Ties that bind: DfID and the emerging security and development agenda

The security and development nexus is on the public agenda of policy-makers and analysts as never before. It is becoming an article of faith that security and development are ‘inextricably linked’. The content and confines of the security and development agenda, however, are contested and confused. As one interviewee put it, ‘it's as if security is the new development and development is the new security’. This paper sets out to map the landscape of the development and security agenda in order that it might be navigated better. The focus is on how policy debates in this area are shifting, rather than on how these shifts are being implemented on the ground. Particular reference is made to the Department for International Development and its Strategy for Security and Development—an analysis of which throws into relief the tensions between the two spheres. It is argued that understanding the linkages between security and development must involve more than simply asserting that either one necessarily encompasses, requires or reinforces the other. Statements on security and development must be scrutinised against basic questions, not least whose security is at issue.     

The Change Imperative: Creating the Next Generation NGO

The Change Imperative: Creating the Next Generation NGO by Paul Ronalds, Kumarian Press, Sterling, VA, 2010, ISBN: 9781565493254, 232 pp.     

The effectiveness of NGO campaigning: lessons from practice

This article looks at the lessons learned in reviewing two long-running international campaigns, one to promote breast-feeding in Ghana, and the other against the use of child labor in the carpet industry in India. In particular, it focuses on understanding the nature of campaigns and what makes them effective. It asserts that campaigns are not linear or mechanistic, but need to be understood as passing through various stages and requiring different kinds of action at different levels and at different times. The variety of work and skills thus required makes it vital that the various organizations involved collaborate with each other. In particular, grassroots mobilization has a role that is often forgotten in bringing about sustained policy change.     

俄罗斯经济安全中的经济结构问题

文章对俄罗斯经济结构、再生产结构和相对价格的变动进行投入产出分析,对俄罗斯经济结构的非均衡状态作深入探讨,对俄罗斯经济结构的前景展开论述.文章认为,俄罗斯国内普遍认识到畸形经济结构已经和将要对经济安全带来的危害,然则,这种偏重能源等原材料的经济结构是俄罗斯无法避免的一个发展阶段,有其必然性.     

The Promise of Transnational NGO Dialogue: The Argument and the Challenges

Over the past few decades, a vast body of literature has emerged that strives to conceptualise transnational relations between non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This article explores this debate by mapping out two theoretical approaches that can be broadly defined as an ideational and a materialist approach. Particular attention is paid to the different ways in which one can understand the mutual impact of NGOs operating domestically and transnationally. The paper argues that combining the insights from both approaches improves our understanding of NGO dialogue.     

Crisis management: the OSCE in the Republic of Moldova

Maria Raquel Sousa Freire is an assistant professor, Department of International Relations, Universidade Lusíada do Porto, Portugal. Her research focuses on the former Soviet space and the role of international organisations in conflict and security issues.     

The Main Activities and Features of NGO in 2003

In2003熏activitiesofnon-governmentalorganiza鄄tions穴NGO雪wereincreasing.Theinternationalcom鄄munitypaidmoreandmoreattentiontotheroleplayedbyNGO.ThecooperationamongNGOwasstrengthening.Governmentsofallcountriessupport鄄edtheactivitiesofNGOconditionallyandatthesametime熏tookadvantageoftheactivitiesheldbyNGOtoservetheirforeignpolicies.MainNGOactivitiesin20031.WorldSocialForum.FromJanuary23to28熏the3rdWorldSocialForumwasheldinthePortoAlegre熏Brazil.Over20熏000registeredrepresenta鄄tive…     

俄罗斯参与构建欧洲新安全结构的阻碍因素

俄罗斯参与构建欧洲新安全结构进程中存在三个主要的阻碍因素:国内问题;缺少同盟军的支持;俄罗斯选定的欧洲安全结构核心框架———欧洲安全与合作组织本身具有致命的缺陷。以上阻碍因素使俄罗斯在该进程中很难发挥重大作用。     

柬埔寨非政府组织的发展及其社会影响

柬埔寨非政府组织(NGO)已经成为影响柬埔寨政治和社会发展的一股重要力量,本文通过对柬埔寨非政府组织历史和现状的考察,分析其当前存在的优势与困境,并指出其对柬埔寨社会的影响,希冀可以丰富相关研究。     

The emerging international system: Policy implications

The foreign policy‐making of individual nations is seen as greatly affected by the international system, whether the actors are aware of it or not. A bipolar system is seen as requiring centralization of decision‐making authority within the two great powers which define the system. Under the emerging system of “polyarchical multipolarity,” military power will remain bipolar but will no longer determine the form of other international activities. The economic system has already been decoupled from the military system. With intelligent planning, the same could be done with the energy system. The centralization of decision‐making authority is no longer adaptive under these conditions, for the complexity of the global situation cannot be handled by a limited number of people. Decentralization of decision‐making would make it possible to implement policies based on analysis and planning rather than a perceived need for immediate action.     

Growing Pains at the OSCE: The Rise and Fall of Russia's Pan-European Expectations

After the dissolution of the USSR, the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) sought to contribute to the transformation of Russia into a democratic state abiding by the rule of law and by international law. The Yeltsin administration concurred and adopted a generally cooperative posture within the CSCE. However, when Moscow suggested (as a counter-move against NATO's enlargement projects) the elaboration of a legal pan-European security system, the CSCE—now rebaptised OSCE—responded by means of the Istanbul Charter for European Security (1999), an empty text by Russian standards. Feeling that its interests were no longer served, the Putin administration warned that without drastic reforms the Organisation would be ‘doomed to extinction’. In order to defuse the crisis, the OSCE adopted a number of reform measures. Overall, however, the reform process brought very little to a Russia whose obsession with equality of status is now better addressed through bilateral institutional channels with NATO and the EU. In the present circumstances, the fate of the OSCE depends on the political value that the West attaches to this organisation, as well as Russia's wisdom not to break the single European security organisation where its place and role are fully legitimate.     

The Future Role of the European Union in Europe's Development Assistance

This paper reviews the response of the European Commission to a number of critical assessments of its administration of the EU's development assistance programme. Focusing particularly upon the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of developing countries, it considers the recent Cotonou Agreement in the context of this reform agenda. It identifies those issues that remain unresolved, including the difficulties of developing objective criteria for assessing need and performance, the role of the Inter-service Quality Support Group and the relationship between the Directorate Generals for Development and External Relations. It identifies the conflicting objectives for development policy amongst the member states as lying at the heart of the EU's development policy problems and reviews the options that may present themselves should this reform programme fail to satisfy criticism from the member states.     

Using Ideas Strategically: The Contest Between Business and NGO Networks in Intellectual Property Rights

Whose ideas matter? And how do actors make them matter? Focusing on the strategic deployment of competing normative frameworks, that is, framing issues and grafting private agendas on policy debates, we examine the contentious politics of the contemporary international intellectual property rights regime. We compare the business victory in the establishment of the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) in the World Trade Organization with the subsequent NGO campaign against enforcing TRIPS to ensure access to essential HIV/AIDS medicines. Our analysis challenges constructivist scholarship that emphasizes the distinction between various types of transnational networks based on instrumental versus normative orientations. We question the portrayal of business firms as strictly instrumental actors preoccupied with material concerns, and NGOs as motivated solely by principled, or non-material beliefs. Yet we also offer a friendly amendment to constructivism by demonstrating its applicability to the analysis of business. Treating the business and NGO networks as competing interest groups driven by their normative ideals and material concerns, we demonstrate that these networks' strategies and activities are remarkably similar.     

An international NGO representative in Colombia: reflections from practice

Certain contexts render particularly challenging the disjunctures and discontinuities between international NGO (INGO) headquarters and in-country operations, as this Christian Aid case demonstrates. Torn loyalties result when seeking to discern how best to work with partners in a human-rights crisis in a middle-income country. Navigating these challenges requires a critical interrogation and radical practice of partnership. With many INGOs partially or wholly decentralising operations, and in anomalous and complex INGO programme contexts like this, it is vital to analyse the disjunctures and to support in-country staff to respond creatively to them, to do justice to programme potential and partnership principles.     

The emerging international system: A European perspective

The author describes the breakdown of the international system of the mid‐twentieth century as unique in nature and consequences. The situation of bipolarity, characteristic of the Cold War years, has disappeared. Power has diffused greatly, making predictions as to what kind of international system will emerge difficult. Two models of possible developments in the international system are presented. In one, a tripolarity between the United States, China, and the USSR develops. In the other, there arises a five‐power multiple balance comprising China, Japan, the USSR, the USA and a unified Europe. The latter model is seen as the more hazardous, for its emergence would be a consequence of the breakdown of the spirit of coalition presently obtaining between the Atlantic powers and Japan and the proliferation of nuclear powers.