Although the phenomenon of state failure is not new, it has become much more relevant and worrying than ever before. In less interconnected eras, state weakness could be isolated and kept distant. Failure had fewer implications for peace and security. Now, within a more interconnected global community these fragile states pose dangers not only to themselves and their neighbors but also to peoples around the globe. Preventing states from failing, and resuscitating those that do fail, are thus strategic and global imperatives. CIC has provided research in this arena, developed panel dicussions that have explored critical issues confronting failed states. CIC has also drawn on expertise from the practitioner, NGO, academic and UN communities, provided candid recommendations and potential solutions to the global threat that failed states present.
Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project, Congo Research Group, Prevention and Peacebuilding
Region/Country: Central Asia, East Asia, Horn of Africa, Libya, Syria, South Asia, India, West Africa
GPOR Annual Compilation 2015
For almost a decade, the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations (ARGPO) was the flagship publication of the Center on International Cooperation (CIC). During that time, CIC also released three editions of the Review of Political Missions.
Publication Date: Jan 29, 2016
Author(s) / Contributor(s): Alexandra Novosseloff, Ryan Rappa, Richard Gowan, Alischa Kugel , WPS Sidhu, Sarah Cliffe, Barnett Rubin, James Traub
Region/Country: China, Europe, Middle East, Libya, Syria, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa
Topic(s): Afghanistan, Crises, Fragile States, Global Governance, United Nations
The Mediterranean crisis and the UN
Last week had no shortage of shocking images to illustrate our collective paralysis in the face of the Mediterranean refugee crisis. A three year old boy dead on a beach, waves lapping around his shoes. Thousands of forcibly displaced people marching through the heart of Europe watched by silent onlookers. Borders going back up in Schengen under the guise of traffic control and migrant searches.
Author(s) / Contributor(s): Sarah Cliffe
Region/Country: Europe, Middle East, Syria
Topic(s): Fragile States, Humanitarian Crises, International Security, United Nations
A New Deal for Somalia? : The Somali Compact and its Implications for Peacebuilding
This policy monitoring brief analyzes the process that led to the "Somali New Deal Compact," the framework's potential effectiveness as a peacebuilding tool, and potential ways to strengthen it. We find that the New Deal Compact in Somalia appears to have created a paradigm shift in international policy rhetoric around Somali ownership and leadership. However, the process to develop the Compact has also revealed a series of difficult trade-offs (related to process, risk, and implementation) between political and technical imperatives for both Somali and external actors.
Author(s) / Contributor(s): Thomas Zimmerman
Region/Country: Horn of Africa
Topic(s): Fragile States
UN Development System Risk Management in Fragile States
The United Nations "Peacebuilding Architecture": Past, Present and Future
Project Brief | A Window of Opportunity for Somalia: Will External Actors' Peacebuilding Frameworks Help or Hinder the Effort?
Kofi Annan Appointed as Special Envoy: New Hope for Syria?
Kofi Annan to be Syria crisis envoy
Overcoming Helicopter Force Generation Challenges for UN Peacekeeping Operations
Intervention in Syria Is Morally Justified—and Completely Impractical
Congo Research Group
COVID-19, Peace, Conflict, and Violence: "Big" Insights from Big Data
The November Data for Peace Dialogue was dedicated to the connections between COVID-19, peace, and security. The pandemic has postponed elections, delayed implementation of peace agreements, and obstructed mediation efforts. In this session, we heard from panelists whose organizations are leveraging the power of data to track correlations and insights on the relationship between COVID-19 and conflict, informing future responses to pandemic challenges and helping highlight ways to sustain peace.
Monitoring Compound Risk in the COVID-19 Era: Advances and Future Directions for Tracking Compound Risk
There is rapidly growing interest in efforts at identifying, monitoring, and anticipating multiple interacting risks, as epitomized by the COVID-19 pandemic. Institutional bodies are seeking to shift to a policy response that is more forward-looking and risk-based, rather than reactive and needs-based. This webinar, part of a joint series on compound global risk in the COVID-19 era, showcases frontier research and policy work on multi-dimensional risk tracking.