Suchergebnisse

"Elections can contribute to peacebuilding by ensuring the representation of formerly excluded groups in parliament. When hurried and poorly designed, however, elections can also threaten the precarious peace in divided countries. This study focuses on the three main features of electoral design that crucially influence the success or failure of elections in conflict-prone divided societies: timing and sequencing, electoral administration, and electoral systems. It goes beyond purely scholarly debates and translates the general insights into specific policy recommendations for the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2015 in South Sudan; the first elections since the country torn by ethnopolitical conflict gained independence in 2011." (author's abstract)

In the passages referring to the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P), the resolution of the 2005 UN reform summit confirms the responsibility of every government for the protection of its people from mass atrocities. The consensus on this issue was reconfirmed by various Security Council resolutions since 2005 and also through resolutions of the General Assembly and of the Human Rights Council. However, the role of the international community with regard to the responsibility of individual governments remains contested. The domestic conflicts in the Arab world underline the urgency of a consistent international engagement within the framework of the R2P. They also demonstrate the basic predicaments of any endeavor to protect people from domestic violence through outside interference. The present paper addresses these predicaments with regard to the tension between the responsibility to protect and the "responsibility to peace", the interplay between humanitarian and non-humanitarian issues in the politics of protection and the difficulties to establish the appropriateness of protective measures in view of the complexities of any international protective measure. The paper argues that the politics of protection will continue to reflect these dilemmas. Nevertheless, the R2P provides a normative framework within which the shortcomings and inconsistencies of the politics of protection can be addressed in a constructive way.

Menachem Mendel Frieden's apologia -- My father's family -- My mother's family -- My father's house -- Me and my youth -- My entry into heder -- On my way through yeshivot -- Passover and the holiday cycle -- More yeshiva studies -- I study with rabbis -- Matchmakers and marriage -- America -- I found the best woman -- My journey to the land of Israel and my early activities there -- The work of Americans in the land of Israel and my role in it -- More on life in the land of Israel -- Travels, the era of World War II, and illness -- A second trip to the United States -- Afterword : Menachem Mendel Frieden's journal and his life after 1947

"In the 1970s and 1990s, German companies made a key contribution to Pakistan obtaining nuclear weapons. Inadequately equipped government agencies and a lack of legal authority made it impossible for acts of proliferation to be prosecuted. At the beginning of the 1990s steps were taken, including improvements in the regulations for granting licenses and in criminal law, allowing these deficits to be rectified. However, depending on the outcome of the legislative process, the impending revision of the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz) might turn out to be a step backwards since export controls are to be modified to correspond to the low standards at the EU level. In a series of case studies, Klaus Peter Ricke outlines events in the past and makes recommendations on how export controls can be improved." (author's abstract)

"Die konventionelle Rüstungskontrolle in Europa steht an einem Scheideweg. Sollte die Modernisierung des rechtlich bindenden Vertrags über Konventionelle Streitkräfte in Europa (KSE-Vertrag) und des politisch bindenden Wiener Dokuments nicht gelingen, drohen diese Abkommen in den nächsten Jahren womöglich vollends an Bedeutung und Zugkraft zu verlieren. (Der Autor) stellt die Vorzüge der konventionellen Rüstungskontrolle dar, analysiert die aktuelle Krise und gibt eine Reihe von konkreten Vorschlägen zur Modernisierung eben dieser." (Autorenreferat)

Norms in international relations are frequently contested and subjects of controversy. According to existing research contestation of norms can either lead to their strengthening or weakening. But under which conditions does contestation lead to either one? The authors argue that the type of contestation matters to explain the strengthening or weakening effects. Contestation around the application of norms in a specific situation does not question the norm as such. On the other hand, contestation of the validity of a norm over time often leads to a weakening of the norm.