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11521. Control of Illegal Immigration and Italian-EU Relations

Author:
Bruno Nascimbene
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Controlling maritime borders and flows of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean is an issue where sharp tensions have been evident for some months now at the national, EU and international levels. Tensions evidenced by the reactions and outcry provoked by operations involving Italian naval units which have intercepted boats carrying migrants and sent them back to their ports of departure, most notably in Libya. The migrants concerned were deemed to be illegal regardless of their possible asylum-seeker status. Such interventions have raised, and continue to raise, concerns over the fate of the persons involved, especially as regards the protection of their fundamental human rights.
Topic:
Maritime Commerce, Immigration, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Europe, Libya, Italy, and Rome

11522. Eastern Partnership and Conflicts in the South Caucasus: Old Wine in New Skins?

Author:
Nona Mikhelidze
Publication Date:
08-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
On 7 May 2009 in Prague the European Union inaugurated its Eastern Partnership (EaP). The initiative is based on a Polish-Swedish proposal of May 2008, which was held in standby until 2009. It took a full-blown war for the EU to pull this proposal out of the closet, as the August 2008 Georgian-Russian conflict and the ensuing Russian recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia posed new challenges to European foreign policy.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Poland, Georgia, and Sweden

11523. Deepening and widening in European foreign and security policy

Author:
Gianni Bonvicini and Michele Comelli
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The process of European integration has traditionally advanced through two distinct, although strictly interlinked processes: a) in institutional terms, either through a reform of the Treaties (formal deepening) or through pragmatic ways and ad hoc mechanisms (informal deepening), intended to consolidate and enhance integration among its members; b) via enlargement (widening), through the accession of new members into the EU and their integration of the policies and institutions of the Union. The impact of these two processes is not uniform and may actually greatly vary, according to the policy area that we consider. The aim of this report– that summarises the research work carried out within the framework of EU-Consent project, and notably within work package VII “Political and security aspects of the EU' external relations” - is to study the interplay between deepening and widening in the specific area of European foreign and security policy ( including both CFSP and ESDP) and more specifically the impact of widening on this area.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe

11524. UN Security Council Reform. Current Developments

Author:
Elisabetta Martini
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
At its founding, the UN had 51 members and the Security Council (SC) consisted of the same five countries that serve as permanent members today, plus six nonpermanent members. In 1963, the number of nonpermanent members was increased to 10. Since then, the overall membership of the UN has nearly quadrupled to 192, but there has been no further expansion of the Security Council. There is general agreement that the Security Council should be enlarged, and that it is time to utilize this “momentum for reform”, but despite this there is no convergence of views on the modality of the reform package, yet.
Topic:
International Relations, International Organization, and United Nations

11525. Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness of the UN Security Council in the Last Twenty Years: A European Perspective

Author:
David Hannay
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War struck the UN, as it struck the governments of its member states, like a bolt from the blue. It had not been predicted, nor anticipated; and no thought had been given to its possible consequences for the UN, which had been, since its establishment forty-five years before, a victim of the frozen certainties of bi-polar international diplomacy. There had been no consideration of what the post-Cold War world would look like and of what role the UN might be expected to play in it. It truly was a watershed moment, and therefore a sensible one to take as the start of any analysis of the Security Council in the twenty year period that has since followed.
Topic:
International Relations, Cold War, Diplomacy, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe, Kuwait, and Berlin

11526. Military and civilian ESDP Missions: Ever Growing and Effective?

Author:
Nicoletta Pirozzi and Sammi Sandawi
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Even if the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) seems for many observers a well-established field of activity of the European Union, it must not be overlooked that it is still a young and on many aspects quite unpractised endeavour of the EU. Only in 2003 – after a four-year period of institution building, strategic considerations and civil/military capability development – ESDP became officially operational, and started in Bosnia and Herzegovina its first field mission.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Balkans

11527. Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness of the UN Security Council in the Last Twenty Years: A US Perspective

Author:
John Van Oudenaren
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The origins of the UN Security Council go back to the Congress of Vienna and the peacemaking process that followed the Napoleonic wars of 1799-1815, when the distinction between the great powers and all other powers first was enshrined in the practice of international diplomacy. The great powers were said to be those powers with interests general to the European system and thus by implication a stake in the system as a whole, in contrast to lesser powers, which had merely local or regional interests. This distinction carried over into the peace-making process after World War I and was formalized in the Covenant of the League of Nations, which identified the Principal Allied and Associated Powers as the permanent members of the League Council. The distinction lived on in the United Nations Organization and the UN Charter, which assigned responsibility for the maintenance of peace to the Security Council, in which the five states defined as great powers were given a permanent veto.
Topic:
International Relations, Diplomacy, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

11528. Report of the workshop "Italy's Participation in EU Civilian Missions. Critical Aspects and Future Perspectives"

Author:
Valérie Vicky Miranda
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
2009 marks the tenth anniversary of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), formally launched at the Cologne European Council of June 1999 as an integral part of the European Union's (EU) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Since then, political, civilian and military structures have been set up, capabilities development goals identified and we have witnessed a continuous evolution of the ESDP epitomised by the significant number of crisis management operations carried out by the EU since 2003. In these last ten years, the ESDP has become one of the most important instruments of European foreign policy. Indeed, the EU, thanks also to the launch of 23 missions in four continents, has built up its credibility as a global security actor.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

11529. Reshuffling The Cards? (II): Syria's New Hand

Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Syria typically, and at times justifiably, brings to mind stagnation and immobility. Yet, over recent years, change has been afoot. In 2008, it agreed to Turkish-mediated talks with Israel. It built ties with the Iraqi government after long depicting it as the offspring of an illegitimate occupation. It began to normalise relations with Lebanon, after years of resisting its claim to sovereignty. It accelerated economic reforms. These steps fall short of being revolutionary; some were imposed rather than chosen and reflected opportunism rather than forward thinking. Still, by Syrian standards, they are quite remarkable, especially in contrast to recent fervent militancy.
Topic:
Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, and Maryland

11530. Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities: International Norms and U.S. Policy

Author:
Matthew C. Waxman
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
The collective international failure to stop genocidal violence and result - ing humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan prompts the familiar question of whether the United States or, more broadly, the international community has the political will and capabilities necessary to deter or stop mass atrocities. It is well understood that mobilizing domestic and international political support as well as leveraging diplomatic, economic, and maybe even military tools are necessary to stop mass atrocities, though they may not always be enough. Other studies have focused, therefore, on what steps the United States and its international partners could take to build capabilities of the sort needed to prevent, stop, and remedy these crimes. This report approaches the problem from a different angle and asks whether the current international legal regime with regard to the use of military force—that is, international law regulating the resort to armed intervention—is appropriate and effective in deterring and stopping mass atrocities.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Genocide, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
United States and Sudan