Peace Institutions Research Articles

Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand. By Zachary Abuza. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2009. 285p. $12.00.

Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand. By Zachary Abuza. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2009. 285p. $12.00.

The Illogic of Zero

Throughout 2009, proponents of the abolition of nuclear weapons were unlucky. Almost each time they tried to make their case on the international scene, the real world came to haunt them. On April ...

Negotiating Toward Peacemaking: Experience of the U.S. Institute of Peace

AbstractThis article outlines the approach of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to training in negotiation and associated skills. USIP has provided such training for over a decade to a wide array of international practitioners, both those who are in some way directly engaged in, or at least affected by, a conflict, and international third parties from outside the conflict zone. USIP concentrates in its negotiation training on building an understanding of the negotiating environment as well as on building specific negotiation strategies. In addition to skill-building, the training programs focus on developing an understanding of the nature and dynamics of conflict and of the overlapping and interlocking nature of actors, issues, and interests in a conflict situation. The article points out five elements of content that must be included to ensure a successful program, providing illustrative examples from actual workshops. These elements include helping participants to establish effective relationships with negotiating counterparts; presenting basic concepts; acquiring and improving skills; practicing through simulations; and working together on how best to apply these skills to the real world conflicts with which they are dealing. The two case studies describe training programs for Serbian and Albanian leaders in Kosovo, and for Iraqi civil servants.

Nuclear Politics, North Korea, and the Political Economy of Northeast Asia at the Dawn of the Asian Century

NUCLEAR POLITICS, NORTH KOREA, AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NORTHEAST ASIA AT THE DAWN OF THE ASIAN CENTURY* Donald C. Hellmann* During the past two decades a China-led Northeast Asia grew explosively to become a new center of the global economy. But throughout this time the strategic agenda for the region was set by the defiant and determined effort of a small, economically failed state to become a nuclear power. This anomalous and paradoxical situation created by the “nuclear politics” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) provides an exceptionally good window through which the dynamics of international relations in the region can be examined at the dawn of the Asian century. The articles that follow analyze the protracted and varied multilateral diplomatic maneuvers over the past decade, on an * Editor’s note: The five articles that follow this introduction are the result of the organizing efforts of Professors Don Hellmann and Yong Chool Ha of the University of Washington and its Korean Center, and Dr. Park Myoung Kyu, director of the Institute for Peace and Unification of Seoul National University. They wish to thank Republic of Korea Consul General Lee Ha Ryong in Seattle for his contributions. Asian Perspective is grateful to all these colleagues, and other participants, for their efforts at the conference on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the distinguished papers that resulted. ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2010, pp. 5-9. Introduction to the Special Issue agenda set largely by Pyongyang. They cast light on an array of features of the contemporary regional and global international systems. Several are quite surprising. These include: how a small semi-pariah nation could magnify its international power through “nuclear politics” in an age of globalization; how the American global hegemony was constrained from providing the effective leadership (multilateral, bilateral, or unilateral) to deal with the kinds of problems presented by the North Korea security issue; how China, the regional hegemon, was inhibited from conclusively dealing with a wayward regional “ally,” while becoming a major stakeholder in the global political economy; how South Korea, blessed with an economy thirty times that of the North, driven by existential and nationalist impulses and a flexible and innovative foreign policy, was unable to devise a strategy that produced the detente seen in Europe as the failures of communism became acute; and how, the Six Party Talks, a multilateral and multidimensional focal point in the nuclear talks with the potential to become an institution for addressing issues of conflict and cooperation in Northeast Asia, failed in the absence of strong leadership by the United States and China and the obstructionist tactics of Pyongyang. Despite the extensive literature about and discussion of the North Korean nuclear problem, these questions are rarely asked and even more rarely answered in terms of the global and regional contexts. One purpose of the conference, from which these articles were drawn—“North Korean Nuclear Politics: Constructing a New Northeast Asian Order in the Twenty-First Century” (held at the University of Washington, June 4-5, 2009) —was to place the Korean nuclear talks in the broader context of the contemporary global political economy. Somewhat paradoxically, a second purpose of the conference was to explore how the domestic decision-making processes of each country affected and was affected by the Korean nuclear issue—an inside-out, not an outside-in focus. Although no paper frontally addresses the issue of the reciprocal linkage between the international context and domestic politics in the DPRK, each of the articles explicitly references this topic—an 6 Donald C. Hellmann approach made possible because all of the contributors are distinguished scholars of both Korean politics and international relations and bring to bear a sophisticated understanding of the issues and events about which they write. Three articles concern the pivotal bilateral relationships for Pyongyang: ties with the United States, China and South Korea. The other two articles take a broader approach, analyzing the subject matter more theoretically and/or refining or redefining elements of the negotiations to provide fresh insight into the process and the policies. A third purpose of the conference and this issue is to suggest policy options that may...

Sumak Kawsay y Suma Qamaña, el reto de aprender del sur: reflexiones en torno al buen vivir

La situación actual de crisis sistémica global ha puesto de manifiesto la inviabilidad del modelo de desarrollo tradicional, basado en el crecimiento económico y la acumulación de capital como fin en sí mismo. Ante el fracaso de este modelo y la constatación de que sus dinámicas han resultado ser, en contra de lo esperado, “maldesarrolladoras”, se hace necesaria la búsqueda de alternativas que propongan otras formas de relación más sostenibles y equilibradas. El ideal del Buen Vivir, originario de la cosmovisión indígena e incorporado en los nuevos textos constitucionales de Bolivia y Ecuador, promueve una nueva forma de entender el desarrollo, basada en la armonía entre los individuos y de éstos con la naturaleza. Este texto recoge las conclusiones fundamentales del seminario “Sumak Kawsay. Aprendiendo del Sur”, organizado por el Instituto de Desarrollo Social y Paz de la Universidad de Alicante, precisamente con el fin de establecer espacios de discusión y análisis sobre el alcance de estas propuestas.

Europe's New Security Dilemma

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, governments throughout the world rushed to improve their counterterrorism policies. Several countries tightened legislation, increased resources available to ...

Toward a Third Generation of International Institutions: Obama's UN Policy

By nominating his confidante, Susan E. Rice, as ambassador to the United Nations and restoring the post's cabinet status, President Barack Obama enunciated his “belief that the UN is an indispensab...

Book Review: Peri, Y. (2006). Generals in the Cabinet Room: How the Military Shapes Israeli Policy. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace

Book Review: Peri, Y. (2006). Generals in the Cabinet Room: How the Military Shapes Israeli Policy. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace

Books Received

Books Received Blair P. Turner General Courage Rewarded: The Valour of Canadian Soldiers Under Fire 1900-2007. By T. Robert Fowler. Victoria, B.C., Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4251-7024-0. Maps. Photographs. Illustration. Tables. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvi, 369. Paper. $29.75. The author analyzes the pattern and character of soldiers' heroic actions and related medals for gallantry awarded in Canada's wars from South Africa through Korea; what constitutes "courage" may be constant, but what soldiers have to endure is becoming more severe. Leadership in Space: Selected Speeches of NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, May 2005-October 2008. Washington: NASA, 2008. ISBN 978-0-16-081565-2. Photographs. Tables. Figures. Pp. xii, 329. $43.00. NASA provides 29 essays (not all of them speeches) by its Director to inform us of the organization's mission, goals, accomplishments, and plans for the future. Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice, Vol. II: Model Code of Criminal Procedure. Edited by Vivienne O'Connor and Colette Rausch. Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 2008. ISBN 978-1-601270-15-3. Annex. Index. Pp. lii, 554. Paper. $40.00. The U.S. Institute of Peace has spent six years coordinating the work of three hundred legal experts to produce a three-volume series (this is the second) of guidebooks for legal practicioners around the world in their efforts to reconstitute violence-shattered societies. A Moral Military. By Sidney Axinn. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59213-958-3. Appendixes. Notes. Index. Pp. 256. Paper. $26.95. This study first appeared in 1989 advocating not "military morality" (moral codes appropriate to military exigencies) but the need for the military to protect its honor by acting in accordance with universal moral norms regardless of circumstance; this edition has a new chapter condemning torture. Shield of Dreams: Missile Defense and U.S.-Russian Nuclear Strategy. By Stephen J. Cimbala. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59114-117-4. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 216. Paper. $24.00. Missile defense, undertaken by one state to protect itself from all others, might (or might not) have been strategically viable in the "first nuclear age" of the bi-polar Cold War, but in the "second age" of nuclear proliferation and deteriorating states, it's even more complex and questionable; the author suggests the U.S. and Russia should consider a "defense dominant condominium" to deal with newly emergent threats of WMD. [End Page 696] Unintended Consequences: The United States at War. By Kenneth J. Hagan and Ian J. Bickerton. London: Reaktion Books, 2008. ISBN 1-86189-409-0. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 224. $24.95. That war has unintended consequences is undeniable; in this new edition of last year's book, the authors propose that these consequences outweigh and replace the intended outcomes. Using America's major wars, from the Revolution to Iraq, as case studies, the authors argue that war does not follow policy in a Clausewitzian fashion, but instead creates new realities and forces new policies which are almost always detrimental, even to the winner. Before 1800 A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. By M. Sükrü Hanioglu. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-691-13452-9. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xii, 241. $29.95. The period from 1789 to 1918 witnessed the dissolution of perhaps the most comopolitan empire of its day and the creation of the contemporary Middle East and the Maghreb, with all the attendant problems that the processes of modernization and westernization entail. The Enigma of Hastings. By Edwin Tetlow. Yardley, Pa.: Westholme, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59416-064-6. Battle plans. Illustrations. Appendixes. Bibiography. Index. Pp. viii, 225. Paper. $15.95. The historical question is how could a competent leader like Harold be so thoroughly confounded by William in the epic battle of 1066; the enigma stems from the dearth of documentation from anyone but the Normans. The author attempts to flesh out the English side of the story. Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth Century. By Eric McGeer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press for the Dombarton Oaks...

Talking with Insurgents: A Guide for the Perplexed

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. For details on Iraq's Anbar Awakening see, John McCary, “The Anbar Awakening: An Alliance of Incentives,” The Washington Quarterly 32, no. 1 (January 2009): 43–59, http://www.twq.com/09winter/docs/09jan_McCary.pdf. 2. For similar work see, Daniel Byman, “The Decision to Begin Talks with Terrorists: Lessons for Policymakers,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 29, no. 5 (2006): 403–414. Terrorist groups and insurgent groups overlap tremendously in practice. The primary differences are due to the greater size and capabilities of insurgent organizations. Almost all insurgent organizations use terrorism as a tactic, but they also use guerrilla warfare and conduct extensive political mobilization. Some groups are too small or weak to use these methods and thus rely almost exclusively on terrorism. Usually those groups seek to become insurgencies and use terrorism as a tool to do so. Thus, many of the insights that apply to talking with terrorist groups apply to talking with insurgent movements. Some groups are on the borderline between insurgencies and terrorist groups like Hamas, the Fatah movement, and the Provisional IRA. 3. For interesting works on this subject, see Peter C. Sederberg, “Conciliation as Counter-Terrorist Strategy,” Journal of Peace Research 32, no. 3 (1995): 295–312. 4. See Kristen Sparre, “Megaphone Diplomacy in the Northern Irish Peace Process: Squaring the Circle by Talking to Terrorists through Journalists,” The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 6, no. 1 (Winter 2001): 88–104. 5. Martha Crenshaw notes that these are the two primary reasons for a terrorist group's decline. See Martha Crenshaw, “How Terrorism Declines,” Terrorism Research and Public Policy 3, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 69–-87, “How Terrorism Ends,” United States Institute of Peace Special Report, no. 48 (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, May 25, 1999), pp. 2–4, http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr990525.pdf. 6. Crenshaw, “How Terrorism Declines,” p. 86. 7. Sara Roy, “Hamas and the Transformation of Political Islam in Palestine,” Current History 102, 110. 660 (January 2003): 17. 8. Paul Wilkinson, Terrorism versus Democracy: The Liberal State Response (Oxford: Taylor & Francis, 2005), p. 90. 9. Sederberg, “Conciliation as Counter-Terrorist Strategy,” p. 308. 10. Stephen John Stedman, “Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes,” International Security 22, no. 2 (Fall 1997): 10–11. 11. Ewen MacAskill, “UK Ponders Taking with Hamas and Hizbullah,” The Guardian, May 20, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/20/israel.foreignpolicy. 12. See, I. William Zartman, Ripe for Resolution: Conflict and Intervention in Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). 13. Sederberg, “Conciliation as Counter-Terrorist Strategy,” p. 306. 14. Wilkinson, Terrorism versus Democracy, pp. 90–91. 15. Seth Jones, Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2008), pp. 37–66, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG595.pdf. 16. Seth Jones, Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2008), pp. 37–66, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG595.pdf, p. 41. 17. Steven Simon, “The Price of the Surge,” Foreign Affairs 87, no. 3 (May/June 2008), http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faessay87305/steven-simon/the-price-of-the-surge.html. 18. Jones, Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, pp. 54–61. Additional informationNotes on contributorsDaniel BymanDaniel Byman is the director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and a member of TWQ's editorial board

Peace through Tourism: The Birthing of a New Socio-Economic Order

Humankind is currently witnessing, and shaping, the most significant and rapid paradigm shift in human history – a paradigm shift of major demographic, economic, ecological, and geo-political dimensions. For the first time in human history – we are faced not with just one crisis – but a confluence of several crises; crises that are not related to a single tribe or community – a single nation – or a single region of the world – but are each global in scale. To meet the challenges of these global crises will require an equally historic paradigm shift; a paradigm shift with a strong environmental ethic that restores ecological balance and integrity to our failing ecosystems, and that addresses the critical issue of climate change; a paradigm shift toward an economic system that brings about an end to poverty – and a paradigm that brings an end to war as a means to solving conflict, as it is only through a global family in harmony and peace with itself, that we can solve the unprecedented global issues facing our one common home, planet earth – and our one common future as a global family. The travel and tourism industry has, and will continue to play a vital and leading role toward this paradigm shift, and as the world’s largest industry involving virtually every nation in the world – will be the central pillar of a Peace through Commerce movement. The dramatic growth of tourism in the past 60 years is one of the most remarkable economic and social phenomena of our time. The industry has grown from a total of 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to a projected 1 billion international arrivals in 2010, and a further projection to 1.6 billion by 2020. Beginning with the emergence of “Ecotourism” in the late 1980’s, there are an increasing number of tourism market segments which fall within a broad category that can be called “Peace Tourism,” and classified within a framework that includes peace within ourselves, peace with others, peace with nature, peace with past generations, peace with future generations, and peace with our Creator. Since its birth in 1986, the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) has been promoting these values of tourism together with its vision of Travel and Tourism as the world’s first “Global Peace Industry” – an industry that promotes and supports the belief that every traveler is potentially an “Ambassador for Peace.” This “higher purpose of tourism” includes the key role of tourism in promoting international understanding and collaboration among nations; environmental protection and preservation of biodiversity; enhancing cultures and valuing heritage; contributing to sustainable development and poverty reduction; and healing wounds of conflict.

Community-Based Peace Building Program: The Case of Bual Zone of Peace, Philippines

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This study examines a community-based peace-building program viewed from the perspective of promotion of a broader democratic participation, fair and equitable distribution of material and non-material resources, utilization of local resources, critical empowerment as manifested in the people's capacity to understand the root causes of conflict, resolution of conflict using non-violent approaches, concern for the environment, and awareness of interdependence and solidarity, and the reduction of prejudice, mislabeling and stereotypes among different social groupings in the community. The results appear to support Gaston Z. Ortigas - Peace Institute Model of Conflict Transformation that healing past wounds in deeply divided societies can be achieved if the root causes of the conflict are addressed, especially those related to justice and equitable distribution of resources with particular bias for the marginalized sectors.

An International But Especially American Event

The report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force (the Albright-Cohen Report), prepared under the auspices of the US Institute of Peace (USIP), is of great significance to the field of genocide studies. I do not hesitate to say that this report is an international event. Indeed, this is the first time that a group of experts - mainly former high officials, former diplomats, generals, and members of Congress - have worked together to propose a coherent and well-argued list of recommendations to a state so that its government can play a major role in preventing genocide throughout the world. One may certainly regret that so few genocide scholars and NGO members were consulted; it seems clear that the report has been written for a public policy audience rather than an academic audience. Nevertheless, to my knowledge, there has been no equivalent document - directed to a particular state rather than to an organization such as the United Nations - in the young field of genocide studies or in international affairs. In particular, such reports cannot currently be found in the United Kingdom or in France. [Resume de l'editeur]

The Coming Food Coups

The doubling of grain prices over the past two years has already set off violent protests in over 30 developing countries and led to the overthrow of the Haitian prime minister Jacques Edouard Alexis. 1 Even though the media has provided extensive coverage and analysis of the causes of the increase in food prices, the potential political and security consequences have been given little attention. All food crises do not become famines, but the dynamics of rapid food price increases show some of the same characteristics of famines in their early stages. Though it is unlikely that famine will sweep across the globe, causing revolution, upheaval, and mass starvation, the consequences of the increase in food prices since 2004 could still be dire if prices continue to increase and a severe worldwide recession drastically reduces family income in developing countries. The term ‘‘crisis’’ is not, and should not be, used to describe recent price increases because such terminology only encourages doomsday visions in Washington and other capitals, which can lead to unwise policy responses. Policymakers need to be equipped with an analytical framework that can be used to minimize the humanitarian, political, and security consequences of the recent hike in prices. Famine theory*/ body of knowledge about the microeconomic dynamics of famines, the vulnerability of people to food price shocks, and the common patterns of behavior people use to try to survive in different stages of a famine*/ provide a foundation for such a framework. Historically, the political consequences of famine have been manifested through a country’s political system. The political and security consequences of current price increases can be analyzed through a framework based on traditional famine

The Responsibility to Protect in Environmental Emergencies

This panel was convened at 9:00 a.m., Thursday, March 26, by its moderator, Gwen Young of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who introduced the panelists: Linda Malone of the College of William & Mary; Gareth Evans, President of the International Crisis Group; and Edward C. Luck, Senior Vice President of the International Peace Institute. GREEN HELMETS: ECO-INTERVENTION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY UNILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL INTERVENTION In terms of unilateral or multilateral use of force without United Nations authorization, the twentieth century law of ecological response is primarily law of ecological intervention, not ecological defense or disaster prevention. In Robyn Eckersley's 2008 article, Ecological Intervention: Prospects and Limits, in Ethics and International Affairs, she posits three different categories of environmental harm: (1) major environmental emergencies with transboundary spillover effects that threaten public safety in the wider region; (2) ecocide or crimes against nature that also involve genocide or serious human rights violations (irrespective of spillover effects); and (3) ecocide or crimes against nature that are confined within the territory of the offending and that involve no serious human rights violations. The core provision of the United Nations Charter with respect to the unilateral use of force outside the United Nations machinery is Article 51. The Charter's preservation of the right of self defense when there is an against a state is ill-suited to evaluation of forceful response to avert an environmental disaster. The legality of a forceful response to environmental harm is more easily justified when the environmental harm is deliberately inflicted by a against another state, or even by a group of nonstate actors, than when it is the result of dereliction of duty on the part of a state. Deliberate damage inflicted by one or a group of nonstate actors on another through pollution, hazardous substances, disease agents, or unleashing of natural resources (for example, destroying a dam) may be deemed an armed against the territorial integrity and political independence of a state, and such actions by agents or nonstate actors may constitute genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, or ethnic cleansing, as discussed more fully below. If the transboundary environmental emergency is attributable to a state's failure to govern or regulate adequately its industry or resources, however, is there the necessary responsibility to characterize the transboundary harm as an attack triggering a right of forceful self-defense? In an unusual twist, it may be easier to hold the nonstate actor terrorists liable for an armed for the unintended consequences of their criminal acts in such circumstances, under basic principles of accountability for the unintended but foreseeable consequences of intentional criminal behavior. If the environmental damage inflicted is genocidal in design and intent, or can be characterized as any other serious human rights violation, the law of humanitarian intervention may be utilized to justify force regardless of any transboundary effects. Indeed, if the ecocide qualifies as genocide or a grave breach of the laws of war, other states would have an affirmative obligation to intervene to curtail the human fights violation. Of course, the ambiguity in the legal norm as to what extent or type of other human rights violations would trigger a right of humanitarian intervention is intensified when the or nonstate actor perpetrator effectuates a human rights violation by inflicting damage on the environment rather than directly on the human population. As the natural disaster in Myanmar illustrates, even if late twentieth-century law had begun to recognize an obligation of assistance to states dealing with natural or, presumably, instigated natural disasters, a concomitant legal obligation to accept assistance had remained mired in traditional notions of sovereignty. …

The Global Implications of China’s Rise

China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia. By David C. Kang. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. 296 pp., $24.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0231141888). China, the U.S., and the Power-Transition Theory: A Critique. By Steve Chan. London and New York: Routledge, 2008. 208 pp., $43.95 paper (ISBN: 978-0415440240). China's Emergent Political Economy: Capitalism in the Dragon's Lair. By Christopher A. McNally. London and New York: Routledge, 2008. 288 pp., $170.00 hardcover (ISBN: 978-0415425728). The Environmental Dimension of Asian Security: Conflict and Cooperation over Energy, Resources, and Pollution. By In-Taek Hyun, Miranda A. Schreurs. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. 344 pp., $19.95 paper (ISBN: 978-1929223732). The rise of China represents one of the most fundamental shifts in world politics over the past few decades and, as such, has attracted increasing interest from scholars of international politics. A growing literature examines the causes and likely consequences of China's ascent in an increasingly sophisticated way, and the four books reviewed here are no exception in this regard. Though the books consider very different dimensions of China's rise and its global implications, all four will be of considerable interest to those who study China or who have a desire to learn more about the causes and consequences of China's growing role in international politics. China's rapid rise has generated spirited debate concerning the political implications of growing Chinese power. Will a more powerful China pursue revisionist goals, potentially triggering conflict with the United States and other countries along the Pacific Rim? Will it be more prone to resolve longstanding disputes—such as the Taiwan issue—using military coercion? Or will China—perhaps driven by an increasing stake in the existing international order—use its growing influence to help achieve cooperative outcomes, as seen for example in the six-party talks over North Korea? Scholars of Chinese foreign policy have increasingly turned to rigorous international relations theory as a way to help gain traction on these sorts of issues.1 The books by David Kang ( China Rising ) and Steve Chan ( China, the U.S., and the Power Transition Theory ) fit neatly into this mold, and each represents an important contribution that should be of great interest both for regional specialists and for international relations scholars more broadly. Kang's study makes two core arguments. First, though realist international relations theory predicts that states should balance against power and that rising powers tend to threaten surrounding countries, neither of these expectations holds true in contemporary East Asia. …

Hiroko Takahashi, Classified Hiroshima and Nagasaki: U.S. Nuclear Test and Civil Defense Program

The author is a member of the Hiroshima City University Hiroshima Peace Institute. She earned her doctorate in the history of literature from Doshisha University in September of 2003; after that, s...

Learning From Bad Experiences

Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East. Edited by Daniel C. Kurtzer, Scott B. Lasensky. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2008. 291 pp., $16.500 (ISBN 978-1-6012730-6). The authors of this small but remarkable book provide a concise assessment of US efforts since the end of the Cold War to bring peace between Arabs and Israelis, and the lessons to be garnered from that assessment. They begin with the assertion that an analysis of those diplomatic efforts “reveals an alarming pattern of mismanaged diplomacy. Missteps in US diplomacy have been strategic and tactical” (p. 4). The analysis of this “devastating failure” was made by a distinguished study group of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The study group was co-directed by Daniel Kurtzer, former US Ambassador to Egypt and to Israel, and by Scott Lasensky, USIP senior research associate. Three area experts constituted a core team for the study group: William Quandt, Steven Spiegel, and Shibley Telhami. Starting in 2006, members of the study group met with more than a hundred current and former officials, academics, and civil society leaders with experience related to Israeli-Arab conflicts; they included Americans, Arabs, Israelis, and Europeans. The authors report matters of general consensus and also note some differences within the study group and among the persons they consulted. This is the first product of the project, …

Building States to Build Peace? A Critical Analysis

Agencies throughout the development, humanitarian, political and defence fields have recently endorsed the centrality of state institutions in post-war peacebuilding. But how can external actors go about peacebuilding in a way that reinforces effective and legitimate states without doing harm? Drawing on an International Peace Institute project, this article calls into question the assumption that peacebuilding can be boiled down to building state institutions. The article argues that the process of building states can actually undermine peace, postulating five tensions between peacebuilding and statebuilding even as it asserts that strong state institutions remain crucial for consolidating peace. Identifying three crucial state functions for peacebuilding, the article emphasises the complex interrelationships among legitimacy, state capacity and security in post-conflict societies.

Managing the student-supervisor relationship for successful post-graduate supervision: a sociological perspective

Supervision is an intensive, interpersonally focused one-to-one relationship between the supervisor and the student. In this process, the supervisor is designated to facilitate the student's academic development. This article will address supervision as a complex process that is influenced by many factors, including the social setting, the personalities of the supervisor and the student, the relationship that develops between them, the expertise of the supervisor, and so on. Patterns of thinking that have influenced supervision will be discussed, while an interactionist framework to project possible strategies concerning the importance of relationship skills in supervision will be highlighted. The article's thrust will be to highlight the social nature of the interaction between supervisor and student. This entails recognizing that as a social process, interaction is as much subject to limits imposed by the structural parameters within which supervision occurs as it, in turn, shapes them. In other words, whilst the interaction between supervisor and student allows a considerable degree of free expression, it is enacted within a wider context of institutional power which itself is continuously modified by that interaction. These arguments are based on the findings from a study that I carried out in the Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance of Africa University in July 2006. A qualitative research design was employed to establish how to manage the student-supervisor relationship for successful post-graduate supervision. The study revealed that supervision is a complex social encounter which involves two or more parties with both converging and diverging interests. Therefore, balancing these interests is very crucial to the successful supervision of post-graduate research projects.