On regional security governance once again: how analysis of the Southern Caucasus can advance the concept

Already introduced to the academic and political debate some years ago, the concept of “security governance” still needs to be clarified. In particular, four main shortcomings need to be overcome to make the concept more useful for an assessment of current security dynamics: in the first place, attention has been devoted more to “governance” than to “security”, while failing to consider the role of the understandings and perceptions of the actors involved in the governance system. Second, the literature on the actors (governmental or not) involved is still fragmented. Third, the literature on security governance has too often been detached from reflections on regionalism, while it would be useful to further explore the relationship between cognitive definitions of regional and security dynamics. Fourth, the literature has predominantly focused on Europe and the transatlantic area, overlooking processes of “region-building” in security terms in other “unexpected” geographical spaces. After proposing avenues to overcome the current gaps in the literature, the Southern Caucasus is chosen as a case study to show the different instances of security governance emerging, thanks to definitions of the region in security terms that have involved regional and external actors, of a state and non-state nature.     

The South China Sea security problem: towards regional cooperation

Asia Europe Journal - The year 2009 marked many dynamic developments in the South China Sea which attracted the attention of the international community. The main objective of this paper is to...     

United States' strategic possibilities in the South Caucasus

South Caucasus is an area where the United States can obtain a wide number of strategic advantages if a coherent policy towards South Caucasus and the Caucasian Region is developed. This article seeks to throw light on some of the most important objectives the United States can obtain in the region, and explain how the policy of multiple outlets is a cornerstone in American policy for South Caucasus. Furthermore we look at the problems of the current policy, especially those concerning the Baku‐Ceyhan pipeline.     

Visibly Invisible: EU Engagement in Conflict Resolution in the South Caucasus

Abstract

This essay examines growing European Union (EU) involvement in the South Caucasus, focusing on efforts to resolve the protracted conflicts in the regions of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. To date, the EU has occupied a back seat in conflict resolution efforts, supporting organisations such as the UN and OSCE, which have taken the lead role. However, over a decade of negotiations has produced few tangible results and the EU now has the opportunity to play a much greater role. This essay argues that the EU needs to become more involved: it has a much wider range of tools at its disposal with which to influence the various situations and it is in its own interest to ensure the stability of its neighbours.     

Lost in Transition: The Liberal International Order in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus

Abstract

While espoused by the newly independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the liberal order has not taken root in interstate relations and is now openly contested in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. However, the challenges presented (primarily by Russia) to the international order also trigger growing contestation, in several Eastern European and South Caucasus countries, of an existing regional order premised on Russian hegemony. Therefore, the picture that emerges from these multiple contestations is not an alternative regional order, but rather overlapping orders in a fragmented region.     

The EU in the South Caucasus and the Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War

Despite hopes that it would act as a transformative tool in the South Caucasus to strengthen democracy, stability, security and regional cooperation, the Eastern Partnership (EaP) has produced limited results, with the region more fragmented today than it was five years ago. Russia’s war against Ukraine has further exacerbated the situation, raising concerns over the extent to which South Caucasus countries can genuinely rely on the West. Today, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have different geostrategic trajectories. While Georgia has stuck to the Euro-Atlantic track, Armenia joined the Russian-led Eurasian Union in January 2015. Meanwhile Azerbaijan has the luxury of choosing not to choose. Developments in the region have demonstrated that a ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work and a more differentiated policy is required.     

The European Union,regional integration,and conflict transformation in the South China Sea territorial disputes

Asia Europe Journal - This study assumes that the EU can contribute to a constructive transformation of regional conflicts in the South China Sea. To prove this assumption, the author investigates...     

Security and development in the Caucasus

This article discusses the linkage between security and development in the Caucasus. In particular, it examines the degree to which developmental dysfunction has been a significant cause of conflict, the extent to which conflict has distorted the region's economic transition, and the role of development assistance in fostering conflict resolution. The article argues that the region's conflicts have had locally significant economic consequences and that they make it difficult for the region's states to cushion the effects of post‐communist economic transition. However, the collapse of command economies and the failure of governance have a stronger causal role in explaining the economic collapse and the halting quality of economic recovery. Turning to the role of development assistance in conflict resolution, aid agencies and donors have been reluctant to use development assistance as an instrument of conflict resolution. However, there has been some success in using micro‐level assistance to foster reconciliation between communities.     

Legitimating transformation: political resource allocation in the South African constitutional court

This study examines the performance of the South African Constitutional Court in four cases in which it was required to review the allocation of resources by the political branches. According to the conventional view, political resource allocation should be immune from judicial scrutiny because it involves decisions that courts are neither institutionally equipped nor mandated to make. In new democracies, the added reason for judicial self-restraint in this area is thought to be that courts should avoid potentially damaging confrontations with the political branches un1i1 they have established their legitimacy. And yet, in the cases examined here, the Constitutional Court has not only skillfully negotiated its review function, but actively sought out opportunities to subject political resource allocation to the standards set by the Constitution. In this way the Court has been able to build its legitimacy by endorsing the overall thrust of the political branches' transformation efforts. In turn, those efforts have been legitimated by their exposure to judicial scrutiny. This finding suggests that the conventional view may be wrong, and that constitutional courts in new democracies may need to involve themselves in controversial political questions if they are to play a meaningful role in the consolidation of democracy.     

The new security in democratic South Africa: a cautionary tale

The broadened and deepened notion of security has been evolving in two dimensions, one primarily intellectual and the other concerned more with political practice and policy. This paper briefly describes these dimensions, and then critically examines the acceptance of the new notion of security in the form a security-is-development thesis in South African security policy. This case shows how the security-is-development thesis affects the functions of security agencies and legitimates their anti-democratic behaviour. The case serves as a cautionary tale about how an intellectual construct, movement and school, originally intended to be a critique of state behaviour, can become a tool of state power at the expense of democracy.     

Information,communication and transformation: a South African perspective

ABSTRACT

The growth of the South African information and communication technology (ICT) sector has been phenomenal in the past four years. Although the global ICT sector has suffered setbacks in the past few months because of the dramatic loss of technology stocks in world markets. South Africa's ICT is set to improve due to a still massive unmet demand for ICT services in the country. South Africa must seize the opportunity to leapfrog into an information society, while not repeating the mistakes of the developing economies. South Africa has opted for a managed liberalisation of the economy. The telecommunications sector is gradually being opened to competition while ensuring the optimum use of existing investments in the sector. This article argues that while liberalising telecommunications, it remains important that state assets such as Telkom, the telecommunications parastatal, should remain in the hands of the state in order to serve public interest. Wholesale privatisation of state assets is not the solution for South Africa, but to build global dreams needs global architects. Unless South Africa joins the global architects of the information society, the quality of life of its citizens will remain poor. This then makes privatisation a necessity as it brings huge revenue to state coffers in order to deliver much-needed services. This article also argues that the success of the implementation of South Africa's ICT policies relies mainly on the stability and viability of the sector regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).     

Transatlantic conflict management inside-out: the impact of domestic norms on regional security practices

This article explores the impact of domestic norms on regional security practices in a pluralistic security community in the transatlantic area. A security community is considered to be ‘a group which has become integrated, where integration is defined as the attainment of a sense of community, accompanied by formal or informal institutions or practices, sufficiently strong and widespread to assure peaceful change among members of a group with “reasonable” certainty over a “long” period of time’ (Karl W Deutsch, Sidney A Burrell, Robert A Kann, Maurice Lee Jr, Martin Lichterman, Raymond E Lindgren, Francis L Loewenheim and Richard W Van Wagenen (1957) Political community and the North Atlantic area: international organization in the light of historical experience (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press)). Recent studies have aligned the concept of security community with the practice turn in International Relations theory. Although practice theory is able to explain peaceful conflict resolution within a security community, this article shows that its explanatory power is significantly weaker when it comes to military interventions outside the security community. The article theoretically and empirically investigates this argument by using the empirical case of extraregional conflict management in Afghanistan. The importance of domestic norms in constructing and perceiving regional security practices in out-of-area operations emphasizes the ‘local’ over the ‘regional’ as a crucial driver behind the emergence of a regional actor's understanding of security and thus for the formation and consolidation of regional peace.     

Guns,roses and democratization: Huntington's secret admirer in the Caucasus

Georgia is the most democratic country in the Caucasus, but arguably its democratization has also been riddled by Huntingtonian developmental crises, resulting in ethnic conflicts and civil wars. We argue that variation in the type of political instability is best understood by focusing on the interaction between nationalism and political institutionalization rather than on their independent effects. We show that Gamsakhurdia's “state-breaking nationalism”, coupled with political deinstitutionalization, produced separatist and centrist civil wars. When Saakashvili's “state-making nationalism” enhanced state capacity, it marginalized the opposition and rekindled frozen separatist conflicts, but stronger administrative institutions enabled the government to avert another revolutionary regime change.