A Post-Brexit We?

Posted by & filed under Migration

London park. Photo: Daniel Enchev, via Flickr

Who is the ‘we’ in the context of the Brexit vote?

Whilst the protection of British borders was a key ingredient in Brexit debates, the answer to what kind of a community we are talking about within those borders, remains in desperate need of addressing. Lingering notions of cultural purity cannot stand unchallenged.

Which community, which sense of ‘we’, was the subject of the battle in Brexit? Brexit was won on immigration, or more accurately on ‘the topic of immigration’. Arguably, it was won on the basis of a particular conception of ‘us’ set up against a variety of ‘thems’, as an external defining agent, rather than on an internally driven grounded sense of a ‘we’. The Brexit ‘thems’ notably included EU immigrants. For Brits, as people across Europe, have radically different perceptions of the scales of immigration and cultural diversity, than what actual numbers tell.

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 26

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Monday 27 June A blackout at Juba International Airport resulted in cancelled flights. Tuesday 28 June At least 43 people were killed and more than 120,000 people are reportedly displaced following last week’s clashes in Wau town. A newly formed Islamist militant group led by politician Ali Tamim Fartak is allegedly behind the attacks. The… Read more »

Putin’s Trip to Beijing Yields few Fruits, if any

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

The first meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping this year, and not much joy in it, apparently.

Expectations regarding President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing on Saturday (June 25) had been rather subdued, and the modest results were mostly immaterial. Last year, the two leaders grandiosely celebrated their countries’ World War II victory over the Axis powers; and in 2014, they announced a great increase in economic ties and an allegedly historic natural gas deal (see EDM, May 22, 2014). But the implementation of this deal has been delayed, and the volume of bilateral trade—instead of the promised fast expansion—has contracted by about 30 percent. Thus, Putin’s argument that the Russia-China relationship should be redefined from a “strategic partnership” to a “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” rings diplomatically hollow (Kremlin.ru, June 23). In fact, the only element of the partnership that works well for Putin is his personal connection with President Xi Jinping (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, June 24). Chinese commentators also emphasize the demonstrative friendliness of this high-level networking (RIA Novosti, June 24).

In essence, Russia continues to be a western-oriented country, and the “hybrid war” with Ukraine has, paradoxically, made it even more Euro-centric. The Russian-European conflict over values, political freedoms and human rights has certainly reached extreme intensity, but the concentration of political efforts and public attention has also increased. Putin may enjoy the red carpet treatment in Beijing, but he cannot connect with the Chinese political culture, including its severe clampdown on corruption; and there is hardly any real trust between him and Xi. Putin’s overlapping circles of courtiers, siloviki (security services personnel) and oligarchs have no illusions that China would come to Russia’s rescue in the deepening crisis, and their main game plans involve manipulations of various European assets. The China “card” is not particularly useful in these games, largely because the Chinese are resolutely not playing along.

The rest of the article is in Eurasia Daily Monitor, 27 June 2016.

Peace is a Process

Posted by and & filed under Peacebuilding

On 21 June 2016, UNESCO hosted a path-breaking Consultative Meeting on the contribution of the UN system to the promotion of peace. The meeting was attended by heads of 28 United Nations entities (programmes, funds, specialized agencies and bodies), who discussed the advancement of the global peace agenda and took stock of the present situation – and the future of the agenda in the new millennium.

PRIO Visiting Fellow Priyankar Upadhyaya (UNESCO Chair for Peace and Professor of Peace Research at Banaras Hindu University) is a member of the Steering Committee of this ambitious project, and is likely to lead the preparation of the resulting compendium. In the Geneva consultative meeting, Professor Upadhyaya delivered the keynote address: ‘Peace is a Process’.

Professor Priyankar Upadhyaya. Credit: Kristian Niemi

In his a thought-provoking presentation, Professor Upadhyaya provided a holistic and dynamic approach to the concept of ‘peace’ as a continually evolving process with immense transformative potential to synergize human community, ecology, and planetary concerns in a mutually enriching manner. Sustainable peace is thus about the interweaving of relationships between individuals, groups and institutions that value diversity and foster full development of the human potential. A composite focus on ecological integrity and socio-economic justice must inform the twin quest for peace and sustainability. UNESCO’s rights-based approach to education, incorporating equity and inclusion, is the key to counter discrimination that leads to fractures and tension in society.

The Consultation was a part of the on-going UNESCO project on Progress and Challenges for the Peace Agenda of United Nations Entities. The project is led by UNESCO under the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022).

Interfaith Dialogue can Help Build Peace

Posted by & filed under Peacebuilding, Religion

Photo: George Gallagher via Flickr

Interfaith dialogue is a necessary aid in conflicts involving religion.

Some years ago, many Western social scientists were claiming that religion was a dying phenomenon. Such assertions were part of an arrogant assumption that the entire world would soon come to resemble the north-western corner of Europe. In Eastern Europe, which lay under the yoke of Communism, atheistic faith prevailed. And no doubt many people believed that atheism would continue to prevail after the Communist system was abolished.

After the fall of Communism, however, atheistic was to a large extent replaced by religious faith. Putin, a former KGB officer, became a churchgoer – and allied himself with authoritarian church leaders. In the Caucasus, atheistic oppression was replaced by an explosion of violence justified on the basis of religious and nationalist beliefs. In the Middle East, and far into Asia, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are being used to justify violence and the oppression of people with different views – regardless of whether they are adherents of the oppressor’s own or a different religion.

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The Right to Decide: Exit and Basque Self-Determination

Posted by & filed under Governance, Law and Ethics, Peacebuilding, Regions and Powers, Security

Five years ago, the Basque militant group ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) announced a unilateral and permanent cessation of operations. Since then, the disappearance of political violence has given rise to a new debate on Basque nationhood: more inclusive, more open, more civic, and at the same time stronger in its affirmation of the legitimacy of popular sovereignty and the democratic demand to exercise ‘the right to decide’, as against the earlier radicalism of immediate independence.

A new book edited by Pedro Ibarra Güell and Åshild Kolås, Basque Nationhood Towards a Democratic Scenario, takes stock of the contemporary re-imagining of Basque nationhood in both Spain and France. Taking a fresh look at the history of Basque nationalist movements, it explores new debates that have emerged since the demise of non-state militancy. Alongside analysis of local transformations, the book also describes the impacts of a pan-European (if not global) rethinking of self-determination, or ‘the right to decide’.

Basque Country Needs You. Credit: Iker Merodio via Flickr

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 25

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Monday 20 June International Crisis Group: “From Conflict to Cooperation? Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda” Voice of America, Straight Talk Africa video: “South Sudan in Focus” Tuesday 21 June More than 140 South Sudanese judges went on strike, demanding better working conditions and the reimbursement of four years of expenses. Wednesday 22 June The Troika… Read more »

Open-Access Publishing and Academic Freedom

Posted by & filed under Research Politics

Open-access publishing will make research findings freely available. But what will happen when researchers have to pay to get their own results published? Researchers’ freedom of choice regarding publication channels may become severely restricted if this issue is not taken seriously.

7066675199_8aed931933_bTwo weeks ago, a working group appointed by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research published proposed National Guidelines for Open Access to Research Results (in Norwegian).

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Syria Travellers and Security Threats

Posted by and & filed under Governance, Law and Ethics, Migration, Security

Foreign fighters returning from Syria have emerged as a looming security threat in many European countries, so also in Norway.

As well as preventive measures against radicalization and mobilization by the Islamic State, there have been calls for the withdrawal of citizenship and deportation of returned foreign fighters. This raises a number of questions:

  • Are Norwegians more secure if we send potential terrorists out of the country?
  • Is this even feasible, if Norway wants to stay within the ‘border-free’ Europe?
  • What are the trade-offs between security and civil rights to citizenship, and how can they best be balanced?
  • Is citizenship essentially something that needs to be earned, or is it an inalienable right?
  • Should withdrawal of citizenship be a form of punishment, and if so, is it a good idea to open up this pandora’s box?
Photo credit: Jayel Aheram

Photo credit: Jayel AheramUnder PRIOs NATION project, Katrine Fangen (Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo) and Åshild Kolås (PRIO) have published an article in Critical Studies on Terrorism: ‘The “Syria traveller”: Reintegration or legal sanctioning?’. The article analyses Norwegian discourses (in the media, policy documents, and parliamentary debates) on Islamist radicalization, with a focus on a new category of people known as ‘Syria travellers’: young Norwegians who go to Syria to fight for the Islamic State (IS).

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 24

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Monday 13 June BBC: “What New York Times article says about South Sudan” Tuesday 14 June A unit of the SPLA allegedly ransacked and looted a market in the Kajo Keji area, Central Equatoria State, sparking armed confrontation in which more than 20 lives were lost. 16 former officials were sentenced to life in prison… Read more »