Russia’s Row With Finland Exacerbates Baltic Solitude

Posted by & filed under Migration, Regions and Powers, Security

Russia’s geopolitical influence is increasingly shrinking in the Baltic Sea region. The most recent episode in the region’s worsening relations with Moscow was the sudden arrival of hundreds of migrants from the Middle East and Africa in November to the busy border crossing between Russia and southeastern Finland (Kommersant, November 30).

Border patrol guards checking the land border of Vaalimaa, between Finland and Russia, one of the most important land border between the two countries. Photo: Giulio Paletta/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Finnish government responded to the crisis by renouncing the agreement on cross-border cooperation with Russia and closing all border crossings (RBC, November 30).Read More

Illusions and Peace Plans in the Middle East

Posted by & filed under Middle East, Peacebuilding

Both the two-state and one-state solutions exist only in the imagination. Time has run away from them, as things stand today.

Jerusalem, December 2023. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been going on for 75 years, with Israel emerging stronger from all of the more serious outbreaks of warfare. How can this conflict be resolved?

A biblical answer from a rabbi was apparently that ‘it can happen by natural means – that would be a miracle. Or it can happen because of a miracle – that would be the natural course of events’.Read More

More and More Children at Risk of Conflict

Posted by , and & filed under Civilians in Conflict, Conflict Patterns

News reporting from around the world constantly and painfully reminds us about the heavy toll paid by children in current conflicts, such as in Ethiopia, Ukraine, and Gaza.

Palestinian children are playing inside a destroyed house following an attack by Israeli forces in the Askar refugee camp, West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

In addition to being directly exposed to grave violations such as killing and maiming, recruitment by armed groups, sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access, children also suffer more indirectly from the consequences of war. Children living in conflict-affected areas are more likely to drop out of school, lack access to clean water, and suffer from mortality risks due to illnesses and malnutrition, or lack of vaccines and medical care.

Today Save the Children launches its new report Stop the War on Children: Let Children Live in Peace.

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Gaza: A Religious Conflict?

Posted by & filed under Peacebuilding, Religion, Security

Hamas named its terror attacks on 7 October ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’. Hamas believes that Jewish extremists, with the direct and indirect support of the Israeli authorities, pose a threat to, and are plotting to take over, the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.

Israeli police guard a gate to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, sacred to Muslims, on December 2, 2023. Photo: Scott Peterson/Getty Images

The terror attacks led to an outbreak of the kind of religious language that has a mobilizing effect. Hamas knows very well that all Palestinians, whether Christian or Muslim, regard the Al-Aqsa mosque compound as a national symbol. The Dome of the Rock with its golden dome covering is a familiar and beloved image for Muslims all over the world.Read More

Russian Energy Industry Faces Looming Investment Crisis

Posted by & filed under Environment, Regions and Powers, Security, Ukraine War

The 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), currently taking place in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, is missing contributions from one major energy power — namely, Russia.

A view from the oil company Tatneft in Tatarstan, Russia in June 2023. Photo: Alexander Manzyuk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Many countries are guilty of pledging to curtail emissions then departing from their plans and falling short of the United Nations’ ambitious goals (Kommersant, November 30). Moscow sees the prospects of a “green transition” as a challenge to its international position and treats it as a security threat (The Moscow Times, November 30).Read More

The Geopolitics of Deep-Sea Mining

Posted by and & filed under Environment, Security

Deep-sea mining carries substantial environmental risks and its immediate profitability remains questionable due to several technical difficulties.

Greenpeace activists paint the word ‘RISK!’ on the side of a vessel chartered by the company Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR). Photo: Marten van Dijl / Greenpeace

Yet, amid regulatory pitfalls, a handful of states are rushing to extract raw resources from the seabed.

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Russian Influence Diminished in Remaking the Middle East

Posted by & filed under Middle East, Regions and Powers, Security, Ukraine War

The Kremlin has welcomed the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza that began on November 24. The pause, however, does not fit into Russia’s larger designs for the Middle East.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in 2022. Photo: Getty Images

From Moscow’s perspective, further escalation would have been a much better option in disrupting the US-led world order.

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Ethical Dilemmas in Humanitarian Negotiations

Posted by , , , , and & filed under Humanitarianism, Law and Ethics, Migration

This blog provides reflections from both humanitarian practitioners and researchers on the ethical dilemmas associated with humanitarian negotiations and how humanitarian organisations respond to them.

Ethics of humanitarian negotiations workshop held from 4-6 October 2023 in Oslo, Norway. Image credit: PRIO

The blog post includes the following contributions:

  1. Ethical dilemmas in humanitarian negotiations, by Kristoffer Lidén and Kristina Roepstorff
  2. Challenges to neutrality and impartiality, and their value, by Jérôme Grimaud
  3. No political vacuum during humanitarian operations and negotiations, by Carsten Wieland
  4. Dilemma of rejecting humanitarian aid in the case of the war in Syria since 2011, by Lars Christie
  5. Community based humanitarian negotiations in Colombia, by Manuel Salamanca
  6. Mediterranean search and rescue: What dilemmas exist (if any)? by Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert

See also the related blog post Reflections on humanitarian negotiation by Hugo Slim (University of Oxford).Read More

Three Factors Put Egypt in a Fix

Posted by & filed under Middle East, Regions and Powers

Egypt plays a key role in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. Now the Egyptians are nervous.

Most Egyptians harbour a deep mistrust of Israel and support the Palestinians’ cause wholeheartedly. Cairo, Egypt on October 13, 2023. Photo: Mohamed Elshahed/Anadolu via Getty Images

With its almost 100 million inhabitants and its borders with both Gaza and Israel, Egypt plays a key role in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. Right now, the Egyptian regime finds itself in an awkward position.Read More