Europe’s Quiet Offensive Against People Helping Refugees

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A look back on three years since the end of Operation Mare Nostrum.

Three years ago today, pressure by the European Union on Italy forced the end of one of the EU’s most successful humanitarian missions, Mare Nostrum, a search-and-rescue operation that in just one year brought 130,000 refugees safely to Europe’s shores.

Photo: Seawatch.org

As the death toll mounted in the wake of this decision, including 1,200 victims at sea five months later, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) stepped into the breach, launching their own rescue missions in a desperate attempt to save lives. Their efforts were part of a wave of compassion across Europe that year, as people organised convoys to refugee reception centers, warmly greeted arrivals at German train stations and lined highways to provide food and water to those making the arduous trek from war-torn regions of Syria and elsewhere.Read More

This Week in South Sudan – Week 44

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Tuesday 31 October New in-depth working-paper from Small Arms Survey: “Isolation and Endurance: Riek Machar and the SPLM-IO in 2016–17” The Mail and the Guardian in-depth investigative report on the leaked audit report: “How South Sudan’s elite looted its foreign reserves” TIME, op-ed: “What the U.S. Must Do to Save South Sudan, a Nation it… Read more »

Migrant Smugglers Are Winning. Here’s Why

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Migrant smuggling: moving people across borders for profit, is reported to be one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative forms of organized criminal activity.

Smugglers crowd their human cargo into shipping containers and onto boats and trucks. Many migrants arrive safely and consider the investment well spent. But migrant smuggling is a dirty business: excessive profiteering and exploitation routinely place the lives and wellbeing of smuggled migrants at serious risk.

Photo: UNODC

The current international narrative around migrant smuggling, most clearly spelled out in the ongoing negotiations around a Global Compact for Migration, identifies smuggling as a criminal enterprise that must be stopped at all costs – and clearly asserts that it can be stopped with sufficient resources and cooperation between states.

This analysis reflects a distorted view of reality. It makes the challenge seem straightforward, but it is fundamentally misguided. Smugglers are winning and they will continue to do so for the following reasons.Read More

Climate, Peace and Security

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Despite rapid scientific progress, firm knowledge about the societal consequences of global warming remains limited. What are the implications of climate change for peace and security? Should we expect more wars and more political instability as the world heats up? The real concerns linked to climate change are not about shrinking glaciers, eroding coastlines, or… Read more »

Conflict Portrait: Afghanistan

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

The armed conflict between the Afghan government, along with its international allies, and armed radical Islamist insurgents intensified after 2014. At the end of that year, the mandate of the NATO-led ISAF combat mission expired, and the responsibility for security was officially handed over to the Afghan authorities.

ISAF was replaced by a far smaller follow-on mission, “Resolute Support” (RS), and a separate US anti-terrorism mission, “Freedom’s Sentinel”. RS will continue to train, advise and contribute logistical support to the Afghan armed forces. The largest RS contingent comes from the US, with the official number at 8,400 troops, as well as an additional 3,500 soldiers on short-term deployments and an unknown number of Special Operations Forces and other agencies’ forces. There are also 23,500 military contractors, 4,500 of which are trainers and on security duty.

Street scribe in Kunduz. Afghanistan has the highest illiteracy rate in the region and worldwide, yet currently in Afghanistan, only 3.7% of GDP is being spent on education. Photo:Thomas Ruttig

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The Svalbard tragedy illuminates the downside of heavy militarization of Russia’s Arctic policy

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Taking ownership of and “conquering” the Arctic are themes Russian authorities love to amplify. But sometimes, the harsh Northern reality interferes. The crash of an Mi-8 helicopter in Svalbard (Spitsbergen), last Thursday (October 26), with eight lives lost, was one such occasion. Norway launched a rescue operation within 30 minutes, while Russian officials continued to… Read more »

Welcome to the Climate & Conflict Blog

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The Climate & Conflict blog will publish updates from relevant PRIO-based research projects on security dimensions of climate and environmental change. PRIO presently hosts three research projects that jointly have an overarching goal of addressing the relationship between climate and conflict: CAVE, CLIMSEC, and CROP. Some of the questions these projects ask are: What is… Read more »

What to Expect from India at COP23?

Posted by and & filed under Environment, Governance, Urbanization and Environment

Climate change is not a one-way street of cause and effect. International negotiations on climate change and the reduction of emissions are equally complex. A consistent Indian demand has been  green technology transfer from “high-emitting” developed countries. An equally longstanding principle is that of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities, or CBDR-RC.

Despite the continuities, India´s negotiating position on the reduction of CO2 emissions is not easily summarized. At times, there haven been rapid shifts and apparent mismatches between statements of principle and action. India´s position and it’s involvement in Conference of the Parties (COP) summits has also developed over the years.

What can we expect from India at the COP23 Summit in Bonn? Find out more at the Hilton Bonn, 17 November 2017: Register here

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 43

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Tuesday 24 October SPLM (IO) announced that a person suspected of causing the death of its late spokesperson Lam Kuei Lam has been arrested by the Sudanese police. 200 Ethiopian peacekeepers arrived in South Sudan to help bolster the UNMISS mission. Wednesday 25 October President Salva Kiir will visit Khartoum and his Sudanese counterpart, President… Read more »

“No backsliding” on Women’s Inclusion in Peace Mediation

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Last week, Norway made history with Ine Eriksen Søreide becoming the country’s first female foreign minister. Even in relatively gender-equal countries like Norway it is still rare to find women holding top positions in the so-called “hard issue” sectors of foreign affairs and peace and security. Barriers to the full involvement of women in work to prevent and resolve violent conflicts still persist.

Elisabeth Slåttum, former Norwegian Special Envoy for the Philippines peace process, invites the Philippines Government delegation and National Democratic Front of the Philippines delegation back to the peace table, April 2017. Credit: NOREF

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