Todd Landman
May 2006
British Journal of Politics & International Relations. Vol. 8, Issue 2 Political Studies Association
Available online in: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1369-1481
Human rights defenders have received renewed attention in the current period owing to new institutional and normative developments at the international level and renewed targeting by states at the domestic level. Human rights NGOs have begun to argue more forcefully that human rights defenders are more at risk from attack by their governments under the guise of the 'war on terror', an assertion that is supported by the fact that an increasing number of states have enacted anti-terror legislation. Using a cross-national data set of 195 countries for the period 1997 to 2003, this article explores the main factors that account for the cross-national variation in acts of abuse against human rights defenders in the post 9/11 era, including the presence of anti-terror legislation. In addition to the examination of the effects of democracy, economic development, intra-state war, population size and US overseas aid, the analysis shows that while reported abuse against human rights defenders has indeed increased since 2001, this increase is not attributable to the enactment of anti-terror legislation, a finding that is further mediated by the fact that just over half of the countries that have enacted such legislation are democracies.
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: The Causes of Civilian Victimization in War
Alexander B. Downes
April 2006
Internacional Security. Spring 2006, Vol. 30, No. 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Available online in: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=26
Despite normative and legal injunctions against targeting civilians in war, as well as doubts regarding the effectiveness of such strategies, belligerents have frequently turned their guns on noncombatants. Two variables—desperation to win and to save lives on one's own side in protracted wars of attrition, and the intention to conquer and annex enemy territory—explain this repeated resort to civilian targeting. According to the desperation logic, costly and prolonged wars of attrition cause states to become increasingly anxious to prevail and to reduce their losses. Adopting a policy of civilian victimization permits states to continue the war while managing their losses and hopefully coercing the adversary to quit. In the appetite for conquest model, by contrast, belligerents specifically intend to seize and annex territory. Attackers in this model employ civilian victimization to eliminate enemy civilians, who can threaten the aggressor's immediate military position and present a future threat of rebellion. Multivariate analysis of interstate wars between 1816 and 2003 corroborates the importance of these factors,and a case study of the British starvation blockade of Germany in World War I supports the plausibility of the desperation mechanism.
The End of MAD? The Nuclear Dimension of U.S. Primacy
Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press
April 2006
Internacional Security. Spring 2006, Vol. 30, No. 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Available online in: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=26
For nearly half a century, the world's most powerful nuclear-armed states have been locked in a condition of mutual assured destruction. Since the end of the Cold War, however, the nuclear balance has shifted dramatically. The U.S. nuclear arsenal has steadily improved; the Russian force has sharply eroded; and Chinese nuclear modernization has progressed at a glacial pace. As a result, the United States now stands on the verge of attaining nuclear primacy, meaning that it could conceivably disarm the long-range nuclear arsenals of Russia and China with a nuclear first strike. A simple nuclear exchange model demonstrates that the United States has a potent first-strike capability. The trajectory of nuclear developments suggests that the nuclear balance will continue to shift in favor of the United States in coming years. The rise of U.S. nuclear primacy has significant implications for relations among the world's great powers, for U.S. foreign policy, and for international relations scholarship.
Building a Republican Peace: Stabilizing States after War
Michael Barnett
April 2006
Internacional Security. Spring 2006, Vol. 30, No. 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Available online in: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=26
Although peacebuilders do not operate from a common template, liberal values so define their activities that their efforts can be called "liberal peacebuilding." Many postconflict operations aspire to create a state that contains the rule of law, markets, and democracy. Growing evidence suggests, however, that liberal peacebuilding is re-creating the conditions of conflict; states emerging from war do not have the necessary institutions or civic culture to absorb the pressures associated with political and market competition. In recognition of these problems and dangers, there is an emerging call for greater attention to the state and institutionalization before liberalization. These critiques, and lessons learned from recent operations, point to an alternative-republican peacebuilding. Drawing from republican political theory, this article argues that the republican principles of deliberation, constitutionalism, and representation can help states after war address the threats to stability that derive from arbitrary power and factional conflict and, in the process, develop some legitimacy. Republican peacebuilding is not only good for postconflict states; it also is appropriate for international peacebuilders, who also can exercise arbitrary power.
The Role of Innere Führung in German Civil-Military Relations
Petra McGregor
April 2006
Strategic Insights. Vol. V, Issue 4 Center for Contemporary Conflict at the Naval Postgraduate School
Available online in:
http://www.csis.org/hs/index.php?option=com_csis_topics&task=select&obj=Publications&id=2
Germany celebrates two important 50-year anniversaries in the year 2005. On May 9, 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany became the 15th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), signaling that the country was ready to be considered an equal partner in the common defense of the Western Alliance. November 12, 1955 is the founding day of the German Bundeswehr when the first 101 members of Germany’s new armed forces received their letters of appointment from the new Minister of Defense Theodor Blank in an old vehicle warehouse in Bonn.
This paper describes the important role that the concept of “Innere Führung” has had, and continues to have, in the armed forces of Germany. It will first give a brief account of events and circumstances that preceded the inception of the post-World War II German armed forces. The paper then will outline the idea and underlying philosophy of Innere Führung in the context of civil-military relations theory by examining the importance of values and legitimacy as it relates to its distinguishing feature of the “citizen in uniform.” It will chart the objectives of Innere Führung and their application on both the institutional and the individual level in order to address the proper balance between the functions of the armed forces on one hand and the values of society as a whole on the other. The paper will conclude that this 50-year-old concept is still valid today, that its dynamic characteristics have allowed it to respond appropriately to developments in civil society, and that it may well serve as a model for emerging democracies facing the challenges of civil-military tensions.
Identity and Conflict: Ties that Bind and Differences that Divide Erik Gartzke and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
March 2006
European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 12, No. 1 European Consortium for Political Research
Available online in: http://ejt.sagepub.com/current.dtl
Conventional wisdom suggests that cultural differences make conflict more likely. Culture can unite and divide, but there exists little agreement among scholars over how identity forms among states, what distinctions are most salient, and when conflict is more likely. Researchers have tended to ‘confirm’ the role of identity in an ex post facto fashion, looking only at actual conflicts with cultural differences, without considering the opportunities for conflict among groups. We address a series of problems with existing conceptions of identity and ethnicity. We distinguish between shared and different culture by religion, language, and ethnicity. Rather than equating states with just the dominant groups, we also consider how relations involving secondary groups present in other states can give rise to conflict. We examine empirically the relationship between cultural similarities and differences and international dispute behavior in the post-World War II era. Our results suggest that culture and identity influence dispute patterns, but in ways that run counter to conventional beliefs. We find little evidence that conflict is more common between states where the dominant groups come from different cultural affiliations. If anything, our results suggest that violence is more likely among states with similar cultural ties, even when controlling for other determinants of conflict. Moreover, dyads where a group is politically privileged in one state but a minority in another tend to be particularly conflict prone. We conclude with suggestions for reorienting the study of identity and conflict in more constructive ways than the clash of civilization thesis.
HIV/AIDS and security
Colin Mcinnes
March 2006
International Affairs. Vol. 82 Cambridge University
Available online in: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0020-5850
The UN and its associated agencies have been among the most important players in increasing global AIDS awareness. But the intervention of the Security Council has been critical in securitizing HIV/AIDS. Moreover, the claims made by the Security Council have set the agenda for the subsequent debate on HIV/AIDS as a security issue. This article examines these claims—that HIV/AIDS poses a risk to internal stability, national security and peacekeepers, and that conflict is a vector for the spread of the disease. It argues that the evidence is less clear cut, more complex and case sensitive than the original claims suggested. Moreover, the causal links between HIV/AIDS and insecurity appear less robust. It concludes that the case made by the Security Council was somewhat speculative, while the snowballing of subsequent pessimistic thinking led these concerns to a position of orthodoxy that now appears less assured. HIV/AIDS remains a tragedy and a human security issue; whether it is a national security issue is more problematic.
Bringing the ‘Community’ Back: Integration, Conflict, and Cooperation Robert G. Blanton
March 2006
Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association. Vol. 41, No. 1
Available online in: http://cac.sagepub.com/
Though a great deal of scholarship has been devoted to the relationship between economic interdependence and conflict — the ‘liberal peace’ — the conceptual and analytic focus of this body of literature remains quite narrow. Seeking to improve upon extant literature, I incorporate Deutsch's concept of the ‘security community’ to provide a broader theoretical foundation for the impact of economic interdependence upon interstate relations. Next, I empirically explore where trade, the key independent variable in this body of literature, fits within the broader web of interactions and transactions that contribute towards the integrative process. I then employ events data to assess the impact of integration upon four different measures of interstate interactions — two types of interactions (conflict and cooperation) across two issue areas (economic and military).
The Uses of Legitimacy in International Relations
Mulligan, Shane P.
February 2006
Millennium Journal of International Studies. Vol. 34, Number 2 London School of Economics
Available online in: http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/intrel/millenn/FrameSet.html
The concept of legitimacy has long held a central place in political thought, but only in recent years have scholars started to look closely at questions of legitimacy in international affairs. Yet the literature now abounds with enquiries into the legitimacy of particular regimes, of humanitarian intervention and other forms of violence, and of various international institutions, including international law itself. These questions take many forms, as it is not simply the criteria, but also the very meaning of legitimacy that is contested—yet through these various meanings, certain continuities of use can be seen. As an application of Wittgenstein's analyses of 'language games', a conceptual history of legitimacy can help to show the forms of these continuities, and also help us to understand the range of conceptual affiliates the term has picked up along the way, from legality to popular approval to moral appropriateness. Looking at contemporary uses of the term in IR, we can see how these ambiguous associations often intrude on one another, such that the concept evokes a significance greater than that which is claimed for it. This conceptual encroachment contributes to specific effects of the use of legitimacy, in terms of the way international politics can be represented and perceived. This leads to a recommendation that, if the concept of legitimacy is to become as relevant to global politics as it is in theories of the state, it is vital that IR theorists be more attentive to these practical implications of their conceptual (re)constructions.
Fourth-Generation War and other Myths Authored
Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria
November 2005
Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
Available online in: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB632.pdf
Fourth Generation War (4GW) emerged in the late 1980s, but has become popular due to recent twists in the war in Iraq and terrorist attacks worldwide. Despite reinventing itself several times, the theory has several fundamental flaws that need to be exposed before they can cause harm to U.S. operational and strategic thinking. A critique of 4GW is both fortuitous and important because it also provides us an opportunity to attack other unfounded assumptions that could influence U.S. strategy and military doctrine.
In brief, the theory holds that warfare has evolved through four generations: 1) the use of massed manpower, 2) repower, 3) maneuver, and now 4) an evolved form of insurgency that employs all available networks —political, economic, social, military— to convince an opponent’s decisionmakers that their strategic goals are either unachievable or too costly. The notion of 4GW first appeared in the late 1980s as a vague sort of “out of the box ”thinking, and it entertained every popular conjecture about future warfare. However, instead of examining the way terrorists belonging to Hamas or Hezbollah (or now Al Qaeda) actually behave, it misleadingly pushed the storm-trooper ideal as the terrorist of tomorrow. Instead of looking at the probability that such terrorists would improvise with respect to the weapons they used —box cutters, aircraft, and improvised explosive devices— it posited high-tech “wonder” weapons. The theory went through a second incarnation when the notion of nontrinitarian war came into vogue; but it failed to examine that notion critically. The theory also is founded on myths about the so-called Westphalian system and the theory of blitzkrieg. The theory of 4GW reinvented itself once again after September 11, 2001 (9/11), when its proponents claimed that Al Qaeda was waging a 4GW against the United States. Rather than thinking critically about future warfare, the theory’s proponents became more concerned with demonstrating that they had predicted the future. While their recommendations are often rooted in common sense, they are undermined by being tethered to an empty theory.
What we are really seeing in the war on terror, and the campaign in Iraq and elsewhere, is that the increased “dispersion and democratization of technology, information, and finance” brought about by globalization has given terrorist groups greater mobility and access worldwide. At this point, globalization seems to aid the nonstate actor more than the state, but states still play a central role in the support or defeat of terrorist groups or insurgencies. We would do well to abandon the theory of 4GW altogether, since it sheds very little, if any, light on this phenomenon.
Strategic Culture: From Clausewitz to Constructivism
Jeffrey S. Lantis
October 2005
Strategic Insights, Volume IV, Issue 10
Center for Contemporary Conflict at the Naval Postgraduate School
Available online in: http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2005/Oct/lantisOct05.asp
This paper charts the evolution of the theory of strategic culture through several generations of scholarship, both inside and outside the discipline, and explores contemporary arguments about the role of culture in shaping national security policy. Key questions include:
Do cultural theories provide useful explanations of national security policy?
Is strategic culture “semi-permanent,” as most of its supporters suggest, or can it evolve over time?
And how universal is strategic culture?
The essay concludes that while constructivism has generated new attention to ideational foundations of national security policy behavior, there remains substantial room for refinement of the research program.
Recent events have renewed scholarly interest in the role of culture in international security. Scholars and practitioners have begun to interpret challenges like the struggle to consolidate the Iraqi democracy, U.S.-China trade disputes, and the war on terror through the lens of national identity and culture. This essay charts the evolution of the theory of strategic culture through several generations of scholarly work inside and outside the discipline. Key questions include:
What are the ideational foundations of national security policy? Do cultural theories, newly inspired by constructivism, provide the most accurate explanations of security policy? Is strategic culture really “semi-permanent,” as its supporters suggest, or can strategic culture evolve? Who are the ‘keepers’ of strategic culture? And how universal is strategic culture? The author that while contemporary works on strategic culture offer promise, there remains substantial room for development of more reflexive models.
Babel in Democratization Studies
Ariel C. Armony & Hector E. Schamis
October 2005
Journal of Democracy, Volume 16, Number 4
John Hopkins _University Press
http://www.journalofdemocracy.org
Recent works on regime types have led to confusion and tendency to overstate the differences between established and newer democracies.
The author emphatize that in order to study actual democracies today, we need a more level playing field for comparative analysis, where conceptual innovations, theoretical insights, and empirical lessons travel from old to new democracies and vice versa. The Author remarks that we need broader comparative avenues to improve our understanding of democracy and to enrich a variety of research agendas.
A Brief on Embedded Societal Security
Bengt Sundelius
October 2005
Homeland/Societal Vulnerability and Security, Serie: Information & Security, Volume 17
Center for Security Studies
Available online in: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/pubs/ph/details.cfm?v21=60410&id=14169
The traditional dichotomy of security threats and responses cannot serve as a basis for developing national and international security arrangements and institutions in the Twenty First century. This article presents the concept of societal security and the notion of intermestic domain allowing to bridge state security and human safety challenges and to build trans-boundary linkages across domestic and international levels of response. Such holistic approach, that places societal security at the core, is manifested in the Solidarity Clause of the Constitution of the European Union. The implementation of the concept would provide for efficient development of security arrangements within the European Union, between European countries and the United States. Enhanced societal security across the Atlantic could become a core mission for the future work of NATO and the wider Partnership for Peace community.
Defense expenditure: a proposal for homologation in the region
Fernando Palomino Milla
May 2005
Iraq’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction. A Field Review and Recommendations
Iraq Reconstruction Assessment Mission Report
July 2003
Towards a civil, democratic control over the armed forces in Peru
Ana María Tamayo Flores
May 2003
Back to the barracks: the military and political change in Spain (1976-1981)
Carlos Barrachina Lisón
March 2002
Civil military relations in the 21st century in Venezuela
Domingo Irwin
July 2000
From coup de etat to cooperation: a view to the professional mentality of the Argentinean Army
Marcela Donadio
February 2000
Alfonsín, Menem and civil military relations. Building control over the armed forces for Argentina in democracy (1983-1995)
Marcelo Saín
September 1999