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC. The Human Security Centre produces the annual Human Security Report and is funded by the governments of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For more information on human security visit the Human Security Gateway, an online research and information database that contains a broad range of human security-related resources. To subscribe to Human Security Research , send an email to hsc.list@ubc.ca with 'subscribe HS Research' in the subject field or click here. To unsubscribe, please reply to this message with 'unsubscribe HS Research' in the subject heading. |
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