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Abstract: The big-picture issues at the crossroads of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding were taken up by the Security Council in September 2010, under the presidency of Turkey. Leading up to that discussion, Turkey held numerous bilateral consultations, and, with the support of IPI, organized an expert meeting on these issues in New York in May 2010 and an informal retreat in Istanbul for members of the Council in June 2010.
This publication is intended to document some of that process, and includes the Statement by the President of the Security Council, the outcome summary of the June retreat, and the set of papers that were presented there. Three of these papers draw lessons from the UN’s experiences in different areas of the world (Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Great Lakes region of Africa), and one paper analyzes cross-cutting themes.
Table of Contents:
Introduction, Francesco Mancini
Meeting Note
Security Council Istanbul Retreat: At The Crossroads of Peacemaking, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding
Adam C. Smith and Vanessa Wyeth, Rapporteurs
Discussion Papers
Peacemaking In Afghanistan: A Role For The United Nations?
Gerard Russell
The Security Council And Peacekeeping In The Balkans, 1992-2010
Richard Gowan and Daniel Korski
The Great Lakes of Africa (Burundi, The Drc, And The LRA-Affected Areas)
François Grignon
Composite Paper on Cross-Cutting Themes
International Peace Institute
Annex
Statement by the President of the Security Council
Abstract: Crisis Watch summarises briefly developments during the previous month in some 70 situations of current or potential conflict, listed alphabetically by region, providing references and links to more detailed information sources (all references mentioned are hyperlinked in the electronic version of this bulletin); assesses whether the overall situation in each case has, during the previous month, significantly deteriorated, significantly improved, or on balance remained more or less unchanged; alerts readers to situations where, in the coming month, there is a particular risk of new or significantly escalated conflict, or a particular conflict resolution opportunity (noting that in some instances there may in fact be both); and summarises Crisis Group’s reports and briefing papers that have been published in the last month.
Amid mounting tensions between North and South Sudan over the disputed border area of Abyei, clashes broke out between the two sides at the beginning of the month. Northern Sudanese forces invaded Abyei on 20 May and asserted control in breach of existing peace agreements. Tens of thousands are reported to have fled south. The attacks threaten renewed conflict and weaken confidence between North and South as critical post-referendum arrangements remain unresolved.
Tensions also increased over military control and the presence of armed forces in the transitional areas of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, and CrisisWatch identifies a conflict risk alert for North Sudan for the coming month.
Violence escalated further in Yemen, where military forces loyal to President Saleh battled on several fronts, renewing fears that the continued political stalemate could erupt into civil war.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria continued to use troops and tanks to violently suppress the ongoing revolt, with hundreds of protesters feared killed, thousands detained, and widespread reports of torture.
In Pakistan, the U.S. killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad at the beginning of the month again raised questions about the military's possible involvement with jihadist groups.
Local elections in Albania on 8 May proved even more troubled than anticipated as the race for the Tirana mayor's seat ended deep within the margin of error.
In Guatemala, the Mexican Los Zetas cartel killed and decapitated 27 farm workers in the northern Petén department.
In Serbia, war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader accused of commanding the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was arrested after 16 years on the run. He was extradited to The Hague, where he will stand trial for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Abstract: The Portfolio of Mine Action Projects is a resource tool and reference document for donors, policy-makers, advocates, and national and international mine action implementers. The country and territory-specific proposals in the portfolio reflect strategic responses developed in the field to address all aspects of the problem of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). This country and territory-based approach aims to present as comprehensive a picture as possible of the full range of mine action needs in particular countries and thematic issues related to mine action. The portfolio ideally reflects projects developed by mine- and ERW-affected countries and territories based on their priorities and strategies; the approaches are endorsed by national authorities. The portfolio does not automatically entail full-scale direct mine action assistance by the United Nations, but is in essence a tool for collaborative resource mobilization, coordination and planning of mine action activities involving partners and stakeholders. A country portfolio coordinator (CPC) leads each country portfolio team and coordinates the submission of proposals to the portfolio’s headquarters team. While the majority of the CPCs are UN officials, this role is increasingly being assumed by national authorities. The country portfolio teams include representatives from national and local authorities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations and the private sector. Locally based donor representatives are invited to attend preparation meetings. Each portfolio chapter contains a synopsis of the scope of the landmine and ERW problem, a description of how mine action is coordinated, and a snapshot of local mine action strategies. Many of the strategies complement or are integrated into broader development and humanitarian frameworks such as national development plans, the UN development assistance frameworks and national poverty reduction plans. This 14th edition of the annual Portfolio of Mine Action Projects features overviews and project outlines for 29 countries, territories or missions affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war. There are 238 projects in the 2011 portfolio. Africa accounts for the largest number: 92.
Abstract: Historic events in the Arab world gripped the world’s attention in January. In Tunisia weeks of escalating riots and demonstrations over dire economic conditions, corruption and government repression culminated in the ouster of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January. He was replaced by an interim government which announced the country’s first free elections since independence.
The direction of Tunisia’s transition, and its significance for the region, are not yet clear. But, assuming a successful transition, this could mark the first genuine popular revolt leading to a democratic government in the Arab world.
Inspired by the Tunisian uprising yet fuelled by their own long-standing grievances, hundreds of thousands took to the streets across Egypt towards the end of the month, protesting against authoritarian rule and poor living standards, and calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down. Over 135 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured during the initial police response. The army was deployed at the end of the month to curb increasing chaos and looting, but vowed not to use force against the protesters. Events in Tunisia and Egypt have fuelled anti-regime protests elsewhere, including in Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and Sudan.
In the South of Sudan, preliminary results of the landmark self-determination referendum indicate 99 per cent of voters in favour of secession. The peaceful conduct of the vote drew praise from international observers and President Omar al-Bashir pledged to support an independent South.
Elsewhere in Sudan the situation deteriorated, however, as clashes between the government and Darfur rebel groups intensified. A deadly attack at Moscow’s main airport killing at least 35 people was blamed on a suicide bomber from the Caucasus. In Albania, three people were shot dead and over a hundred injured during clashes between police and opposition supporters during anti-government protests.
CrisisWatch again identifies a conflict risk alert for Côte d’Ivoire as former president Laurent Gbagbo refused for a second month to hand over power to the elected president Alassane Ouattara.
Abstract: The West Balkan region consists of Albania and the former states of Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/ FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo). Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995 and the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, the countries of the Western Balkans have faced a new challenge of promoting human security. Human security was first defined by former Special Advisor to the United Nations Development Program Administrator, Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, as encompassing seven basic needs: economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. Under the rubric of human security, this paper assesses the challenges of displacement, discrimination, poverty, health standards, and environmental protection.
The effects of the wars of the 1990s still linger in the Western Balkans, especially in the areas of statelessness, displaced persons, and returnees.
Abstract: Human security is emerging as a sophisticated and compelling strategy to address the extreme problems of children in contemporary wars. The child soldier is increasingly seen as an icon of ‘new’ wars – transformed from a young person into a weapon. Whether as members of local militias or as suicide bombers, child soldiers are children growing up among failed adults in failed communities. Some not only fail to learn to read or write, they also fail to learn the humanity they need to be successful neighbors and parents.
Turning children into weapons is an act of generational destruction. Failed adults are more likely to make failed neighbors and failed parents. The cycle can continue for generations. Thus the real costs of war cannot be tallied for years, for decades, for generations….
Child soldiers reveal the genocidal aspects of contemporary wars. Child soldiers are, explicitly or tacitly, direct attacks on the generational transitions of communities. The cruelty of new wars reveals major gaps in educational policy frameworks currently in use by the international community. Education policy today focuses thinking about education as a civil rights problem. This leads to concerns for access to the ‘provision’ of institutional services. Developed during the post World War II period, education was constructed as a neutral, technical process complete with generic experts who taught and generic students who learned. Their classrooms were ordered around literacy and numeracy. Their ends were national economic growth. Little attention was paid to security issues and their consequences, either shorter or longer term.
This approach to development, while admirable, is insufficiently compelling to drive today’s strategic operations in the brutal, even genocidal face of ‘cultural identity’ wars and their aftermath. Under these conditions, when civil societies are threatened to their generational core, traditional classrooms and curriculum are no longer sufficient. The problem is no longer one of civil rights. It has become a much larger problem of generational survival.
This paper suggests that the emerging human security frameworks, while still mired globally in failing narratives, may offer the best direction for future work. Emerging human security narratives focus on the protection of local populations, especially children. They require defense against the forced recruitment of child soldiers. These new narratives center on the protection of generational agency. They mobilize local and external communities to actively secure safe places for children to grow and develop as normally as possible.
How then should scholars and strategists examine the practical questions of deterrence? What appears to be working on the ground in new wars? Against the allure of muscular and violent warriors stands a small group of internationals working side by side with caring local parents and neighbors desperate to defend their children. Together they have constructed an emerging strategy of local community protection that places at its center, the protection of children’s agency in the face of those who seek its annihilation. This paper examines the problems of research and data collection under these conditions, turning to ‘fugitive literature’ and strategic desk reviews. It briefly surveys general, large-scale responses to recruitment deterrence in Bosnia, Albania, Ingushetia, Sierra Leone, Colombia and Panama. It concludes that while causal claims may not be advisable, scholars can at least begin to map the strategic intent of the institutions involved. Beyond that, more work is needed to map the political and cultural economies that either threaten or defend children.
Abstract: November 2005 marked the 10th anniversary when in Dayton, Ohio, the
conflict parties from Bosnia and Herzegovina agreed on a peace accord,
stopping a war that had caused 250.000 deaths and two million refugees.
After the UN-brokered ceasefires and peace agreements in the conflict in
Croatia, the Dayton Framework Agreement was the first in a long line of
peace plans with which the International Community attempted to
transform the chaotic and antagonistic region of the Western Balkans
towards a more peaceful and co-operative area in the late 1990s and
early 2000s.
Comparable to the Dayton/Paris accords, which seek to preserve the
unity of Bosnia and Herzegovina by creating two entities, the Bosniak-
Croat Federation and the Serb Republika Srpska, stands the UN master
plan for Kosovo that was defined by a military-technical agreement and
the ensuing the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in June 1999.
Unlike Bosnia and Herzegovina, where none of the conflict parties had
lost or won the war in a military sense, the Kosovo Albanians – with the
support of the NATO air strikes – had clearly won the war against the
Serbs. This fact has had deep implications on the Kosovo peace process
and on today’s relationship between the Albanian majority and the Serb
minority.
In Southern Serbia and in Macedonia (FYROM), the International
Community could prevent the fighting from spreading into a full-fledged
civil war in 2001, between Serbs, Macedonians and Albanians through
the Ohrid Agreement.
Also in the case of Serbia and Montenegro the process of nationbuilding
still influences political stability and interethnic relations. The
Belgrade Agreement that was reached under the mediation of the
European Union in March 2002 was not able to stop the disintegration of the state union. In May 2006 the majority of the Montenegrin electorate
in a referendum voted for Montenegro’s independence of Serbia.
The year 2006 finds the Western Balkan countries at a crossroad; some
have taken the road toward Euro-Atlantic institutions; others seem to
keep on being involved in ethnic and political conflicts. To prevent such
a scenario of a divided and fragmented Western Balkan region it is
important to discuss the issue, whether the peace plans, which represent
the basis for the stabilisation process, are up-to-date, and which are the
lessons to be learned from them.
This study includes the results of a workshop held by the working group
Regional Stability in Southeast Europe of the PfP Consortium of
Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes in Reichenau,
Austria in May 2006. The case studies presented in this study
concentrate especially on the following questions:
• What are the main reasons for the varying success in implementing
the peace plans (internal and external factors)?
• How strong are the peace plans interlinked?
• Do the peace plans contribute to regional stability?
• Is it necessary to rework or re-launch the peace plans?
• What should these changes look like?
The second part of this study deals with the role of important
international factors in helping to implement the peace plans. In this
regard especially, the changing role of the OSCE, the EU and the US in
the process of peace-building is reflected.
Abstract: The South of Serbia, or Preševo Valley, as Albanians call this part of
Serbia, consists of the Serbian municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac, and
Medvedja, all of which border on Kosovo. This area is important for
Serbia because major railroads and highways run through it, connecting
the Southern and central parts of Serbia with Kosovo. The transportation
arteries in this area also connect Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece. Thus, it
is through this area that Central Europe is linked with the Mediterranean.
Around 70,000 Albanians live in the area. Many Albanians consider the Preševo Valley to be “Eastern Kosovo.”
Albanians from these municipalities declared themselves, in the
referendum of 1992, in favour of “peaceful annexation” to their
compatriots in Kosovo.
This view has been presented in a document of the Albanian Academy
of Sciences and Arts from Tirana, according to which Daradnije, that is
Eastern Kosovo, should be united into an independent State together
with Kosovo. According to this view, this is a part of a comprehensive
resolution of the Albanian question, also including the special status for
Albanians in Montenegro (the area of Malesija with the municipalities of
Rožaje, Plav, Gusinje, and Ulcinj plus Tuzi, which should be taken out
of Podgorica and established as a separate municipality) and the status of
constitutional people for Albanians in Macedonia—the Albanian Ilirida
(Arvanitis, 2002:59).
The issues that drove Preševo Valley to a crisis situation include local
Albanians’ needs for improved human rights and the Republic of
Serbia’s need to protect and control a sensitive border. This conflict
clearly has a multiethnic dimension: Albanians, who are a minority in
Serbia overall but a majority in the Preševo Valley are at odds with a
Serbian population that is a minority locally but a majority in the country
– and is backed by Governmental authority. The Preševo Valley crisis is
made especially acute by its close ties to the situations in Kosovo and
Macedonia.
Abstract: The origins of this article, and the book from which it derives, lie in
the largely unanticipated end of the Cold War in 1989-90, when I had
the good fortune to be a William C. Foster Fellow at the U.S. Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). This fellowship included
serving as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Negotiations on
Confidence- and Security-Building Measures (CSBMs) within the
context of the (then) Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
(CSCE), based in Vienna, Austria. The CSCE, now the OSCE, is the
world’s pre-eminent regional peace and security organization
comprising former enemies of the Cold War (NATO and Warsaw Pact)
and the neutral and nonaligned of Europe.
The end of the Cold War provided opportunities and challenges for
reshaping international peace and security into a “New World Order” in
which the former Cold War foes could collaborate on global problemsolving
to the benefit of all. Having become aware of the CSCE’s
contribution to ending the Cold War (see Leatherman, 2003) as part of
the experience of serving as a diplomat on the U.S. Delegation to the
CSBMs Negotiations, I was intrigued by the possibility that the CSCE
could play a useful role in realizing this goal of a “New World Order.”
Regrettably, the end of the Cold War also provided opportunities for
parts of Europe, particularly the Balkans, to descend into brutal
genocidal warfare.
Abstract: More than any other region, over the past fifteen years Southeast Europe
has both reflected and impacted the broader state of transatlantic, and in
particular United States-European Union, relations. During this period,
the level of U.S. focus and engagement in region has waxed and waned.
Strong American focus and leadership have alternated with
disengagement and deference to EU initiatives according to a four- to
five-year cycle. Without fully reversing the current decade’s dynamic of
“Europeanization”, the past year has seen a resurgence of U.S. activism.
The extent and duration of this latest pendulum swing will depend on
developments both inside and outside the region.
Abstract: As the recent commemoration of Srebrenica has put in stark contrast,
over the past decade the EU has evidently come a long way in defining,
implementing and upholding its strategic vision for the Balkans.
Handling the independence of Croatia and Slovenia was not the heyday
of European policy coordination with the naiveté of the Dutch
government eager to take the credit for solving the post-Yugoslav crisis
in its presidency and the Franco-German wariness. In the early days of
Eastern enlargement Paris had insisted on multilateral regionalism as a
model for stabilisation, whereas Bonn favoured bilateral conditionality.
Conversely, in the Balkans France banked on individual solutions,
whereas Germany opted for regional holistic strategies. Additionally,
European coherence was hampered by the standoff between those
rejecting post-Yugoslav federal constructions and those offering national
self-determination. Between 1995 and 1999 Europe has mastered a steep
learning curve – from the ethnocentric and dysfunctional Dayton model
to the more realistic and workable Ohrid model, from the adhockery of
the Bosnian conflict to the concerted conflict-management in Kosovo
and Macedonia five years later. In 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the Kosovo War, the
International Community laid out its strategic principles and objectives
for the Western Balkans region, five in total (not necessarily in this
order): • regionalism, multilateral relations and the instigation of regional
cooperation;
• conditionality as the bilateral basis for status vis-à-vis the EU and
access to preferential treatment;
• separation of the agendas of integration, transformation and
stabilisation;
• the European perspective; and
• standards before status.
The European principle of regionalism was enshrined in the June 1999
Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. After drawing some heavy fire
in 2001-2002, the Stability Pact has now scaled down its ambitions,
prioritised its objectives and found its niche in the international
framework for Kosovo and the Balkans. The principle of regionalism,
however, by and large lost out to conditionality.
Abstract: Armed violence data gathering systems in SEE countries vary in quality and coverage of the population. No single
country embodies best practices by itself. In existing research, because of the lack of continuous monitoring,
data has sometimes been generated by research that attempts to recover information on armed violence
retrospectively. Different methods for doing this offer differing degrees of reliability; analysis of media reports
and perceptions surveys offer an important substitute for continuously gathered data, but are unreliable for a
number of reasons. Other studies have been obliged to recover data from past records, which were not designed
for storing data specifically on armed violence. In other cases, individual institutions have conducted their own
data gathering, and have supplied useful fragments of a comprehensive picture of the problem. The conclusion of this report offers a starting point for those SEE countries that wish to develop a system through
healthcare providers to monitor armed violence. Following the approach of the WHO to injury prevention, it would
be possible to build a system in each country that would adequately monitor the level of armed violence and
identify the social determinants of the problem. If regional countries wish to harmonise their data collection
systems, a collaborative consultation involving all stakeholders (particularly those operating the system, and
those wishing to use the resulting information) would be an appropriate next step.
Abstract: This bulletin contains information about Amnesty International’s main concerns in Europe and
Central Asia between July and December 2007. Not every country in the region is reported on; only
those where there were significant developments in the period covered by the bulletin, or where
Amnesty International (AI) took specific action.
A number of individual country reports have been issued on the concerns featured in this bulletin.
References to these are made under the relevant country entry. In addition, more detailed
information about particular incidents or concerns may be found in Urgent Actions and News
Service Items issued by AI.
This bulletin is published by AI every six months.
Abstract: U.S. policymakers have made securing and maintaining foreign contributions
to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq a major priority since the preparation
period for the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. This report
highlights and discusses important changes in financial and personnel contributions
from foreign governments to Iraq since 2003.
To date, foreign donors have pledged an estimated $16.4 billion in grants and
loans for Iraq reconstruction, with most major pledges originating at a major donors'
conference in Madrid, Spain, in October 2003. However, only a small part of the
pledges have been committed or disbursed to the World Bank and United Nations
Development Group Trust Funds for Iraq. The largest non-U.S. pledges of grants
have come from Japan, the European Commission, the United Kingdom, Canada,
South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. The World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, Japan, and Saudi Arabia have pledged the most loans and export
credits.
Currently, 33 countries including the United States have some level of troops
on the ground in Iraq or supporting Iraq operations from nearby locations. Those
forces are working under the rubric of one of several organizations — the
Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), the NATO Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I); or
the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). Currently, the largest
troop contributors, in addition to the United States, are the United Kingdom, Georgia,
Australia, South Korea, and Poland. Some of these key contributors have announced
their intention to reduce or withdraw their forces from Iraq during 2008. The total
number of non-U.S. coalition troop contributions has declined since the early
stabilization efforts, as other countries have withdrawn their contingents or
substantially reduced their size.
Abstract: Selon de nombreux observateurs, le pan-albanisme représente une menace sérieuse pour la stabilité des Balkans. Cent ans de frontières fluctuantes ont largement contribué à la dispersion des Albanais de souche à travers les Balkans: Kosovo, Serbie, Monténégro, Macédoine et Grèce. L'Armée de Libération du Kosovo (ALK), l'Armée Nationale de Libération (ANL) en Macédoine et d'autres groupes ont tous eu recours à la violence pour mieux faire valoir les droits des communautés albanaises. Mais jusqu'où vont leurs ambitions?
Les recherches d'ICG suggèrent que la notion de pan-albanisme est beaucoup plus nuancée et complexe que ne le laissent transparaître les portraits approximatifs dépeignant habituellement les Albanais comme étant simplement focalisés sur la création d'une Grande Albanie ou d'un Grand Kosovo. Il est instructif de s'apercevoir que le soutien populaire dont ont commencé à bénéficier l'ALK et l'ANL, respectivement au Kosovo et en Macédoine, est concomitant à l'abandon de leurs visées initiales nationalistes pan-albanaises au profit d'une revendication pour que leur propre peuple dispose de plus de droits. En appelant ouvertement à la création d'une "Grande Albanie", l'Armée Nationale Albanaise (ANA) n'a jamais réussi à s'octroyer une véritable crédibilité populaire. L'usage de la violence pour servir la cause d'une Grande Albanie ou celle de n'importe quelle expansion territoriale n'est pas plus politiquement populaire que moralement justifié.
Abstract: A report issued today [29 May 2008] by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) concludes that the Balkans have become a low-crime region after the turmoil of conflict and violence that resulted from the process of post-communist transition and the break-up of Yugoslavia. "The vicious circle of political instability leading to crime, and vice versa, that plagued the Balkans in the 1990s has been broken", said the Executive Director of UNODC Antonio Maria Costa. Yet, he warned, "the region remains vulnerable to instability caused by enduring links between business, politics and organized crime".
Abstract: Historically Albanians have practised a traditional, tolerant form of Sunni and Bektashi Islam. Now a third more radical interpretation of Islam is gradually being introduced by young Albanians who have studied abroad in Islamic countries. This has the potential to undermine the current delicate balance of inter-faith and inter-religious co-existence in Albania’s multi-faith society. Albania's strong tradition of religious tolerance is widely recognised. However, it should be remembered that historically this was not always the case, when foreign influences endeavoured to intensify regional and sectarian differences. Today, Albania is still vulnerable from such influences. Given the known radical Islamic activity in some of Albania's near neighbours, there should be closer monitoring of religious activity in Albania's more remote border communities.
Abstract: The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) is one of the world’s leading institutions in the areas of security sector reform (SSR) and security sector governance (SSG). DCAF provides in-country advisory support and practical assistance programmes, develops and promotes appropriate democratic norms at the international and national levels, advocates good practices and makes policy recommendations to ensure effective democratic governance of the security sector. DCAF's partners include governments, parliaments, civil society, international organisations and the range of security sector actors such as police, judiciary, intelligence agencies, border security services and the military.
Abstract: The countries of the Western Balkans face high levels of violence, crime and human insecurity as a legacy
of recent conflicts, political turbulence and economic crises. The war in the former Yugoslavia increased
the proliferation and easy availability of small arms and light weapons, both legally and illegally possessed, contributing to a rise in violent behaviour not only in the public space, but also within the family. Other factors linked to the post-conflict situation and transition have also contributed to an increase in domestic violence, including economic and personal insecurity, unemployment, crime and intolerance.
Abstract: The right to adequate housing is a right guaranteed in international law; a place to call home is also one of the most urgent physical and emotional human needs, particularly for those who have been deprived of the stability, warmth and practical support of family life generally associated with a home. Orphans in Albania are one such group; in many cases, as they reach adulthood and face a future without secure housing or employment, their particular vulnerability is put to severe test.
Abstract: As NATO has moved from being a primarily military alliance to seeking more political roles, it has become pertinent to consider its impact on democratisation. At first glance, it might seem incongruent even to deliberate on the democracy promotion relevance of an essentially military organisation. But, NATO's successive enlargements have often hinged on the
fulfilment of democratic preconditions in aspirant members, while technical assistance provided under the Partnership for Peace (PfP) and other programmes has increasingly focused on the reform of civil-military relations. Assessment is consequently warranted of whether NATO has come to play any positive role in
encouraging democratisation across different regions, or whether its impact on political liberalisation has been either marginal or even negative. This paper argues that support for democracy has increasingly infused NATO policies, but that the organisation's role in democracy promotion is circumscribed by strategic considerations; most often an indirect side effect of
other aims; and most relevant to the niche area of defence reform.
Abstract: In March 2003, a U.S.-led multinational force began operations in Iraq. At that time, 48 nations, identified as a "coalition of the willing," offered political, military, and financial support for U.S. efforts in Iraq, with 38 nations other than the United States providing troops. In addition, international donors met in Madrid in October 2003 to pledge funding for the reconstru#ction of Iraq's infrastructure, which had deteriorated after multiple wars and decades of neglect under the previous regime.
This testimony discusses (1) the troop commitments other countries have made to operations in Iraq, (2) the funding the United States has provided to support other countries' participation in the multinational force, and (3) the financial support international donors have provided to Iraq reconstruction efforts.
Abstract: The South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC) was launched on 08 May 2002 in Belgrade. SEESAC is a component of the Regional Implementation Plan on Combating the Proliferations of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) formulated and adopted by the Stability Pact in November 2001(Revised in 2006), with the aims of stopping the flow and availability of SALW in the region, consolidating achievements so far and supporting the socio-economic conditions for peace and development in South Eastern and Eastern Europe. The uncontrolled proliferation and illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW) is a serious problem in South Eastern and Eastern Europe. SALW proliferation has fuelled crime and insecurity, exacerbating conflict in the region and undermining post conflict peace-building. Problems related to SALW are likely to pose a serious constraint to economic and social development in South Eastern and Eastern Europe. Established in co-operation with the UNDP and housed in their offices in Belgrade, SEESAC worked to support the Stability Pact Regional Implementation Plan for an initial period of three years; the impact of the project has led to a further four-year extension until December 2008. Political and strategic guidance and indigenous support for SEESAC is provided by a Regional Steering Group (RSG), which is composed of representatives of the governments of the states concerned, the Stability Pact, UNDP and observers from institutions such as the European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and civil society. The RSG meets twice yearly and has approved the 2006 SEESAC Strategy and a revision of the SEESAC mandate. SEESAC capability is now available to all stakeholders within the CIS and Caucasus region. SEESAC is now also available to provide technical advice and project development assistance for the disposal of heavy weapons (within available resources). SEESAC operates under the guidance of The Regional Steering Group for Small Arms and Light Weapons and the UN Resident Co-ordinator in Belgrade. SEESAC liaises directly with governments and civil society, providing technical input, information exchange, co-ordination and overview of current and future efforts and fund-raising assistance for specific SALW projects. SEESAC's small team is in constant communication with all the governments involved and with the relevant international organisations, non-governmental organisations and bi-lateral donors. SEESAC's regional activities include sensitising governments and civil society on small arms issues, formulating national strategies for SALW control and incorporating small arms issues into UNDP development planning.
Abstract: Albania's Democratic Party-led coalition and the opposition Socialists have reached a deal, opening the way to holding local elections and ending a standoff that had attracted growing concern in Europe. Under the agreement reached on January 12 between Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Socialist leader and Mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, local polls will go ahead next month. "The sides have understood the message that local elections are a good opportunity to prove Albania is making steps ahead in the development of democracy," said President Alfred Moisiu.
