In the broader Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs, the terms ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘reintegration’ are erroneously used as synonyms. The manifestation of these two distinct phases of a program can be seen in many affected parts of the world. Sri Lanka is one such place where the rehabilitation program was launched after an extended war against insurgency. The vigilantes constituted by the Sri Lankan armed forces, known as Civil Defense Forces (CDF) has been controversial. This paper differentiates the theory and practice and explains what could be done to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the programs.
The Moroccan state started to seriously interact with the human rights discourse in the early 1990s due to long domestic struggles by human rights advocates and global pressures to reform. At the same time, human rights organizations have developed and set aside much of their political lineage, taking up an active role in policy advocacy and pushing for alternatives to meet growing social and societal demands. The 2011 movement has revitalized the human rights approach to politics and social problems, and culminated a decades-long struggle to peacefully and gradually move to a social rights-based contract with the state. Such a state of affairs no longer seems far off.
The Egyptian state seeks to control civil society through laws and puts in place security measures to restrict its action, while civil society organizations, especially rights groups, deploy various strategies to ensure a minimal space for action. In this struggle, a solution lies not only in legislation enabling the participation of independent civil society but more in the opening of the political domain itself. In a context where the real danger lies in the continuation of a status quo that prevents the construction of a modern democratic state, civil society must build wider social and political network to enable it to influence state decisions and represent rights holders.
A deeper and broader national transformation took root in Morocco as bridges started to appear over the gap between an alleged elitism of the human rights movement and the “masses”, with human rights organizations refocussing on social, economic and localized causes of various communities. As in other similar countries, rights actors collide with existing economic and political arrangements and the entrenched networks of patronage. This will be their challenge for years to come.
The interaction between Tunisian human rights organizations and movements struggling for economic and social rights present the former with hard questions and important challenges. Human rights actors need to scrutinize their role and tactics to decide whether they would remain in the fast eroding mediation level (between the movements and the state) or they could explore other avenues that can address the complex issues of representation and brokerage between human rights defenders and the bearers of these very rights who are busy developing new ways of defending themselves.
The economic and social rights movement has struck some success in working with contentious movements to challenge public policies and institutions in Egypt. However, no organic relationship developed between the two. The contentious movement did not strategically adopt an economic and social rights framing that would have enabled it to get beyond its local, largely apolitical and un-institutionalized characteristics in favour of a nationwide platform.
Philip Stockdale, Scott Aughenbaugh, and Nickolas J. Boensch
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Abstract:
In support of the Air University “Fast Space” study, the National Defense University collaborated with Johns Hopkins University, eight think tanks, and subject matter experts to analyze the utility of ultra-low-cost access to space (ULCATS) for the U.S. military.
Contributors identified disruptors that could achieve ULCATS and Fast Space as well as space architectures and capabilities that could reduce the cost of access to space. They also offered recommendations for legal, policy, regulatory, authority, and oversight adjustments that could facilitate reductions.
The combination of a greater number of innovative commercial space actors, industry advocacy for licensing reform, and optimism regarding reusable launch vehicles will eventually change the ways the United States operates in space.
As the economic landscape of space activities evolves, some missions in low earth orbit may be turned over to commercial sector operation, but the next 3 to 5 years might not be revolutionary for government use of space capabilities.
Th e National Security Strategy published by the Swedish government
in January 2017 underlines that the security challenges facing
the country are complex and subject to rapid change. One current
challenge is the re-emergence of traditional forms of power politics,
including in the Baltic Sea region, which is described as one of the
main areas of friction between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).2
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:
What are the effects of international intervention on the rule of law after civil war? Rule of law requires not only that state authorities abide by legal limits on their power, but also that citizens rely on state laws and institutions to adjudicate disputes. Using an original survey and list experiment in Liberia, and adopting multiple identification strategies to support a causal interpretation of my results, I show that exposure to the UN Mission in Liberia increased civilians’ reliance on state over non-state authorities to resolve the most serious incidents of crime and violence, and increased non-state authorities’ reliance on legal over illegal mechanisms of dispute resolution. I also find, however, that international intervention did not mitigate and may in fact have exacerbated citizens’ perceptions of state corruption and bias. I conclude by discussing theoretical and policy implications of these apparently contradictory effects.