1,721,041 research outputs found
The Tragedy of Darfur and the Limits of the Responsibility to Protect
No full textThe view that states which claim sovereign status must comply with the responsibility to protect their own citizens is gaining ground in international politics. When a state is unable or unwilling to meet this responsibility, the international community is justified in intervening militarily to end widespread human rights violations. This article argues that a diffuse responsibility to protect, as currently conceived, may have important negative consequences. By using the ongoing tragedy of Darfur as an example, the article argues that the responsibility to protect is reactive and focused on the short term, contributes to the outbreak of violence and perversely provides repressed groups with a further incentive to continue their armed struggle after war breaks out. The tragedy of Darfur shows that effective protection requires case-specific policies aimed at prevention, democratization and economic and political development
Peace in Europe
No full textThis chapter discusses how peace in Europe has been contested from below by a variety of movements and organizations both during and after the Cold War
Civil Society and Peacebuilding in Bosnia-Herzegovina
No full textThe concept of civil society has acquired an unprecedented worldwide popularity, especially in development programs. This article investigates the international effort to build civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to foster peace and democratization, this in response to disappointment with traditional economic, military, and political strategies. The results of this major investment of resources, however, have been unsatisfactory. The international community's lack of a coherent long-term strategy and the adoption of a conception of civil society that is often at odds with Bosnian context and history hinder the transition to genuine reconciliation among the three ethnic groups. Examining two major areas of intervention - facilitating the advocacy role of local civic groups and fostering citizens' participation - I show that the international community has failed to comprehend both the political and the social meaning of its involvement. Although the focus on civil society is meant to overcome the limits of external regulation and to emphasize indigenous and community-based contributions to peacebuilding, the international community's approach is to make local development dependent upon the international presence. The result is a failure to address the structural problems that affect the country and to hinder, rather than foster, the formation of an open and democratic civil society
Is Humanitarianism Part of the Problem? Nine Theses
No full textThis work argues that humanitarianism can increase the likelihood of war and prolong conflict after it breaks out; it misinterprets the underlying motivations of conflict; it focuses too narrowly on short-term, ad-hoc solutions at the expense of long-term political action; and it reproduces the same social, political, and ethnic divisions it seeks to address. Most empirical illustrations are drawn from four prominent cases: Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, and the current crisis in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur. These are all cases with a significant ethno-national dimension. They provide enough variation to make a compelling argument that the flaws of humanitarianism extend beyond the limits of a single unfortunate set of circumstances. To be sure, humanitarians have at least some familiarity with these flaws, but they are often too quick to set their doubts aside and endorse the humanitarian enterprise
European Integration and the Western Balkans: Lessons, Prospects and Obstacles
No full textEuropean integration is almost universally recognized as the key strategy for achieving the twin goals of peace and prosperity in the Western Balkans.1 European policy-makers trust that greater European involvement in the Western Balkans can have positive and long-lasting effects on the management of ethno- political conflict. The European Commission identified the prospect of EU membership as ‘the ultimate conflict prevention strategy’ and committed itself to maintain and increase its proactive presence in the region.2 The academic near-consensus is that the Western Balkans’ greater involvement in European institutions is the necessary condition for stabilization.3 But whether the focus is placed on Europe’s entry into the Western Balkans, or the Western Balkans’ entry into Europe, most observers agree on the positive effects of increased links
between these two still quite distinct areas. Perhaps most importantly, these views are also shared by many politicians and citizens in the region, who are for once united in considering access to European political, economic and financial institutions as the long-term answer to fragmentation, conflict and economic backwardness. Opinion polls regularly show levels of popular support for European integration ranging between 75 and 85 per cent
Il crescente euroscetticismo dei Balcani occidentali
No full textNel corso degli ultimi due decenni la percezione diffusa tra i cittadini dei Balcani occidentali (i paesi emersi dalla dissoluzione della Jugoslavia, meno la Slovenia, più l’Albania) circa i benefici che il progressivo avvicinamento all’Unione Europea avrebbero portato ha contribuito in maniera importante a sostenere la difficile transizione post-socialista e, in molti casi, post-bellica. Dall’inizio della crisi economica e finanziaria globale nel 2008, tuttavia, questa percezione è progressivamente cambiata, cedendo il passo a un crescente e sempre più diffuso euroscetticismo
Statebuilding Failure in South Sudan
No full textViolence broke out in South Sudan’s capital of Juba on the 15th December 2013. Vice President Riëk Machar and his followers, mostly belonging to the Nuer tribal group, walked out of a meeting of the ruling SPLM party, prompting President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, to accuse Machar of plotting a coup d’état against him. The Presidential Guard hunted down Machar who, however, was able to escape from Juba. Dinka militia immediately began large-scale killings in the capital city of members of Machar’s tribal group. Most Nuer soldiers and officers defected and joined thousands of Nuer youth, organized in the so-called White Army, in fighting the war against Kiir and in demanding his removal from office. Kiir, in addition to enjoying the support of the Dinkas, can benefit from the presence in the capital city of Ugandan troops dispatched to protect the President and his entourage, as well as to defend Ugandan economic interests in the country
'Meditration' and 'Arbidiation' in Intractable Conflicts
No full textKer-Lindsay demonstrates convincingly that mediation – arbitration, or ‘meditration’, is not a particularly successful conflict management system. The mediation process in both Kosovo and Cyprus did not lead to a settlement acceptable to all main parties. After mediation failed, international interveners turned into arbitrators, and advanced their own settlement plans. By so doing, mediation evolved into a form of intervention more akin to arbitration, and gave rise to two main problems
L'euroscepticisme croissant des Balkans occidentaux
No full textAu cours des deux dernières décennies, la perception majoritaire parmi les citoyens des Balkans occidentaux quant aux avantages d'un rapprochement progressif de l'Union européenne a fortement contribué à soutenir la difficile transition postsocialiste et d'après−guerre. Depuis le début de la crise économique et financière mondiale en 2008, cette perception a cependant progressivement évolué, laissant place à un euroscepticisme croissant et de plus en plus répandu
The IMF and civil society
No full textThis paper gauges the influence of transnational advocacy networks on the activities of the International Monetary Fund throughout the 1990s. In assessing civil society’s advocacy work, this paper makes two main contributions. From a theoretical perspective, our case-study lends credit to the emergent literature discussing the gray zone between rational choice theory and constructivism. Indeed, as we show, IMF’s changes were not due to civil society’s pressures but rather to the working of the mechanism of reputation – which combined aspects of socialization and coercion. From an empirical perspective, our findings suggest that civil society’s influence on the policies of an international economic organization might be easily overstated
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