Monday 6 April A grenade explosion injured 10 civilians in the IDP camp inside the UN base in Bentiu. A recent Small Arms Survey report questions the neutrality of the South Sudan Democratic Forces (SSDF)-Cobra Faction. The leader of an Ethiopian rebel movement, known as the Ethiopia United Patriots Front (EUPF), dismissed reports alleging his… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 14
Monday 30 March War Economy: South Sudan’s budget for the current fiscal year is twice as much as last year’s oil revenues according to Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau. War Economy: South Sudan has suffered huge production losses, amounting to about 20 million barrels of crude oil as a result of the 15-month shutdown of… Read more »
Beyond Sexual Violence: Gendered Political Insecurity as a Threat to Peace
Based on extensive field research in Colombia, our new article “Beyond Sexual Violence in Transitional Justice: Political Insecurity as a Gendered Harm” examines political insecurity as a specifically gendered harm that must be addressed in the ongoing Colombian transitional justice process.
A woman holds up a poster dotted with rose petals and a message that reads in Spanish; “Only a kiss would shut me up,” during a march to protest physical abuse of women and in support of Colombia’s peace talks in Bogota, Colombia in 2013.
Emergency Exit for the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
The tragedy in Syria bears witness to the deep crisis afflicting the international commitment to the “protection of civilians”. But there is a way out.
Against the background of a politically divided Security Council, there is a need for a new international strategy to protect civilians caught up in armed conflicts.
The international system for crisis management that emerged after the Cold War assumed a degree of political consensus that has now evaporated. As a result we are left with peace policies that do not work.Read More
The Hitler Analogy
From left to right, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano as they prepare to sign the Munich Agreement. Photo: Bundesarchiv
The Hitler analogy – also known as the Munich analogy – is deployed frequently in political debate. In Munich in 1938, the British prime minister made the historic error of failing to comprehend the extent of the evil represented by Adolf Hitler. Chamberlain signed a peace agreement with Hitler that Hitler never honoured and that gave Hitler reason to believe that he would not encounter resistance. As Winston Churchill famously said, “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”
The Consequences of Internal Armed Conflict for Development (part 1)
Child in a rebel camp in the north-eastern Central African Republic. Photo from Flickr.
War is a development issue. War kills, and its consequences extend far beyond deaths in battle. Armed conflict often leads to forced migration, long-term refugee problems, and the destruction of infrastructure. Social, political, and economic institutions can be permanently damaged. The consequences of war, especially civil war, for development are profound.
In this two-part post, we examine the development consequences of internal armed conflict. Part 1 focuses on how conflict affects development. Part 2 turns to the conflict trap and the post-2015 development agenda.
Development in reverse
Apocalypse a Bit Later: The Meaning of Putin’s Nuclear Threats
The words that Russian President Vladimir Putin chose for describing the nuclear angle of the special operation for seizing and annexing Crimea in March 2014, might appear so odd that it is well-nigh impossible to make sense of them. “Yes, we were ready,” he said to the question about whether the option of putting strategic forces on high alert was considered. He then clarified that these forces were always on high readiness status. And when “some military experts” advised him to use all available means of deterrence, he said “No,” according to the propaganda documentary shown two weeks ago on Russian television.
Russian Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile is displayed during a Victory Day parade rehearsal on April 24, 2009 in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia. Photo: Dmitry Korotayev
The message is perhaps confusing, but regardless we should take Putin’s nuclear discourse very seriously. Broadly ignorant of how nuclear deterrence works, Putin and his cronies are both irresponsible and reckless when it comes to using nuclear threats for political purposes.
The Secular Suicide Bomber
Is the all-consuming focus on Islam leading us to ignore the fact that suicide attacks have also been carried out by Christian, Hindu and secular martyrs?
Suicide attacks: The group responsible for most suicide attacks during the period 1980-2001 was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. None of the LTTE soldiers were Muslims. This photo, by Thomas Haugersveen, is part of a 2009 series on the Tamil Tigers. The photo was also part of PRIO’s 2009 Anniversary photo competion/exhibition.
There can be no doubt that violent actions conducted in the name of Islam constitute a threat to state and individual security not only in Europe, but most of all in the Muslim world itself. The question, however, is whether the all-consuming focus on Islam is leading us to ignore the fact that suicide attacks have also been carried out by Christian, Hindu and secular martyrs. Such actions are motivated by politics, strategy and individual self-realization.Read More
Iranian Deal leaves Russia in Deeper Isolation
Putin tries to make a clever face, and Rouhani doesn’t have to.
While Iran appears to be recognizing the need to reform its domestic politics and change its attitude toward the West, Russia is turning into a massively corrupt police state and is apparently thriving in the atmosphere of confrontation. The contrast between these two regimes has become strikingly sharp as nuclear negotiations approached the final stretch toward a binding agreement. Moscow still tries to present itself as a responsible stake-holder in the international system. But with every turn of the screw in the government’s repressions against members of the domestic opposition—stigmatized as “traitors” and “foreign agents”—Russia’s external behavior tends to turn erratic. Putin tries to maintain the appearance of confident statesmanship, but his subordinates remain eager to repeatedly violate international law because this law is after them. The survival of Putin’s Russia depends upon the inability of international institutions to deter its militarism and to punish aggression; and Moscow is set to discover which step along its path of “hybrid war” escalation will be the one too far.
This is the bottom line from the article in Eurasia Daily Monitor, April
This Week in South Sudan – Week 12
Monday 16 March Between 70 to 100 people estimated killed in Lakes State after clash between youths from Rumbek East and Rumbek Center. Tuesday 17 March Five dead in another inter-clan clash in Lakes state between youth from the Pakam community and Ruop in Rumbek Central. At least two people were shot dead, allegedly by… Read more »