Publishing Institution: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy / Political Geography: Arabia / Publication Year: within 25 Years / Topic: Regime Change

Author:: Julian Lindley-French
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: With British and French aircraft undertaking most of the air operations over Libya and some fiftyfive years on from the Suez debacle, historical irony abounds. On November 2 2010, London and Paris agreed the Defence and Security Cooperation Treaty1 (see box below). On the face of it the accord is by and large military-technical: to develop co-operation between British and French Armed Forces, to promote the sharing and pooling of materials and equipment including through mutual interdependence, and leading to the building of joint facilities. This it is hoped will promote mutual access to each other's defence markets, through the promotion of industrial and technological co-operation. But what has the treaty to do with the European Union (EU) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)? Does the treaty mark the first step on the road to regalvanising Europe's strategic defence or is it simply the strategic pretence of two aging, failing powers unable to accept a world that has moved on?
Topic:: NATO, Democratization, Regime Change, and Insurgency
Political Geography:: Britain, France, Libya, Arabia, and North Africa

Author:: Walter Feichtinger
Publication Date:: 04-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The revolts in Tunisia and Egypt were effective in ousting the regimes of Ben Ali and Mubarak, bringing rumor and protests to Yemen, Syria and other places and starting a violent revolution against Muammar Gaddafi – but it remains to be seen whether the abrupt achieved cohesion among the protesters will overcome the political transformation and bridge long existing gaps between the various groups and factions in these countries. Demonstrations in Tunisia, and also in Egypt, indicate that there is limited cohesion and tolerance within politics and civil society when it comes to tackling daily problems and finding lasting solutions.
Topic:: Civil Society, Democratization, and Regime Change
Political Geography:: Yemen, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia

Author:: Graeme P. Herd
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: Beyond noting the fluidity, ambiguity and ambivalence associated with the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, there is little consensus on causes and likely consequences. Do these geopolitical earthquakes constitute an “Arab Spring” leading to transition democratization, akin to 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe? Or should we look to 1979 in Iran, and the prospect of Sunni rather than Shia theocracy taking hold? Might the wider Muslim world – Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey – provide alternative potential governance models for the MENA region, given indigenous variants appear exhausted and no longer able to self-reproduce? What are the lessons which other MENA incumbent regimes and the international community will identify? How might those lessons be learned?
Topic:: Democratization, Regime Change, and Insurgency
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Middle East, and Arabia

Author:: Antti Kaski
Publication Date:: 06-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:: The purpose of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty was to enhance the unity of the member states' foreign policies and the coherence of the external action of the European Union (EU). As manifested recently by the lack of unity and delayed action in the wake of the Arab revolutions, the EU still has considerable work to do before it can claim to have become a global heavyweight in foreign and security policy.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Regime Change
Political Geography:: Europe, Arabia, and Lisbon

Refine your search