UN Reform and Collective Security : An Overview of Post-Cold War Initiatives and Proposals
«Challenges to Collective Security» Working Papers from NUPI’s UN Programme
Transition Management
«Challenges to Collective Security» Working Papers from NUPI’s UN Programme: The emerging consensus on the need to establish more effective United Nations mechanisms for managing the transition from conflict to peace, and on the importance of addressing the nexus between development and security, is not sufficiently reflected in the organisational structure or logic of UN operations. This report argues that tailored policy responses should be introduced or strengthened at the institutional, intergovernmental and regional levels, to deal effectively with the challenges of peacekeeping, peace-building and transition management. The debate about the need for more improved transition management and better coordination mirrors the larger debate about the role of the organisation and UN system integration.
Power, Principles and Procedures : Reinterpreting French foreign policy towards the USA (2001-2003)
French foreign policy towards the US is often understood as particularly confrontational and based on traditional power politics, or a wish to re-establish “la grandeur de la France”. This article aims at investigating the validity of this widely held view. It further seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the French positions by studying the arguments used by the French political leadership and the implications of the Iraq conflict for bilateral cooperation at lower levels. This study questions the common assumption of IR theory that national identities and/or interests are fixed and independent of structural factors such as international norms and values. It also questions the value of focusing exclusively on diplomatic or “top-level” bilateral relations, without looking at “low-level” or practical bilateral cooperation and/or conflicts.
Norway's Fredskorpset Youth Program : Study of selected exchange projects
The Fredskorpset Youth program is a North-South exchange program facilitating the exchange of young people between partner organizations or institutions of Norway and countries of the South. The present study was commissioned in order to assess the degree to which stated goals of the exchanges were realized. Four exchanges were selected to be studied: between a Norwegian and Kenyan student organization (AIESEC); between a Norwegian missionary organization (NMS) and its counterpart church in Madagascar (FLM); between local Red Cross organizations in Norway and Uganda; and between a Norwegian (VUC) and two Malawian teacher training institutions (CC, LTTC). Objectives of the programs included acquiring new knowledge, attitudes and commitment at the level of individual participants, organizational strengthening and development of international contacts at the institutional level, and dissemination of information. As goals were mostly quite loosely formulated, it was difficult to assess the degree to which they were realized with any precision. Findings varied between the exchanges, but in general individual objectives were reached to some extent, while results might have been even stronger with more systematic attention to them. Institutional goals were achieved in most of the cases. In terms of information dissemination, this could be strengthened in most of the exchange programs.
Tollnedtrapping for industrivarer i WTO - Virkninger for Norge
Notatet diskuterer mulige virkninger av tollreduksjoner gjennom forhandlinger i WTO for eksport av norske industrivarer. Ulike forslag om tollreduksjoner, som bruken av den såkalte Girards formel diskuteres. Det vises at reduksjoner i tråd med Girards formel kan gi økt norsk eksport på i underkant av to prosent for et utvalg av land. Virkningene er ulikt fordelt over handelspartnere og sektorer. For land Norge har preferanseavtaler med gir tollreduksjoner gjennom WTO ingen økning i eksport. For andre land vil tollreduksjoner gi til dels betydelig effekt.
Væpnet hjelp utenfra i norsk sikkerhetspolitikk
Denne rapporten undersøker hvilken rolle muligheten for å få væpnet hjelp fra andre land har spilt i norsk sikkerhetspolitisk tenkning og planlegging gjennom de siste vel hundre år. Studien ser på hvilke forestillinger man i Norge på begynnelsen av forrige århundre hadde om denne muligheten, på et tidspunkt da den av hensyn til nøytralitetspolitikkens troverdighet ikke burde nevnes høyt. Hvordan tanken om væpnet hjelp utenfra, fra å være stilltiende spekulasjon, kom inn som tema i den offentlige debatt, og hvilke motforestillinger den møtte, blir også viet oppmerksomhet. Noen av de problemstillinger som i denne sammenheng ble reist, blir også viet særskilt oppmerksomhet når det deretter blir sett nærmere på den betydning forutsetningen om væpnet hjelp fra allierte i tilfelle aggresjon fikk i norsk forsvars- og sikkerhetspolitikk etter siste verdenskrig. De muligheter denne forutsetningen åpnet, de dilemmaer den reiste og de krav den stilte, blir særskilt belyst. Til slutt blir søkelyset satt på hva forutsetningen om væpnet hjelp fra allierte i tilfelle behov, har fått å si for sikkerhetspolitisk planlegging og for forsvarets rolle og utforming etter den kalde krigen, med et NATO under sterk endring i bakgrunnen.
Evaluation of Fadcanic's teacher training program in Nicaragua's Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast
Since 1997, FADCANIC has been implementing a training program for unqualified teachers working in primary schools of Nicaragua’s Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast. SAIH, the Norwegian NGO that has been funding this program, has commissioned the present evaluation. It concludes that the program has had a significant impact in terms of improving education in the region through addressing one of the most urgent needs of the educational sector, namely teacher qualifications. However, the evaluation also points out a number of other limitations for the sector, including lack of resources for materials, physical infrastructure and reasonable teacher salaries, as well as general social problems of the region. It recommends that the program is continued, and that even greater emphasis is put upon creating a teacher education appropriate to the multilingual and -cultural reality.
Transition from socialism - the corruption heritage
The paper explores the apparently high incidence of corruption in those former socialist countries where the Communist Party lost power. It argues that part of the explanation of the high corruption incidence is to be sought in the simultaneous production decline which gives rise to a Schumpeter effect, where former bureaucrats are becoming corruption entrepreneurs. Another important factor is the swift change in the ruling norms giving rise to a Huntington effect an overshooting of the applicability of the market mechanism. An important driver of both effects is the monetation of the centralised multitiered bartering system of the old socialist economies. That process is briefly compared to older forms of market expansion into decentralised non-market agricultural economies as analysed by Polanyi and Marx.