France’s Response to Terror

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers, Security

Following the terror attack in Nice, the French President Hollande has responded to mounting criticism by sharpening both his rhetoric and the country’s proposed reactions to terror. But no society can be protected against all risks, and anti-terror efforts do not always have the intended effects.

Photo: Benjamin Boccas, via Flickr

Within a split second, in the afternoon of 14 July, the beach promenade in Nice turned into a scene of terror . The weapon was an ordinary truck. The perpetrator was a petty criminal, a Tunisian citizen, with no known extremist propensities. It is not yet clear whether he carried out the attack alone, or if he had any accomplices. At least 84 people have lost their lives, and many are seriously injured. The Islamic State (IS) – or Daesh, as it is commonly referred to in France – has taken credit .

The immediate question that springs to mind is how a state can best protect its citizens, given that a single person with an ordinary truck can cause such enormous damage. Yet, different questions seem to dominate the French public debate in the immediate aftermath of the attack: How could this happen? Why were the security services not able to prevent this? How was it possible for the perpetrator to drive for two kilometers, through the crowd, before being shot?

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 28

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Tuesday 12 July The humanitarian situation in Juba is dire and continues to deteriorate. Hospitals have been shelled and food supplies are low. Tens of thousands of people have taken refuge in churches, and many more have been displaced. Russia said it is willing to consider imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan and that… Read more »

Framing the UCLA Shooting Event

Posted by & filed under Law and Ethics, Security

UCLA_hoodieWednesday June 1st was my last day of Spring Quarter teaching at UCLA. At 9:50am, a BruinAlert trickled into my inbox announcing “Police Activity at Engineering Building 4. Avoid area until further notice” and a few minutes later “Shooting at Engineering 4. Go to secure location and deny entry (lockdown) now!” I did not notice, as I was busy preparing for my review lecture at 11:30am; I also did not see the flood of e-mails from students starting at 10am saying: “I just heard there’s a shooter loose on campus and I’m staying home”. At 10:15am, NBC interrupted its regular programming to announce that a shooting event was reported in progress at UCLA; the news helicopter was already on the way.

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Blair’s Global Vision – and Lacking Knowledge Base

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

Tony Blair took the decision to take part in the military intervention in Iraq in 2003 more or less on his own, and based it on very scant knowledge. Are there reasons to fear the same happening again?

Tony Blair and George W. Bush in 2003.

The British Chilcot Commission has released a crushing verdict over former PM Tony Blair’s decision to stand side by side with the US in Iraq in 2003. How was it possible for such an important decision to be taken without serious consideration of its long-term consequences?

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 27

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Monday 4 July According to state officials, the local government in the proposed Gbudwe State in Western Equatoria State, is reportedly training over 800 youth from various armed groups. Wednesday 6 July Authorities in Jonglei state said that thousands of people have fled their homes after a land dispute escalated into violent clashes. A government investigation… Read more »

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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