Major publication from NUPI
History is in the spotlight when NUPI senior researchers Halvard Leira and Benjamin de Carvalho now issue a four-volume work on international relations.
Engergy Security in the Baltic Sea Region: Regional coordination and and management of interdependencies
The study maps changing energy relations in the Baltic Sea region in the aftermath of two events – the 2004 EU enlargement that has changed the political and institutional / regulatory landscape of the region and the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine that has put the issue of energy security – and security in more general terms – very high on the European political agenda. It discusses how the regional distribution of energy resources and energy policies have contributed to altering the level of energy security in the whole region and in particular countries, how various actors have addressed energy security concerns by cooperative policies, in particular, EU wide and sub-regional (Nordic, Baltic) coordination measures aimed at managing energy interdependencies and increasing energy security.
United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad I and II (MINURCAT I + II)
This chapter focuses on the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT I + II), a peacekeeping mission deployed by the UN Security Council in September 2007 to address some of the spillover effects of the war in Darfur, Sudan. MINURCAT was initially protected by a smaller European force, EUFOR, to carry out its mandate to protect civilians in danger, including refugees and displaced persons, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid in Chad. After providing an overview of the crisis in Chad, the chapter outlines MINURCAT’s mandate and evaluates its operational achievements and limitations, as well as the important lessons that can be learned from its experience.
Governing Cocaine Supply and Organized Crime from Latin America and the Caribbean: The Changing Security Logics in European Union External Policy
The logics of the European Union’s policy and practices against narcotic drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have undergone a substantial shift the past decade: from development to security. Based on an empirical mapping of the EU’s drug-related projects in LAC, this article argues that an ‘integrated and balanced’ approach to drugs policy is being replaced by a bifurcation between the broader domains of development policy and security policy. Questions are raised as to how the EU’s projects on development and security might counteract one another, and how the Union’s programme aimed at dismantling transnational organized crime along the cocaine trafficking routes to Europe might have unintended consequences. While keeping in mind the shifting tectonics of the international drug prohibition consensus, the article goes on to analyze the increasingly salient security rationale in EU external drugs policy against the backdrop of the EU’s emerging role as a global security actor. In doing so, it touches upon the intrinsic tensions between human rights and (supra) national security.
Still a “Strategic” EU–NATO Partnership? Bridging Governance Challenges through Practical Cooperation
The EU and NATO share a common interest in responding effectively to threats posed by Russia in the east and by Islamic extremist to the south of Europe. However, bilateral issues and the pursuit of national interests, especially those involving Cyprus and Turkey, as well as a general lack of strategic convergence have limited theeffectiveness of both organisations’ crisis-management capabilities. In times of a deteriorating security environment these limitations will be even more detrimental for Euro - Atlantic security. Poland and Norway, participants in both the EU and NATO missions and two principal countries of the GoodGov project are well positioned to break this institutional deadlock.
Mali at the cusp of UN peace operations reform
Whilst UN peacekeeping is more critical than ever, it is also under severe pressure, writes Cedric de Coning.
UN peace operations at a crossroads
NUPI researchers sum up the main challenges for UN peace operations.