Suchergebnisse

International terrorism, proliferation of WMD, mounting nationalism, and ethnic separatism have already become part and parcel of the contemporary political processes unfolding with frightening speed. Ethnic separatism in the Southern Caucasus is a local manifestation of the global struggle over the world markets. Any analysis of the region's future stumbles across the problem of settling the region's ethnic-separatist discords, the main one of which is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This means that an analysis of corresponding international experience may suggest fresh approaches to the old conflict. The conflict cannot be resolved at the cost of the territorial integrity of one of the sides: the solution lies in preserving and encouraging the national minority's ethnic specifics within the unified state.

The research reported here develops an explanation for the often-noted absence of international war between democratic states. This explanation is derived from a theoretical rationale centered on universal democratic norms for reconciling competing values and interests. I argue that democratic states locked in disputes are better equipped than others with the means for diffusing conflict situations at an early stage before they have an opportunity to escalate to military violence. Not only is this explanatory logic consistent with the published findings on democracy and war, but it also entails the novel empirical proposition that disputes between democracies are more amenable than are other disputes to peaceful settlements, the hypothesis I examine here. Analyses of contemporary interstate disputes reveal that even when potentially confounding factors are controlled, democratic opponents are significantly more likely to reach peaceful settlements than other types of disputants.

Demokratisch organisierte Staaten stoßen nicht seltener konflikthaft mit den Interessen anderer Staaten zusammen als anders verfaßte politische Systeme. Jedoch: Die Erfahrung zeigt, daß demokratisch organisierte Systeme sich fast nie gewaltsam begegnen. Ein größerer Krieg zwischen Demokratien ist nicht festzustellen. Mit Hilfe der von Alker und Sherman 1986 publizierten Daten über 250 zwischenstaatliche Sicherheitsverhandlungen von 1945 bis 1979 versucht Dixon seine Hypothese zu testen, daß demokratisch verfaßte Staaten infolge ihrer Fähigkeit, Konflikte in begrenzter Form auszutragen, auch in der Lage sind, entsprechend zwischenstaatliche Konflikte letztlich friedlich zu lösen. Ein erster Daten- und Indikatoren-begrenzter empirischer Test bestätigt die These. Dieses Resultat gibt Anlaß zu weiterer Forschung. (AuD-Nar)

Contemporary diplomacy will largely depend on the path to the creation of a new world order. There are different options for the political structure of the world: from the unipolar / multipolar world to the world government. The role of non-state actors will increase in the international arena, while the process of eroding national sovereignty will continue. In this regard, diplomacy faces serious tests of strength, it will have to adapt to current conditions, as well as perform a joint function between state and non-state actors in international relations. Information flows become the levers of governance, namely, socio-economic, socio-political, international processes. Today we can speak of "the emergence of a global information industry that is undergoing a period of technological convergence, organisational combinations, legislative liberalisation, and the role of knowledge, information in economic development, the emergence of new forms of the "electronic" democracy, structural changes in employment". The role of international organisations in international relations has undergone qualitative changes. They have become auxiliary tools for solving particular problems of interaction of sovereign states into a segment of international life. International organisations play an extremely important role in conflict resolution. Conflict prevention is becoming increasingly important in their activities. The mechanism for resolving conflicts by organisations is predominantly political in nature, but it is based on international law.

AbstractThis concluding article summarizes and comments on the training cases in terms of the identity of the participants, the stated objectives, the claimed outcomes, the issues addressed and the methods of evaluation. The cases address a range of internal conflicts with international ramifications at various stages of expression from ongoing difficulties, to stalemate, to settlement. There is considerable variety in the scope and focus of objectives, from changing the culture of conflict of a society to shifting the norms of negotiation from adversarial to cooperative. The overall theme is that training interventions can increase the participants' capacity for problem solving and conflict management in ways that support the ultimate resolution of their conflict. The analysis of the issues addressed in the cases shows a moderate level of concern on the part of this group of trainers, with some issues receiving more attention than others. The issue of cultural appropriateness is partly addressed by the cases, but a need is identified for more sophisticated attention through cultural analyses of an anthropological nature and through cross-cultural training for trainers themselves. The educational approach adopted in the cases is largely prescriptive within a collaborative orientation, thus demonstrating a need for more elicitive procedures. Maintaining the training focus and managing political intrusions were issues not commented on frequently in the cases, and yet they are concerns of continuing importance. The issue of succession appears to be well handled in this sample of interventions, with lead trainers being sensitive to developing apprentices who can function independently at the point of program termination. Evaluation is addressed in all the cases, but the depth and scope of such efforts varies considerably, thus demonstrating that the evaluation agenda requires greater investment by the field. Similarly, the question of transfer is raised in most cases, but is addressed in very different ways depending largely on the identity of the participants. Concluding comments provide a general assessment of the cases, and raise questions intended to direct the practice of training as interactive conflict resolution toward continued professional development.