The Security Dilemma: A Conceptual Analysis

Critically building upon the work of Herbert Butterfield, John Herz, and Robert Jervis, this article advances a more rigorous definition of the security dilemma. It demonstrates critical implications of the rigorously redefined concept. It examines several influential extensions and expansions of the original concept, showing that most have been inaccurate and misleading, and proposes remedies for correcting the mistakes. Finally, it identifies several areas of future research that may yield important new insights into the dynamics of the security dilemma.     

A Game Changer in EU-Turkey Relations: The Opportunities and Pitfalls of Migration Policy

ABSTRACT

The mass migration from Syria has been a major turning point and an important ‘game changer’ in EU-Turkey relations, as it marks a watershed in immigration and asylum between two periods: from 1999 to 2011 and from 2011 to the present. During the first period, the EU was one of the driving forces of change in Turkey’s immigration and asylum policy, along with significant migration movements from the Middle East. Although EU demands were largely implemented due to the country’s changing migration profile, there was also ongoing resistance and reluctance towards the EU, thus a certain degree of conditionality. With the Syrian mass migration in 2011, however, and in particular the so-called ‘European refugee crisis’ in 2015, Turkey started to use migration as a foreign policy tool with which to oppose EU conditionality.     

Intent to Destroy: The Genocidal Impact of Forced Migration in Darfur, Sudan

The conflict in Darfur is now nearly three years old. Hundredsof thousands of civilians have been killed and millions moreremain unable to return to their homes, living the barest ofexistences in remote and often under-stocked and under-protectedcamps. Displaced populations are subject to malnutrition, diseaseand ongoing violence. Rape and other forms of sexual violenceremain a tool for instilling fear and controlling the civilianpopulation. Yet international will to protect and assist thevictims of the conflict remains weak, with governments and worldbodies bogged down debating the definition of genocide and theproper venues for eventual tribunals. This paper will examinewhether or not the conflict in Darfur does indeed amount togenocide, including a discussion of the role of forced displacementin reaching such a determination. It then looks at the 2005findings of the United Nations-sponsored International Commissionof Inquiry and discusses some of the reasons behind the internationalreluctance to reach a determination of genocide in the region.Lastly, it addresses the constructiveness of the genocide labelin the context of Darfur, and presents options for moving forwardwith a protection agenda regardless of what the conflict iscalled.     

Buufis amongst Somalis in Dadaab: the Transnational and Historical Logics behind Resettlement Dreams

The Somali word buufis is commonly used in the Kenyan refugeecamps of Dadaab, referring to a person's dream of resettlement.It is an ambiguous phenomenon, bringing hope and remittancesinto the camps but also removing investments from the regionand, when the dream cannot be reached, sometimes having adversepsychological effects. Buufis is triggered by the fact that,due to transnational flows of remittances and information, refugeesin remote camps like Dadaab can compare their lives in the campsto those of others elsewhere. This illustrates how the opportunities,constraints, hopes and dreams that refugees experience locallyare often determined by transnational factors. Whereas the resettlementdreams analysed in this article are thus likely to occur inother contexts as well, it is argued that they are more intenseand elaborate amongst refugee communities with a strong cultureof migration, like the Somalis.     

The Birth of a 'Discipline': From Refugee to Forced Migration Studies

This essay seeks to understand and explain the birth of ForcedMigration Studies. It argues that the turn from Refugee Studiesto Forced Migration Studies must be viewed against the backdropof the history and relationship of colonialism and humanitarianism,as a certain commonality binds the past and present eras. Themove to Forced Migration Studies accompanies the inaugurationof a phase of political humanitarianism with a distinct accent,albeit encapsulated in new forms and issues, on ‘civilizing’the Other. In making this contention the paper distances itselffrom both the defenders and critics of the turn to Forced MigrationStudies. It inter alia contends that Refugee Studies, like ForcedMigration Studies, has served the geopolitics of hegemonic states.But since all knowledge is dual use, both have also had humanitarianeffects. But a greater degree of disciplinary reflexivity wouldgo a long way to ensure that the genuinely humanitarian strandin Forced Migration Studies prevails.     

Intersection of disability and gender: multi-layered experiences of Ethiopian women with disabilities

This article explores the intersection of disability and gender through the experiences of Ethiopian women with disabilities using household chores as an example. As these women are often hidden at home, little literature is available on them. Thus this article aims to highlight the lived experiences of women with disabilities who are or have been at home. The interviewed women introduce peer support as an important means to increase their self-esteem and face stigma in their daily lives in a positive manner through dialogue and negotiation. The paper further suggests employing women with disabilities as a means to enable them to play a significant role in development cooperation by changing the status quo towards equality.     

Resettlement and risk of adverse incorporation: the case of the Polavaram dam

This article argues that people involuntarily displaced by development projects face the risk of adverse incorporation into local processes of development, and that resettlement programmes should aim at mitigating this risk. The article also contends that investigating the risk of adverse incorporation enables the identification of context-specific factors and processes that are likely to affect the outcomes of resettlement. The argument is applied to the case of the Polavaram dam in Andhra Pradesh, India, which will displace 200,000 people. It demonstrates that the affected people face the risk of being exposed to landlessness, fragmentation of landholdings, and casualisation of labour as a result of resettlement.     

Fluctuating Saudi and Emirati Alignment Behaviours in the Horn of Africa

ABSTRACT

The overthrow of Omar al-Bashir after three decades of rule has brought to light a dynamic that has been present for years: an interweaving of political, economic and security issues between the states of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf monarchies. Since 2011, the most active powers are the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which seek political support to counter both Iran’s influence and the growing Turkish presence. The two Gulf monarchies’ search for alignments with African counterparts has favoured the continuous reshuffling of alliances with direct effects on the local actors’ strategic choices. These dynamics need to be considered to understand the determinants behind the currently increasing instability in the Red Sea area.     

Securitising Migration: The European Union in the Context of the Post-2011 Arab Upheavals

The migration-security nexus, already at the heart of EU policymaking before the 2011 Arab uprisings, became acute after the forced displacements from Syria and the deterrence measures introduced. The internalisation by broader publics of “security knowledge” regarding migration contributed to the securitisation move. However, the construction of migration into a security-laden notion goes beyond both the adoption of deterrence measures and the straightforward association of migration with state as well as societal (in)security. Through the lens of its cooperative tools with its southern neighbours, the EU has built complex interdependencies between migration, post-2011 regional stabilisation and security. In order to read the EU’s securitised migration politics properly, the migration-security nexus must be embedded in its social, geopolitical and temporal fields. Perceptions of geopolitical threats, concurrent strains and divergences over European integration and immigration constitute an enabling terrain for the politics of securitisation.     

Sorting out the Conceptual Muddle: The Role of the Japanese Economy in the Asian Financial Crisis

Karel van Wolferen argues that, since Japan's political economy was the main factor in creating the circumstances that led up to the East Asian financial crisis, studies must focus on it to understand this event. The Japanese economy, which is here described as a war economy operating in peacetime, provided the model for East Asia's 'tiger economies' that imitated the Japanese government in its targeting of sectors for investment, especially the construction industry in the 1980s. These other East Asian economies proved more vulnerable to crisis than the Japanese economy because they were more open to foreign investment and did not have Japan's closely knit economic and financial networks and institutions. After presenting this preface to the crisis, van Wolferen then criticizes the current East Asian economic situation, in which international institutions continue to force the Western ideals of transparency and deregulation on most of the East Asian economies while permitting Japan to remain the least transparent economy of the entire region.     

Norms in International Relations: Some Conceptual and Methodological Reflections

Acknowledging the social constructivist turn in the study of norms, this article offers to demonstrate that the notion of norms is useful as an analytical tool and likely to become a lasting element in international relations theory. Ideational causality and the independent explanatory power of norms are methodological issues that have been debated widely. Despite arguing that norms matter, social constructivism has problems making a successful case for the independent influence of norms. This article explores social constructivism as an approach to understanding international norms and their origins.     

Involuntary Resettlement as an Opportunity for Development: The Case of Urban Resettlers of the Three Gorges Project, China

The restoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlementis commonly based on providing compensation to those who aredisplaced. This policy has led to a series of horror stories.For this reason, it is proposed that by conducting resettlementas a development project in its own right, the performance ofresettlements can be improved and the benefits will accrue tothe local population. The Three Gorges Project on the YangtzeRiver is the first project in China in which the policy of resettlementwith development was translated into practice. This paper usesthe results of a survey of urban resettlers in two countiesto demonstrate that development policies have been unevenlyapplied across the Three Gorges Region and that in some countiesthe policies have had some success in maintaining and raisingthe incomes of resettlers.