• HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION: Humanitarian Action on the Battlefields of the Global War on Terror • CANADA: The (Un)Peaceable Kingdom? Terrorism and Canada before 9/11 • IRAQ: Militias, Tribes and Insurgents: The Challenge of Political Reintegration in Iraq • PEACEKEEPING: Human Rights and Gender Components of UN and EU Peace Operations • GOVERNANCE: Democracy and Civil War • TERRORISM: Beyond Terrorism: Deradicalization and Disengagement from Violent Extremism • NATURAL RESOURCES: Resource-Conflict Links in Sierra Leone and DR Congo • ARMED CONFLICT: Rain, Growth, and Civil War: The Importance of Location • CONFLICT PREVENTION: Fragility, Instability, and the Failure of State • ARMED CONFLICT: Commodity Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence From Colombia • NATURAL RESOURCES: Diamonds and Human Security: Annual Review 2008 • TERRORISM: Countering Terrorism: Human Security Solutions in the Horn of Africa HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION Humanitarian Action on the Battlefields of the Global War on Terror Journal of Humanitarian Assistance Today's humanitarian landscape has changed completely since the battle of Solferino in 1859 where Henry Dunant experienced the atrocities of war and founded the first international relief society, the Red Cross. The vulnerability of non-combatants in traditional warfare led delegates of the XXth International Conference of the Red Cross to formulate the principles of humanitarian aid. These were formulated in response to traditional warfare -- war fought between states with a known enemy, a clear distinction between combatants and non-combatants, a defined battlefield, and where parties to war were responsible for compliance with the customs and laws of war. The end of the Cold war constituted the end of tensions between the two blocks and the beginning of a new era of war. What was suppressed before soon emerged in the form of 'asymmetric warfare' and 'new wars'. This challenged the environment wherein international humanitarian law (IHL) is applicable considerably. States lost their monopoly on warfare and on-state actors blurred the line between combatants and non-combatants. These 'new wars' brought the battlefield to the civil population. Continue reading More on Humanitarian Intervention CANADA The (Un)Peaceable Kingdom? Terrorism and Canada before 9/11 Institute for Research on Public Policy Canada has a long history of political violence, and it has not been immune to the major trends shaping terrorism in the second half of the twentieth century: decolonization, the Cold War, and the transportation and media revolutions. Those trends gave rise to terrorism that was motivated mostly by nationalism, inspired by a 'cult of the guerrilla,' supported by state sponsors, global in reach and impact, and increasingly lethal. However, with few exceptions, Canada’s experience of terrorism was less frequent, less lethal, and less disruptive than those of many other countries. These exceptions include the Front de Libération du Québec campaign (1963-70) and the Air India bombing (1985). Even so, Canada responded firmly, even harshly, to major campaigns of domestic terrorism, an approach that received wide public support. But with the exception of the period of the October Crisis (1970), before 9/11 the Canadian public did not feel vulnerable to terrorism. Thus, even though the security and intelligence community did not share the view, Parliament and the public did not consider counter-terrorism to be a high priority and therefore it lacked a political constituency. As a consequence, Canada’s organizational, legal, and policy instruments have not always been adequate or appropriate to the task of counterterrorism and may not have kept pace with the changing character of international terrorism. Continue reading More on Canada IRAQ Militias, Tribes and Insurgents: The Challenge of Political Reintegration in Iraq Conflict, Security & Development The conflict in Iraq, ongoing since the US-led invasion in 2003, presents a uniquely inauspicious context for the political reintegration of irregular armed groups. With the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the reintegration of Iraqi militias and other armed forces was to occur in an environment where new state structures were only just emerging. Militia and insurgency groups were thus asked to lay down their arms for the sake of a political system whose sustainability and dispensation of power were far from certain and with no guarantee that security be maintained subsequent to their dissolution. The situation distinguishes itself further by the fact that none of the targeted armed groups had won or been defeated in the war leading up to regime change. Rather than as victors and losers, the groups were defined and treated according to their supposed proximity to Saddam Hussein prior to the war. Sufficiently complex, this effort at reintegration was also to proceed alongside a hugely ambitious exercise in state building, conducted by a reluctant 'nation-builder' short on plans and personnel, in a region marked by tension and in which the intervening state suffered a lack of legitimacy. Continue reading More on Iraq PEACEKEEPING Human Rights and Gender Components of UN and EU Peace Operations German Institute for Human Rights Peace operations carried out by international or regional organisations, such as the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), have become key instruments of the international community for facilitating the settlement of inter-state and internal conflicts and promoting peace processes. One of the most active and experienced organisations implementing peace operations is the UN, which since the end of the Cold War has significantly expanded its activities in order to safeguard and strengthen international peace and security. Since the first generation of peace operations -- limited to maintaining and observing ceasefires and to serving as a buffer between conflicting parties in order to stabilise the situation on the ground -- the nature of peace operations has changed profoundly. Today the UN conducts multidimensional missions, striving to address causes of conflict and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace. In this spirit, current missions involve a broad range of activities undertaken by a multitude of integrated mission components and are increasingly provided by the UN Security Council with a robust mandate under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and thus authorised to enforce peace by coercive means if necessary. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction GOVERNANCE Democracy and Civil War International Peace Research Institute // Centre for the Study of Civil War Democracy relates closely to civil war. In this chapter, we investigate ten propositions: Democracy is negatively related to the onset and severity of civil war and positively to duration. Democracy relates to civil war through an inverted U-curve: semi-democracies are most prone to violence. Political instability is positively related to civil war. The curvilinear effect of democracy on civil war persists even when controlling for political instability. Civil war occurs more frequently in conjunction with elections. The effect of democracy on civil war is more pronounced for government conflicts than for territorial conflicts. The effect of democracy on civil war is stronger for developed countries. A politically different neighborhood is positively related to civil war. The negative effect of democracy on civil war is more pronounced for inclusive types of democracy. These relationships are generally strengthened after the end of the Cold War. Using two different measures of democracy, we test these hypotheses on the Uppsala/PRIO conflict data. Overall, we find democracy to be strongly related to civil war, with the results for severity being the most robust. Continue reading More on Governance TERRORISM Beyond Terrorism: Deradicalization and Disengagement from Violent Extremism International Peace Institute Terrorist movements have been recognized by many scholars to be cyclical in nature, yet little attention has been paid to the ways in which they have declined and eventually come to an end. Similarly, while much current attention has focused on the process of radicalization and the espousal of violent extremism, little research has examined the reverse mechanism—deradicalization or 'disengagement.' While the reasons for this latter process may be related to why a person becomes radicalized, there are often a number of other elements that can strengthen the resolve of a militant to disengage or withdraw from violent activism. Cumulatively, it has been argued, such processes can have a positive impact on global counterterrorism efforts by promoting the internal fragmentation of violent radical groups and by delegitimizing their rhetoric and tactics in the eyes of the broader public. This report draws on this work and reflects the discussions at a conference on 'Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and Collective Disengagement from Violent Extremism,' hosted by the International Peace Institute and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on April 22, 2008, in New York City. Continue reading More on Terrorism NATURAL RESOURCES Resource-Conflict Links in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Resource revenues are argued to weaken and corrupt governments in West and Central Africa. In turn, these governments risk being challenged by rebel groups that are often able to finance their struggles by tapping into resource sectors that have fallen outside government control. This so-called ‘resource curse’ scenario has inspired national and international policies and interventions in several war-torn countries in Africa that are aimed at defusing resource-driven war economies and at restoring natural resource governance. This paper focuses on policies and interventions targeted at the mining sectors of Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), both during and after conflict. In both countries, blocking rebel groups’ access to natural resources and revenues has been a primary pursuit of peacekeeping operations. Additionally, governments and international mediators have also attempted to redistribute resource wealth and power over resources in order to forge peace agreements with rebel groups. In the present post-conflict periods, national governments prioritize promoting legal industrial operations and controlling artisan-mining activities, in order to generate economic revenues as well as prevent criminal activities and war financing. Continue reading More on Natural Resources and Armed Conflict ARMED CONFLICT Rain, Growth, and Civil War: The Importance of Location University of Essex // Kristian Gleditsch In an important effort to address the potential endogeneity between economic growth and conflict, Miguel, Satyanath and Sergenti (2004) estimate the partial effect of growth on conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa using rainfall as an instrument. Many contributions to theories of domestic conflict have postulated that changing economic conditions are likely to strongly influence resort to violence. Davies (1962) argued that conflict was particularly likely to occur during periods of economic setbacks, where the gap between the aspirations of individuals based on further economic growth and the actual economic difficulties experienced would be perceived as particularly severe. More recently, Collier and Hoeffler (2004, 569) have argued that rebel recruitment will be easier in poor societies due to lower opportunity costs in terms of foregone income from regular economic activities when participating in insurgencies, as well as lower wages for combatants. They use economic growth as one of their proxies for foregone income, anticipating that conflict episodes will be preceded by low growth. Finally, Fearon and Laitin (2003) argue that civil wars are more common in poor societies since states in low income societies tend to have weaker capacity for deterring and defeating violent insurgencies. Continue reading More on Armed Conflict CONFLICT PREVENTION Fragility, Instability, and the Failure of States: Assessing Sources of Systemic Risk Council on Foreign Relations // Center for Preventive Action A public debate over the threat posed by weak, fragile, failing, and failed states and what can or should be done about them has become increasing visible and vocal since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The challenges associated with weak or failing states have garnered increased attention by the policy community, but major differences about how to assess the level of risk in any given case remain. This study examines the dimensions of state and system failures within the context of development, conflict, and governance. In surveying the risk factors identified through systematic inquiry and research, it seeks to improve the prospects for successful preventive action and conflict management. This treatment diverges somewhat from the conventional approach outlined by John Davies and Ted Robert Gurr, which distinguishes between structural indicators and risk assessment models and dynamic indicators and early warning models. It builds on more recent work that tends to view structure and agency as essential and inseparable factors in complex, adaptive systems analysis. The main focus of this examination, then, is on risk assessment and early warning models for proactive conflict management at the global level of analysis. Continue reading More on Conflict Prevention ARMED CONFLICT Commodity Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence From Colombia Harvard University // Universidad del Rosario This paper examines the economic motivation behind armed conflict by estimating the effect of commodity price shocks on civil war dynamics in Colombia. We exploit exogenous changes in the price of agricultural goods (which are labor intensive) and natural resources (which are capital intensive), to test predictions about how income affects conflict. In a framework where labor is used to violently appropriate capital income, a rise in the price of labor intensive goods is predicted to lower conflict by raising wages. In contrast, a rise in the price of the capital intensive good is predicted to increase conflict by raising the return to predation. We test these hypotheses using unique event-based data on local conflict in Colombia. We focus mainly on coffee and oil, the two largest export sectors. We find that a sharp fall in the price of coffee during the 1990s increased violence disproportionately in municipalities growing more coffee, by lowering average wages. In contrast, a rise in oil prices increased violence differentially in the oil region, by increasing municipal revenue targeted for predation. These results hold in six other sectors, providing robust evidence that price shocks affect conflict in opposite directions and through distinct channels, depending on the factor intensity of the sector. Continue reading More on Armed Conflict NATURAL RESOURCES Diamonds and Human Security: Annual Review 2008 Partnership Africa Canada Just as peace is not simply the absence of war, an end to conflict diamonds does not necessarily mean that diamonds will create prosperity or that human security will prevail in the areas where they are mined. The campaign to halt conflict diamonds has largely succeeded, although the phenomenon continues in Côte d’Ivoire, seemingly beyond the ingenuity and the powers of the 75 governments represented in the Kimberley Process (KP) and the world’s entire diamond industry. But the KP challenge today is not just Côte d’Ivoire; the larger challenge is to ensure that diamonds are controlled and tracked in ways that prevent a return of the much more deadly diamondfuelled wars of the past. Diamonds are not just symbols of love, fidelity and purity, they are the most concentrated form of wealth on earth, and because of that, they attract problems. A raid on a Damiani showroom in Milan netted thieves as much as $30 million in diamond jewellery in February. That was just one of many diamond heists. If you Google 'diamond theft 2008' you will find more than five million articles. It stands to reason, therefore, that conflict diamonds could return to countries where development is stunted and governance weak. That is why organizations like the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) are so important, and why efforts to bring greater transparency to the extractive sector need all the support they can get. Continue reading More on Natural Resources and Armed Conflict TERRORISM Countering Terrorism: Human Security Solutions in the Horn of Africa Bowie State University // Department of History and Government Examining war and terror in the Horn of Africa, we find that Somalia is the epicenter of terrorism, generating aftershocks throughout the region, entangled by the George W. Bush Administration's Global 'War on Terror' (War on Terror) and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's 'Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders.' The realization of regional war and terrorism has prompted the Bush Administration to make it very clear that the Horn of 'Africa finds itself involved in the Global War on Terror, and Somalia is a critical element of our broader efforts to fight global terrorism,' with international, regional and humanitarian consequences. The clear and present dangers are so stark, Guillermo Bettocchi, UN country representative for the refugee commission, said he has 'never seen anything like Somalia before,' asserting 'It is the most pressing humanitarian emergency in the world today - even worse than Darfur.' As such, the international, regional and humanitarian interests in the War on Terror in the Horn of Africa, radiating from Somalia, will be assessed in this chapter, to ascertain how the problem of terrorism can be countered to develop some solutions in the region, as portrayed by the emergent Human Security discourse. Continue reading More on Terrorism Human Security Research is produced by the Human Security Report Project at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University. The Human Security Report Project 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 hsilist@sfu.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. |
|||||||||||||||||
