The BRICS: The Last Line of Defence for Globalisation?
In the West, the rise of nationalist populism reached a tipping point in 2016 when it generated both the United Kingdom vote for Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President in the United States of America. In contrast, the BRICS have over this same period invested in strengthening their commitment to the United Nations, global governance and economic globalisation. Although their primary focus has been on inter-BRICS financial, trade and economic cooperation, they opted to focus their 2017 annual Summit on developing strategies to defend global governance, economic globalisation, free trade and collective climate action. How did we get to the point where it seems to be up to the BRICS to play an important role in rescuing globalisation?
Syria - eit overblikk
Dei siste åra har medført ein av dei største og mest komplekse humanitære katastrofane sidan andre verdskrig. Sjå nokre av landet sine fremste fagfolk om Syria-konflikten.
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Gazprom Encounters EU Regulation
This book contributes to an ongoing debate about the EU as a global actor, the organization’s ability to speak with one voice in energy affairs, and the external dimension of the regulatory state. Investigating whether the Energy Union amounts to a fundamental shift towards Europe's new 'Liberal Mercantilism', it gathers high-level contributors from academia and the policy world to shed light on the changing nature of the EU's use of power in one of its most crucial policy fields. It argues that the Energy Union epitomizes a change in the EU’s approach to managing its economic power. Whilst the EU remains committed to a liberal approach to international political economy, it seems ready to promote regulation for the purpose of augmenting its own power at the expense of others, notably Russia. This edited collection will appeal to political scientists, economists and energy experts.
Utfordringar og moglegheiter for FN frå 2017
FN har ny generalsekretær, og kommande president Donald Trump inntar straks Det kvite hus. Verda er vitne til ei rekkje store konfliktar. I kva retning bør FN bevege seg framover?
Negotiating justice: legal pluralism and gender-based violence in Liberia
The plural legal system in post-conflict Liberia expresses tensions between modern and customary institutions. This article seeks to understand how Liberians navigate choices in the plural legal system to address gender-based violence cases. By asking how and why people make the choices they do, we highlight how Liberians solve tensions between institutions, by creating flexible categories that allow them to pursue a course of action that does not compromise their ability to access social networks and resources.
Towards UN counter-terrorism operations?
The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operation in Mali (MINUSMA) has become among the deadliest in UN history, suffering from attacks by violent extremists and terrorists. There are strong calls to give UN peacekeeping operations more robust mandates and equip them with the necessary capabilities, guidelines and training to be able to take on limited stabilisation and counter-terrorism tasks. This article conceptually develops UN counter-terrorism operations as a heuristic device, and compares this with the mandate and practices of MINUSMA. It examines the related implications of this development, and concludes that while there may be good practical as well as short-term political reasons for moving in this direction, the shift towards UN counter-terrorism operations will undermine the UN’s international legitimacy, its role as an impartial conflict arbiter, and its tools in the peace and security toolbox more broadly, such as UN peacekeeping operations and special political missions.
Lifting the Fog of War? Opportunities and Challenges of Drones in UN Peace Operations
While the military use of drones has been the subject of much scrutiny, the use of drones for humanitarian purposes has so far received little attention. As the starting point for this study, it is argued that the prospect of using drones for humanitarian and other life-saving activities has produced an alternative discourse on drones, dedicated to developing and publicizing the endless possibilities that drones have for "doing good". Furthermore, it is suggested that the Good Drone narrative has been appropriated back into the drone warfare discourse, as a strategy to make war "more human". This book explores the role of the Good Drone as an organizing narrative for political projects, technology development and humanitarian action. Its contribution to the debate is to take stock of the multiple logics and rationales according to which drones are "good", with a primary objective to initiate a critical conversation about the political currency of "good". This study recognizes the many possibilities for the use of drones and takes these possibilities seriously by critically examining the difference the drones' functionalities can make, but also what difference the presence of drones themselves – as unmanned and flying objects – make. Discussed and analysed are the implications for the drone industry, user communities, and the areas of crisis where drones are deployed.