The transnational expansion of military urbanism

While military budgets of states are increasingly subject to cuts, the intelligence and weapons industries turn to police corps and local authorities as customers.

By Tomaz Paoliello and Manoela Miklos

/ 30 May 2012

NATO’s Middle East policy reform: learning from EU failures

In response to Josiah Surface, Andrea Teti argues that NATO must think innovatively about the assumptions underpinning past policy. The EU’s past experiences in dealing with MENA countries point to a number of mistakes NATO should avoid reproducing.

By Andrea Teti

/ 21 May 2012

Defining NATO partnerships: why the 'Stability' critique is flawed

Stability is a desirable outcome for all parties in the Mediterranean Dialogue. This does not mean returning to the failed policies of the past; our Atlantic Memo is rather a roadmap for maintaining a commitment to the burgeoning democratic institutions of the region.

By Open democracy

/ 17 May 2012

The Chicago Summit: a relevant NATO in a post-western world ?

NATO attempts to brush over the original intentions behind the Chicago Summit may prove successful, given an extremely able diplomatic bureaucracy and an environment with a short memory span. But despite 'smart defense', three crucial issues left off the agenda could spell the end of NATO relevanc

By Open democracy

/ 16 May 2012

A UN emergency peace service?

The UN system attempts to help in preventing armed conflict and protecting civilians. In the face of overlapping global crises, we may begin to understand the urgent need for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS).

By H. Peter Langille

/ 14 May 2012

Disarmament is more practical than we are conditioned to think

As attention shifts to the NATO summit in Chicago, a statement by sixteen non nuclear weapons states, including Switzerland and Norway - an ally of the nuclear weapons states, says that nuclear weapons and programmes have catastrophic humanitarian consequences and should be abolished.

By Dan Plesch

/ 11 May 2012

International intervention and its humanitarian consequences in Libya and beyond: an unresolved issue

Although the intervention in Libya has had some positive effects on the country it finds itself in a humanitarian crisis. Impunity and crimes against humanity occur, many people are displaced and conflict has spilled over to neighbouring countries. A more developed and broader humanitarian interve

By Open democracy

/ 11 May 2012

NATO nuclear weapons and the Defence and Deterrence Posture Review: a non-consensual debate

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have acknowledged publicly that they would like to see the US nuclear weapons all three are hosting removed from their territories. Yet the debate in NATO on this issue lacks transparency and accountability.

By Open democracy

/ 7 May 2012

Europe and NATO's response to the Arab Uprisings

Western governments need to recognize that authoritarian regimes are often fierce but not strong; that privatisation is rarely the road to liberalisation, much less democratization; and that Islamism was as wrong-footed by the uprisings as they were

By Andrea Teti

/ 7 May 2012

A case for community policing in Russia

Russian police reform has so far been about centralisation and modernisation. Mark Galeotti suggests that the time is now right for a focus on localisation and humanisation, too.

By Open democracy

/ 27 Apr 2012

The politics of mourning

Last April more than 35,000 people marched in Cuernavaca, Mexico, following the murder of a teenager. Four years into president Felipe Calderón’s diastrous ‘drug war’, the line between remembrance and protest has started to blur. Should the thousands of dead be stigmatised or martyred? Silenced or

By Open democracy

/ 24 Apr 2012

The Arab uprisings

It is a long road from an initial uprising to something that can be called a successful revolution. So far in the Arab region, only Tunisia has met even the minimum criteria of revolutionary success. And although there is increasing talk of a ‘Turkish’ or ‘Indonesian’ model combining a pious socie

By Open democracy

/ 23 Apr 2012

Security sector reform - a global challenge