The ‘Sovereign’ according to Ola Tunander

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HPIM0873On Friday 27 May 2016, PRIO celebrated Ola Tunander’s 30-year academic career with a seminar on ‘Sovereignty, Subs and PSYOPS’, and a reception. The celebration was, of course, focused on Ola and his work, spanning topics from the geopolitics and organic state theory of Rudolf Kjellén to the 27 October 1981 ‘Whiskey on the Rocks’ submarine crash in the Swedish Archipelago. Obviously, sovereignty was a key topic of the seminar, and is arguably also the critical theme of Ola’s work.

As a digital footnote to the seminar, and a distillation of the ‘sovereign’ according to Ola Tunander, here are some excerpts of Ola’s writings on the subject (all from ‘Democratic State vs. Deep State – Approaching the Dual State of the West’ in Eric Wilson’s Government of the Shadows: Parapolitics and Criminal Sovereignty, published by Pluto Press, 2009): Read More

This Week in South Sudan – Week 20

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Wednesday 18 May About 3000 Ethiopian troops left South Sudanese territory on 15 May. They entered South Sudan following the Murle attacks on Gambella in April. Thursday 19 May The SPLM (IO) claimed it will register as an independent party if the Arusha Reunification Agreement of May 2015 is not respected. The two directors of… Read more »

The Humanitarian Quest for Accountability: Examining the role of UNHCR

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The European refugee crisis has been a difficult experience for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). On the one hand, UNHCR has been criticized by civil society and the humanitarian community for not being present on Greek islands. On the other hand, the organization has experienced difficulties in negotiating this access with Greek authorities. In addition to criticism of UNHCRs actions/inactions in Greece, the organization also faced criticism for not doing enough to push states across Europe to admit a bigger responsibility for the refugee crisis, and to accept greater numbers of refugees for resettlement.

The new UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

In the fall of 2015, there was explicit criticism of previous High Commissioner of Refugees, Antonio Guterres, as it was argued that his ambitions of becoming the new United Nations Secretary General was getting in the way of confronting European states more explicitly to  ensure that they live up to their responsibility as stated in the 1951 Refugee Convention:

“The heads of U.N. agencies with ‘well-nourished careers’ prefer to ‘put out cutesy heart-warming videos’ about individual refugees rather than criticize governments… They want another U.N. job … And they won’t get it if they piss governments off. You have to start shaming governments. That’s how things get done.”

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 19

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Monday 9 May According to UN World Food Program, South Sudan is heading for the worst lean season since its independence in 2011, with almost half its population facing severe hunger. Radio Tamazuj: “Malakal attack: What UN knew vs what it said. Insights from a leaked report.” Tuesday 10 May Tensions remain high in Moangala… Read more »

Brought Up to Be a War Criminal

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Dominic Ongwen has been charged with committing the same crimes that were committed against him as a child soldier in the Lord’s Resistance Army. To what extent is Ongwen responsible for his actions as an adult, given that he himself was abducted as a 10-year-old child? The International Criminal Court in The Hague is to determine the answer to this question.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently confirmed 70 charges against Dominic Ongwen for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ongwen is accused of committing these crimes as a member of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Dominic Ongwen appears at the ICC. PHOTO: International Criminal Court

During over 20 years of conflict with the Ugandan government, the LRA has recruited huge numbers of child soldiers, practised enslavement, and committed murders, rapes and other atrocities against civilian populations in northern Uganda, Southern Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ongwen has been charged with individual responsibility for crimes including attacks against the civilian population, murder, rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced marriage, torture and other inhumane acts, pillaging, the use of child soldiers, enslavement and persecution. Ongwen is the first of five accused LRA commanders to appear before the ICC.

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 18

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Monday 2 May Rebel general Peter Gadet said he would continue to fight because the August 2015 peace agreement between President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar does not address the root cause of the conflict. At least three SPLA soldiers were killed and a general wounded after a group of soldiers opened fire… Read more »

Insecurity in the Humanitarian Cyberspace: A Call for Innovation

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Humanitarian practitioners and scholars are currently struggling with how to analyse the opportunities and challenges of technological innovation. This includes not only what technological innovation can do for humanitarianism but also what it does to humanitarian action. Over the last two decades, innovations have fueled the creation of a humanitarian cyberspace. It is now time for the task of addressing the challenges posed by the humanitarian cyberspace to be prioritised on the humanitarian innovation agenda.

PHOTO: Grace Cahill/Oxfam

The term cyberspace broadly refers to the realm of computer networks and the internet. The traditional notion that the ´virtual` world is a different social space than the ´real world` is by now obsolete, also in the humanitarian context.

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Why the Veto Powers All Support Protection of Civilians (And Why They Often Fail to Agree on It)

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The Protection of Civilians (PoC) expands the responsibility of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for international peace and security to the internal affairs of conflict-ridden countries. As such, it bolsters the authority of the five permanent members (the P5) in world politics and presents them with a flexible tool for exercising this authority. In reply to the question “what’s in it for them”, in this blog post we argue that in addition to shaping their responses to situations like Syria and Libya, the principle of PoC shapes the very dynamics of the Council itself, and ultimately the decisions of conflict actors anticipating international responses.

Syrian civilians returning to Tell Abyad, 2015. PHOTO; Creative Commons

The difference in the international response to the twin crises that erupted in Libya in 2011 (to which the UNSC responded with a firm resolution) and Syria in 2012 (where a state of civil war continues in the absence of any Security Council protection resolution) offers a useful entry point to the question of ‘protection’ as it is understood and acted upon in the UNSC. Protests in both countries flared up within the wider context of the Arab Spring upheavals across the Middle East/North Africa region from late 2010. In both cases the Libyan and Syrian authorities responded with force, leading to a sharp escalation of the violence. The subsequent responses of the international community, however, could scarcely have been more different.

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Assisted Return Not a Permanent Solution for All Asylum Seekers

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Photo: Arne Strand, CMI

Many asylum seekers who choose assisted return are from a country destroyed by war and conflict. More than half of those who return to countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq plan to migrate again. Assisted return is a viable type of support to assist with the return, but is not sufficient to prevent large numbers of people once again leaving insecure countries of return. Only minor changes are required, however, to increase the potential for permanent return.Read More

This Week in South Sudan – Week 17

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Tuesday 26 April Media reports on Riek Machar’s return to Juba and inauguration as First Vice-President: The New York Times: “Riek Machar, South Sudan Opposition Leader, Returns as Part of Peace Deal” The Wall Street Journal: “South Sudan’s Rebel Leader Returns to Join Government” Voice of America “South Sudan Rebel Chief Sworn In as Vice… Read more »