CIAO DATE: 03/05

International Affairs

October 2004

• Dithering over Darfur? A preliminary review of the international response  Hugo Slim

  The extreme violence against civilian communities in the Sudanese province of Darfur has coincided with the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. This article makes a preliminary assessment of the international response to Darfur to see how it compares to the denial and delay of ten years ago. The slow evolution of the international community's response is charted from early Chadian efforts at mediation in 2003, the eventual involvement of the UN Security Council in July 2004, the increasing role of the African Union and the US government's conclusion in September 2004 that the violence constitutes genocide. The international community has certainly been too slow and divided in its response in the face of competing political priorities. There were also significant misgivings about a US-led military intervention and considerable Sudanese intransigence and diplomatic skill. Nevertheless, there are important signs that key parts of the United Nations and the international community have worked with a definite post-R wanda consciousness. Important developments have also been made in combining humanitarian and political negotiation while a committed African Union is now in a position to make a real difference. Although late to gather force, international political will and US leadership have been strong. But, like many tragedies before it, Darfur shows that political will is not enough. The choices facing even the most wilful politicians still remain intensely difficult and 'doing something' is not as easy as most NGO press releases imply.

• Supreme emergencies and the protection of non-combatants in war  Alex J. Bellamy

  Is it ever justifiable to target non-combatants deliberately? This article assesses Michael Walzer's claim that the deliberate targeting of non-combatants may be justifiable during 'supreme emergencies', a view that has received some support but that has elicited little debate. It argues that the supreme emergencies exception to the prohibition on targeting non-combatants is problematic for at least four reasons. First, its utilitarianism contradicts Walzer's wider ethics of war based on a conception of human rights. Second, the exception may undermine the principle of non-combatant immunity. Third, it is based on a historical fallacy. Finally, it is predicated on a strategic fallacythe idea that killing noncombatants can win wars. The case for rejecting the exception, however, has been opposed by those who persuasively argue that it is wrong to tie leaders' hands when they confront supreme emergencies. The final part of the article addresses this question and suggests that the principle of proportionality may give political leaders room for manoeuvre in supreme emergencies without permitting them deliberately to target non-combatants.

• International humanitarian crises: two decades before and two decades beyond  Randolph C. Kent

  Two decades ago, the United Nations' ability to deal with disasters and emergencies was underdeveloped, essentially lacking the commitment and capacity to deal with what are now called 'humanitarian crises'. Two decades later the UN, its programmes and specialized agencies, has increased its technical and tactical abilities to respond to such crises in ways that are far more systematic and coherent. And yet, despite such important developments, the UN is not strategic in its approach and cannot escape the pressure of political manipulation that threatens the fundamental humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence. At the same time, the process by which the UN increased and now maintains its enhanced humanitarian role has made the institution far more self-obsessed. These trends do not bode well when confronted with the grave prospect of an increasingly disaster and emergency-prone world. Nevertheless, this article concludes with prescriptions that would make the UN far more capable of dealing with the sort of humanitarian challenges that may have to be faced over the next two decades.

• The British road to war: Blair, Bush and the decision to invade Iraq 

  The British decision to go to war against Iraq with the United States has been widely criticized for being based on inaccurate and exaggerated assessments of the threat posed by Iraq. This article shows that the case for military action made by the British government was based on a measured analysis of the threat, on the conviction that the continued containment of Iraq through sanctions was not effective or morally acceptable, and that the human rights violations of the Iraqi regime were of a such a scale that they could no longer be tolerated. The article then assesses the judgements of the British government in the light of the information that has come to light since the war against Iraq in 2003.

• 'When the shooting starts': Atlanticism in British security strategy  Tim Dunne

  The evolution in the international system from bipolarity to unipolarity has led to shifting patterns of alliances in world politics. Since 9/11, the United States has demonstrated a willingness to use its overwhelming military power to deal with potential or real threats. Contrary to its policy of embedded power in the economic and security institutions of the post-1945 period, the United States increasingly views the multilateral order as an unreasonable restraint on the exercise of hegemonic power. What does this new context mean for Britain? Going back to 1997, the first New Labour government added an internationalist dimension to the traditional roles of acting as a loyal ally to the United States and serving as a bridge across the transatlantic divide. The Iraq war of 2003 showed that the bridge could not bear the weight of the disagreement between 'Old Europe' and the new conservatives in Washington. The Prime Minister's decision to be there 'when the shooting starts' shows that Britain continues to place the bilateral connection with the United States above all other obligations. This article questions whether the Atlanticist identity that underpins the strategic rationale for the special relationship is likely to succeed in delivering the interests and goals set out in the recent UK security strategy document.

• Who's making UK foreign policy?  Paul Williams

  The war in Iraq has intensified a debate about the extent to which Tony Blair's style of government is presidential, secretive, ad hoc, informal and susceptible to groupthink. But who is really making UK foreign policy? This article suggests that there is no simple or singular answer since the government simultaneously pursues multiple foreign policies involving different combinations of institutions, actors and external pressures. It then discusses New Labour's impact upon the four interrelated phases of the foreign policy process: formulation, interpretation, implementation and presentation. The author suggests that Blair's government has found it difficult to implement many of its foreign policy initiatives and has relied instead upon three 'big ideas', namely, multilateralism, Atlanticism and neo-liberalism. To date, it has failed to resolve the practical tensions between these three commitments. The final section explores how the demand for open and accountable government has increased the importance attached to the presentation of foreign policy. This, in turn, has increased the importance of the news media as a battlefield on which the struggle for hearts and minds is taking place. Ironically, the government's unparalleled attempts to sell its foreign policies (both at home and abroad) has opened the policy process up to levels of scrutiny that it may not be able to withstand.

• AIDS and global security  Gwyn Prins

  AIDS has been medically visible for 30 years; but only in the last five have the security implications of the pandemic begun to be discussed seriously. This debate has been in many ways unsatisfactory to date. The purpose of this article is to begin to rectify this at the moment when the first major efforts to combat the pandemic are beginning to take effect. It records therefore the history of that debate and ascertains in what useful and defensible senses AIDS can be described and managed as a security issue. It argues that there are, indeed, several that meet these criteria. The article describes the first three engagements with the disease from the time of its discovery and then suggests three newer ones and, it argues, more fruitful approaches that have advanced since 2000 of which the security dimension is one. The others are the geo-politics of the human immune system and analysis through the prism of political economy. The scope of the next waves of AIDS after the southern African one, is depicted. Its coming intersection with oil and Great Power politics is noted.

• Review Article: 9/11 and Middle Eastern Studies past and future: revisiting Ivory towers on sand  Fred Halliday

  The events of 9/11 intensified attacks on the field of Middle Eastern Studies, especially in the USattacks whose reverberations have been felt ever since in academia and beyond. A key moment was the publication in 2001 of a book by Martin Kramer, Ivory towers on sand, which accused the field of irrelevance, failure to predict, lack of patriotism and wilful blindness to the failings in the Arab and Islamic world. In a Foreword to this review article, Gerd Nonneman points out that the importance of the heated debate this occasioned, both on intellectual and political grounds, has if anything been heightened in today's policy environment. At the request of International Affairs, Fred Halliday therefore revisits the book's arguments. He accepts the desirability for scholars to engage in public assessment and critique of others' work and to relate this to broader concerns of both epistemology and public policy. He also acknowledges shortcomings in the literature on Islamism and civil society, and in Edward Said's Orientalism. But he concludes that Kramer's book fails to resolve the questions broached, adds nothing that is original to debates on social science method and theory, distorts the state of contemporary Middle Eastern Studies (in part by ignoring most of the important work done outside the US) and that the book has had damaging consequences for university life itself. In part, the article suggests, this is a reflection of a lackshared by significant areas of recent social science writing, including Said's Orientalismof an adequate grounding in issues of social science methodology and philosophy. It also reflects an untenable assumption about the nature of the relationship between academic work and public policy issues.

• Review Article: Neo-conservatives and their American critics  David Wedgwood Benn

  This review article examines four recent American books relating, in very different ways, to the rise of unilateralism and neo-conservatism in the United States. Richard Perle and David Frum, former advisors to George W. Bush robustly present the 'neo-conservative' case. Max Boot, another unilateralist, argues from the experience of American history that small wars have often been as important as big wars in projecting American power; and he suggests that this experience has a present-day relevance. Ivo Daalder (who served in the Clinton administration) and his co-author James Lindsay, set out to explain the 'Bush revolution' in foreign policy and put it in context. They insist that Bush is not a mere tool of his advisors, who are in any case not homogenous. His foreign policy strategy is indeed new, although it has given rise to certain unresolved problems. Robert McNamara (a former US Defense Secretary) and James Blight, share the fear of nuclear terrorism but argue that it can only be contained through the universal elimination of weapons of mass destruction, under the supervision of a possibly reformed UN. They oppose the unilateral use of force by the US except when America itself is attacked. They also argue that the US must change its posture from 'deterrence' to 'reassurance' and show more empathy in addressing the concerns of other countries and communities.

  The review concludes that America is now deeply divided over its foreign policy and that events, rather than arguments, may decide the outcome of the debate.

• Review Article: New mechanisms, old problems? Recent books on universal jurisdiction and mixed tribunals  Chandra Lekha Sriram

  This review article examines three recent books on two topics: universal jurisdiction and the mixed or hybrid tribunal. It reviews two volumes on universal jurisdiction that discuss the history of the concept and the rise in the exercise of universal jurisdiction, as well as some of the arguments for holding rights abusers responsible in venues far from the locus of the original crime and then turns to some of the possible pitfalls of such approaches. The article also examines some of the virtues, but also the shortcomings, of the hybrid tribunal and concludes that while these innovative tools have their uses, they cannot be viewed as a panacea, but rather as part of a continuing effort to prevent and respond to atrocities.

• Book Reviews: Online publication date: October 2004

  International Relations theory

  From international to world society? English School theory and the social structure of globalisation. By Barry Buzan.

  The West, civil society and the construction of peace. By Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen.

  International ethics

  Just intervention. Edited by Anthony F. Lang, Jr.

  The tragic vision of politics: ethics, interests and orders. By Richard Ned Lebow.

  International law and organization

  Great Powers and outlaw states: unequal sovereigns in the international legal order. By Gerry Simpson.

  The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: an exercise in law, politics, and diplomacy. By Rachel Kerr.

  Foreign relations

  The choice: global domination or global leadership? By Zbigniew Brzezinski.

  Worse than Watergate: the secret presidency of George W. Bush. By John W. Dean.

  The bubble of American supremacy: correcting the misuse of American power. By George Soros.

  The new mandarins of American power: the Bush administration's plans for the world. By Alex Callinicos.

  The new imperialism. By David Harvey.

  Incoherent empire. By Michael Mann.

  Yankee no! Anti-Americanism in US-Latin American relations. By Alan McPherson.

  Conflict, security and armed forces

  State building: governance and world order in the twenty-first century. By Francis Fukuyama.

  Nation-building unraveled? Aid, peace and justice in Afghanistan. Edited by Antonio Donini, Norah Niland and Karen Wermester.

  Grand strategy in the war against terrorism. Edited by Thomas R. Mockaitis and Paul B. Rich.

  Politics, democracy and social affairs

  Soft power: the means to success in world politics. By Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

  Political parties and terrorist groups. By Leonard Weinberg and Ami Pedahzur.

  International and national political economy, economics and development

  Free trade for the Americas? The United States' push for the FTAA agreement. Edited by Paulo Vizentini and Marianne Wiesebron.

  International trade and developing countries: bargaining coalitions in the GATT and WTO. By Amrita Narlikar.

  Energy and environment

  Man-made global warming: unravelling a dogma. By Hans Labohm, Simon Rozendaal and Dick Thoenes.

  History

  Colossus: the rise and fall of the American empire. By Niall Ferguson.

  The Labour Party and the world, volume 1: the evolution of Labour's foreign policy 190051. By Rhiannon Vickers.

  The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War: calling the tune? By Hugh Wilford.

  Europe

  Through the paper curtain: insiders and outsiders in the new Europe. Edited by Julie Smith and Charles Jenkins.

  Yugoslavia: when ideals collide. By Ann Lane.

  The Kosovo crisis and the evolution of post-Cold War European security. By Paul Latawski and Martin A. Smith.

  Yugoslavia unravelled: sovereignty, self-determination, intervention. Edited by Ragu G. C. Thomas.

  Russia and the former Soviet republics

  Inside Putin's Russia. By Andrew Jack.

  The law and politics of the Caspian Sea in the twenty-first century: the positions and views of Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, with special reference to Iran. By Bahman Aghai-Diba.

  Middle East and North Africa

  A history of modern Palestine: one land, two peoples. By Ilan Pappe.

  Saudi Arabia enters the twenty-first century: the political, foreign policy, economic, and energy dimensions. By Anthony H. Cordesman.

  Saudi Arabia enters the twenty-first century: the military and international security dimensions. By Anthony H. Cordesman.

  Reformers and revolutionaries in modern Iran: new perspectives on the Iranian Left. Edited by Stephanie Cronin.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Africa since independence. By Paul Nugent.

  The shackled continent: Africa's past, present and future. By Robert Guest.

  Worlds of power: religious thought and political practice in Africa. By Stephen Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar.

  A continent for the taking: the tragedy and hope of Africa. By Howard W. French.

  Asia and Pacific

  China's democratic future: how it will happen and where it will lead. By Bruce Gilley.

  North America

  America alone: the neo-conservatives and the global order. By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke.

  Latin America and Caribbean

  The Southern Cone model: the political economy of regional capitalist development in Latin America. By Nicola Phillips.

  Constructing democratic governance in Latin America. 2nd edn. Edited by Jorge I. Dominguez and Michael Shifter.

  Opening Mexico: the making of a democracy. By Julia Preston and Samuel Dillon.