• GOVERNANCE: International Engagement in Failed States: Choices and Trade-offs • POST-CONFLICT: Aid, Growth and Peace: A Comparative Analysis • PEACE OPERATIONS: Public Security Management in Post-Conflict Societies • ARMED CONFLICT: US and Coalition Casualties and Costs of War in Iraq • CHILDREN: Child and Community-Led Strategies to Avoid Recruitment in West Africa • DISPLACEMENT: Orphans of Conflict: Caring for the Internally Displaced • DEVELOPMENT: Inequality and Conflict: A Review of an Age-Old Concern • ARMED GROUPS: Unifying Darfur's Rebels: A Prerequisite for Peace • INTERNATIONAL LAW: Creation and First Trials of the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal • SMALL ARMS: The Use and Perception of Weapons: Evidence from Rwanda • CIVIL-MILTIARY RELATIONS: A Contemporary History of Militaries in Southern Africa • CONFLICT PREVENTION: The EU and Int'l Organizations: Partners in Crisis Management GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY International Engagement in Failed States: Choices and Trade-offs Danish Institute for International Studies Failed states have made it to the top of the international agenda following 11 September 2001. This paper gives an overview of the debate on ‘what to do’. Firstly, it suggests an explanation of where these so-called failed states are coming from: Why do some states self-destruct? Secondly, four different approaches to failed states are presented and discussed - with special emphasis on the dilemmas and predicaments they each hold. The paper concludes that the question of what to do with failed states requires a political answer, not a technical one. Continue Reading More on Governance and Security PEACE OPERATIONS AND POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION Aid, Growth and Peace: A Comparative Analysis Chr. Michelsen Institute The paper examines patterns of post-conflict aid in a sample of 14 countries, with in-depth qualitative analysis of seven cases. The study shows that - contrary to the findings of World Bank-supported research in this area - donors do not respond to a CNN-effect by rushing in aid soon after peace is declared while scaling back rapidly during the remaining post-war decade. Rather, post-war aid follows several patterns and can best be understood as strategic behavior designed to promote a range of economic and political objectives. This paper also questions the related policy recommendation of the World Bank research, which is that post-conflict aid should be designed to maximize economic growth during the first decade of peace. Rather, this paper argues, other aid strategies are more relevant to stabilize peace in the short run and sustain it in the longer run. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction PEACE OPERATIONS AND POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION After Intervention: Public Security Management in Post-Conflict Societies Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform The transition from interventionist (military) peace-keeping to local (civilian) ownership of public security management is a severe challenge for most peace-keeping operations and their civilian administrators and is a reason for such operations being prolonged at high cost. What is needed is a democratically controlled, systematic and cumulative process which involves confidence-building, legal, cultural (values) and institutional elements. This book collects the results of two conferences during which the perspectives of both providers and consumers of public security management were discussed in the light of lessons learned from past and current post-conflict reconstruction areas. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction ARMED CONFLICT US and Coalition Casualties and Costs of War in Iraq Center for Strategic and International Studies This report provides an overview of US official data on casualties in the Iraq War, Coalition casualties and the cost of the war. It was prepared to put the coming benchmark of 2,000 US deaths in perspective, and to highlight the fact that cost and sacrifices in the war go far beyond the number of US dead. Continue reading More on Armed Conflict CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT Fighting Back: Child and Community-led Strategies to Avoid Children's Recruitment into Armed Forces and Groups in West Africa Save the Children Fighting Back looks at the experiences of children living in conflict situations, and focuses on strategies to prevent the recruitment of children into armed groups. Following interviews and discussion with around 300 children and 200 parents and carers in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone, it highlights a number of preventative strategies used by children, families and communities.These include moving to a safe place and avoiding family separation. This report reveals the complexity of the issue of children’s recruitment into armed forces. It highlights the need for context-specific responses that focus on child protection mechanisms, attitudes towards recruitment, education and poverty alleviation.The research findings will be of interest to governmental, NGO and UN initiatives to prevent child recruitment in West Africa and beyond. Continue reading More on Children and Armed Conflict DISPLACEMENT Orphans of Conflict: Caring for the Internally Displaced United States Institute of Peace The world’s 25 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are the orphans of conflict. Although a range of humanitarian relief and protection is available to the displaced if they cross international borders and thus become refugees, no safety net exists for displaced persons who remain in their own countries. Host governments are often unable or unwilling to attend to the food, water, shelter, medical, and protection needs of IDPs. Moreover, they may deny international relief agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) the opportunity to enter sensitive regions and may restrict external aid, perceiving it as interference in the country’s internal affairs. This pattern continues despite growing international acceptance of the concept that sovereignty entails a responsibility either to protect citizens within national borders or to accept international intervention on their behalf. Continue reading More on Refugees and Internally Displaced People DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY Inequality and Conflict: A Review of an Age-Old Concern United Nations Research Institute for Social Development This paper by Christopher Cramer develops an overview of the main currents of thinking about the inequality-conflict debate, with a focus on the link from inequality to conflict. The author says that, in spite of the fact that inequality and violence are a constant in human society, organized violent political conflict only takes place from time to time and is interspersed with periods of peace. He says that this could be due to three possible reasons: (i) inequality might not be a cause of conflict, or it is perhaps neither necessary nor sufficient for violent conflict; (ii) rather than the mere fact of inequality, particular characteristics of inequality might be more relevant; and (iii) perhaps something in the intensity of inequality, measured in various ways, may be relevant to the outbreak of violent conflict (implying a threshold that itself may vary with social, political and cultural conditions as well as with the average level of income). Continue reading More on Development and Security ARMED GROUPS Unifying Darfur's Rebels: A Prerequisite for Peace International Crisis Group The Abuja peace talks will fail and Darfur's conflict continue until the main rebel groups stop fighting each other, mend internal divisions and present a unified negotiating front. The chief figures in the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), must return to Darfur, organise broad-based conferences to resolve leadership disputes, restore command and control and instruct their Abuja delegations. Otherwise, they will be vulnerable to Khartoum's manipulation and become increasingly isolated as they lose legitimacy. The international community should coordinate better so rebel factions cannot play them off against each other; press them to resolve internal problems; and support the conferences each needs to do so. If the rebels continue their descent into banditry and warlordism, the crisis will continue indefinitely, and civilians will pay the costs. Continue reading More on Armies, Paramilitaries and Non-State Armed Groups INTERNATIONAL LAW Creation and First Trials of the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal International Center for Transitional Justice After months of speculation, the government of Iraq announced on September 5, 2005, that the long-awaited trials of Saddam Hussein and his close associates would open on October 19, 2005. Held by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (SICT), these trials will be of great importance to hundreds of thousands of victims of the former Iraqi Ba‘athist regime, while potentially offering hope to victims across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region who want to see an end to state-sanctioned impunity. Continue reading More on International Law, Justice and Accountability SMALL ARMS, LIGHT WEAPONS AND LANDMINES The Use and Perception of Weapons before and after Conflict: Evidence from Rwanda Small Arms Survey In building upon earlier research, this study asks and addresses questions that cannot be dealt with through a purely quantitative approach. By examining the availability, distribution, and use of small arms and light weapons in several rural localities, it aims to shed light on the daily use of firearms during the Rwandan genocide. This study also identifies the traditional and modern weapons used in the conflict, as well as their respective roles. Further, it investiigates whether the perception of traditional Rwandan agricultural and household tools has changed since the genocide and whether there is an ethnic divide in the perception of these tools. Continue reading More on Small Arms, Light Weapons and Landmines CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS Evolutions and Revolutions: A Contemporary History of Militaries in Southern Africa Institute for Security Studies Evolutions and Revolutions has attempted to achieve three related objectives. The first is to provide a military history of the Southern African region since independence. The second objective has been to overcome the traditional reluctance among African people, especially those engaged in sensitive military issues, to put pen to paper and record their experiences. In gathering a wide variety of experts and practitioners on the subject, the book seeks to achieve a third and final objective of developing a cadre of practitioners and policy makers who are able to engage in intellectual discourse on the way in which the military is evolving in the postcolonial era. Continue reading More on Governance and Security and Armies, Paramilitaries and Non-State Armed Groups CONFLICT PREVENTION The EU and International Organizations: Partners in Crisis Management European Policy Centre This paper reviews the global security environment since the end of the Cold War, assesses the EU's growing efforts to become a global actor and speak with one voice, and examines the EU's relations with the principal international institutions that play a key role in conflict prevention and crisis management. The author examines some of the problems facing the EU in promoting "effective multilateralism", and offers a number of recommendations to strengthen the EU's role in the key international institutions. Continue reading More on Conflict Prevention and International and Regional Organizations 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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