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Abstract: This report examines the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Viet Nam by evaluating some of the successes and challenges the country has faced for implementing the R2P mandate. Viet Nam’s history of violence, war, social upheaval and economic hardship make the prevention of future mass atrocities critical for the country itself and for the region. The aim of this report is to present a background of relevant issues that have restrained the country’s capacity to implement the R2P and to offer recommendations for principle implementations and capacity improvement. The report provides specific insight into the weaknesses of Viet Nam’s human rights status, the vulnerabilities of ethnic minorities to human rights abuses and the potential for these abuses to escalate into the commission of mass atrocities. The overall purpose of this report is to provide useful information for professionals and practitioners with an interest in Viet Nam who may be unfamiliar with the country’s current political developments and human rights status that are relevant to the implementation of the R2P.
Abstract: The Mekong River – Southeast Asia’s largest river – runs from the Tibetan Plateau and through China’s
Yunnan province. This part of the river is heavily dammed. South of China, as it goes through Burma,
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, has been spared. That might soon be changing as Laos, backed by Thailand,
is set to start the construction of the 1260 megawatt Xayaburi hydroelectric plant. Vietnam opposes
this plan and claims that the future of the river, and the communities along it, will be threatened. National
interests are clearly pitted against each other. The split regarding the future of the Mekong River threatens
to damage the relations between Laos and Vietnam and increase regional insecurity.
Abstract: This Human Rights Watch report details the latest government crackdowns on these indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards. The report documents police sweeps to root out Montagnards in hiding. It details how the authorities have dissolved house church gatherings, orchestrated coerced renunciations of faith, and sealed off the border to prevent asylum seekers from fleeing to Cambodia.
Abstract: Over the last decade, the international community
has been working toward a new and broader concept
of security, drawing input from a number of
governments, non-governmental organizations and
civil society groups as well as scholars and other
prominent individuals. This new concept—known
as human security—calls on states to ensure the
survival, livelihood and dignity of their inhabitants.
At the same time, it encourages e≠orts to equip
people to act more e≠ectively on their own behalf. Following the report by the Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, this booklet seeks to show practical applications of human security and give the concept a human face. Between March-June 2006, in preparation for this publication, the Human Security Unit, a freelance journalist and a team of photographers visited dozens of project sites, conducting hundreds of interviews with local staff and beneficiaries. From these many compelling initiatives, nine stories were selected that reflect the range of issues, regions and institutions involved in human security work around the globe. Human security represents a fundamentally new
way of thinking about a range of contemporary
challenges—from hunger, poverty and failing
schools to armed conflict, forced migration and
human tra≤cking. Because these issues are closely
intertwined, human security emphasizes the need
for multi-sectoral responses and collaboration
among all stakeholders. Moreover, it aims to bridge
the gaps between security, humanitarian assistance,
human rights and development aid.
Abstract: Beginning in the early 1980s,
commercial shipping became a prime target of pirates, first off West Africa and then
slowly spreading into Southeast Asia. Throughout the 1990s, and especially after the
Soviet Union’s collapse, piracy increased dramatically. Reports of piracy tripled during
1991–2001: of 335 reported cases in 2001, ninety-one were in waters claimed by Indonesia,
twenty-seven by India, twenty-five by Bangladesh, nineteen by Malaysia, eight by
Vietnam, and eight by the Philippines; another seventeen reported attacks occurred in
the Malacca Strait, bordering on Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. This monograph is intended as a contribution to both scholarship and professional
naval thinking; it is an academic and comparative examination of twelve selected case
studies from maritime history used to illuminate a range of concepts and uses of piracy
suppression. The twelve case studies provide the basis for the conclusions, an approach
that provides a more thorough understanding of the uses and limitations of naval
antipiracy operations in the context of new maritime technologies and within a wider
range of modern national policy goals than might otherwise be achievable. Above all,
this collection provides a sound basis for comparative analysis of varying historical
experiences that can stimulate new and original thinking about a basic but often
overlooked naval duty.
Abstract: Counterinsurgency (COIN) requires an integrated military, political, and economic program best developed by teams that field both civilians and soldiers. These units should operate with some independence but under a coherent command. In Vietnam, after several false starts, the United States developed an effective unified organization, Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS), to guide the counterinsurgency. CORDS had three components absent from our efforts in Afghanistan today: sufficient personnel (particularly civilian), numerous teams, and a single chain of command that united the separate COIN programs of the disparate American departments at the district, provincial, regional, and national levels. This Paper focuses on the third issue and describes the benefits that unity of command at every level would bring to the American war in Afghanistan. The work begins with a brief introduction to counterinsurgency theory, using a population-centric model, and examines how this warfare challenges the United States. It traces the evolution of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and the country team, describing problems at both levels. Similar efforts in Vietnam are compared, where persistent executive attention finally integrated the government’s counterinsurgency campaign under the unified command of the CORDS program. The next section attributes the American tendency towards a segregated response to cultural differences between the primary departments, executive neglect, and societal concepts of war. The Paper argues that, in its approach to COIN, the United States has forsaken the military concept of unity of command in favor of “unity of effort” expressed in multiagency literature. The final sections describe how unified authority would improve our efforts in Afghanistan and propose a model for the future.
Abstract: This is the 12th FCO Annual Report on Human
Rights. The report sets out the UK’s work and
policy on human rights in 2009, and explains the
importance of human rights across our foreign
policy goals. It highlights our main policies,
countries of concern and the challenges we
face. It demonstrates how we seek to address
these issues through diplomatic channels and
international bodies, as well as our programme
work across the globe. However, many of the issues covered in these pages
highlight the growing tendency to once again claim
human rights as a “Western” construct, unsuited to
particular cultures and countries. In the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, the government continues
to insist that national security and cultural differences
invalidate human rights obligations and justify
subjecting humanitarian workers to severe restrictions.
In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi is incarcerated on
the basis of similar arguments that her battle for
Foreword by the Foreign Secretary
David Miliband
Foreign Secretary
democracy undermines national security. Women are
still denied their human rights in many parts of the
world, on the basis that culture and religion render
those rights inapplicable. The increasing threat to
gay people’s rights in some African countries reminds
us that tolerance is a dream rather than a reality for
much of the world’s population.
But this report also shows how people around the
world are pushing back against the idea that human
rights are not universal – in 2009 demonstrators
in Guinea and Honduras demanded their rights to
democracy, human rights defenders from Belarus
to Syria continued to protest against injustice and
worldwide, individuals and groups continue to work
to realise the rights of all. We have a responsibility
to applaud these efforts, and to support them by
challenging the notion that human rights depend on
culture and circumstance.
Abstract: All too often, the U.S. national security system
has proven unable to integrate its diplomatic,
military, economic, and other elements of national
power adequately. The weak integration, due primarily
to poor interagency cooperation, has presented
particular problems for the United States
when waging counterinsurgencies. The new U.S.
counterinsurgency field manual, FM 3-24, points
out that ―military efforts are necessary and important
to counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts, but they
are only effective when integrated into a comprehensive
strategy employing all instruments of national
power.‖
Abstract: At least 71 journalists were killed across the globe in 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced Tuesday, the largest annual toll in the 30 years the group has been keeping track.
Twenty-nine of those deaths came in a single, politically motivated massacre of reporters and others in the Philippines last November, the worst known episode for journalists, the committee said.
But there were other worrisome trends. The two nations with the highest number of journalists incarcerated — China had 24 journalists imprisoned at the end of 2009 and Iran had 23 — were particularly harsh in taking aim at bloggers and others using the Internet. The number jailed in Iran has since jumped to 47, the committee said. Of the 71 confirmed deaths, 51 were murders, the committee said. The report noted that 24 additional deaths of journalists remained under investigation to determine if they were related to the journalists’ work. Previously, the highest number of journalists killed in a single year was 67, in 2007, when violence in Iraq was raging.
Abstract: The 63rd United Nations (UN) General Assembly is poised to debate Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon’s report on the operationalisation of the Responsibility to Protect (referred to as ‘R2P’
for the remainder of this report). It is expected that his report will be released and debated in
early 2009. Therefore, this is a good time to examine the position that Member States have
adopted on the R2P since its endorsement at the 2005 World Summit and policy issues
relating to its implementation through the UN. This report will focus on the Member States of
the Association for South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) with the exception of Myanmar, which
is currently on the UN Security Council’s agenda. It concentrates on their position on the
R2P and their policy priorities in areas related to implementing the principle through the UN.
The report identifies steps that might encourage the region’s governments to become more
positively engaged with the R2P principle.
Abstract: In July 2009, the UN General Assembly held an Interactive Informal Dialogue and plenary session on the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). The dialogue provided the first opportunity for the UN membership as a whole to discuss implementation of the 2005 World Summit’s commitment to the RtoP and the UN Secretary-General’s report on the matter. Fifteen governments from the Asia-Pacific region, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan, China, Vietnam, Solomon Islands, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, DPRK, PNG and Malaysia, participated in the dialogue. This culminated in a resolution co-sponsored by, inter alia, Australia, Fiji, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea, Timor-Leste and New Zealand that noted the Secretary-General’s report, observed the fruitfulness of the interactive dialogue, and committed the Assembly to further consideration of the RtoP.
According to the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, one of the most significant aspects of the dialogue was the positive transformation of attitudes towards the RtoP within the Asia-Pacific region. Having previously been considered the region most opposed to the RtoP, the region now boasts near unanimity in its endorsement of the principle and the Secretary-General’s efforts towards its implementation (with the exception of North Korea).
Abstract: Governments in the Asia-Pacific are often referred to as skeptics or spoilers in conversations about deepening and harnessing global consensus on the „Responsibility to Protect‟ (R2P). This working paper argues that, on the contrary, there exists a broad constituency within the region for moving the principle from rhetoric to reality at the United Nations (UN). Based on contributions to Security Council debates on the protection of civilians in armed conflict (POC), regional states have been both receptive to and promoters of tangible measures to operationalise institutional mechanisms to prevent and halt mass atrocity crimes. Statements in the two most recent meetings are of particular significance given that they represent one of the last opportunities to gauge regional positions ahead of the forthcoming General Assembly debate on the R2P. In conclusion, I suggest that the Asia-Pacific region is much more receptive to the R2P principle than has hitherto been acknowledged. The first section of the working paper walks through the development of the R2P principle and the history of the UN Security Council's thematic interest in POC. The subsequent section unpacks and clarifies the relationship between the R2P and POC. The paper then proceeds to analyse the contributions of Asia-Pacific states to the two lattermost Council debates on POC, emphasising the significance of these statements for the institutional future of the R2P at the UN, as well as normative traction and increased ownership of the R2P in and by the region. Finally, the paper concludes by recommending the way ahead if Asia-Pacific states are to remain constructive partners in moving the principle towards praxis.
Abstract: It is an oft-cited maxim that in all the conflicts of the past century,
the United States has refought its last war. A number of analysts and
journalists have mentioned the war in Vietnam recently in connection with
Afghanistan. Perhaps fearful of taking this analogy too far, most have backed
away from it. They should not—the Vietnam War is less a metaphor for
the conflict in Afghanistan than it is a template. For eight years, the United
States has engaged in an almost exact political and military reenactment of
the Vietnam War, and the lack of self-awareness of the repetition of events
50 years ago is deeply disturbing.
The Obama Administration deliberately took ownership of the Afghanistan
war in its first days in office by sending more troops and ordering
multiple strategic reviews. In October, as this article is being written, the
Obama Administration is engaged in a very public strategic review following
both a grim assessment from the President’s hand picked theatre
commander, General Stanley McChrystal, and an embarrassing election
fiasco in Afghanistan. President Obama certainly knows, as Presidents
Johnson and Nixon did in similar circumstances, that the choice of alternatives
now is between bad and worse. There is general agreement today,
as indeed there was before the Diem Coup in 1963, that the war is going
badly. Attacks of all types in Afghanistan have increased each year since
2003 and are up dramatically in 2009, the deadliest year yet for American
forces. The Kabul government is so corrupt, dysfunctional, and incompetent
that even its election rigging is buffoonish. The U.S. troop commitment
has escalated steadily, a pattern familiar from the Vietnam War, and now
the President must contemplate a request for another 40,000 U.S. troops or,
in the words of General McChrystal’s classified assessment leaked to the Cam Rahn Bay, no Mekong Delta, and no coastline,
largely limiting the huge advantage of U.S. naval
power to SEALs and Seabees.
Abstract: Hillary Clinton’s visit to Indonesia on her first trip abroad as U.S. secretary of state signaled that the Obama administration intends to pay renewed attention to Southeast Asia, a region with over 550 million people, the world’s largest Muslim nation, an economy of over $1 trillion, and some of the world’s most strategic waterways. This is a welcome development due to the significance of U.S. interests in the region. U.S.–Southeast Asia trade amounts to over $200 billion annually, and U.S. cumulative investment in the region is valued at over $100 billion. Perhaps more importantly, Southeast Asia is a region likely to play a critical role in determining the future of Asia and whether the United States can sustain itself as an Asia-Pacific power.
Enhanced U.S. engagement with Southeast Asia will naturally involve greater attention to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other multilateral forums, but key U.S. interests in the region will continue to be pursued through bilateral partnerships. This will include not only U.S. treaty allies—Thailand and the Philippines—but also key emerging players, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. This report assesses the health and potential of these partnerships and offers recommendations to incoming policymakers as they consider the way forward in U.S. policy toward the region.
Abstract: La théorie de l’équilibre des puissances élaborée par Kenneth Waltz est utilisée de
façon récurrente dans l’analyse des causes des conflits. Ainsi, il est intéressant d’utiliser
cette théorie comme outil pour comparer deux guerres ayant beaucoup de points en
communs selon plusieurs politologues et historiens, soit la guerre du Vietnam et la guerre
en Irak.2 Nous croyons que la théorie de l’équilibre des puissances permet d’expliquer une
certaine partie de la guerre du Vietnam, soit la route ayant conduit les États-Unis à s’y
engager de façon formelle. Comme le démontrera cette analyse, la période allant de l’aprèsguerre
jusqu’à l’année 1954 est marquée d’une évolution progressive de l’engagement
américain au Vietnam, soutenue par logique d’équilibre des puissances. Cette logique était
exprimée par les dirigeants américains à travers la politique de l’endiguement, voulant que
les États-Unis apportent leurs soutiens à tous peuples libres victimes de pressions internes
ou externes. Ceci correspond évidemment à la situation vietnamienne. Ainsi, ce type d’« external balancing » permettait aux États-Unis de bâtir un réseau d’alliances contre le bloc
soviétique.
Par ailleurs, nous pensons que la théorie de l’équilibre des puissances ne permettait
pas de comprendre l’entièreté de l’intervention américaine au Vietnam. En effet, les
divergences dans la répartition des forces et des appuis vers la fin des années 1950 ne
devraient théoriquement plus permettre aux États-Unis de justifier leur intervention à
l’aide de l’équilibre des puissances. Qui plus est, notre travail nous a permis de souligner
un paradoxe mis en place par la théorie waltzienne de l’équilibre des puissances pour
justifier les interventions dans un conflit périphérique. Ce paradoxe donne une
justification pour l’intervention ainsi que pour la non-intervention. Cette ambiguïté de la
théorie la rend donc moins pertinente, car il est possible de l’adapter selon notre besoin.
Ces différentes limites nous amènent donc à affirmer que notre théorie offre une analyse
plus faible de la route vers l’engagement américain au Vietnam.
Abstract: A letter from Robert Froehlke, secretary of the Army in the early 1970s, arrived in my mailbox a few weeks after the release of my book on U.S. war crimes in Vietnam last year. Mr. Froehlke wrote that he had read the book and didn’t enjoy it. He assured me that I should not take this personally, as he could not imagine reading a book on the Vietnam War and enjoying it.
"But your facts are correct," he said, "and you can’t ask for more than that".
The facts in The War Behind Me were drawn from a declassified Army Staff archive of reports on U.S. atrocities, and from interviews with the Pentagon officials who compiled the records and combat veterans named in them. The picture that emerged contrasted sharply with the military’s official version of the facts. The Army then and since maintained that My Lai was an aberration and that, while other atrocities occurred, they were “isolated incidents” not indicative of a systemic problem.
Claims to the contrary were disparaged as enemy propaganda The existence of an alternate reality in the Army’s own files remained a closely held secret long after the war ended. Finally declassified around 1990, the files lingered in obscurity on the storeroom shelves of the National Archives and Records Administration for another decade, until a handful of scholars and journalists took notice. I learned about the collection in 2005 from Nick Turse, who had analyzed the documents for his dissertation at Columbia University. Over the next year and a half, we entered data from the files into spreadsheets, conducted scores of interviews, visited Vietnam and published a two-part series in the Los Angeles Times.
Our research found that Army investigators had secretly confirmed cases involving 300 or more incidents, including massacres, murders, torture, mutilation of corpses, indiscriminate fire in civilian areas, wanton destruction of property and cover-ups. Yet the public was not told of the findings.
Abstract: On February 8, 2007, long-simmering discontent among ethnic Khmer Buddhists in Vietnam
over government restrictions on religious freedom and inadequate Khmer-language
education led to a rare public protest. Riding on the back of motorcycles and streaming on
foot out of a Buddhist Pali School, more than 200 Buddhist monks took to the streets in Soc
Trang provincial town. Although the protest was conducted peacefully and lasted just a few
hours, the government responded harshly, arresting and dismissing at least 20 monks from
the monkhood, and imprisoning five.
The government’s response to the protest provides a window into the severe and often
shrouded methods used by the Vietnamese authorities to stifle dissent, particularly ethnicbased
grievances and demands for religious freedom.
This report details ongoing violations of the rights of the ethnic Khmer minority in southern
Vietnam⎯commonly referred to as Khmer Krom⎯and the ramifications for ethnic Khmer
living across the border in Cambodia and Khmer Krom seeking asylum there.
Tk Vietnam monk placement option 1Drawing on eyewitness interviews in both countries and
internal Vietnamese government documents, our research shows that Khmer Krom in the
Mekong Delta face serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, association,
information, and movement. The Vietnamese government prohibits most peaceful protests,
bans the formation of independent associations advocating for human rights, and tightly
controls all religious organizations. Wary about the possible nationalist aspirations of the
Khmer Krom, the Vietnamese government is quick to suppress peaceful expressions of dissent. Adding to tensions in the Mekong Delta, increasing numbers of Khmer Krom farmers
are protesting and petitioning the government about the loss of their farmland.
Abstract: In her reflections on violence, Hannah Arendt (1970:56) famously remarked that “violence can
destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it.” This is a powerful insight which clashes, however,
with an equally powerful idea, namely that violence and repression “work.” In this paper, we use
uniquely detailed data from Vietnam to try to adjudicate between these contradictory insights. More
specifically, we focus on the phenomenon of “indiscriminate” violence against civilians in civil wars.
Indiscriminate violence, understood as the practice of targeting civilians on the basis of a
collective attribute (Kalyvas 2006), is a common feature of many conflicts, especially insurgencies. For
instance, collective punishment was a staple of counterinsurgency policy during the Second World War as
the Nazis faced resistance movements in occupied countries. Serb forces used indiscriminate violence
against Kosovar Albanians in 1999, while the Sudanese government’s counterinsurgent campaign in
Darfur depends mainly upon large-scale attacks on unarmed civilians. In the Vietnam War, the United
States and its allies deployed massive firepower in “free fire zones” where every individual was presumed
to be an enemy. Even today, coalition forces have ramped up aerial bombardments as part of the “surge”
strategy in Iraq, and the United States military continues to stress the vital role of aerial operations as a component of counterinsurgency doctrine (Cordesman 2008; United States Department of the Army
2006: E1). Indiscriminate violence is repugnant to observers and victims alike, but its very existence is
testament to the belief that it can be an effective tool of counterinsurgency.
Abstract: Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, there has been a gradual warming
of bilateral relations between the United States and Vietnam, culminating in the
appointment of the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam in 1996 and granting Vietnam
permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) in 2007. Over the last three decades, many
— but not all — of the major issues causing tension between the two nations have
been resolved.
One major legacy of the Vietnam War that remains unresolved is the damage
that Agent Orange, and its accompanying dioxin, have done to the people and the
environment of Vietnam. For the last 30 years, this issue has generally been pushed
to the background of bilateral discussions by other issues considered more important
by the United States and/or Vietnam. With most of those issues presently resolved,
the issue of Agent Orange/dioxin has emerged as a regular topic in bilateral
discussions.
According to various estimates, the U.S. military sprayed approximately 11-12
million gallons of Agent Orange over nearly 10% of Vietnamese territory between
1961 and 1971. One scientific study estimated that between 2.1 million and 4.8
million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange; Vietnamese advocacy
groups claims that there are over one million Vietnamese suffering from serious
health problems caused by exposure to the dioxin in Agent Orange.
In the last few years, the people of Vietnam have become increasingly
concerned about the issue of Agent Orange. This is placing more pressure on the
Vietnamese government to remove the dioxin from the environment and provide
better care to the people exposed to Agent Orange. The Vietnamese government has
long sought U.S. assistance. Although the United States has provided scientific and
technical support, it has repeatedly denied any legal liability to provide assistance and
has questioned Vietnam’s assertions about the extent of the environmental and health
problems attributed to Agent Orange and dioxin. As a result, there is a growing
possibility of friction between the two governments over the issue of Agent Orange.
Recently, the United States has shown a greater willingness to cooperate on
some aspects of the issue, including the appropriation of $3 million for dioxin
removal and health care facilities in Da Nang. However, there is a sense that the
Vietnamese government and people would like to see the United States do more to
remove dioxin from their country and provide help for victims of Agent Orange.
This report examines various estimates of the effects of Agent Orange on
Vietnam’s people and environment, the history of U.S. policy on the issue, the
current clean up efforts in Vietnam, the various forms of assistance — including U.S.
assistance — provided to people with medical conditions associated with dioxin
exposure, and the implications for bilateral relations. It concludes with a brief
discussion of possible congressional responses to the issue. This report will be
updated as conditions warrant.
Abstract: This is a first-cut look at the determinants of violence and control in civil wars using a unique
dataset developed during and about the Vietnam War: the Hamlet Evaluation System (HES). We
focus here on two dependent variables that are essential to understanding civil war dynamics:
violence and control. We proceed as follows: we provide some background on the Vietnam War
and the HES; we then conduct an analysis of a randomly chosen temporal cross-section (January
1972). Last, we examine a geographical cross-section (the province of Dinh Tuong) over a
wide temporal range (1969-1973). We selected this particular province because it is the object of
a recent yet very extensive regional study using both American and Vietnamese sources (Elliott
2003).
Abstract: This report has been developed to share the
achievements, experiences, best practices, and
lessons learned from The Asia Foundation’s sixyear
program to prevent and combat human
trafficking in Vietnam. The report features an
overview culled from The Foundation’s experience
in implementing program interventions in
collaboration with an expanding network of local
and international partners that share our
commitment to bettering the lives of trafficking
victims and protecting those at-risk of being
trafficked.
The Foundation implemented a comprehensive
program with components designed to be
complementary and mutually reinforcing. Those
components include: economic empowerment
initiatives that target poor women and provide
access to credit and vocational training; creating
awareness of trafficking risks by implementing artbased
communication campaigns on safe
migration in schools and communities; enhancing
access to justice by offering legal aid support to
victims who are reintegrating into Vietnamese
communities; supporting victim reintegration by
developing innovative new community support
group models; and facilitating cross-border
cooperation to stop trafficking.
The report is divided into three main sections: I)
Program Introduction, II) Analysis of the Eight
Program Components, and III) Conclusions.
Through descriptive analysis, case studies of
individuals, program highlights, and detailed
lessons learned, the report describes the
contributions of the program and the challenges
encountered in addressing the multiple facets of
the serious and complex human trafficking
problem in Vietnam.
Abstract: Humanitarian mine action refers to activities undertaken to reduce the effect caused by land-mines and other explosive remnants of war in terms of social, economic and environmental impact of mines. The objective is the reduction of risk to a level where people can live safely and where economic, social, and health development can occur without hindrance from land-mines. This report documents how Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) are working in humanitarian mine action. Case studies are presented include Bosnia Herzegovina, Cambodia and Croatia, Ethiopia and Iraq and Malawi.
The document recommends that the mine action community needs to develop, implement and standardise new globally accepted methods and approaches to de-mining. Full mine and battle area clearance is costly and time consuming; hence such activities should be a last option, only to be used when the presence of land-mines and/or explosive remnants of war has been confirmed by technical survey. The immediate objective of mine action programmes should be to release land suspected to be hazardous as cost efficiently as possible and with a quality that meets the requirements of international and national mine action standards. NPA believes that land can be released through three different actions:
* cancellation: the process in which an area is released based on information gathered and analysis only
* reduction: the process in which one or more mine clear- ance tools have been used to gather information about the presence/absence of mines
* clearance: "full clearance" according to International and National Standards for Mine Action.
Abstract: This paper quantifies the impact of terrorism and conflicts on income per capita growth in Asia for 1970–2004. Our panel estimations show that transnational terrorist attacks had a significant growth-limiting effect. Transnational terrorism reduces growth by crowding in government expenditures. An internal conflict has the greatest growth concern, about twice that of transnational terrorism. For developing Asian countries, intrastate and interstate wars have a much greater impact than terrorism does on the crowding-in of government spending.
Policy recommendations indicate the need for rich Asian countries to assist their poorer neighbors in coping with the negative growth consequences of political violence. Failure to assist may result in region-wide repercussions. Conflict and terrorism in one country can create production bottlenecks with region-wide economic consequences. International and nongovernmental organizations as well as developed Western countries and regions could assist at-risk Asian countries with attack prevention and post-attack recovery.
This study has six purposes. First, and foremost, we present panel estimates for a sample of 42 Asian countries to quantify the impact of terrorism and conflicts on income per capita growth for 1970–2004. Panel estimation methods control for country-specific and timespecific unobserved heterogeneity. Second, we distinguish the influence of terrorism on economic growth from that of internal and external conflicts. Third, these influences are investigated for cohorts of developed and developing countries to ascertain whether development can better allow a country to absorb the impact of political violence. Fourth, econometric estimations relate violence-induced growth reductions to two pathways— reduced investment and increased government expenditures. Fifth, a host of diagnostic and sensitivity tests to support our empirical specifications. Last, we draw some policy conclusions.
Abstract: We investigate the impact of U.S. bombing on later economic development in Vietnam. The Vietnam War featured the most intense bombing campaign in military history and had massive humanitarian costs. We use a unique U.S. military dataset containing bombing intensity at the district level (N=584). We compare the heavily bombed districts to other districts controlling for baseline demographic characteristics and district geographic factors, and use an instrumental variable approach exploiting distance to the 17th parallel demilitarized zone. U.S. bombing does not have a robust negative impact on poverty rates, consumption levels, infrastructure, literacy or population density through 2002. This finding suggests that local recovery from war damage can be rapid under certain conditions, although further work is needed to establish the generality of the finding in other settings.
Abstract: This paper examines the role of external support to a foreign nation’s counterinsurgency operations, with a focus on American security assistance during the Cold War. It develops an argument that the key elements of such a support effort are the supported counterinsurgency strategy and the possession of sufficient leverage over the host nation to bring about the implementation of that strategy. The paper has four sections. The first provides a survey of the literature on foreign assistance to counterinsurgency, noting its lack of treatment in most theoretical COIN literature. The second section introduces the paper’s main argument, examining both counterinsurgency strategy and issues of leverage in inter-alliance bargaining. The following section provides two heuristic case studies that illustrate the paper’s argument. The final section provides an assessment of the case studies and a conclusion.
