The UN' s notion of peace in Haiti and Guatemala
By Madalena Mendonça Moita (28/10/2008)
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| T.Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images |
This article analyses the difference between the models used by the United Nations for conflict resolution in Guatemala and Haiti and the consequences that currently affect those countries.
The proliferation of the "parallel state"
By Ivan Briscoe (13/10/2008)
Based on a close study of the interaction between public institutions and armed or criminal groups in Pakistan and Guatemala, as well as other cases ranging from Fujimori's Peru to contemporary Guinea-Bissau, this working paper sets out to define the novel concept of the "parallel state".
J.Razuri/AFP/Getty Images
The responsibility to contribute
By Robert Matthews (07/10/2008)
This comment, which is based on a presentation given by Robert Matthews before the Asembleia da República de Portugal on June 25, focuses on the role of Europe and the responsibility of industrial nations to protect the physical, economic and social well-being of peoples in developing and conflicted areas of the world. The international system needs to be strengthened to deal with this situation, and Europe could play a role by coordinating its soft power instruments in conflict and post-conflict situations.
A. Romana/AFP/Getty Images
For a more progressive transatlantic agenda
By Jean-Paul Marthoz (01/10/2008)
Should the U.S. and Europe work more together? Yes, as long as they give a more progressive direction to a common transatlantic agenda.
A chance for peace? The Collapse of the"Third Front" in the war against terrorism
By Alain Gresh (24/09/2008)
The new process of negotiations between Israel and Syria is a promising event that may produce positive outcomes in Lebanon and in the long term in the Middle East. The European Union and the next US Administration could play a positive role.
Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
State crisis and the social pact in Bolivia
By Laura Tedesco (23/09/2008)
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| STR/AFP/Getty Image |
As clashes between central government and the independence movement have worsened, Bolivia is going through a critical political period. This commentary offers an analysis of this political situation as part of the process of formation of the Bolivian state and of the establishment of a new social contract
The international response to the Darfur crisis
By David Lanz (19/09/2008)
This comment looks at different dimensions of the international response to the Darfur crisis: humanitarian aid, mediation, peacekeeping, and justice. This response eclipses all other conflicts in Africa, but it has not been effective.
I. Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images
Haiti: from the "Pearl of the Antilles" to desolation
By Nancy Roc (19/09/2008)
The four cyclones that have hit Haiti in the last month have left many cities completely submerged under water, isolated and destroyed, in addition to causing hundreds of deaths. Haiti is undergoing one of the most important ecological catastrophes in the world, with deforestation affecting 98% of its national territory.
T.Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images
State weakness
By David Sogge (02/09/2008)
Ever-increasing attention is being paid to the notion of state failure, referred to under a variety of terms – weak states, fragile states, states in crisis, countries at risk of instability and low-income countries subject to pressure. This article, written by David Sogge, seeks to explore this phenomenon.
Corbis
After the peace comes the storm: Somalia's relentless crisis
By Richard Cornwell (27/08/2008)
Bolivia: a national clash over multiple worlds
By Jon Bright (04/08/2008)
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| Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images |
Two and a half years into his presidency, Evo Morales' reform programme has stalled, and Bolivia is in political deadlock. A crucial vote looms on August 10th which could help resolve the crisis - or prolong it. But while Bolivia remains embroiled in an immediate conflict over gas revenues and land redistribution, wider possible consequences of Morales' attempts to construct a "plurinational" state have gone underexamined.
Afghanistan, the limits of counter-insurgency
By Juan Garrigues, Robert Matthews (01/08/2008)
As the conflict in Afghanistan worsens and extends, a series of debates is unfolding in NATO and the need for discussion about the political options available to the international community and the political forces within Afghanistan is becoming increasingly urgent.
Getty Images
A Haiti facing grand challenges
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst, Amélie Gauthier (03/07/2008)
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| Courtesy of Radio Netherlands |
The possible designation of the economist Michèle Pierre-Louis as Prime Minister could unblock the situation of paralysis in which Haiti has lived since April, when the crisis begun by the increase in food prices brought down then Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis.
The food crisis in Haiti: a ruptured process?
By Amélie Gauthier (13/06/2008)
The crisis in Haiti is nothing less than a giant step backwards for the peace stabilisation and consolidation process which began back in 2004. In April, violent disturbances took place throughout Haiti, causing the whole country to grind to a halt, and the Prime Minister was ousted. As Haiti sank deeper into chaos, neither the government nor the United Nations Mission (MINUSTAH) was able to do anything to check the unrest. In this article Amélie Gauthier explores the ongoing economic and political factors that have led to the crisis and asks what can be done to move forwards towards a sustainable solution.
Secondhand/Flickr
Opportunities at the Afghan new scene
By Juan Garrigues (12/06/2008)
Although it seems difficult to believe, given what is published in the press, there are also reasons to be optimistic about Afghanistan. The increasing frequency and violence of the attacks carried out by the insurgency, comprised of the Taliban and the international jihad network that nourishes it, is in the main a response to the important losses it has suffered in confrontations with international forces in 2006 and 2007. The insurgency has responded with a change in tactics, distancing itself from conventional warfare and, in turn, obliging the international community to modify its strategy.
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
Fragile states and neoliberalism in Sub-Saharan Africa
By Elsa González Aimé (27/05/2008)
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| MUSTAFA ABDI/AFP/Getty Images |
Sri Lanka: the end of the "peace without process"
By Diego A. Agúndez (26/05/2008)
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SANKA VIDANAGAMA |
The international response to Darfur
By Publicaciones FRIDE (12/05/2008)
The armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan has become a rallying cry for Western civil society, and is held to represent the worst series of ongoing human rights violations in the world today. Yet try as it might, the international community has not been able to stall the bloodshed, nor has the government in Khartoum shown great interest in pacifying the restive region. On Wednesday April 9, FRIDE held a closed seminar on international organisations’ response to the Darfur crisis. These are some of the questions that most concerned seminar participants.
Stuart Price / AFP / Getty Images
Food crisis in Haiti: exposing key problems in the process of stabilisation
By Amélie Gauthier (22/04/2008)
Haiti has been hard hit by the global food crisis, which has culminated in riots all over the country, an attempt to invade the National Palace, and the removal from office of the Prime Minister just weeks ahead of the upcoming International Donor Conference in Port-au-Prince. This Comment article explores the factors which led to this latest violent and costly episode in the stabilisation process and asks what lessons can be learnt by the UN mission there.
Eric Thayer / Getty Images
The UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti: analysis and recommendations for future mandates of the Mission
By Megan Burke, Amélie Gauthier (16/04/2008)
On 28 January 2008, representatives of Haitian civil society, donor governments and the United Nations were brought together by FRIDE in collaboration with the Canadian Permanent Mission to the United Nations to discuss the future of the MINUSTAH stabilisation mission in Haiti. This report relates the key points of discussion and recommendations from this meeting, divided into three main areas: the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti, state-building and regional cooperation.
Moral and political grounds for the UN mission in Haiti
By Eduardo Aldunate Herman (01/04/2008)
In this Comment article General Brigadier Eduardo Aldunate, the former Military Second in Command of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), explores the complex problems facing the country and asks what the international community must do in order to address the challenges that lie ahead.
The Kosovo debate: beyond the headlines
By Juan Garrigues (19/02/2008)
Many people are understandably surprised at the extent to which Kosovo’s independence has heightened geopolitical rhetoric to Cold War levels and engrossed the international media’s attention. While a look at the articles and the op-eds in some of the world’s leading newspapers shows just how complex an issue this is, the many arguments that have been voiced for and against accepting Kosovo’s independence can be categorised into two broad groups. In this Comment article the author explores the perspectives of both camps.
Daniel Mihailescu
AFP/Getty Images
Haiti: voices of the actors, a research project on the UN mission
By Amélie Gauthier (15/02/2008)
This Working Paper from FRIDE analyses the violence in Haiti and the response of the international community involved in implementing the MINUSTAH mandate. The information gathered in the interviews allows the actors to make their voices heard on many aspects of the situation in Haiti and to communicate their ideas to each other.
Photo by APROFISA, Haití
East Timor: self-determination under threat
By José Manuel Pureza (14/02/2008)
The February 10 attacks on President Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão bring into relief not just the fragility of Timorese institutions, especially in the area of security, but also the climate of malaise and turbulence that has characterised the country’s political system for the last few years. This Comment article explores the challenges facing both Timorese politicians and the international community if the nation is to emerge from its troubled past and become a strong and healthy democratic state.
Photo by Luis Enrique Ascui/Getty Images
Under pressure: states in the global era
By Laura Tedesco (13/02/2008)
Based on a seminar of over 25 international experts held in Madrid, this paper assesses the main challenges facing the state system, and in particular the dilemmas of the world’s conflict-ridden and impoverished “fragile states.” Is the state facing extinction in parts of Africa and Asia? Does economic globalisation really eat away at the state? Is democracy a solution, or can it make matters worse? And what more could the international community do to repair damaged states?
Already a failed state? Pakistan in the aftermath of Bhutto's assassination
By Marco Mezzera (06/02/2008)
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is performing a delicate balancing act between appeasing pressure from the West and containing the increasing impatience of conservative religious circles in his own country. The assassination of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, might have opened a new chapter in the growing sense of instability that is currently gripping the country.
See also: Democracy perspectives in Pakistan
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
The democratisation of a dependent state: the case of Afghanistan
By Astri Suhrke (14/01/2008)
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| John D. McHugh/AFP/Getty Image |
The US-led intervention in Afghanistan in late 2001 brought in its wake a formal democratisation process. A new constitution was promulgated, providing for an elected president and parliament along familiar Western lines. The heavy foreign hand contradicted the promise of national autonomy, representation and fair process held out by the democratisation agenda, however. This Working Paper focuses on three areas of political reform: the structuring of the interim administration, the promulgation of a new constitution, and the establishment of the legislature.
See also these FRIDE Comments:
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
Statebuilding: can the international community get it right?
By Megan Burke (14/01/2008)
Statebuilding efforts by the international community in states in crisis have had limited success. Most analyses have sought to improve outcomes by examining “lessons learned” in one or more cases. This publication take a step beyond previous critiques and questions the approach of the industry as a whole, asking: Can the international community effectively build states?
Afghanistan and the crisis in Pakistan
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (14/01/2008)
The debate about Afghanistan has centred on three issues: the objectives of the mission, the resources necessary to achieve them (especially human resources), and negotiations with the insurgents. Europe, for its part, needs to revise its local strategy and regional short-sightedness. In the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the increased weakness of President Musharaff, there will be no solution for Afghanistan that does not also involve the future of Pakistan.
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
Towards a regional strategy in Afghanistan
By Juan Garrigues (31/12/2007)
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
De jure vs. de facto: a pyrrhic victory in Kosovo?
By Juan Garrigues (07/12/2007)
Perhaps the only thing that is clear in Kosovo is that there is a huge divide between the de jure status of this piece of land and the de facto reality on the ground. With a declaration of independence sometime after the December 10th negotiations deadline now considered inevitable, it is important to understand what the de facto reality on the ground actually looks like.
AFP / Getty Images
Rebuilding Chechnya: from conflict zone to house of cards
By Jessie Brouwers (04/12/2007)
The Kremlin insists to the outside world that the situation in the Republic of Chechnya is peaceful and stable. However, ongoing separatist activity in this North Caucasus republic seems to prove the opposite. This paper aims to describe the situation in Chechnya and current Russian policy towards the Republic. At the same time, it explores the positions of the European Union, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
The responsibility to protect: from an ethical principle to an effective policy
By Juan Garrigues (23/11/2007)
The responsibility to protect represents a significant leap from previous debates, especially since the beginning of the 1990s, around the protection of groups threatened by genocide or violations of their human rights. The challenge remains for this ethical principle to become an effective policy.
Kosovo: the best of the bad solutions
By Juan Garrigues (23/11/2007)
The EU must accept the inevitable independence of Kosovo and work together so that an independent Kosovo does not become a failed state.
Guatemala: security, human rights and the state after the elections
By Publicaciones FRIDE (19/11/2007)
Over 25 experts and diplomats from Latin America and Europe came together on November 15, as part of the “FRIDE in Casa de Galicia” series of seminars, to discuss the prospects for improved public security and effective government in Guatemala. The event came shortly after presidential elections in the country ended in victory for Álvaro Colom.
Publishing groups: FRIDE in Casa de Galicia
Reform versus capture: Guatemala after the elections
By Ivan Briscoe (08/11/2007)
The social democrat Álvaro Colom won Guatemala's presidential elections on November 4. But what are the challenges that Colom will now face? What hope is there of achieving institutional turnaround in a country afflicted by narco-trafficking?
The Successive Crises of Somalia
By Josep Maria Royo Aspa (26/09/2007)
Somalia has been embroiled in bloody conflict for over 15 years. After the close of the National Reconciliation Conference, which was deemed a failure by many observers, this article takes an in-depth look at the various factions and asks what hope, if any, there is for the beleaguered East African country.
Fragile states and the new international disorder
By Jean-Marc Châtaigner, Leslie Ouarzazi (24/09/2007)
The international community’s approach to countries with weak regulatory structures is often out-of-step with sociological realities on the ground. How can donors best push forward the processes of development, both political and economic, in partner nations?
Venezuela: is Hugo Chávez in control?
By Ivan Briscoe (17/09/2007)
As the Latin American country’s defiant president continues to brush off the criticisms he receives from Western leaders, the author investigates what is going on beneath the rhetoric in his oil-rich state.
The Failure and Collapse of the African State: on the Example of Nigeria
By John Emeka Akude (14/09/2007)
How do we explain the neglect of economic development in Africa by African rulers which is invariably connected to state weakness and collapse? Are there differences between the African statemaking process and those of more established states, say in the northern hemisphere?
Qué sucede con Iraq
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (30/07/2007)
President Bush’s new initiative for the Israel-Palestine conflict, which leaves the democratically elected Hamas-led government out in the cold, has been met with deep scepticism from the Arab World.
Crime and drugs in fragile states
By Ivan Briscoe (20/07/2007)
International security policies have so far proved unable to stall the growing symbiosis between drug-trafficking networks and certain weak states.
Can Democratic Elections Solve a Civil War? The case of Serbia and Kosovo
By Susan Woodward (18/07/2007)
The case of Serbia and continuing delays in a resolution to the status of Kosovo demonstrate the misunderstanding in European and American policy of the purpose and virtues of democratic elections and the counterproductive consequences for both a resolution of fundamental questions of statehood and for democratic development more generally.
Haití - La misión de la última oportunidad?
By Amélie Gauthier (04/06/2007)
Not least than seven United Nations missions have come and gone through
Organized Crime, the State, and Democracy: the cases of Central America and the Caribbean
By Angélica Durán Martínez (16/05/2007)
Based on a two-day conference held in early 2007 in New York, this report explores new thinking on the ills afflicting the region and how the international community might help remedy the problems of crime and corruption without undermining the fragile states.
The Latin American State: "failed" or evolving?
By Laura Tedesco (15/05/2007)
This Working Paper argues that Latin America’s plight is far better understood through the prism of a theory of the state that recognises the complex and ongoing, underlying process of transformation through which the region’s political institutions are passing.
(Photo by CARF)
Honduras
By Angélica Durán Martínez (14/05/2007)
The stability of political parties in Honduras and their organisation may have prevented a deeper influence of organised crime in the political system such as that which has emerged in Guatemala.
Trinidad & Tobago
By Angélica Durán Martínez (14/05/2007)
With high rates of economic growth and decreasing unemployment, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) has been called a Caribbean ‘tiger’ (The Economist, 2006), awash with money and investment from the liquefied natural gas boom.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning has launched Vision 2020, a policy strategy which calls for T&T to acquire developed country status by 2020.
The Kosovo Quandary: on the International management of statehood
By Susan Woodward (16/03/2007)
On March 10, 2007, after a final high-level meeting on a draft Comprehensive Proposal for a Kosovo Status Settlement, presented to the parties on February 2, the United Nations Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari announced a dead end.
Kosovo: From International Province to State?
By María Avello (07/03/2007)
In February 2007, the UN presented the Ahtisaari plan to define the legal status of Kosovo. Serbia considers it its province and believes that it is the plan’s intention to make it independent. The Albanian Kosovars see it as an incomplete attempt to maintain the territory under Serbian rule. The European Union faces the serious challenge of taking a stance on the future of Kosovo: should it be a new state or a protectorate?
Conflict prevention and the european response to states in crisis
By Ivan Briscoe (01/03/2007)
The European Union put conflict prevention at the heart of its foreign policy in 2001, but the new global security focus after September 11, confusion in Brussels and an overreliance on crisis management has obscured the need for deeper peace-building in fragile states.
Why Sometimes More is More: military assistance to Afghanistan
By Juan Garrigues (16/01/2007)
This paper argues that Astri Suhrke's thesis is flawed and that one of the main failures in the statebuilding strategy in Afghanistan was a shortage of military assistance after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
Re-founding the State in Bolivia
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst, Isabel Moreno Carballal (11/01/2007)
The December 18 elections in 2005 in Bolivia proved to be a historic moment when the first indigenous president ever was elected by an absolute majority in a country whose majority indigenous population has been excluded for centuries. This report outlines the structural challenges facing Bolivia in this new phase.
Haiti and the international donor community
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst, Amélie Gauthier (29/11/2006)
The Haiti Donors' Conference, which was held today in Madrid, will be decisive for the country's future. It will also test the capacity of international cooperation to address the problems of the so-called ‘fragile’ states.
Security in Haiti
By Amélie Gauthier (20/11/2006)
Comentary on the political and security situation in Haiti just before the Donor Conference oragnized in Madrid on November 30th, 2006.
The Corroded State in Nicaragua
By Ivan Briscoe (09/11/2006)
After 17 years of opposition, Daniel Ortega won Nicaragua's presidential elections in November 2006. But there are serious doubts as to whether the Nicaraguan state will be able to spur equitable growth and build efficient institutions, while the willingness of the Sandinista leader to strengthen the rule of law at the cost of his party's political machine remains uncertain.
Proliferation of light weapons and state crisis: challenges to post-war reconstruction
By Mabel González (03/11/2006)
Bolivia: The Challenges to State Reform
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst, Isabel Moreno Carballal (18/07/2006)
Recovering from armed conflict: lessons learned and next steps for improved international assistance
By Megan Burke (07/04/2006)
Civilian Dimension of International Crisis Management in Spain:commitments, alternatives and advantages
By Juan Garrigues, Luis Peral, Gabriel Reyes (22/02/2006)
This paper explores the possibilities and challenges for the creation and deployment of civilian capabilities for international crisis management in Spain.
Failing States or Failed States? The role of development models: collected works
By Martin Doornbos, Silvia Roque, Susan Woodward (08/02/2006)
Transition and legitimacy in African States: the cases of Somalia and Uganda
By Martin Doornbos (08/12/2005)
Sudan: intensive diplomacy, differed intervention and lack of effective protection for the population
By Luis Peral (14/12/2004)
In Sudan although the international community has been late and provided an insufficient answer, or precisely because of that, the Darfur massacre has to be constantly present in the United Nations reform, which has apparently gained new strength.
And, likewise, it must direct European efforts to consolidate a Security and Defence Policy that can contribute to putting the aims of the International Law into practice in the framework of a future European Constitution.
Social innovation for human development. An Arab region perspective
By Nader Fergany (06/02/2003)
The concept of “human development” gained currency since 1990 when the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) adopted the term with a specific connotation, advanced a simplified index (HDI) to measure it- in spite of many refinements, the HDI is closer to an index of human development in the limited sense corresponding to conventional human capital- and started publishing an annual report on the subject. The human development concept is based on the intellectual heritage of the role of people in development as it evolved over the years, culminating in the first Human Development Report (UNDP, 1990).
Arab human development and Europe
By Nader Fergany, Rafael Guardans Cambó (05/02/2003)
The Arab Human Development Report 2002 concludes that Arab countries have made significant strides in more than one area of human development in the last three decades. Nevertheless, the predominant characteristic of current Arab reality, as we have seen in Part II of this Report, seems to be the existence of deeply rooted shortcomings in the Arab societal structure. These shortcomings are an obstacle to building human development. We summarised them in the three deficits of freedom, empowerment of women, and knowledge.
