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Securitizing Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
Piracy off the coast of the failed state of Somalia has been growing at an alarming rate. Last year (2008), over 120 attacks have been reported, resulting in the seizure of more than 40 ships and the kidnapping of more than 600 crew members, and about $30 million (USD) in ransom has been paid. Somali...
The Gulen Movement: An Islamic Response to Terror as a Global Challenge
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
Whilst globalization seems to be winning the battle against both modern and traditional movements which were, until fairly recently, quite active on both the national and the regional levels, it is doubtful that the challenges brought about by globalization can be easily met by some of the world’s stronger...
Bush, Clausewitz, and Grand Strategic Imperatives: Keeping Political Ends Primary
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
As former President George W. Bush relinquished the reigns as Command¬er-in-Chief to President Barak Obama, it is fitting to reflect on how the US will remember Bush in years to come. Whether or not one agrees with his decision to commit U.S. forces to military action against Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath...
The EU-Iran Dialogue in the Context of the Ongoing Nuclear Crisis
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
The EU-Iran ‘Comprehensive Dialogue,’ launched in 1998 following the election of reformist President Khatami, did not achieve any significant re¬sults, mostly as a consequences of the controversy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program. It involved high-level discussions on political matters, as well as on...
Evaluating the Current Global Order: A Canadian Perspective
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
The financial crisis currently gripping the United States, and reverberating around the world, has strengthened the claims of a growing number of observ¬ers and political scientists that the American unipolar moment is passing.2 On September 25 in a speech to the Bundestag, German Finance Minister Peer...
EU Enlargement and Current Adaptation Challenges
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
The European Union’s (EU) enlargement process was an integral part of the EC/EU’s wider integration project and, surprisingly, it has not yet halted. The journey from six to twenty seven has been a long and complicated one, and the realisation of some of the projects has required much time and political...
Putin’s Foreign Policy and the Founding of the NATO-Russia Council
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
For Russia, NATO represents a major foreign policy challenge that contin¬ues to create friction within the European security architecture. Although many expected the end of the Cold War to usher in a new era of cooperation, Russia and NATO have continued to harbor mutual suspicions and old biases. This...
Russian Relations to the Gulf Region in a Changing Geopolitical Environment
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
Scholars of most academic disciplines across the social sciences have a fondness for comparing different regions in order to evaluate why one may be developing more rapidly than another, why democracy may be stalled in one region or flourishing in another, or why the benefits foreseen by economic reform...
The Role of G8 Economic Summits in Global Monetary Architecture
Issue:
2009 - Volume 3, Issue 1
The 1970s saw turbulent and dramatic economic transitions. The breakdown of the Bretton Woods System introduced new monetary conditions that ended a period of consensus among most capitalist states regarding ideal regimes to form their monetary relations. Until 1971, the interests of financial capital...
Cross-Cutting Issues in International Capital
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
For many decades, particularly since the 1970s, markets have been praised as the most effective economic mechanisms, and the more market actors there are, the better the mechanisms work, making the world economy an ideal stage for the interplay of market forces. Different streams of liberalism and the...
Collective Security and Unilateral Decisions - Security Prospects for the post-Soviet Space
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
Unlike anywhere else within the international community, the post-Soviet space (pSs) is unique since the states within it are bound together not only because of common history and culture, but also due to political geography and largely uniform self-perceptions. The Commonwealth of Independent States...
China's Energy Security and Geo-Economic Interests in Central Asia
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
Energy security, a relatively new term in international relations jargon, implies states (or other political communities) securing adequate and reliable energy supplies at stable prices. Currently, this involves securing so-called primary energy supplies which include, coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydro-electricity...
The Russian Minority in Post-Communist Politics: a Case Study of Ukraine, Moldova and Chechnya
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
From the moment the republics of the Soviet Union proclaimed their independence in 1991, the face of the Soviet ethno-cultural demographic changed significantly. Soviet dissolution was the primary expedient for the creation of the Russian diaspora, as twenty-five million Russians found themselves located...
Establishing the Norm of Humanitarian Intervention in International Relations
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
International relations are presently in the midst of impressive change. Whether discussing traditional geopolitics, political and economic globalisation, international institutions, the rise of religious extremism, energy security, or enviro-politics, it is sure that the 21st century offers new challenges,...
Pakistan at 61: An Assessment of Challenges and Opportunities
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
Sixty-one years after its independence in 1947, Pakistan still faces fundamental questions of identity, governance, state and nation-building. Despite being the only nuclear-armed Muslim country – raising Pakistan’s international political importance – more than one third of the Pakistani population...
Water and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 2
Economically, the Middle Eastern region is primarily agricultural, which is being practiced in an arid and desert-like environment. Water is a highly politicized and naturally scarce resource in the region, and there have always been conflicts over the ownership and use of water resources. Modern history...
Between Militarism and Pacifism: Conscientious Objection and Draft Resistance in Israel
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
The outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000 prompted many Israelis to object to Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories by refusing their reserve call-up or by resisting the draft. They have established and were active in four social movements (Yesh Gvul, Courage to Refuse, New Profile...
Linking DDR and SSR in Post-conflict States: Agendas for Effective Security Sector Reintegration
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
According to the UN's Integrated Operational Guide to DDR Standards (IDDRS), DDR seeks to create security and stability in post-conflict environments, and to start recovery and development, by getting the former combatants to comprehensively disarm and providing them with opportunities for sustainable...
The Conflicting Rebirth of Multipolarity in International Relations
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
The process of constructing a new multipolar world, which will probably take decades to complete and whose boundaries may only become clear by 2020, is just as important as the process which ended the Cold War some 20 years ago. The United States, as the only global superpower, is increasingly confronted...
President Bush's Address to the Nation on U.S. Policy in Iraq: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
The reasons for selecting this political speech are simple. Firstly, it was delivered in the wake of the latest U.S. Senate Elections, the result of which gave the Democrats a slim majority in Congress for the first time since the Presidential Election of 2000.
Secondly, the over-all situation in...
The Lisbon Treaty and the Future of EU Enlargement
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
Each institution entitled to decide by QMV has its decision-making principle tailor-made. The specific set-up is defined while forming (or re-forming) the given institution and it is determined by several factors. The latter may entail the function of the institution, its inner organisation set-up, statute,...
The Adequacy of Aviation Security Laws and Airport Security
Issue:
2008 - Volume 2, Issue 1
The era of sustained controlled powered flight began little more than a hundred years ago. Since then the civil aviation industry has grown into a sector of immense importance. As flight trajectories and planes themselves took on a more complex character, airports too had to evolve to accommodate the...
Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War of Images and Idea
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 2
Presented primarily in Arabic on an array of websites unknown to most Americans and Europeans, Iraqi insurgent media hover at the margins of mainstream reports in the form of a "claim of responsibility on an insurgent website" or a "video posted to a jihadist forum." Such marginal references fail to...
The Role of Diasporas in Foreign Policy: The Case of Canada
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 2
Diasporas engage in a range of trans-national activities for political purposes. Forcefully dispersed or conflict-generated diasporas are more prone to be politically engaged than diasporas whose members have moved for economic reasons or in order to improve their standards of living. While some of these...
Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Post-Conflict States: Challenges of Local Ownership
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 2
While the term Security Sector Reform has been widely used in the post-conflict peace-building context, further clarification is needed to reveal a larger significance. The OECD's Guidelines on Security System and Governance Reform defines security sector reform as; [it] includes all the actors, their...
Humanitarian Arms Control, Symbiotic Functionalism and the Concept of Middlepowerhood
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 2
This article arises from dissatisfaction with predominant accounts concerning changes in interactions between nongovernmental actors and governments in contemporary world politics, namely the image of a tension between so-called state-centric and transnational worlds. Specifically, it can be conceived...
The Gratuitous Suicide by the Sons of Pride: On Honour and Wrath in Terrorist Attacks
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 2
In the Western philosophic and literary tradition to be without home or country is a fate that both demands our loathing and pity. As Aristotle characterized it, a man born without a city is either a "beast or a god". Such beings Aristotle maintains, since they cannot properly be called human, have a...
Israeli Security Doctrine between the Thirst for Exceptionalism and Demands for Normalcy
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 2
Israeli security has been invoked time and again to explain Israeli behavior and justify Israeli actions vis-à-vis neighboring states and peoples. Yet there have been few insights into the manner in which Israeli security doctrine3 has been formulated, the various factors that have shaped and influenced...
EU Counterterrorism Policy and the 2004 Eastern Enlargement
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 1
The European Union’s counterterrorism policy can be traced to the early 1970s, when the European Political Cooperation (EPC) came into being. The initial impetus for greater intergovernmental cooperation among Member States was the growth of terrorist incidents perpetrated by indigenous Western European...
Conscription and European Security: A Theoretical First-Step
Issue:
2007 - Volume 1, Issue 1
In the 18 year process of European reintegration, military conscription – as a feature of the European political scene – has largely vanished. The evaporation of sizeable, conscripted militaries reflects the widespread belief that conscription is a political, economic and military anachronism reminiscent...