Covid-19 and the Russian Regional Response: Blame Diffusion and Attitudes to Pandemic Governance
As was the case with other federal states, Russia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was decentralized and devolved responsibility to regional governors. Contrary to the common highly centralized governance in Russia, this approach is thought to have helped insulate the government from criticism. Using local research and analysis based on a national representative survey carried out at the height of the pandemic during the summer of 2021, the article charts the public response to the pandemic across Russia. It examines the regionalization of the response, with an in-depth focus on two of the Russian cities with the highest infection rates but differing responses to the pandemic: St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk. There are two main findings: at one level, the diffusion of responsibility meant little distinction was made between the different levels of government by the population; at another level, approval of the pandemic measures was tied strongly to trust levels in central and regional government.
Leonard Seabrooke
Leonard Seabrooke is Professor of International Political Economy and Economic Sociology in the Department of Organization at the Copenhagen Busin...
Nomads and Warlords, Chadian Forces in African Peace Operations
Despite criticism of the United Nations (UN) as peacekeepers “hiding behind sandbags,” by the former president of Chad, the Chadian military has become a critical enabler of African-led and UN peace operations. This paper posits that the effectiveness of the Chadian forces stems from refined and modified nomad and warlord structures and attributes used during Chad’s various conflicts to build and improve its national army. This has allowed the Chadian regime to exercise and project power, thus, producing one of Africa’s most effective forces for current conflicts and challenges. Thus, Chad’s military leadership reflects a trend of states that use military prowess to project force, while maintaining international partnerships with permanent members of the unsc (the US and France), UN peacekeeping missions and African ad hoc security initiatives. Finally, the paper examines the implications of this trend for the evolving nature of African Peace and Security Architecture.
The Russia Conference 2023: Russia and the West – a new reality
Join us on 14 November for the annual Russia Conference!
Failing through: European migration governance across the central Mediterranean
Both today and under Gaddafi’s authoritarian rule, externalised migration controls have played a crucial role in EUropean irregular mobility governance across the Central Mediterranean. Offloading migration management on Tripoli is puzzling due to the fragility of its institutions, the ill-preparedness of its security forces, and widespread abuse against migrants. Why have European member states and EU institutions relapsed to relying on Libyan forces to govern irregular migration? In this paper, we argue that the EU has failed through the migration crisis in the Central Mediterranean by drawing on already established albeit ineffective and contentious policy tools. The collapse of Libya’s state apparatus, European Court of Human Rights’ censure of Italy’s illegal pushbacks and public opinion pressure temporarily displaced but did not fundamentally change EUrope’s restrictive approach to irregular mobility governance. While some new and less restrictive border enforcement policies were developed in response to the soaring death toll, this humanitarian turn was short-lived. By combining the mechanism of failing forward with institutionalist insights, our concept of failing through explains why the EU and its member states soon backslid into pre-existing institutional arrangements like bilateral agreements with Libyan authorities notwithstanding their problematic legal, ethical and political implications.
Research on friendships in the Arctic
Pathways for peace 5th Anniversary European Consultation: Are our concepts and theories of change for inclusion and prevention still relevant for o...
The UN and World Bank published a landmark report in 2018 on “Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict.” The report urged a pivot to prevention, strengthened the business case for prevention initiatives, and highlighted new research on the importance of inclusion in efforts to prevent conflict and build peace. Five years later, the global landscape has changed significantly and is now grappling with a complex set of converging crises and cascading risks. In the context of the report’s 5th anniversary, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), in partnership with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs of the United Nations and the Fragility, Conflict and Violence Group of the World Bank, arranged a virtual consultation with mostly European-based researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on 4th April 2023. The consultation was part of a series of events that are reflecting on the contribution of the Pathways for Peace report. The overarching question for the consultation was whether the concepts, and theories of change, that was at the core of the Pathways for Peace report - especially inclusion and prevention - are still relevant for our fast changing conflict landscape? This summary note captures the key insights gained from the European Consultation.
UN Peacekeeping Operations in a Multipolar Era
How is multipolarity impacting on UN peacekeeping operations? This article sets out to answer this question by examining the ongoing decline in UN peacekeeping operations and the concurrent rise of regional and ad hoc coalitions in an era of increasing geopolitical competition. The article argues that coalitions have significantly less focus on human rights, international humanitarian law, and the protection of civilians. They thus represent a shift away from the liberal values that have marked UN peacekeeping operations, and are coherent with current geopolitical shifts where China is chipping away at human rights at the UN and African states are increasingly voicing a need for more robust operations. The article concludes that the likely outcome of these trends is a continued decline of UN multidimensional peacekeeping, but that coalitions may receive logistical and administrative support from the UN peace operations machinery.
Climate, Peace, and Security in Yemen
Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Yemen