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
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.
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
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.
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.
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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 |
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.
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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.
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?
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.
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Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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)
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
