Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Cooperation on Emerging Environmental Challenges in the Muslim World
Scientific, Intellectual, and Governance Cooperation on Emerging Environmental
Challenges in the Muslim World provides an overview of the
challenges posed by environmental change in several regions where
significant Muslim populations are found: Southeast Asia, South and
Central Asia, Southwest Asia/Persian Gulf, North Africa, and parts of
Sub-Saharan Africa (the Sahel, coastal West Africa, and East Africa). It
then discusses the major needs for improving scientific and technical
research in these regions and reviews extant environmentally-focused
scientific cooperation between the U.S. and the Muslim world. Finally,
the paper presents some recommendations suggesting how scientific
cooperation between the U.S. and the Muslim world could be expanded and
deepened in the future."
Cooperation on Emerging Environmental Challenges in the Muslim World
Cooperation on Emerging Environmental Challenges in the Muslim World
Troubled Waters: Climate Change, Hydropolitics, and Transboundary Resources
Troubled Waters: Climate Change, Hydropolitics, and Transboundary Resources examines
the multiple challenges that global climate change raises for the
management of shared freshwater resources. Regional experts and Stimson
analysts assess the prospective risks to human security, evaluate the
possibilities for cooperative responses, and explore how policies and
institutions can evolve to ensure sustainable water supplies in a
warming world.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Troubled_Waters-Complete.pdf
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Troubled_Waters-Complete.pdf
Coastal Zones and Climate Change
Coastal Zones and Climate Change examines the emerging
environmental stresses on coastal areas of the Indian Ocean and the
resulting challenges confronting coastal planners and decision makers in
a warming world. Experts from the region and from Stimson assess the
prospective risks to coastal ecosystems and infrastructure, evaluate the
opportunities and obstacles for technological innovations and
adaptation strategies, and explore how policies and institutions must
evolve to ensure the sustainable management of coastal resources and the
resilience of coastal communities.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Coastal_Zones-Complete.pdf
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Coastal_Zones-Complete.pdf
Fresh Water Futures
This report, Fresh Water Futures: Imagining Responses to Demand Growth, Climate Change, and the Politicsl of Water Resource Management,
which resulted from the January 29 meeting, considers specific
in-country cases, including Yemen and Afghanistan, and transboundary
cases including the river basins of the Mekong, Ganges, Mahakali, and
Indus rivers. This report also considers criteria for identifying basins
where future tensions or instabilities could emerge and assesses the
roles that technological innovations, market mechanisms, river basin
institutions, and other policy approaches play in the cooperative
management of shared water resources.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/StimsonCenterConfWaterReport.pdf
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/StimsonCenterConfWaterReport.pdf
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wind and Gas, Back-up or Back-out, "That is the Question
The focus of this study is to explore the effect that the deployment
of a large share of wind energy has on the Northwest European power
generation mix in the current market circumstances. Natural gas is often
mentioned as a suitable partner for wind. This paper tries to
substantiate and quantify the current and potential relationship between
gas and wind in Northwest European electric power supply in the context
of the transition towards a low-carbon energy economy.
The effect of wind power is analysed from the perspective that reducing CO2 emissions is the principal driver behind installing wind energy. The study aims to give general insight in what would happen to the power mix if more wind energy were to be introduced, what the contribution to CO2 emissions reduction would be, and the potential role of natural gas and other fuels in handling long periods (> 4 hours) of low wind supply.
The main conclusions of the paper are:
http://www.clingendael.nl/publications/2011/20111200_ciep_study_wind_gas.pdf
The effect of wind power is analysed from the perspective that reducing CO2 emissions is the principal driver behind installing wind energy. The study aims to give general insight in what would happen to the power mix if more wind energy were to be introduced, what the contribution to CO2 emissions reduction would be, and the potential role of natural gas and other fuels in handling long periods (> 4 hours) of low wind supply.
The main conclusions of the paper are:
- Wind power has a low capacity credit (in NW Europe). This means that wind power does not significantly replace other generating capacity; alternative power sources need to be in place, together with new installed wind capacity for at least 80% of installed wind capacity, to ensure that there is sufficient back-up to meet market demand at times of reduced wind power supply. Most of this will have to come from conventional power plants. If hydro capacity from Norway is available, this back-up capacity could be reduced to approximately 70%.
- Wind capacity will thus essentially be "surplus" to the necessary dispatchable system capacity, and thus costs of wind capacity will essentially come on top of the costs of the base conventional capacity. The extra costs of wind capacity can be reduced or compensated by the abated fuel and carbon costs from conventional generation.
- The effectiveness of wind power to reduce CO2 emissions is directly related to the level of CO2 prices. In today's energy market with low CO2 prices, new installed wind power tends primarily to replace gas-fired power, resulting in limited CO2 reduction, and thus becomes an expensive and less effective way of reducing CO2 emissions.
- Sufficiently high CO2 prices would reverse the position of gas and coal in the merit order (irrespective of wind), reducing CO2 emissions by around 10-25 %. Other or complementary ways to achieve CO2 emission reduction (for example, the use of an Emission Performance Standard) were not analysed in this paper.
- With higher CO2 prices, wind would replace coal-fired power, further reducing CO2 emissions and significantly improving the effectiveness and costs of wind in reducing CO2 emissions.
- In a conceptual design for a future low-carbon energy system in which wind plays a prominent role in reducing CO2 emissions, gas-fired power is the most suitable and economic partner, as long as other renewable options remain unproven, technically limited and/or uneconomical.
- A high CO2 price would be a tool for forcing additional low carbon measures, such as CCS. With CCS, gas fired generation remains more competitive than coal with CCS and offers an attractive and competitive low CO2 option, in its own right, as well as in combination with wind.
- An additional question which arises is whether the present market model for organising and dispatching electricity is appropriate and effective in an environment with a significant share of wind power. In this context there are implications of large-scale partnering with wind power for the performance and economic viability of gas-fired power plants (with or without CCS) as well as for the gas supply. These will need to be further examined to ensure that the gas and power industries are ready to become secure partners.
http://www.clingendael.nl/publications/2011/20111200_ciep_study_wind_gas.pdf
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Security and Justice from a District Perspective: Rasuwa, Nepal
This snapshot briefing paper looks at the situation of security and
justice provision in Rasuwa district in the central region of Nepal.
This sparsely populated mountain district is situated due north of
Kathmandu and shares a border with China on its northern side. The
security situation in Rasuwa district is fair in comparison to many
other districts, particularly those in the Terai where the police
struggle to control the activities of numerous armed and criminal
groups. In contrast to the Terai districts where levels of gender based
violence are extremely high, this district populated by 63.75 percent of
Tamang ethnicity has different story to tell. This briefing assesses
security and justice provision against this backdrop and outlines
implications for national and international policy-makers.
http://www.international-alert.org/resources/publications/security-and-justice-district-perspective-rasuwa-nepal
http://www.international-alert.org/resources/publications/security-and-justice-district-perspective-rasuwa-nepal
DDR Advanced Course on Reintegration 24 June – 01 July 2012, The Netherlands
A one-week residential course at Overste Hof, Landgraaf, The Netherlands
Cost: The course is free of charge
Full board accommodation for the duration of the course is included in the cost. Participants have to be able to commit to attend the course in full.
http://www.international-alert.org/news/ddr-advanced-course-reintegration
Defining Theories of Change
Peacebuilding with Impact
This report focuses on how
theories of change can improve the effectiveness of peacebuilding
interventions. A review of 19 peacebuilding projects in three
conflict-affected countries found that the process of articulating and
reviewing theories of change adds rigour and transparency, clarifies
project logic, highlights assumptions that need to be tested, and helps
identify appropriate participants and partners. However, the approach
has limitations, including the difficulty of gathering theory-validating
evidence.
http://www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/publications/120123CAREDefiningTheoriesChange_FINAL.pdf
Cyber Security
Introduction
During the last years, more and more digital products became part of our daily life. We
talk to friends over social network sites, discuss with people from all over the world in
internet forums and e-mail has widely replaced other communication methods. More
and more companies and governments offer digital products and services and most of
our data is stored somewhere on a server. But the more we become dependant on
digital products, the more we become vulnerable to attacks from cyber space. Cyber
attacks can not only cause financial damage or loss of personal data, it is feared that
cyber attacks which target hospitals and power plants or other elementary
infrastructure of a nation can also cause fatal damages.
http://www.bipss.org.bd/pdf/Issue%2010.pdf
During the last years, more and more digital products became part of our daily life. We
talk to friends over social network sites, discuss with people from all over the world in
internet forums and e-mail has widely replaced other communication methods. More
and more companies and governments offer digital products and services and most of
our data is stored somewhere on a server. But the more we become dependant on
digital products, the more we become vulnerable to attacks from cyber space. Cyber
attacks can not only cause financial damage or loss of personal data, it is feared that
cyber attacks which target hospitals and power plants or other elementary
infrastructure of a nation can also cause fatal damages.
http://www.bipss.org.bd/pdf/Issue%2010.pdf
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Mapping the Global Future 2020
Report
of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project - Based
on Consultations With Nongovernmental Experts
Around the World
http://www.foia.cia.gov/2020/2020.pdfGlobal Trends 2025: A Transformed World
Global Trends 2025 is the fourth installment in the National Intelligence Councilled effort to identify key drivers and developments likely to shape world events a decade or more in the future. Both the product and the process used to produce it benefited from lessons learned in previous iterations. Each edition of Global Trends has tapped larger and more diverse communities of experts. Our first effort, which looked out to 2010, relied primarily on expertise within the US Intelligence Community. There was some outreach to other elements of the United States Government and the American academic community. For Global Trends 2015, we engaged more numerous and more varied groups of non-US Government experts, most of whom were American citizens.
http://www.dni.gov/nic/PDF_2025/2025_Global_Trends_Final_Report.pdf
http://www.dni.gov/nic/PDF_2025/2025_Global_Trends_Final_Report.pdf
Monday, January 23, 2012
Human Rights Watch World Report 2012
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.
We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end
abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/wr2012.pdf
We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end
abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all.
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/wr2012.pdf
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Federation of American Scientists Terrorism Analysis Report
T he greatest threat to Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure comes from
jihadists both inside Pakistan and South and Central Asia. While there
is appreciation of this danger, there are few substantive studies that
identify and explore specific groups motivated and potentially capable
of acquiring Pakistani nuclear weapons and/or fissile materials. This
report fills that gap by exploring the Pakistani Neo-Taliban (PNT) and
the groups that fill its ranks.
http://www.fas.org/pubs/_docs/Terrorism_Analysis_Report_1-lowres.pdf
http://www.fas.org/pubs/_docs/Terrorism_Analysis_Report_1-lowres.pdf
Addressing the Doctrinal Deficit
For a number of years, Stimson research has focused on identifying the obstacles that multilateral organizations and individual states face in preventing and responding to widespread and systematic violence against civilians. The research found that the absence of guidance, planning, and training on the protection of civilians created a critical gap that hindered effective international responses. As a result, the Enhancing the Security of Civilians in Conflict project launched the "Addressing the Doctrinal Deficit" initiative in 2009 to catalyze and influence the development of doctrine and training (specific to the protection of civilians) within multilateral institutions (UN, AU, NATO) and national militaries.
In September 2009, the Stimson Center engaged experts and doctrine writers alongside military and civilian leaders with experience in protection crises at the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham. The workshop included a two-day simulation exercise involving escalating violence against civilians in a fictional country, which challenged workshop participants to propose and evaluate courses of action to protect civilians. The workshop was designed to capture insights that could be distilled into guidance for future missions mandated to protect. The project resulted in three products:
- Alison Giffen, Addressing the Doctrinal Deficit: Developing Guidance to Prevent and Respond to Widespread or Systematic Attacks Against Civilians (Spring 2010). A workshop report from the international experts' workshop. The document explores the lack of protection-related doctrine and training and captures the key challenges and gray areas that leaders face in a protection crisis that should be addressed in guidance and training.
- Max Kelly, Protecting Civilians: Proposed Principles for Military Operations (May 2010). A document offering proposed guidance and considerations for military operations that must effectively prevent and respond to protection crises. The document is informed by research into the fundamental drivers and dynamics of violence against civilians; analysis of military operations that attempted to protect civilians across a variety of regional, institutional, and theatre contexts; and wide consultations with experts, policy makers, and practitioners who have worked on these operations.
- Max Kelly with Alison Giffen, Military Planning to Protect Civilians: Proposed Guidance for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (September 2011). A document that illustrates how the Proposed Principles (May 2010) could be applied in the operational context of UN peacekeeping. The publication applies the principles to existing UN policy and frameworks to demonstrate how the UN could develop guidance to plan the military component of a peacekeeping operation mandated to protect. Although an entirely independent endeavor, the document is intended to support processes already underway at the UN to develop such guidance by drawing on recent scholarship and operational research on the challenges of ending complex civil conflicts.
UN Integration and Humanitarian Space
An Independent Study Commissioned by the UN Integration Steering Group
For over two decades, the United Nations has developed policies and practices to create greater coherence within the UN system . Today, UN integration is a formal policy aimed at maximizing the individual and collective impact of the UN to consolidate peace and applies to every country context where a UN peacekeeping or political mission and UN country team of development and humanitarian agencies coincide. Yet, the benefits and risks of UN integration for humanitarian space have been intensely debated for many years. Some humanitarians remain deeply skeptical that UN integration can benefit humanitarian action. Other humanitarians are opposed to UN integration on principle, arguing that integration arrangements blur the distinction between humanitarian, military and political action, subordinate humanitarian priorities to political prerogatives and therefore place humanitarian action at significant risk. Conversely, many in the UN political and peacekeeping community stress the need for enhanced coherence and highlight the positive experiences of UN integration and the significant progress made in policy development and practice in recent years.
In 2010, the UN Integration Steering Group commissioned the Humanitarian Policy Group and the Stimson Center to undertake an independent study to explore the impact of UN integration arrangements on humanitarian space and make recommendations towards the improved management of this impact.
The study found both positive and negative impacts of UN integration arrangements on humanitarian space and evolving policies and practices over the last decade intended to better protect humanitarian space. Despite these reforms, the debate remains polarized and stakeholders - including UN departments, funds, agencies and programs - should redouble their efforts to promote greater awareness and consistent implementation of policy provisions that seek to ensure that UN integration arrangements protect humanitarian space. They should also do much more to build confidence across the political, peacekeeping and humanitarian communities to help ensure that the potential benefits of UN integration for humanitarian operations are maximized, and the risks minimized.
The study focused on three main case studies (Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia), complemented by a desk review of the Central African Republic, Darfur (Sudan) and Liberia. It looked at the impact of diverse integrated arrangements on five areas of humanitarian space within each context: humanitarian aid worker security, access to beneficiaries, ability to engage with non-state armed actors, perceptions of humanitarian actors and humanitarian voice or advocacy. The report includes a number of more detailed findings and recommendations to UN stakeholders including UN departments , agencies, funds and programs and non-UN humanitarian organizations.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Integration_final.pdf
Bridging the Security/Development Divide with UN Security Council Resolution 1540: A Case Study Approach by Brian D. Finlay The Henry L. Stimson Center September 2009
In a rapidly globalizing world, the need for governance that
transcends national boundaries is a given. But finding pragmatic
opportunities to innovate and break traditional patterns of government
and human behavior is challenging. This paper discusses one important
opportunity in the field of nonproliferation that accomplishes this
goal. The security/development model offered herein has already borne
tangible results in the Caribbean, and could do so elsewhere in
Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, across Latin America, and beyond.
Its application would not only better leverage limited foreign aid, it
would both meet the identified needs of the host country and yield a
more sustainable model of nonproliferation.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Bridging_Divide_Finlay.pdf
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Bridging_Divide_Finlay.pdf
WMD, Drugs, and Criminal Gangs in Central America: Leveraging Nonproliferation Assistance to Address Security/Development Needs With UN Security Council Resolution 1540
Few regions of the world better illustrate the intimate nexus between
human development and security than does Central America, this Stimson
Center and Stanley Foundation project report concludes. The report,
informed by a regional workshop in Panama City in the spring of 2010,
analyzes a region of inherent economic and social promise that has long
been frustrated by countless security challenges related to small arms,
drugs, and criminal gangs. In the report, Brian Finlay explores how
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 could be used by
governments across the region to: identify novel streams of assistance
to address capacity shortfalls; improve customs facilities and migratory
border facilities; receive training in the tracking of illegal
immigration; improve capacities to prevent money laundering and drug and
human trafficking; enhance the training of public and private officials
linked to maritime trade; improve their human resources and legal
infrastructure; and, strengthen the competencies of government
institutions.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/CArpt710_1.pdf
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/CArpt710_1.pdf
Beyond Boundaries in the Middle East: Leveraging Nonproliferation Assistance to Address Security/Development Needs With Resolution 1540
Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization itself, the Middle East not only boasts the origin of many major religions, it is a part of the world rich in history, culture, and natural resources. Regrettably, the region is also afflicted with the internecine discord that all too often accompanies those physical and social attributes. Festering religious conflict, uneven population distribution and access to resources, and radically divergent levels of gross domestic product and living standards all feed a complex political, economic, and social landscape across the region.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/MErpt910.pdf
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/MErpt910.pdf
Maritime Commerce and Security: The Indian Ocean
Maritime Commerce and Security: The Indian Ocean describes the commercial trends and their security implications with a view to helping policy makers and others outside the industry understand the vulnerabilities of an industry that is central to the global economy and security.
Maritime commerce in the Indian Ocean is vital to global trade, in volume, in the key resources and manufactured goods that it moves, and in the steadily predominating significance of the economies of East Asia, India, the Gulf, Australia, and South Africa.
It has also seen rapid and far reaching change, in investment in ports and vessels, and in the emergence of entirely new maritime commercial powers such as Singapore, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The economic shocks registered throughout the world in the past three years, especially the downturn in trade volumes, have added significant uncertainty about the future of investments and national strategic calculations.
In the contemporary Indian Ocean, the close relationship between commerce and security takes many forms. Piracy is now seen emanating increasingly far from the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden into the deep ocean. Naval task forces involving a dozen nations have had mixed success in protecting these vital lifelines of commerce. The Chinese Navy's presence in the Indian Ocean and Chinese commercial investments in port infrastructure have been perceived by India as an integrated source of strategic threat, and have occasioned a strategic rivalry between the two rising powers. Indian naval presence and activity have both proceeded from such worries and given rise to security concerns among other countries in the region. Similarly, among smaller powers, Singapore's robust security posture in large part reflects its importance as a commercial and maritime nation.
http://www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/March4_-_Full.pdf
Friday, January 20, 2012
Peace and Security Review Vol.4, No.8, Second Quarter, 2011
Transnational Security Dynamics and Exigencies:
Crime-Terror-Drug Nexus in South Asia and Beyond 1
Taj Hashmi
Bangladesh’s National Defence: A Debatable Dialectic 32
Dr. Syed Mahmud Ali
IOR-ARC Successes and Failures: South Asian Perspectives 50
ANM Muniruzzaman
Impact of Climate Change and Environmental Security in
Bangladesh: The Non-Traditional Security Linkages 69
Nusrat Zahan
The Nature of Complex Emergencies: Impact of Earthquakes,
Pakistan’s Case Study 81
Salma Malik
http://www.bipss.org.bd/pdf/Bipss%20Journal%20Volume%234,Number%238%20Second%20Quarter%20dt.02.11.11.pdf
Crime-Terror-Drug Nexus in South Asia and Beyond 1
Taj Hashmi
Bangladesh’s National Defence: A Debatable Dialectic 32
Dr. Syed Mahmud Ali
IOR-ARC Successes and Failures: South Asian Perspectives 50
ANM Muniruzzaman
Impact of Climate Change and Environmental Security in
Bangladesh: The Non-Traditional Security Linkages 69
Nusrat Zahan
The Nature of Complex Emergencies: Impact of Earthquakes,
Pakistan’s Case Study 81
Salma Malik
http://www.bipss.org.bd/pdf/Bipss%20Journal%20Volume%234,Number%238%20Second%20Quarter%20dt.02.11.11.pdf
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Operational handbook on police-community co-operation
The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Working Team for the implementation of the National Community-Based Policing Strategy
http://www.saferworld.org.uk/BiH%20handbook%20English.pdf
http://www.saferworld.org.uk/BiH%20handbook%20English.pdf
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Washington Quarterly, 35(1), 2012
A North Korean Spring? Victor D. Cha and Nicholas D. Anderson
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Cha_Anderson.pdf
Why China Will Democratize? Yu Liu and Dingding Chen
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Liu_Chen.pdf
The Pakistan Thorn in China—India—U.S. Relations. Harsh V. Pant
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Pant.pdf
The Myth of ‘‘Securing the Commons’’ Gabriel M. Scheinmann and Raphael S. Cohen
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Scheinmann_Cohen.pdf
Iran’s Declining Influence in Iraq. Babak Rahimi
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Rahimi.pdf
The Influence and Illusion of China’s New Left. Charles W. Freeman III and Wen Jin Yuan
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Freeman_Yuan.pdf
Solving the Statebuilders’ Dilemma. Ben Rowswell
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Rowswell.pdf
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Cha_Anderson.pdf
Why China Will Democratize? Yu Liu and Dingding Chen
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Liu_Chen.pdf
The Pakistan Thorn in China—India—U.S. Relations. Harsh V. Pant
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Pant.pdf
The Myth of ‘‘Securing the Commons’’ Gabriel M. Scheinmann and Raphael S. Cohen
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Scheinmann_Cohen.pdf
Iran’s Declining Influence in Iraq. Babak Rahimi
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Rahimi.pdf
The Influence and Illusion of China’s New Left. Charles W. Freeman III and Wen Jin Yuan
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Freeman_Yuan.pdf
Solving the Statebuilders’ Dilemma. Ben Rowswell
http://www.twq.com/12winter/docs/12winter_Rowswell.pdf
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)