CIAO DATE: 03/2013
Volume: 11, Issue: 2
Spring 2012
Georgia Again in Putin's Shadow (PDF)
Christopher Roscoe
As the government of Georgia continues its quest for economic modernization and admission into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU), it must first normalize relations with the Russian Federation to facilitate achievement of these long-term goals. The nation must weigh the benefits of a patient short- and medium-term policy of non-alignment versus an aggressive policy of immediate Western integration. This will be the most effective path for Georgia to improve its citizens’ living conditions while ensuring physical security along its borders, which are currently areas of heightened tension. The animosity between the Russian and Georgian governments is counter-productive for both nations, though much more so for the Georgian populace. Georgia has the most to gain from rapprochement, and therefore should initiate the dialogue, ensuring that Russian withdrawal from South Ossetia and Abkhazia are not preconditions for negotiations.
The Challenges and Role of Structures in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (PDF)
Adriana Zobrist Galád
An intervention in Afghanistan that has lasted longer than a decade has not brought about what was most hoped for: security for the Afghan people and stabilization of the entire region. These processes are challenged every day by the complexity of Afghanistan’s social structures: its culture, values, way of life, tribal networks, politics, insurgent networks, and its history. A closer examination of examples of cultural and political structures can provide us with a perspective on this complexity, and on the deeply intertwined relationships among various actors engaged in the Afghan conflict. In this light, we can demonstrate the repeated shortcomings of liberal peace building in the case of Afghanistan. These examples also manifest the differences in values, attitudes toward gender, and cultural and political perceptions between Afghan and Western societies. The possibilities of conflict resolution, and its foundation in traditional structures—such as local communities, tribal or religious structures, or traditional value sets—offer scenarios for feasible strategies to be explored and possibly implemented. Acknowledgement of the Afghan reality on the ground and preparation for peace building missions can effectively improve the goals of efforts pursued and carried out by the international community, with a corresponding improvement in results. In a country that has managed to repel foreign invasions in the past, and tends not to accept dictates from the outside, our chances of success in our mission can be increased if we can admit that liberal values might not apply universally. By listening to Afghan voices directly and ensuring their involvement in the process of reconstruction, our respect for the realities of Afghan life, in the context of their values, creates the possibility to set up a successful strategy for Afghanistan’s recovery.
Has U.S. Leadership Been Revitalized Through Barack Obama's Innovative Use of Force? (PDF)
Thomas Labouche
The United States developed as a country imbued with the belief that it held a somehow unique and unifying vocation that was best formulated in the key phrase of nineteenth- century westward expansion “Manifest Destiny,” which held that the U.S. had a divinely ordained fate to expand across the North American continent, and ultimately to redeem the Old World. While the twentieth century saw this ideology take concrete form in a nation that eventually achieved the status of a unique superpower, the first decade of the twenty-first century has often been suggested to reflect a relative decline in the United States’ global standing. Assuming that this decline is unavoidable would be to participate in a form of fatalism, allowing neither the chance for the United States’ core strengths to demonstrate the contrary, nor the possibility that geopolitical events may at some point potentially keep other countries from rising.
Security in a Communications Society: Opportunities and Challenges (PDF)
Velichka Milina
Power always depends on context. The year 2011 has made Joseph Nye’s statement starkly visible concerning all actors in the realm of security policy. The Arab Spring up- risings (still ongoing in Syria) and the protests that have erupted in nations around the world of ineffective government policies regarding the global financial and economic crisis have categorically proven that political stability (security) cannot be considered and achieved only in the context of traditional institutions and norms of representative democracy, or through inspiring fear and beliefs in a closed society. These events have demonstrated new forms and scales of political activity, and have called for competent political participation. What unites them, in spite of their widespread geography, is that they were organized and conducted with the help of new communications technologies. The current context of security policy is the communications society. The phenomena that fall under the rubric of “Web 2.0” have radically changed the characteristics of the objects of security (individuals, society, state), as well as the problems facing security—starting from Twitter revolutions, going through the protests of “the indignant,” and culminating in the key role of social media as tools of “soft power.” This article is an attempt to assess and analyze the parameters of these changes as challenges and new opportunities for security systems in a communications society.
The Russian Military in 2020: Russia's Way Back to Power Projection? Implications for NATO (PDF)
Thomas Braun
“Russia Has Lost its Army.” This headline of an editorial published on the global defense and military portal DefenceTalk in October 2003 gives proof of the perception of the Russian military leadership at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The developments after the collapse of the Soviet Union led to multiple efforts to reform the Russian armed forces. In the early 1990s, former Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev initiated a number of military reforms, but met heavy resistance within the Rus- sian officer corps (still strongly influenced by the Soviet era) who were trying to preserve their system and positions. Most of the additional reform efforts of the last twenty years—which were mostly limited to downsizing manpower and equipment, without addressing the larger military system and organizational structure—failed to achieve the goal of a restructured modern Russian military. This led the Russian military journalist Alexander Goltz to publish a book in 2004 titled The Army of Russia: 11 Lost Years, in which he concludes that between 1993 and 2004 the military reforms that were carried out in Russia had no meaningful results. In response to the lack of progress in armed forces reform, the newly appointed civilian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov introduced the so-called “New Look” on 23 February 2008. Will the “New Look” reforms lead to the “reappearance of the Red Star,” the symbol of the former Soviet Army? What are the possible implications of such a resurgence for NATO? To understand the imperatives behind Serdyukov’s “New Look,” it is necessary to understand Russia’s na- tional interests, as every government will calculate their military reforms based on their perceived national interests, as well as on identified threats and risks.
The Nexus Between Public Diplomacy and Military Diplomacy in Foreign Affairs and Defense Policy (PDF)
Göran Swistek
The idea of “public diplomacy” was implemented approximately a century ago as the purely civilian aspect of diplomacy, which aimed to inform foreign populations and citizens about the goals of a given country’s foreign policy through the use of information and cultural programs. Within the framework of the Clausewitzian philosophy, which held that war “is the continuation of politics by other means,” the military was always linked to the diplomatic realm, but was never part of it. On the other hand, for a long time “military diplomacy” meant simply the business of military attachés; their mission was to be “the Nation’s eye and ears abroad in the days before satellite photography and sophisticated electronic collection techniques.” Along with the changes that the past several decades have seen in the makeup of the international arena, particularly regarding the new constellation of alliances, revised goals of foreign policies, and altered threat assumptions, the content of public diplomacy has changed, and its targeted programs have expanded. At the same time, the understanding and definition of the concept of security has changed since the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Nowadays, security is defined above all by the notion of a “comprehensive approach.” Security is now viewed as a set of interconnections between civilian and military means and approaches, while the use of military force remains a last resort. Therefore, programs and means from the areas of military and public diplomacy have received increased attention and have gained a more prominent status.
Understanding Gender Mainstreaming in Modern Law Enforcement (PDF)
Tibor Kozma
The way we distinguish between men and women is generally based on biological sex differences. An approach to the issue based on gender (rather than sex) examines how societies relate to biological diversity. Societies around the world have developed a variety of models based on different understandings and expectations for male and female roles within society. Worldwide, the roles of women and men—that is, gender—are defined by historical, cultural, and religious factors.
China, Russia, and the Foreign Policy of the SCO (PDF)
Flemming Splidsboel Hansen
Having celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2011, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) can be said to have risen rapidly to a position of prominence in the world of regional organizations. Part of the reason for this is found in the successful political marketing of the organization, a process which has seen the member states openly promote their ambition to develop a strong Asian bloc based on both wider and deeper cooperation. As was made clear by the 2001 Declaration on the Establishment of the SCO, this ambition includes the development within the organization of a culture of "close cooperation on the most important international and regional problems." A high level of agreement on aims and modalities among the members of the group-a precondition for close foreign policy cooperation-will indicate that they may more readily form a united policy front and thus find it easier to have an impact on their surrounding environment. Conversely, a low level of agreement will indicate that they will find it relatively difficult to stand together shoulder-to-shoulder and to achieve the ambitions outlined in the Declaration.