Prevention: Core to the Responsibility to Protect
Motivated both by analytical rigor and political expediency, ICISS sandwiched its discussion of international response to atrocities between what it described as a “responsibility to prevent” and a “responsibility to rebuild.” Once introduced, however, the logic of prevention as core to the global atrocity agenda was difficult to deny. Why wait to halt a massacre if early engagement might avert it entirely?
How did British colonial experiences shape the attitude towards the invasion of Iraq after 9/11?
Since the occupation of Iraq, there have been significant improvements in the counterinsurgency strategy used primarily by the Americans. These have incorporated lessons learnt in British colonial experiences, such as the minimisation of the use of force.
21st Century ‘Resource Control’ Insurgencies: The Case of the Niger Delta
Resources are strategically invaluable economic and political tools. It is the unquestionable human thirst for black gold, and other vital resources such as water and minerals, where global capitalism, post-colonial kleptocracy and the disenfranchised insurgent will meet in an unpredictable and volatile new paradigm.
Does Security exist outside of the speech act?
Security is constructed through processes of social interaction, but cannot be defined as existing only within the speech act. Hence, the definition of security in terms of a discourse-action sequence is problematic, inasmuch as it fails to recognise the complexity of the construction of security in global politics.
The Second Anglo-Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War and the shifts in the nature of warfare
Both the Anglo-Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War offer evidence of fundamental shifts in the nature of warfare. The Boer War demonstrated a shift between the previous post-Napoleonic traditions to a brand new paradigm. Both conflicts show evidence of many fundamental shifts in warfare as the world entered the Twentieth Century.
Review – “A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide
In this damning indictment of American indifference to humanitarian crises, journalist and academic Samantha Power refutes the arguments that US leaders were either unaware of genocidal horrors in the Twentieth Century or unable to stop them. Instead, the majority of American leaders knowingly did nothing as millions suffered.
R2P: Seeking Perfection in an Imperfect World
While the development of R2P as a concept has been the preserve of international relations theoreticians (albeit ones with large amounts of practical experience), its implementation rests on the practitioners of the day. And these practitioners deal in the world of realpolitik with all of its inconsistencies, relativities and competing national interests.
Stopping the Islamic Terrorist Financing Machine
A lack of cooperation between agencies, ignorance in dealing with the methods of fund-gathering and fund-moving measures, and the implementation of contradictory policies have resulted in a system in which the West cannot find a comprehensive strategy to curb the financing of Islamic terrorism.
NGOs in Haiti: Caught in an Aid Worker Bubble
Since the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the development sector has been engaged in debate concerning the failures of the NGO response. NGOs have destructively transplanted a parallel system of governance, often being caught up within an aid worker bubble which has stood between the Haitian state and its citizens and thus undermined the symbiotic nature of their social contract.
Did the Sexual Revolution of 1968 influence Women’s Political Emancipation in Switzerland?
The fight for women’s suffrage in Switzerland dates back to the 19th century. Yet, it may seem surprising to learn that women, in one of the oldest modern democracies in Europe, lacked the right to express their voice on national matters well past the middle of the 20th century.
