Content Type: Journal Article / Publishing Institution: Chatham House / Publication Year:

1. The mighty metropolis

Author:: Mathieu Lefevre
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Sometime in the middle of 2009, the number of people living in cities exceeded the world's rural population for the first time in history. By 2050, some 70 per cent of the world's population will live on only 3 per cent of the earth's surface – in cities. These conurbations are becoming global economic and geo-political players to be reckoned with. This will radically affect the way we live, work and plan for the future.

2. A chronic protection problem: the DPRK and the Responsibility to Protect

Author:: Alex J. Bellamy
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Until recently, the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had elicited relatively little attention from institutions, activists and analysts concerned with the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and protection of populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. However, on 18 November 2014, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that referred to R2P and called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in the DPRK to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and adopt targeted sanctions. Although it remains to be seen whether the Security Council will take up this challenge, ten of the Council's 15 members indicated privately their support for the initiative.
Topic:: United Nations
Political Geography:: Korea

3. Securing China's core interests: the state of the debate in China

Author:: Shaun Breslin, Jinghan Zeng, and Yuefan Xiao
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: As China has grown stronger, some observers have identified an assertive turn in Chinese foreign policy. Evidence to support this argument includes the increasingly frequent evocation of China's 'core interests'—a set of interests that represents the non-negotiable bottom lines of Chinese foreign policy. When new concepts, ideas and political agendas are introduced in China, there is seldom a shared understanding of how they should be defined; the process of populating the concept with real meaning often takes place incrementally. This, the article argues, is what has happened with the notion of core interests. While there are some agreed bottom lines, what issues deserve to be defined (and thus protected) as core interests remains somewhat blurred and open to question. By using content analysis to study 108 articles by Chinese scholars, this article analyses Chinese academic discourse of China's core interests. The authors' main finding is that 'core interests' is a vague concept in the Chinese discourse, despite its increasing use by the government to legitimize its diplomatic actions and claims. The article argues that this vagueness not only makes it difficult to predict Chinese diplomatic behaviour on key issues, but also allows external observers a rich source of opinions to select from to help support pre-existing views on the nature of China as a global power.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:: China

4. Engagement without recognition: the limits of diplomatic interaction with contested states

Author:: James Ker-Lindsay
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article examines the extent to which states are able to interact at an official level with a contested or de facto state—a state that has unilaterally declared independence but is not a member of the United Nations—without being understood to have recognized it. This is an area of increasing interest and relevance to policymakers as the number of contested states has grown in recent years. In many cases, interaction may be important for ongoing peace efforts. However, there are also instances when a state is prevented from recognizing the territory in question for specific domestic or foreign policy reasons and so has to find alternative means by which to cooperate. Drawing on several key examples, notably Kosovo and the 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus', but also with reference to Abkhazia, the article explores the limits of interaction across various different forms of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic activity. As is shown, albeit with some significant provisos, legal theory and historic practice suggest that diplomatic engagement does not constitute recognition if there is no underlying intent to recognize. This means that there is in fact a very high degree of latitude regarding the limits of diplomatic engagement with contested states. This is especially the case in bilateral contexts. Indeed, in some circumstances, the level of engagement can even amount to recognition in all but name.
Topic:: Diplomacy

5. Why wealthy countries must not drop nuclear energy: coal power, climate change and the fate of the global poor

Author:: Reinhard Wolf
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Current estimates indicate that several hundred thousand deaths per year can be attributed to climate change. Developed countries have reacted to this growing disaster by increasing the use of renewable energies, but what is to be done with the additional electricity thus generated? Should it be used for cutting back coal-fired energy production or can it be used for substituting nuclear energy? Priority must be given to replacing coal power, since developed countries have a strong duty to minimize the physical harm caused by their electricity generation. Dropping nuclear energy prior to coal power cannot be justified because the risks of nuclear energy pale in comparison to the suffering that emissions from coalfired plants inflict both on their host countries and on poorer countries in the global South that (a) do not benefit from this energy and (b) have far less capacity to cope with the effects of climate change or other environmental damages. This article argues that when faced with a choice between operating coal-fired power plants or nuclear reactors, governments are obliged to opt for nuclear energy.
Topic:: Climate Change and Government

6. Why a British referendum on EU membership will not solve the Europe question

Author:: Andrew Glencross
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article scrutinizes the merits of holding a referendum over UK membership of the EU. It queries the assumption that direct democracy can somehow resolve the longstanding Europe question in British politics. To do this, the analysis traces the existence of an exceptionalist approach to the EU within Britain, now associated with re-negotiating UK membership in the shadow of a referendum. The article argues that the prospects for a radical reconfiguration of the UK's treaty obligations are slim, thereby increasing the risk of a vote to withdraw. Yet withdrawal would be the opposite of a simple solution to the Europe question. Political and economic interests dictate lengthy politicking over a highly complex post-Brexit settlement revisiting free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Such negotiations undermine any mooted cathartic benefits of a popular vote, while Eurosceptics will remain dissatisfied in the event of a yes, a result likely to further destabilize the Conservative Party. Consequently, the simplicity and decisiveness that a referendum—particularly one that spurns the EU—promises is merely a mirage as relations with the EU necessarily form part of an enduring British political conversation.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: Britain and Europe

7. Scholarship and the ship of state: rethinking the Anglo-American strategic decline analogy

Author:: Katherine C. Epstein
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article uses the centenary of the First World War as an opportunity to re-examine a major element of the existing literature on the war—the strategic implications of supposed British decline—as well as analogies to the contemporary United States based upon that interpretation of history. It argues that the standard declinist interpretation of British strategy rests to a surprising degree upon the work of the naval historian Arthur Marder, and that Marder's archival research and conceptual framework were weaker than is generally realized. It suggests that more recent work appearing since Marder is stronger and renders the declinist strategic interpretation difficult to maintain. It concludes by considering the implications of this new work for analogies between the United States today and First World War-era Britain, and for the use of history in contemporary policy debates.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: Britain, United States, and America

8. Global multipolarity, European security and implications for UK grand strategy: back to the future, once again

Author:: David Blagden
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The international system is returning to multipolarity—a situation of multiple Great Powers—drawing the post-Cold War 'unipolar moment' of comprehensive US political, economic and military dominance to an end. The rise of new Great Powers, namely the 'BRICs'—Brazil, Russia, India, and most importantly, China—and the return of multipolarity at the global level in turn carries security implications for western Europe. While peaceful political relations within the European Union have attained a remarkable level of strategic, institutional and normative embeddedness, there are five factors associated with a return of Great Power competition in the wider world that may negatively impact on the western European strategic environment: the resurgence of an increasingly belligerent Russia; the erosion of the US military commitment to Europe; the risk of international military crises with the potential to embroil European states; the elevated incentive for states to acquire nuclear weapons; and the vulnerability of economically vital European sea lines and supply chains. These five factors must, in turn, be reflected in European states' strategic behaviour. In particular, for the United Kingdom—one of western Europe's two principal military powers, and its only insular (offshore) power—the return of Great Power competition at the global level suggests that a return to offshore balancing would be a more appropriate choice than an ongoing commitment to direct military interventions of the kind that have characterized post-2001 British strategy.
Topic:: Security and Cold War
Political Geography:: Russia, China, Europe, and Brazil

9. Complex security and strategic latency: the UK Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015

Author:: Paul Cornish and Andrew M. Dorman
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Whichever party or parties form the next UK government, a Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) is expected to begin soon after the general election in May. The review might be a 'light touch' exercise—little more than a reaffirmation of the SDSR produced by the coalition government in 2010. It seems more likely, however, that the review will be a lengthier, more deliberate exercise and one which might even last into 2016. For those most closely engaged in the process the challenge is more complex than that confronted by their predecessors in 2010. The international security context is more confused and contradictory; the UK's financial predicament is still grave; security threats and challenges will emerge that cannot be ignored; the population's appetite for foreign military engagement appears nevertheless to be restricted; and prevailing conditions suggest that the risk-based approach to national strategy might be proving difficult to sustain. Two key questions should be asked of the review. First, in the light of recent military experiences, what is the purpose of the United Kingdom's armed forces? Second, will SDSR 2015–16 sustain the risk-based approach to national strategy set out in 2010, and if so how convincingly? Beginning with a review of the background against which SDSR 2015–16 will be prepared, this article examines both enduring and immediate challenges to the national strategic process in the United Kingdom and concludes by arguing for strategic latency as a conceptual device which can complement, if not reinvigorate, the risk-based approach to national strategy and defence.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

10. From terrorism to 'radicalization' to 'extremism': counterterrorism imperative or loss of focus?

Author:: Anthony Richards
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article argues that there has been an increasing convergence of the discourses of terrorism, radicalization and, more lately, extremism in the UK and that this has caused counterterrorism to lose its focus. This is particularly evident in the counterterrorism emphasis on non-violent but extremist ideology that is said to be 'conducive' to terrorism. Yet, terrorism is ineluctably about violence or the threat of violence; hence, if a non-violent ideology is in and of itself culpable for terrorism in some way then it ceases to be non-violent. The article argues that there should be a clearer distinction made between (non-violent) extremism of thought and extremism of method because it is surely violence and the threat of violence (integral to terrorism) that should be the focus of counterterrorism. The concern is that counterterrorism has gone beyond its remit of countering terrorism and has ventured into the broader realm of tackling ideological threats to the state.
Topic:: Terrorism
Political Geography:: United Kingdom

11. Review article: Troublemakers: Laura Poitras and the problem of dissent

Author:: Alex Danchev
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This review article considers three works by the distinguished documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras: My country, my country (2006); The oath (2010); and the recently released Citizenfour (2014), focusing on the whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Poitras describes these works as a trilogy about American power after 9/11, but they are also about disobedience and resistance, or the problem of dissent. The article argues for the significance (and the virtue) of Poitras's project, as film maker and troublemaker, and for the necessity of what Solzhenitsyn calls civil valour. You can listen to Alex Danchev discussing his review article in IA's March podcast here http://cht.hm/1N5JeoK
Political Geography:: America

12. Review article: The 100 billion dollar brain: central intelligence machinery in the UK and the US

Author:: Richard J. Aldrich
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The 'Five Eyes' alliance, led by the United States, spends close to 100 billion dollars a year on intelligence. This review article argues that western countries are distinguished by their sophisticated approach to the making of intelligence-led national security policy. Political leaders and policy-makers who access this sensitive material are often involved in elaborate systems that constitute part of the core executive and which seek to task and improve the intelligence leviathan. Western intelligence therefore has a 'central brain' that devotes considerable energy to both analysis and management. By contrast, in the majority of other states around the world, the orientation of intelligence has often been inward facing, with a high priority given to regime security. Some would suggest that intelligence has been an important component of western power projection, while others would argue that this process has been over-expensive and has under-delivered, not least in the last decade. Either way, the debates about development of the central intelligence machinery that supports western security policies are of the first importance and fortunately this discussion has been advanced by the appearance of several valuable new studies: these are discussed in this review article.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: United States and United Kingdom

13. Capitalism and the emergent world order

Author:: Barry Buzan and George Lawson
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: There is general agreement that the world is changing, but considerable disagreement about how it is changing. Commentators variously locate this change in a 'power shift' from West to East, a trade in superpower status between the United States and China, or a transition from an era of bipolarity to one of unipolarity, multipolarity or even non-polarity. These analyses are linked by attention to a smorgasbord of dynamics that are said to be disrupting the smooth functioning of international order: globalization, US militarism, dynamics of revolution and counter-revolution, finance capital, climate change, the rise of non-state actors, new security threats, the dislocating effects of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and more.
Topic:: Communications and Military Strategy
Political Geography:: United States and China

14. A century on the edge: from Cold War to hot world, 1945-2045

Author:: Paul Rogers
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Contributions to anniversaries may take a broad view, sometimes even a centuries-long perspective. Most commonly, such perspectives are framed within traditional boundaries—nineteenth, twentieth or twenty-first century, for example—but this article argues that one period not normally viewed in this way, from 1945 to 2045, may have a particular significance, giving a perspective that is of value in analysing current trends in international security.

15. International Affairs and 'the nuclear age', 1946-2013

Author:: William Walker
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: International Affairs' first article on matters relating to nuclear technology was published in July 1946, within a year of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The most recent article, at the time of writing, appeared in July 2013. Over nearly 70 years, the journal has published, by my count, 128 articles focused on nuclear affairs plus numerous articles on international strategy, energy policy and other subjects in which nuclear technology plays a significant part. Many books on nuclear topics have also been discussed in the journal's review section. Only Foreign Affairs among major international journals can boast of such a long engagement with nuclear politics.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

16. Old world, new world: the evolution and influence of foreign affairs think-tanks

Author:: Donald E. Abelson
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Before the ink on the Treaty of Versailles was dry, the idea of creating an organization dedicated to educating, informing and advising future leaders about the causes and consequences of war was already gaining traction. At 'a series of unofficial meetings held in Paris in 1919',1 Lionel Curtis, an Oxford professor and visionary with a reputation for possessing an impressive array of entrepreneurial skills, was spearheading efforts to establish an Anglo-American research institution where scholars could explore international problems and advocate policy solutions.2 This kind of organization appealed to Curtis and to those with whom he discussed it for several reasons, not the least of which was that it could provide a valuable forum for both policy-makers and prominent policy experts in the leading western powers to talk to one another about international affairs. It was also a concept with which several of the delegates attending the Paris peace talks had some familiarity. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a number of institutions had already taken root in Great Britain and in the United States with the aim of helping policy-makers navigate their way through complex policy problems. They included the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (1831), founded by the first Duke of Wellington; London's Fabian Society (1884), home to a number of prominent scholars, including Sidney and Beatrice Webb, co-founders of the London School of Economics; the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1910), established by the Scottish-American steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie; and the Institute for Government Research (1916), which merged with two other institutions to form the Brookings Institution in 1927.3 Curtis and his colleagues in Great Britain and the United States were also aware of the ground-breaking research that had been conducted at hundreds of settlement houses in their respective countries. It was at places such as London's Toynbee Hall (1884) and Chicago's Hull House, co-founded by Jane Addams in 1889, that sociologists and other university faculty with expertise in social welfare policy could study the working conditions of the poor.4 In short, proponents of establishing a foreign affairs research institution recognized the importance of encouraging a dialogue between leading social scientists and high-level policy-makers.
Topic:: Government and International Organization
Political Geography:: Britain, United States, America, Washington, Paris, London, and Wellington

17. Horror, hubris and humanity: the international engagement with Africa, 1914-2014

Author:: Richard Reid
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article was commissioned as a contribution to the 90th anniversary issue of International Affairs , and it seems appropriate to note at the outset the prominent place that Africa has occupied in the pages of the journal since the 1920s. Indeed, a list of authors who have written for it reads as a roll-call of modern African history, in terms of both protagonists and analysts, and I doubt whether any specialist Africanist journal can boast a comparable line-up. A handful of examples may suffice. From the era of European colonial rule, Frederick, Lord Lugard, wrote in 1927 on the putative challenges confronting colonial administrators of 'equatorial' Africa, and Lord Hailey, in 1947, on the issues involved in 'native administration' more broadly; notably, the African perspective on these questions was provided in a piece in 1951 by the eminent Tswana political figure of the early and middle twentieth century, Tshekedi Khama. Former colonial governor Sir Andrew Cohen assessed the place of the new African nations within the UN in a 1960 article. A later generation of African nationalist leaders, the founders and shapers of the continent in its first flush of independence, is also represented: of particular note are pieces on the prospects for the continent by the Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba and by the Senegalese poet and politician Leopold Senghor, in 1961 and 1962 respectively. And then there are the analysts and commentators, some of whom have become the stuff of legend for the author's own generation: Lucy Mair, Ali Mazrui and Colin Legum, to name but three.
Topic:: International Affairs
Political Geography:: Africa and Europe

18. The idea of order in ancient Chinese political thought: a Wightian exploration

Author:: Yongjin Zhang
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: All great thinkers, while historically conditioned, are all philosophically contemporaneous. It is a great privilege to have this extended version of my Martin Wight Memorial Lecture published in International Affairs—all the more so in this 90th anniversary issue of the journal. International Relations theory and English School thinking have been well represented in International Affairs: since Sir Herbert Butterfield delivered the inaugural Martin Wight Memorial Lecture 38 years ago in 1975, 21 Martin Wight lectures have appeared in these pages. I am delighted, therefore, to be continuing that tradition and very much hope that this trend will endure for many years to come.
Topic:: International Relations
Political Geography:: China and Ecuador

19. Review article - Leaving Vietnam: Nixon, Kissinger and Ford, 1969-1975 (Part two: January 1972-January 1973)

Author:: Geoffrey Warner
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: On 20 January 1972 an alarming message reached Washington from General Creighton Abrams, the US commander in Vietnam. He stated that 'the enemy is preparing and positioning his forces for a major offensive. There is no doubt that this is to be a major campaign . We foresee a hard battle involving sophisticated weaponry and as much ground combat power as the enemy can generate.' He therefore asked for a number of 'standby authorities' for military actions, notably air power. This was just the latest of a series of warnings from Abrams, but it was deemed important enough to be forwarded to the White House, where President Nixon's National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, raised the matter with his boss later the same day. It was agreed that any decision upon future action should be postponed until after the President's televised speech to the nation on Vietnam on 25 January (vol. VIII, no. 2).
Political Geography:: United States, Washington, and Vietnam

20. Skyjackers, jackals and soldiers: British planning for international terrorist incidents during the 1970s

Author:: Geraint Hughes
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: On 5 January 1974 a column of 150 British Army troops, supported by armoured vehicles, arrived at Heathrow airport in full battle order, and over the course of the following two weeks they patrolled its runways and the perimeter. These soldiers had been ordered in by Edward Heath's government in response to intelligence reports that the Palestinian fedayeen intended to use a portable anti-aircraft missile to shoot down a passenger jet, and the British authorities had already devised contingency plans (codenamed Operation Marmion) to deploy the army in order to deter a terrorist attack at the airport. Marmion was implemented on three further occasions in 1974—in June, July and September—and in each case the troop presence at Heathrow attracted considerable parliamentary and press comment. Some critics argued that in each case the British government was over- reacting to the threat at hand, and that the military patrols at Heathrow were essentially intended as a public relations exercise. However, Operation Marmion also had an effect which ministers and civil servants had not intended, as it fed contemporary fears that the British Army and right-wing extremists within the establishment and security services were preparing for a coup.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Britain and Palestine

21. Strategic taboos: chemical weapons and US foreign policy

Author:: Michelle Bentley
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article examines US President Barack Obama's foreign policy rhetoric on Syria, specifically in relation to the threat of chemical weapons and the prohibitionary taboo surrounding their use. It contends that Obama's rhetorical construction of the taboo is not simply a commitment to the control of these horrific weapons (where such arms have been comprehended as so extensively vile as to preclude their employment), but that this also represents the strategic linguistic exploitation of these normative ideals in order to directly shape policy. By analysing of presidential speeches made during the conflict, it demonstrates that Obama has manipulated pre-existing conceptions of chemical weapons as taboo, and also as forms of weapons of mass destruction, to deliberately construct policy in line with his own political ambitions—most notably as a way of forcing a multilateral solution to the situation in Syria. This article challenges existing perceptions of the chemical weapons taboo as an inherently normative constraint, arguing that this instead comprises a more agency-driven construct. Static notions of the taboo must be abandoned and subsequently replaced with a framework of understanding that recognizes how the taboo can be used as a deliberate driver of foreign policy.
Topic:: Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: Syria

22. Reconciliation and research in Afghanistan: an analytical narrative

Author:: Thomas Waldman
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This article examines the evolution of western policy towards the idea of pursuing negotiations with the Taliban, or 'reconciliation', in Afghanistan and the role that research and expert opinion played in that process. The official western position has evolved iteratively from initial rejection to near complete embrace of exploring the potential for talks. It is widely assumed that the deteriorating security situation was the sole determinant of this major policy reversal, persuading decisionmakers to rethink what had once been deemed unthinkable. Moreover, given the politicized and sensitive nature of the subject, we might expect the potential for outside opinion to influence decision-makers to be low. Nevertheless, this article demonstrates that it would be a mistake to underestimate the role that research and expert knowledge played-the story is more nuanced and complex. Research coalesced, sometimes prominently, with other key drivers to spur and shape policy change. Importantly, it often took experts to make sense of events on the ground, especially where the failure of the military approach was not recognized, understood or palatable to those in official circles. Research interacted with changing events, policy windows, the emergence of new personalities and the actions of various intermediaries to shape emerging positions. More broadly, the case of reconciliation in Afghanistan reveals the difficulties and challenges, but also the variety of opportunities and techniques, for achieving research influence in conflict-affected environments.
Topic:: Security and Environment
Political Geography:: Afghanistan

23. The Piketty phenomenon: why has 'Capital' become a publishing sensation?

Author:: Robert H. Wade
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Why has Piketty's Capital become a publishing sensation? Not for revolutionary findings; its message that western societies have experienced increases in inequality of income and wealth over the long term is hardly new. Of the several reasons discussed in this article, attention is paid in particular to the book's timing and its claim to reveal the laws of income and wealth distribution in western societies. Had the book been published before 2008 it would have been much less successful. Piketty's revelation of the big trends and their underlying logic helps to objectify, legitimize and offer a kind of catharsis for surging middle-class anxieties during the Great Recession. These anxieties have been further intensified by evidence that over 90 per cent of the increase in disposable income in the United States has accrued to the top 1 per cent of the population in the past several years, and a not much lower percentage to the top 1 per cent in Britain. In the conclusion it is argued that if Piketty's forecasts are even remotely accurate, capitalism will lose its core claim to legitimacy.
Political Geography:: United States

24. 'Doing some things' in the Xi Jinping era: the United Nations as China's venue of choice

Author:: Rosemary Foot
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: A more powerful China under the seemingly confident leadership of President Xi Jinping has committed to a more activist global policy. In particular, this commitment has influenced Beijing's policy towards UN peacekeeping operations, with a long-awaited decision to add combat forces to the engineering troops and police and medical units that have been features of its past contribution. In addition, Beijing has doubled the size of its contribution to the UN peace operations budget. This article explains why the UN is a key venue for China to demonstrate its 'responsible Great Power' status and expressed willingness to provide global public goods. The main explanatory factors relate to the UN's institutional design, which accords special status to China even as it represents a global order that promotes the sovereign equality of states. Moreover, there are complementarities between dominant Chinese beliefs and interests, and those contained within the UN system. Especially important in this latter regard are the links that China has tried to establish between peacebuilding and development assistance with the aim of strengthening the capacity of states. China projects development support as a contribution both to humanitarian need and to the harmonization of conflict-ridden societies. The Chinese leadership has also spoken of its willingness to contribute to peacemaking through stepping up its efforts at mediation. However, such a move will require much deeper commitment than China has demonstrated in the past and runs the risk of taking China into controversial areas of policy it has hitherto worked to avoid.
Topic:: Development and United Nations
Political Geography:: China and Beijing

25. The inconsequential gains and lasting insecurities of India's nuclear weaponization

Author:: Ramesh Thakur
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: India's nuclear breakout in 1998, foreshadowed as early as 1974, may have been understandable for reasons of global nuclear politics, a triangular regional equation between China, India and Pakistan, and domestic politics. Yet the utility of India's nuclear weapons remains questionable on many grounds. Nuclear deterrence is dubious in general and especially dubious in the subcontinent. Nuclear weapons are not usable as weapons of compellence or defence. They failed to stop the Pakistani incursion in Kargil in 1999 or the terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008. They will not help India to shape the military calculations of likely enemies. And India's global status and profile will be determined far more crucially by its economic performance than nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, they do impose direct and opportunity costs economically, risk corrosion of democratic accountability, add to global concerns about nuclear terrorism, and have not helped the cause of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Because the consequences of a limited regional war involving India could be catastrophic for the world, others have both the right and a responsibility to engage with the issue. For all these reasons, a denuclearized world that includes the destruction of India's nuclear stockpile would favourably affect the balance of India's security and other interests, national and international interests, and material interests and value goals.
Topic:: Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Pakistan, China, and India

26. Nuclear fears, hopes and realities in Pakistan

Author:: Zia Mian
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: In the four decades since Pakistan launched its nuclear weapons program, and especially in the fifteen years since the nuclear tests of 1998, a way of thinking and a related set of feelings about the bomb have taken hold among policy-makers and the public in Pakistan. These include the ideas that the bomb can ensure Pakistan's security; resolve the long-standing dispute with India over Kashmir in Pakistan's favour; help create a new national spirit; establish Pakistan as a leader among Islamic countries; and usher in a new stage in Pakistan's economic development. None of these hopes has come to pass, and in many ways Pakistan is much worse off than before it went nuclear. Yet the feelings about the bomb remain strong and it is these feelings that will have to be examined critically and be set aside if Pakistan is to move towards nuclear restraint and nuclear disarmament. This will require a measure of stability in a country beset by multiple insurgencies, the emergence of a peace movement able to launch a national debate on foreign policy and nuclear weapons, and greater international concern regarding the outcomes of nuclear arms racing in South Asia.
Topic:: Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: Pakistan, South Asia, and Atlantic Ocean

27. Are you willing to be made nothing? Is Commonwealth reform possible?

Author:: Timothy M. Shaw and Francis Baert
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: A new round of Commonwealth reform proposals commenced at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of 2009. An ensuing report, titled A Commonwealth of the people: time for urgent reform, contained a long list of proposals that eventually resulted in 2013 in the adoption of the Commonwealth Charter. Many classic international organizations are in need of reform, but this is, of course, challenging. This new Commonwealth reform process will not lead to satisfying changes and will not make it a more relevant actor in global governance. The year 2015 marks the Commonwealth Secretariat's first half-century. We take this symbolic marker to push for a forward-looking exercise, arguing that because the true nature of the Commonwealth is often misunderstood, a better understanding of the organization is essential before embarking on any successful change-management project. In the article we identify four different kinds of Commonwealth: three of a 'formal' nature (the official, bureaucratic and the people's Commonwealth) and a fourth 'informal' one (Commonwealth Plus). By describing the potential of these four different kinds of Commonwealth, we can anticipate better the challenges with which the Commonwealth network is faced, both internal (including its mandate, its British imperial past and dominance, the organization's leadership and its membership) and external (other international organizations, other Commonwealths, rivalry with regional organizations and the rise of global policy networks). Consequently, this should lead to a better and more sustainable debate about the Commonwealth's future role in global governance.
Topic:: Government and Governance

28. The future of US–Brazil relations: confrontation, cooperation or detachment?

Author:: Peter Hakim
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: US-Brazilian relations sunk to one of their lowest points ever following last year's exposure of the US government's massive surveillance of the South American giant-including the correspondence of President Rousseff and the business operations of Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras. Brazilian authorities responded angrily. The Brazilian president called off a highly valued state visit to Washington, denounced the US for violations of sovereignty and human rights, and proceeded to bypass the US to purchase nearly $5 billion worth of fighter aircraft from Sweden. In fact, US-Brazil ties have not been constructive for more than a generation. Yes, relations are mostly amiable, but with limited cooperation, considerable discord and some open clashes. Washington views Brazil primarily as a regional actor, and wants its cooperation mainly on inter-American issues. For Brazil, regional collaboration means working with other Latin American nations-not the United States. Brazil usually wants the US to keep a distance from the region. The US is no more enthusiastic about Brazil assuming a global role; differences over some of the world's most dangerous political and security challenges have made Washington uneasy about Brazil's engagement in international affairs and critical of its foreign policy judgements. Relations will probably improve, but they could get worse. The two governments need to acknowledge that their relationship is fragile and troubled, and take steps both to rebuild trust and to avert further deterioration and new confrontations. They have to be more careful with each other.
Topic:: Government, Human Rights, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:: America, Washington, and Brazil

29. Review article—Thoughtlessness: Rumsfeld in Washington

Author:: Alex Danchev
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This review article considers the case of Donald Rumsfeld and his disastrous tenure as US Secretary of Defense (2001-2006), as recounted by Rumsfeld himself in his memoirs and other writings, and in interviews with the celebrated documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, for The unknown known (2014). In all of these works he appears completely unreconstructed; indeed, remarkably self-satisfied. The article reflects on Rumsfeld as operator and courtier, and Morris's pursuit of a man without qualities, with reference to Hannah Arendt's notion of 'the banality of evil'.
Political Geography:: United States and Washington

30. Review article—Leaving Vietnam: Nixon, Kissinger and Ford, 1969–1975. Part three: January 1973–July 1975

Author:: Geoffrey Warner
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The final volume of the Foreign relations series of documents on Indochina during the Nixon and Ford presidencies is not as detailed as those which preceded it. However, the documents do not support the view that, once the January 1973 Agreement between the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam and the United States had been concluded, the US was prepared to accept DRV's hegemony over the rest of Indochina, provided only that there was a 'decent interval' before it occurred. In fact, both the Nixon and Ford administrations did seek to prevent this from happening, but found their hands tied by congressional opposition. In the case of Cambodia, the United States also found itself the victim of its own illusions about the willingness of the People's Republic of China to support an alternative government led by the former ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Following the more or less total collapse of American policy in April 1975, some interesting 'post-mortems' from various government departments on the history of US involvement in Indochina are also printed in the volume under review.
Topic:: Government and History
Political Geography:: United States, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia

31. A Result That Resolves Little

Author:: Malcolm Chalmers
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Britain's 2010 National Security Strategy, published shortly after the coalition government took office, was entitled 'A Strong Britain in an Age of Uncertainty'. It made no mention of the two existential challenges—the possible secession of Scotland from the United Kingdom, and the risk of a British withdrawal from the European Union. Yet either event would be a fundamental transformation in the very nature of the British state, with profound impact on its foreign and security policy.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, and Scotland

32. Now deliver, say the Scots

Author:: Colin Fleming
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Scotland's referendum saw Scots vote to remain part of the United Kingdom with 55 per cent of voters rejecting independence. However, a narrowing of the polls in the weeks leading up to the vote resulted in promises of significantly more powers for Scotland if it decided to stay part of the Union. With one You Gov poll suggesting a narrow win for the Yes movement–51 per cent to 49 per cent–Britain's three Unionist party leaders promised more powers with a timetable for action to be implemented the day after a No vote. These promises may be hard to keep. Only a few days on, it would appear that agreement on the timetable for change is lacking.
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Turkey, and Scotland

33. Past the point of no return for Catalonia

Author:: Josep Maria Reniu
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Friday September 19 was a rare day in Catalonia. A significant proportion of Catalans had hoped for a victory of the Yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum. The result was not as expected, but the day still gave us good news. The Catalan parliament passed a law on consultations and citizen participation that has allowed the president of the Catalan government to call citizens to the polls on November 9 to vote on independence. This vote in parliament took place against a background of impasse between Catalonia and the Spanish government in Madrid, with potentially destabilizing effects.
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Spain and Scotland

34. In the care of Nurse Ann Droid

Author:: Noel Sharkey and Amanda Sharkey
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Would you like to be left exclusively in the care of robots in your old age? Robots have been working in our factories, painting cars, assembling tiny components and mixing dangerous chemicals for decades. In the new era, service robots have begun working alongside humans in cleaning, medicine, farming and policing. Now robots are being given the intimate jobs of care and companionship for our elderly. Should we welcome such developments? Could a robot empathize and care for us in the way that a human could? Can we trust robots and robot manufacturers with such important and life–defining roles?
Political Geography:: Japan

35. Life is about to get a lot smarter

Author:: Robert Plant
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: When people think of robots, the image that comes to mind is of machines—sometimes in humanoid form—doing manual labour, and sometimes even behaving in something like a human way. The real changes in the world of work, though, are due to something less visible and more pervasive—the rise of connectivity. Connectivity is the ability to link data and things, which in this case means machines and processes—and people too.

36. Interview: Yves Daccord

Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: In the Middle East today there are armed groups that have no respect for the humanitarian imperative. What challenges does this present to the Red Cross? I see two key challenges. The first one is very basic. We want to maintain a very close relationship with people affected by conflict, and access these days is more complex because we are in a very polarized environment. Look at the Iraq front–the problem is not new but it is exacerbated. The second issue is to be able to engage governments and non-state armed groups on a very pragmatic basis on issues related to people under their control. That normally works rather well. What I have found more complex these days is to engage them on issues related to international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions.
Topic:: Humanitarian Aid and Islam
Political Geography:: Geneva, Iraq, and Middle East

37. It's all change in your pocket

Author:: Paola Subacchi
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The 1970s were years of high inflation in Italy. As the price of goods increased and the lira, a high denomination currency, was debased, the country faced a chronic lack of small change. Those were the years when coins were used to operate all sorts of devices, from pay phones to launderettes, vending machines and jukeboxes.
Political Geography:: Italy

38. As sanctions bite, could Russia isolate itself by switching off the net?

Author:: Keir Giles
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: As recently as November 2012, I was able to write in The World Today that although 'the Russian authorities already possess extremely strong legislative tools for controlling internet content, they ordinarily apply these with a very light touch'.
Political Geography:: Russia

39. Review: Neil MacGregor's German lesson

Author:: Alan Philps
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: From the window in Neil MacGregor's office you can see the swirling crowds of visitors in the courtyard of the British Museum. Seven million people a year squeeze through the Museum's narrow door–almost double the number in 2000.
Political Geography:: Britain and Germany

40. Four lessons the EU should learn about energy security

Author:: Ana Stanic
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Diversification of gas supply has been a strategic priority for the European Union since its dependence on imports began to grow in the early 2000s. The crisis in Ukraine has heightened concerns that the flow of Russian gas passing through this country may be interrupted and has reignited calls for dependency on Russian gas to be reduced. As a new European Commission takes over energy policy in Brussels, it is worth examining the lessons the EU ought to learn from the Southern Gas Corridor project, which for a decade was seen as key to enhancing energy security.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Russia, Europe, and Brazil

41. Ten minutes with Andrei Kurkov, Ukrainian author

Author:: Andrei Kurkov
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: What would you like to see happen to your country? The Ukraine that existed before the events of last year was very peaceful, very tolerant, very quiet–maybe a bit too tolerant to hopeless and corrupt politicians. But now, we have a society that has been radicalized, and in the next parliamentary elections, we will have a lot of new radicals in the parliament. This is partially good because they will fight against corruption, and they will put pressure on the government and the president to carry on the reforms that were promised.
Topic:: Corruption and Reform
Political Geography:: Russia, Ukraine, and Denmark

42. Can the quiet ayatollah of peace save Iraq from collapse?

Author:: Hayder al-Khoei
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani emerged as one of the most powerful men in Iraq. Sistani was already known to Shia Muslims worldwide as the somewhat reticent leader of the religious establishment in Najaf. The fall of the Ba'ath regime thrust him on to the national and international stage.
Political Geography:: Iraq

43. Iraq's religious mix is at risk

Author:: Gerard Russell
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Iraq is being denuded of its ancient communities, and both it and the world are the poorer for it. As the jihadists of Islamic State try to entrench their rule, it is an open question whether Iraq's religious minorities will survive, and if so, how they can be protected. There is another, deeper question, however. How did Iraq come to have so much religious diversity in the first place, and what does this this say about the type of Islam that prevailed there until the 21st century?
Topic:: Islam
Political Geography:: Iraq

44. Africa's choice of partners

Author:: Nicholas Westcott
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Summits with Africa are in fashion: in August, President Obama hosted America's first; in April, the European Union staged the fourth EU-Africa summit in Brussels; the BRICS countries–Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa–held one in Durban in March last year; and in June 2013 Japan hosted its five-yearly conference on African development in Yokohama. Next year will see the sixth China-Africa summit. South America, South Korea and Turkey, which have all held summits with African leaders in recent years, have pledged return matches in Africa.
Political Geography:: Africa, America, and Europe

45. The blue helmet blues

Author:: Richard Gowan
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Imagine a dystopian future in which NATO, struggling against Islamist terrorism, has to deploy troops on a constant basis across Africa and the Middle East. Then all of a sudden it is struck by a series of calamities: more than 40 personnel are taken hostage in the Middle East, soldiers start dying on a weekly basis on the edge of the Sahara and an operation to handle an outbreak of ebola begins to spiral out of control. NATO, you might expect, would give up in exhaustion. After Afghanistan, western powers have little appetite for quagmires.
Topic:: NATO
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Africa, and Middle East

46. YouGov poll: EU comeback

Author:: Thomas Raines
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: British attitudes to the European Union have become generally more favourable over the past two years, according to a YouGov poll for Chatham House. Those who say they would vote to stay in the EU now have the narrowest of leads–40 per cent to 39 per cent. Two years ago, 49 per cent said they would vote to leave, against 30 per cent to stay.
Political Geography:: Europe

47. Postcard from Södertälje, Sweden

Author:: Mikael Oez
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: If you want to hear the language spoken by Christ, all you need to do is to take a short bus ride from Stockholm to the town of Södertälje. There you will find thousands of Syriac Christians speaking Aramaic as it was spoken in the time of Jesus.
Political Geography:: Iraq and Turkey

48. Expert view: Afghanistan

Author:: Michael Keating
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This has been a roller-coaster year for Afghans. It has included vigorous presidential and provincial election campaigns, a protracted political crisis, the formation of a government of national unity, the inauguration of a president with big new ideas, a financial crunch, devastating natural disasters, widening Taliban attacks and a surge in the number of Afghans being killed. Meanwhile, the US-led International Security Assistance Force is winding down and will conclude in December.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: Afghanistan and United States

49. Review: Bauhaus and a spirit of subtle resistance

Author:: Alan Philps
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Two items from the exhibition tell revealing stories about life in Germany in the 20th Century. Both have a link to the Weimar School of Architecture and Design, called the Bauhaus, which pioneered modern design in the 1920s. Because of its socialist and internationalist outlook, the Nazis set out to destroy it.
Political Geography:: Germany

50. Date with history: The bullet train at 50

Author:: Christian Wolmar
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The opening of the first high-speed line, the Japanese Shinkansen, ushered in a new era of rail travel but it has taken a surprisingly long time for the concept to spread. Indeed, 50 years later, there are still barely a dozen countries that boast trains that can be described as high-speed. And while there are lots of schemes in the offing, the huge cost and long lead times are proving a barrier for their rapid spread.
Political Geography:: Japan

51. Review: Camp David recalled

Author:: Burhan Wazir
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The Middle East is a landscape littered with unrealized peace treaties, broken promises and failed intentions. In the four years since uprisings and reprisals took hold of Egypt, Syria, Libya, Bahrain, Oman and Tunisia, two diplomatic constants have dominated: The limited influence of American power, and a dearth of leadership in the region. Political intransigence and sectarian violence weren't always the norm in the Middle East. Lawrence Wright's new book, Thirteen Days in September, chronicles an era, almost four decades ago, when compromise was considered an asset. Over 13 days at Camp David in Maryland in 1978, US President Jimmy Carter was able to extract a peace treaty from Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. The accord is still the most lasting achievement to emerge from the Arab-Israeli conflict of the 20th century.
Topic:: Sectarian violence
Political Geography:: Middle East, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, and Oman

52. 5 Things: C K Scott Moncrieff

Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: C K Scott Moncrieff was born into a well-to-do Scottish family in the late 19th century. While a schoolboy, he received an entree into the gay literary coterie centred on Robbie Ross, Oscar Wilde's lover, leading to a lifelong friendship with Wilde's son, Vyvyan Holland.
Political Geography:: Italy and Scotland

53. Review: 3 books on Europe

Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Danny Dorling's book is presented as an opportunity to explore the cost of the growing disparity between the very richest in society and the rest. What results, however, is an attempt to correlate facts and figures to much broader societal trends, but not always with justification.
Political Geography:: Europe

54. After independence? The challenges and benefits of Scottish-UK defence cooperation

Author:: Colin Fleming
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: As Charles Tilly famously argued, 'War made the state, and the state made war'. This symbiosis between the state and its ability to wage war has long been synonymous with statehood itself, and what it means to be independent within the international state system. It is an idea that has underpinned realist accounts of international relations and remains widely accepted, despite changing norms and closer dependencies between states. Indeed, in the context of the Scottish independence debate Malcolm Chalmers has argued that: 'Having independent armed forces is at the heart of what it means to be a sovereign country.' This raises the question whether the Scottish government's favoured cooperative approach to defence would undermine Scotland's new-found sovereignty at the very time that it seeks its own independent voice in international affairs.
Topic:: NATO
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and Scotland

55. Repairing NATO's motors

Author:: Mark Webber, Ellen Hallams, and Martin A. Smith
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: When NATO heads of state and government convene in Newport, Wales, in September 2014, it will be their first meeting in the UK since the London summit of July 1990. A quarter of a century ago, NATO was reborn. The London Declaration on a Transformed Alliance was NATO's keynote statement of renewed purpose, issued in 1990 as the Cold War was drawing to a close. In it we find the beginnings of the tasks which would come to define the alliance in the post- Cold War period, along with an appreciation of a fundamentally altered strategic landscape. Europe had 'entered a new, promising era', one in which it was thought the continent's tragic cycle of war and peace might well be over. The 2014 summit communiqué is unlikely to reflect such optimism, but what it surely needs to do is to recapture the spirit of enterprise that NATO has on occasion been able to articulate in demanding times.
Topic:: NATO and Cold War
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, and London

56. The 'rhinofication' of South African security

Author:: Jasper Humphreys and M. L. R. Smith
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Counter-poaching operations in South Africa's so-called 'rhino wars' have seen increasing use of kinetic strategies and tactics. It can be argued that this follows the country's historical tendency to react to threats with confrontation in the first instance rather than negotiation, as leaders invoke images of 'backs-to-the-wall' isolation. During the apartheid period the National Party strongly promoted patriotism and self-sacrifice, portraying South Africa as facing 'total onslaught'; today, the rhetoric of 'rhino wars' is often framed in similar terms, not least because the person leading the rhinoceros counter-poaching campaign, Major General Johan Jooste (retired), was himself heavily involved in the 'apartheid wars' in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: South Africa

57. Waging a war to save biodiversity: the rise of militarized conservation

Author:: Rosaleen Duffy
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Conserving biodiversity is a central environmental concern, and conservationists increasingly talk in terms of a 'war' to save species. International campaigns present a specific image: that parks agencies and conservation NGOs are engaged in a continual battle to protect wildlife from armies of highly organized criminal poachers who are financially motivated. The war to save biodiversity is presented as a legitimate war to save critically endangered species such as rhinos, tigers, gorillas and elephants. This is a significant shift in approach since the late 1990s, when community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and participatory techniques were at their peak. Since the early 2000s there has been a re-evaluation of a renewed interest in fortress conservation models to protect wildlife, including by military means. Yet, as Lunstrum notes, there is a dearth of research on 'green militarization', a process by which military approaches and values are increasingly embedded in conservation practice.
Topic:: War

58. Environmental insecurity and fortress mentality

Author:: Rob White
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Shortages of food, water and non-renewable energy sources can trigger nefarious activities involving organized criminal networks, transnational corporations and governments at varying political levels. Illegal and excessive fishing, sidestep - ping of regulations on disposal of hazardous waste, water and land theft, fraudulent manipulation of alternative energy subsidies and policies, and transference of toxicity and contaminated products across national borders are driven by a variety of motivations and involve a wide range of actors. The consequences of such activities contribute to even more ruthless exploitation of rapidly vanishing natural resources, as well as the further diminution of air, soil and water quality, thereby exacerbating the competition among individuals, groups and nations for what is left.
Topic:: Government, Politics, and International Security

59. Human conflict and ecosystem services: finding the environmental price of warfare

Author:: Robert A. Francis and Krishna Krishnamurthy
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Warfare is a uniquely human endeavour, and has been central to human culture and civilization for many thousands of years. Early forms of intergroup conflict were conducted by our hominid ancestors over one million years ago, while the development of larger-scale, organized conflict is recorded by early civilizations in Mesopotamia and China almost 5,000 years ago. The impetuses for warfare, being a complex mix of genetics, psychology, culture, politics, technology and resource availability, are unlikely to disappear in the future, as long as our species survives. Though the nature of warfare is changing, from its most devastating twentieth- century form of industrial 'total' warfare to the geographically and politically complex 'everywhere war' that is beginning to define conflict in the twenty-first century, violent conflict is certain to remain a defining part of the human story.
Political Geography:: China and Mesopotamia

60. The roots to peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo: conservation as a platform for green development

Author:: Richard Milburn
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is endowed with a wealth of natural resources, and the presence of high-value minerals such as coltan and diamonds is well known. The country is also endowed with a wealth of biodiversity, although the value of this is often overlooked. The DRC ranks fifth in terms of the most biodiverse countries in the world; it is home to a plethora of endemic species of both flora and fauna and contains the second largest rainforest in the world, smaller only than the Amazon. This range of flora and fauna has suffered enormously from the effects of armed conflict in the country over the past two decades, and many wildlife populations have been decimated. In spite of destruction through conflict, key populations and ecosystems still remain and they are crucial for the country's development and the world's fight against climate change.
Political Geography:: Democratic Republic of the Congo

61. The UN and the African Union in Mali and beyond: a shotgun wedding?

Author:: Thomas G. Weiss and Martin Welz
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: After the initial post-Cold War euphoria about the potential for the United Nations (UN) to maintain international peace and security, as imagined in its Charter, from the 1990s onwards subcontracting from the world organization to regional organizations has become essentially the standard operating procedure for major military peace operations. While UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was bullish in his 1992 An agenda for peace, the UN has by and large withdrawn from the peace enforcement business following debacles in Somalia and Rwanda—as Boutros-Ghali's 1995 Supplement to 'An agenda for peace' and the 2000 Brahimi Report recommended.
Topic:: Security and Cold War
Political Geography:: United Nations, Rwanda, and Somalia

62. After Westgate: opportunities and challenges in the war against Al-Shabaab

Author:: Paul D. Williams
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: On 21 September 2013, fighters from the Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen (Movement of the Warrior Youth) attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 67 people and wounding over 200 others. According to Kenya's parliamentary inquiry into the attack, it was conducted by four gunmen (three Somali nationals and a Norwegian citizen of Somali origin), all of whom died in the subsequent four-day siege. The inquiry, by the Joint Committee on Administration and National Security and Defence and Foreign Relations, listed Westgate as the 28th terrorist attack in the country since Kenyan forces intervened in Somalia in October 2011. It concluded that a confluence of factors had left Kenya particularly vulnerable to such attacks: its porous border with Somalia; endemic corruption and poor levels of preparedness among its security officials; youth radicalization (with over 500 Kenyan youths recruited into Al-Shabaab), the proliferation of small arms and light weapons; and the influx of more than 600,000 Somali refugees into Kenya. Overall, the inquiry lamented that despite relevant general information about an impending terror attack on such a target, there had been a 'nationwide systemic failure' on the part of numerous government departments, confusion among government agencies in responding to the attack, and disgraceful looting of premises within the mall by some Kenyan soldiers and police.
Political Geography:: Kenya, Norway, Somalia, and Nairobi

63. International development in transition

Author:: Sophie Harman and David Williams
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The project of international development is in a period of transition. The various dimensions of this transition are relatively clear, the outcome much less so. The first aim of this article is to outline and suggest some explanations for what we take to be the main dimensions of this transition. These are changes in development thinking, particularly with regard to the role of the state; changing donor priorities around 'big' and 'small' development; the changing donor landscape and a new age of choice for developing countries; and changing aid relationships that create greater autonomy for developing countries. We suggest that such changes are linked together in ways that are leading to some quite substantial shifts in the policies and practices of international development. The second aim of this article is to signal some of the important questions and debates that arise when we take notice of these shifts. First, there are explanatory questions related to how we capture the dynamics involved in these areas of change and their relations with one another. Second, there are questions about what the new demands will be for developing country governments and aid donors in this new environment. Third, and related, there are questions about what lessons we might draw from past experiences, in the sense that for some of the ideas and practices we see assuming a new significance in the contemporary period, there are at least parallels in the past. Finally, there are questions about the future trajectory of this transition, where it is taking us, and whether it will be sustained and amplified in the future.
Topic:: Development and Government

64. A call for a new Japanese foreign policy: the dilemmas of a stakeholder state

Author:: Takashi Inoguchi
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The world was different in 2002 when Henry Kissinger published a book entitled Does America need a foreign policy?, and Le Monde came out in support of the United States after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 by proclaiming: 'We are all American.' In many ways, this was the high point of the American global era—the era of unipolar American power. In 2014 the world has moved on. The United States is still the leading global power with unique capabilities and responsibilities for global leadership. But other states—particularly in Asia and the non-western developing world—are on the rise. The world is more fragmented and decentralized. States are rising and falling. The terms of global governance are more contested and uncertain. This article addresses the foreign policy of Japan and the choices that Japan faces in this shifting global context.
Topic:: Foreign Policy and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, America, Asia, and North America

65. Book Reviews

Author:: Chris Brown
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The vulnerable in international society is the latest in a series of books by Ian Clark exploring different aspects of international society, following Legitimacy in international society (OUP, 2005) and Hegemony in international society (OUP, 2011). The two earlier books—along with his co-authored Special responsibilities: global problems and American power (with Mlada Bukovansky, Robyn Eckersley, Christian Reus-Smit and Nicholas Wheeler; CUP, 2012)—are largely concerned with the ways in which international society reproduces itself and manages Great Power relations; The vulnerable in international society shifts the focus towards the other end of the food chain, towards those who are without power. The thesis is that the vulnerable are not simply ill served by international society, by definition insufficiently protected by it, but in a wider sense actually created by international society—the risks they face may sometimes be 'natural', but equally they may actually be a by-product of the way in which international society works. Just as international society confers legitimacy on its members, so it may also create vulnerability. The vulnerable are a socially crafted category and international society is involved in that crafting process, as well as being involved in measures taken to cope with the consequences of this process.
Political Geography:: America

66. Editorial - 90 volumes of International Affairs

Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: When International Affairs first appeared in 1922, recording contributions to the equally new British (later Royal) Institute of International Affairs, the journal set itself the modest goal of becoming 'a source of information and a guide to judgment in international affairs'. It was originally intended only for members of the BIIA, but quickly expanded its readership and impact by beginning to sell copies to non-members as well. In 1931 it took the name International Affairs.
Topic:: International Affairs
Political Geography:: Britain

67. Learning from the past: the relevance of international history

Author:: David Stevenson
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: In what follows I will begin in Houghton Street and from there will broaden outwards in successive circles, from London in the 1920s to Europe in 1914, to the Caribbean Sea in 1962, and to where we find ourselves today. The reasons for so doing will, I trust, become clear. But my focus will be on the origin and applications of the discipline of international history, through an investigation of the Stevenson Chair around which the LSE International History Department grew up; the LSE becoming in turn one of the nuclei from which the subject would spread further, both elsewhere in Britain and overseas. I will underline the practical purposes of the discipline's creators, while highlighting a tension between two intellectual traditions that were present from the outset. I will emphasize the need to synthesize those traditions if the study of international history is to yield the maximum insight and value.
Political Geography:: Europe

68. 'Time of Troubles': Arnold J Toynbee's twentieth century

Author:: Ian Hall
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) was synonymous with the Royal Institute of International Affairs for the first half of its history. He held the post of Director of Studies from 1925 to 1954, and thereafter retained an office in Chatham House until his death. Throughout that half-century he combined the roles of scholar and public intellectual, using International Affairs—along with many other outlets—to communicate the fruits and findings of his research to policy-makers and the wider community. During his 50 years at Chatham House Toynbee contributed 19 essays to the journal—which must surely be the most of any individual author—and produced his two monumental multi-volume works, the Survey of international affairs, which he penned, edited or commissioned from 1925 until 1958, and A study of history, which appeared in twelve volumes between 1934 and 1961. He also published a further 50 books and hundreds of scholarly articles during his lifetime, as well as many interviews and lesser pieces. If one includes reviews of books by others, Toynbee's complete works amount to almost 3,000 items.
Topic:: History
Political Geography:: Britain and Middle East

69. Cosmos, chaos: finance, power and conflict

Author:: Harold James
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: A spectre is haunting the world: 1914. The approaching centenary of the outbreak of the First World War is a reminder of how the instability produced by changes in the relative balance of power in an integrated or globalized world may produce cataclysmic events. Jean-Claude Juncker, the veteran Prime Minister of Luxem-bourg and chair of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, started 2013 by warning journalists that they should take note of the parallels with 1913, the last year of European peace. He was referring explicitly to new national animosities fanned by the European economic crisis, with a growing polarization between North and South. Historically, the aftermath and the consequences of such cataclysms have been extreme. George Kennan strikingly termed the 1914–18 conflict 'the great seminal catastrophe of this century'. Without it, fascism, communism, the Great Depression and the Second World War are all almost impossible to imagine.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Communism, Economics, Politics, and War
Political Geography:: Europe

70. 1914 and 2014: should we be worried?

Author:: Margaret MacMillan
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: A century ago this autumn the first battle of the Marne ended Germany's attempt to crush France and its ally Britain quickly. In that one battle alone the French lost 80,000 dead and the Germans approximately the same. By comparison, 47,000 Americans died in the whole of the Vietnam War and 4,800 coalition troops in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In August and September 1914 Europe, the most powerful and prosperous part of the world, had begun the process of destroying itself. A minor crisis in its troubled backyard of the Balkans had escalated with terrifying speed to create an all-out war between the powers. 1 'Again and ever I thank God for the Atlantic Ocean,' wrote Walter Page, the American ambassador in London; and in Washington his president, Woodrow Wilson, agreed.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: Britain, Iraq, America, Europe, Washington, France, London, Vietnam, Germany, Balkans, and Atlantic Ocean

71. Back to the future for Syria

Author:: Michael Williams
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Some months ago while clearing my late mother 's house I came across a stamp album from my school days in the 1960s. There were stamps from 'Croatia ', in reality produced by extremist groups in Argentina, but testifying to the existence of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia (NDH) in the 1940s. But to my surprise, I also found stamps from the 'Alawite State of Syria '. An independent Croatia is now a reality and soon to become a member of the European Union. For that matter we also have states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo. And the former Soviet Union has broken up into its constituent republics. Who would have imagined this as late as 1990? But maybe the break up of states, whether Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia, and possibly the United Kingdom if Scotland opts for independence in 2014, is a purely European phenomenon?
Topic:: Government and United Nations
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Argentina, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Syria, and Scotland

72. Turkey finds that trouble knows no bounds

Author:: Hugh Pope
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Collapse in Syria and a Kurdish reawakening are posing challenges for Ankara
Political Geography:: Turkey and Syria

73. Sectarian pressures are tearing up the Sykes-Picot map

Author:: Martin Chulov
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Lines in the sand are blown away
Political Geography:: Iraq, Iran, and Syria

74. Q A grass-roots view of the Syrian uprising

Author:: Alan Philps
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Abdulkader al-Dhon, 27, was a student when the Syrian uprising started. For the past two years he has travelled the country to help reporters and human rights groups make sense of the crisis
Topic:: Government and Communications
Political Geography:: Syria

75. Iraq can't avoid contagion

Author:: Jane Kinninmont
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Syria's civil war is exacerbating tension between Iraqi factions
Topic:: Security, Government, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:: Iraq and Syria

76. Smart phones: it's now the age of the thumb

Author:: Per Ola Kristensson
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: How KALQ could soon be replacing QWERTY

77. Venezuela's bad loser syndrome

Author:: Julia Buxton
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: After a narrow defeat, the opposition is in danger of heading down a strategic cul de sac
Political Geography:: Venezuela

78. How to help the poor in a rich man's world

Author:: Jon Lidén
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Donors need to be smarter as nouveau riche states leave masses trapped by poverty gap
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: China, Brazil, and Mexico

79. The Kremlin is not just a one-man band

Author:: Andrew Monaghan
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Time for a closer look at the cast of players who rule Russia in the shadow of Putin
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: Russia and Kremlin

80. Inside the superstar economy of America's big thinkers

Author:: Daniel W. Drezner
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Why the US still dominates the world of innovative ideas
Topic:: Economics
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Europe

81. Britain needs to think bigger

Author:: Phillip Blond
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Looking at structural problems that can blinker academic innovation
Topic:: Governance
Political Geography:: Britain, America, and Canada

82. Ideas that nudged governments

Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Economics and Government

83. Joseph Nye, the inventor of the term 'soft power'

Author:: Alan Philps
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: He shares his thoughts on on America's role in an increasingly affluent world, Russia's decline and China's own goals
Topic:: Economics and United Nations
Political Geography:: Russia, China, America, Middle East, and Syria

84. Dicing with death penalties in Indonesia

Author:: Dave McRae
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The ramifications at home of protecting citizens abroad
Topic:: Government and United Nations
Political Geography:: Indonesia and Saudi Arabia

85. International justice should prosecute beyond the bounds of Africa

Author:: Max du Plessis
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The ICC has a blind spot which is crippling its credibility
Topic:: Security and United Nations
Political Geography:: Africa, Palestine, and Syria

86. Can culture heal the wounds of the Troubles?

Author:: Bruce Clark
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: As G8 leaders meet for the first time in Northern Ireland, Bruce Clark visits the divided city of Derry-Londonderry to find out if culture can effect reconciliation after decades of violence
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and North Ireland

87. Chasing the Nordic option after independence

Author:: Alyson J. K. Bailes
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Scotland the brave new world
Topic:: Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: Europe and Scotland

88. St Helena ready for take off

Author:: Michael Binyon
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: A mountain-top airport is about to change island life forever
Topic:: Government
Political Geography:: Britain, South Africa, and Island

89. Shards of empire

Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Political Geography:: America

90. Tax havens under attack

Author:: Ronen Palan
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Tax havens have been around for decades but they were viewed as marginal if not esoteric phenomena. Attitudes are changing. As new data on international financial flows becomes available, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that tax havens are at the very heart of 'neoliberal' globalization, aiding and facilitating tax avoidance on a vast scale.
Topic:: Globalization
Political Geography:: United States and Caribbean

91. Introduction

Author:: Julie Smith
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Many people believed that Great Britain was not and did not wish to become European, and that Britain wanted to enter the Community only so as to destroy it or divert it from its objectives. Many people also thought that France was ready to use every pretext to place in the end a fresh veto on Britain's entry. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you see before you tonight two men who are convinced of the contrary.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: United States, Europe, and Germany

92. Britain and Europe

Author:: Robert Cooper
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Forty years after Britain joined Europe both have changed, mostly for the better. This story does not, however, begin in 1972 when the negotiations finished and were ratified by parliament, nor in 1973 when the UK took its place at the Council table as a full member, but ten years before with the first British application and the veto by General de Gaulle. Sometimes, going further back still, it is suggested that if Ernest Bevin's ideas for West European cooperation had been pursued, or if Britain had decided to join talks on the Schuman Plan, or to take the Spaak Committee seriously, things might have been different. But the truth is there was no Robert Schuman or Jean Monnet in Britain, and no readiness to think in radically new terms. Had the UK been present at the negotiations that led to the European Coal and Steel Community, the outcome for Britain would probably still have been the same, precisely because the vision was lacking. The decision on the Schuman Plan was a close-run thing—the idea of planning for heavy industry being in accordance with the ideas of the Labour government. But British ideas were very different from those of the French or the Americans, who were thinking in terms of supranational bodies—indeed, for Monnet this was a cardinal point. His approach was supported by the Benelux countries, which were already setting up their own customs union. Bevin had an ambition to lead Europe, but it is not clear where he wanted to take it. British policy was sensible and pragmatic but it offered no vision and few resources, and still gave as much priority to the empire as to Europe. Most probably, participation in those early talks would only have postponed a decision not to join the new enterprise. It was only when that enterprise looked successful and likely to last that Britain began to take it seriously and to think of membership.
Political Geography:: America, Europe, and France

93. Interview with Hans-Dietrich Genscher

Author:: Quentin Peel and Michael Stürmer
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Michael Stürmer: Occasionally, and very pointedly, you have described yourself as 'the man from Halle'. What does Halle stand for in your life? Hans-Dietrich Genscher: It is the city that has moulded me. It is a very defiant, revolutionary city, with a great tradition in the Enlightenment, in the Reformation, but also in the labour movement. So it is no surprise that on 17 June 1953, the centre of the uprising, outside Berlin, was in Halle. But also in the Third Reich there was strong resistance in this region.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: Europe and England

94. The UK media and 'Europe': from permissive consensus to destructive dissent

Author:: Oliver Daddow
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: This may be the most important proposition revealed by history: 'At the time, no one knew what was coming.' With Britain's main parties of government deeply divided on the question of European integration, the country's politicians have been reticent to the point of paranoia about opening up national debates about the European Economic Community/European Union. The national media, by contrast, have had no such qualms about professing their opinions on the merits and downsides of the European project and Britain's contribution to it. This article argues that on the issue of 'Europe' most organs of the British media have, in a variety of ways and for various reasons, been on a journey between 1973 and the present from permissive consensus to destructive dissent. In putting forward this interpretation the article adapts Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks's judgement that, since the signing of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1991, European policy-making elites have increasingly had to 'look over their shoulders when negotiating European issues'. This is because public interest in notionally European-level affairs has risen in proportion to the number and contentiousness of landmark decisions being taken at the supranational level. Crucially, there has been a marked rise in Euroscepticism across the Continent, with national politicians having to 'make room for a more Eurosceptical public' when coming to decisions on European integration, especially on sensitive topics such as fiscal union and constitution-building.2The title of this article reflects the specificity of the British case, where a seismic shift took place during the 1980s. Widespread (but by no means total) media support, sometimes manifest as quiet or just plain uninterested acquiescence in the European project in its 'common market' guise, has given way to a vigorously partisan hostility bordering on a nationalist and in some arenas xenophobic approach to the coverage of European affairs.
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and Europe

95. A high price to pay? Britain and the European budget

Author:: James Spence
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Shadows of 'bougets', in the old sense of moneybags, loom over Britain's stance on the EU budget today, as they did over EC budgets 40 years ago. Three of the make-or-break issues for the UK in the negotiations over the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for the period from 2014 to 2020 concern the direct cost of UK membership. The first is maintaining the British correction or 'rebate', while also maintaining member state sovereignty over budget revenue decisions. (The current rebate, some claim, was finally gained by another 'bouget', Mrs Thatcher's fabled handbag, in 1984.) Cutting finance to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the second, and closely linked to the first. At the time Britain was negotiating its terms for accession, its less Eurocentric agricultural trade patterns, and its higher dependence on cheap food imports from outside the Communities, marked it off from the six founding EC member states for which food security was a high priority. UK food prices were relatively low compared to Continental prices. Agriculture was a smaller economic and employment sector in the UK than it was in Continental Europe, and land ownership patterns also differed markedly. The third, and again related, issue is reducing the overall size of the MFF: that is, limiting the amounts available for the EU's annual budgets over several years, and therefore reducing the UK's contributions.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and Europe

96. The City and EMU

Author:: Malcolm Levitt
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The City of London's leading position in international financial markets is the basis of its central role in the UK economy in terms of its contribution to UK GDP and tax revenue and the City's own balance of payments surplus. The City's prosperity has long been associated with its international role and openness to foreign business, as illustrated eight centuries ago by the Magna Carta.
Topic:: Disaster Relief
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and London

97. The European dividing line in party politics

Author:: Julie Smith
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: European integration is a cross-cutting political issue that has divided British political parties for over half a century. When Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath sought to take Britain into the then Common Market, he relied on the votes of 69 pro-European rebel Labour MPs to get the European Communities Bill through the House of Commons in 1971—an early sign of the divisive impact membership of the European Union would have on British party politics. Barely a decade after accession, the Labour Party had sought to renegotiate the UK's terms of membership, held a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the Common Market, split in part over the issue and finally fought an election in which it called for withdrawal. Fast forward another three decades and the Labour position was broadly pro-European, while Tory rebels, alongside a party established to oppose membership, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), were advocating withdrawal from the Union. And if withdrawal was not the official Conservative position, Euroscepticism has certainly become prevalent in that party, leading one Conservative parliamentarian to claim: 'The dividing line in the Conservative Party is now in/out.'
Political Geography:: United Kingdom, Europe, and England

98. The UK and European defence: leading or leaving?

Author:: Sven Biscop
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: The problem of European defence is that it does not work with the United Kingdom, but would not work without it either. Unlike in other policy areas, in defence the issue is not British resistance to Brussels directives. Populist outcries against a mythical 'Euro-Army' notwith-standing, British sovereignty is not under threat. The real issue is that other European countries are not doing enough in spite of being urged from both sides of Brussels—by the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 'Too many countries are failing to meet their financial responsibilities to NATO, and so failing to maintain appropriate and proportionate capabilities. Too many are opting out of operations or contributing but a fraction of what they should be capable of ', in the words of Defence Secretary Philip Hammond. Britain, on the contrary, is the leading European military power, accounting for 22.4 per cent of defence expenditure and 11.8 per cent of armed forces, and it is more willing than most to deploy those forces (providing 20.8 per cent of the average number of troops deployed), including for combat operations. Its military clout enables the UK to lead the others—any scheme for European defence without it would indeed be severely handicapped. But does Britain want to lead? The paradox is that while the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) would not have come into being without British leadership, it would be much more effective without British reluctance to make full use of it. In contrast to most European countries, the UK has never stopped seeing European defence and the continued assurance of transatlantic partnership (in the shape of its special relationship with the United States and the NATO alliance) as a zero-sum game.
Political Geography:: United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and North Atlantic

99. Britain, Europe and the United States: change and continuity

Author:: Arthur I. Cyr
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: There is no shortage of attention to disagreements and tensions between the United States and the nations of Europe, considered both individually and collectively. The 40th anniversary of Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), now the European Union (EU), is a good benchmark anniversary not only for reflection on what has transpired to date but also for evaluation of current trends and likely future developments. The nation's course, regarding both entry into membership and participation, has hardly been smooth, but the relationship with the institution has endured.
Topic:: War
Political Geography:: Britain, United States, and Europe

100. The discomforts of life on the edge: Britain and Europe, 1963–1975

Author:: N. Piers Ludlow
Publication Date:: 11-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Recent trends in both Britain and Continental Europe have made the question of the United Kingdom's position as a fully fledged member of the European Union more contentious than it has been for decades. The almost unchecked rise of Euroscepticism among both the British political elite—especially within the governing Conservative Party—and the media means that the possibility of British withdrawal from the Union, or at very least the renegotiation of its position within it, is discussed more openly and in more mainstream political circles than at any time since the 1970s. On the other side of the Channel, meanwhile, the perceived need to address the weaknesses of the single currency by increasing integration, whether across the EU as a whole or simply among those countries that share the euro, has helped create a situation in which many of the key decisions are taken in forums within which the British are either not represented at all or are marginal players at best. Few European governments openly aspire to a situation in which the United Kingdom moves away from the core European decision-making system, and several have publicly deplored the possibility. But faced with the need to press ahead, and the ever decreasing likelihood of the British being able to follow any such advance, European governments are being forced to contemplate the prospect of a core Europe without Britain.
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and Europe

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS