15 December 2013 conflict broke out between army fractions in South Sudan. So far, more than 1000 are said to be dead and 800,000 to have fled their homes in the world’s newest state. The conflict has generated considerable media attention and developments are followed by the Norwegian government and other countries which have invested… Read more »
Where has the violence taken place?
USAID has published an updated map on the reported incidents of Violence in South Sudan since 15 December.
The Syrian Refugee Crisis and Conflict Spillover
The Syrian refugee crisis has been heartbreaking to watch. According to the United Nations, over 2.4 million people have fled the country, and many more have been displaced internally. This human tragedy has shocked the world’s conscience and has led for appeals for humanitarian relief. However, does the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees also pose security challenges for host countries?
A close-up view of the Za’atri camp for Syrian refugees. Photo from Wikipedia
Today, PRIO researcher Kristian Skrede Gleditsch and Idean Salehyan have published a guest blog post on Political Violence @ a Glance. Read More
Four Reasons Why Interstate Conflict Scholars Don’t Read Intrastate Work and Why They are Wrong, Part 2
Part 1 of this two-part series is here.
Misconception #3 – “The Domestic Conflict Field is a Mess”
Misconception #4 -”There is No Good Data on Civil Conflict“
Read more at Political Violence @ a Glance, published January 30, 2014
Nepal Moves Towards Democracy
Democracy is to a large extent about parties being willing to accept electoral defeat. In Nepal the Maoist Party, previously engaged in guerrilla warfare, has done precisely this.Read More
Global warming and melting of Arctic ice
Rossiiskaya gazeta published a report from a scientific conference where the proposition on global warming and melting of Arctic ice was effectively disproved. The fact that September 2013 ice was by as much as 50% larger than September 2012 ice is indeed under-reported. What is odd about this emphasis, however, is that it goes strictly… Read more »
Four Reasons Why Interstate Conflict Scholars Don’t Read Intrastate Work and Why They are Wrong, Part 1
Misconception #1 – “Intrastate Conflict Is Just Not as Important as Interstate Conflict”
Misconception #2 – “Intrastate Conflict Has No Relevance to Interstate Conflict”
Read more at Political Violence @ a Glance, published on January 21, 2014
Old Wine in an E-bottle (or, The Text that Mistook Itself for a Tactical Shift)
Photo by Flickr user Jose Luis Orihuela.
On January 24th Barbara Walter wrote a fascinating blog entry entitled “The Text that Changed the World”. It noted that the “Ukrainian government” had issued a text message to “thousands of protesters” effectively telling them that they had been busted (i.e., they were identified as participating in a protest event). While it is useful to think about the impact of this action on subsequent challenging behavior, given my interest in the end of repressive action it seemed useful to reflect for a moment as to how the text might be relevant.
… Blog post by PRIO Global Fellow Christian Davenport on the blog Political Violence @ a Glance
The Northern Fleet
It is rather unusual for the official news agency to publish an expert opinion that “the Northern Fleet in its current strength cannot perform even elementary tasks on ensuring national security in this vast region“. The volume of assertive statements has much increased after the short cruise of a squadron led by Petr Veliky along… Read more »
The Battle for Bangkok
In the wake of the power struggle between the political elites in Thailand, we are now seeing a popular uprising.
Once again Thailand’s capital is paralysed by demonstrations. The streets are filled with Thai flags and demands that the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, must step down. “Shut down Bangkok – Restart Thailand!” But behind the façade of colourful placards and catchy slogans lies a brutal political power struggle.
The country’s political crisis seems to be worsening in proportion to the advancing age and deteriorating health of the people’s beloved King Bhumibol. The danger of violent confrontation is significant – just today [17 Jan 2014] 28 people were injured when a bomb exploded in a procession of demonstrators. Unfortunately there is no swift resolution in sight.Read More