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A Szerb Haladó Párt (SNS) úgy határozott, hogy véget vet a belső harcoknak, és a nyilvánosság előtt kevésbé ismert politikust szán a vajdasági kormányfői tisztségre.

Finalement, et d’après les photographies prises par satellite, les quatre avions de combat russes signalés sur la base al-Assad de Lattaquié, ne sont pas des SU-27 « Flanker » mais des SU-30 SM, un dérivé multirôle du premier commandé en 2012 à une soixantaine d’exemplaires. Doté de plans canard et de tuyères à poussée vectorielle et disposant […]

Cet article Nouvel envoi d’avions russes en Syrie? est apparu en premier sur Zone Militaire.

WARSAW, 21 September 2015 – OSCE participating States have to ensure the protection of the human rights and dignity of migrants in addressing the current crisis in Europe, speakers said at the opening in Warsaw today of a two-week OSCE conference focusing on democracy and human rights.

"At a time when thousands of people are risking their lives leaving the countries in the OSCE neighbourhood affected by conflicts, we must not forget the human rights and humanitarian aspects of the migrant crisis," said Ivica Dačić, OSCE Chairperson in Office and Foreign Minister of Serbia. "Building fences, closing borders, the use of excessive force against the people who are fleeing from devastating conflicts are not in line with human rights commitments participating States of this Organization have promised to respect."

Speaking at the opening session of the OSCE’s Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Secretary General Lamberto Zannier stressed that all security discussions within the Organization, including on the crisis in and around Ukraine, have to be grounded on the commitments that participating States have made to each other.

“The crisis in and around Ukraine has opened a difficult and divisive debate about the consequences of violations of key OSCE principles and commitments, including in the human dimension,” Zannier said. “Despite these profound challenges, the OSCE has managed to hold true to its vision of comprehensive security, and we continue to support efforts to restore peace and stability, including by promoting dialogue and reconciliation.”

With many of the countries within the OSCE searching for solutions to the current migration crisis in Europe, the need for a human rights focus in these efforts was a common theme.

“Too many of those caught in this crisis have fled dangerous, horrible conditions, only to be confronted by discrimination, violations of their human rights and, in some cases, the loss of their lives,” said ODIHR Director Link. “These dangers have to be addressed directly in the search for policy solutions. Instead of pouring resources into building walls and barriers that leave human beings vulnerable, I call upon all states concerned to ensure that the human rights of all of these people in dire need are protected while managing the refugee crisis.”

“This meeting reminds us of the central meaning of the OSCE commitments in the human dimension. Many problems for the implementation of these commitments persist in the OSCE area. In addition, thousands of refugees are crossing borders and continents to escape war and terror, as well as the suppression of their basic rights and freedoms,” said Gernot Erler, Special Representative of the Federal Government for Germany’s 2016 OSCE Chairmanship. “In addressing all these challenges we should reaffirm again and again that respect for human rights is a central pillar of personal security, enduring stability and lasting peace, and act accordingly.”

Some 1,400 participants from governments and civil society will gather at the conference over the next two weeks to scrutinize participating States’ performance in meeting their commitments in areas such as freedom of expression, free media and information, freedom of movement and other fundamental freedoms, the promotion of mutual respect and understanding, the rule of law and gender equality.

“The human dimension is a fundamental component of the OSCE’s comprehensive concept of security. But this concept requires that all participating states fulfill their commitments undertaken in the field of democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” said Grzegorz Schetyna, Foreign Minister of Poland. “The Polish peaceful transition proved how important efficient democratic institutions are, that freedom of speech, freedom of media and strong civil society are essential for long-term social development and political stability. “

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In this week’s #CCLKOW we consider what principles ought to shape our strategic thinking with respect to regime change. Please note, this is not an endorsement of the act as sensible policy. I am relatively certain that it should be a policy of last resort, and even then its wisdom ought to be held in serious doubt. Nevertheless, we live in a world where sometimes the only policy choices are bad ones. Thus, it is necessary to consider under what strategy this could be accomplished with the least risk of spectacular failure. Or, more simply, it is not enough that we must think carefully about regime change as a policy, we must also be similarly careful about strategy and tactics if this choice is taken. Enjoy the piece, ponder the questions, and join the discussion on Twitter at #CCLKOW.

 

“You break it, you buy it.” Colin Powell’s application of the rules of shopping in Pottery Barn to regime change was hailed as quite brilliant for reminding his political masters of the dangers of such a policy choice. I would suggest, however, that within this construction there is a terrific peril for the West, as our wealth might make us think we can afford to buy it once broken. Thus, whereas Powell cautioned against regime change that was not fully cognizant of the costs it would entail, this admonition is incorrectly aimed. It is not the cost of rebuilding which is the problem. Rather, it is the nearly insurmountable challenge of re-creating something better than that which has been broken.

Here I would like to argue that rather than Pottery Barn, Humpty Dumpty is the better cautionary tale for regime change. Where the policy is even contemplated, the further taboo must be upon undue damage to the essential structures of governance and society.

 

…All the King’s horses and all the King’s men 

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

It was a sharp realisation that perhaps a quaint children’s nursery rhyme wasn’t just a bit of fun but in fact could be an old military parable, a cautionary tale against the hubris of military might. [1] Conceiving Humpty as a state that, once fallen, could not be put back together again despite every effort of the King’s horses and men, his army, make more sense than it ought to.

Nowhere is the wisdom of the Humpty Dumpty Principle in regime change more clear than in Iraq. The speedy resolution of its first act in the summer of 2003, with relatively little damage, was tragically followed by the dismantling of key structures of the state. Perhaps it was hubris borne of the great military success achieved in driving Saddam Hussein from power which led to the orgy of societal destruction. The inability to recognise that ‘support’ for the regime was not the result of great fealty to Saddam but rather the dictates of pragmatism and survival led the coalition down the garden path to chaos and new tensions. De-Baathification may have seemed a Saint’s work, but in fact it was the beginning of the end, the first step in the slow failure that was the largely American led strategy in the country. Once broken, Iraqi politics and society suffered for the struggle to re-create a delicate balance of fragile connections. And while the old system had been clearly flawed itself, fixing that was the far easier option than refashioning the whole anew.

In sum, the coalition ought to have rejoiced in its ability to unseat Hussein without much damage and sallied forth from there. The path from 2003’s military victory ought to have looked a little something like this:

‘Here Tariq, take the keys. Don’t screw this up. We’re happy to provide some funding to help get things back on track. Send us a plan.’

 

The errors of Iraq should be forefront in the minds of anyone thinking about Syria. As utterly reprehensible (!) as the reign of terror perpetrated by Assad has been, do not imagine for a moment that the destruction of the state which sustained it will result in an outbreak of rainbows and happiness. The jackals and the jackasses are chomping at the bit to take advantage of the vacuum and chaos that would follow the dissolution of the state. Thus, although it is quite clear that he will have to go, how that will happen must be considered with the utmost care not to break that which we cannot fix. Moving even further into the harshest grey areas, how to deal with the areas under the control of the state apparatus created by ISIS should also be filling us with a bit of conflicted thought.

And so, as grist for this week’s discussion, I put to you the following questions intended to flesh out the wisdom (or lack thereof) of the principle I have offered:

1. The successes in Germany and Japan seem to refute the Humpty Dumpty Principle. What were the terms and conditions of those efforts, and do they exist in the targets of regime change we consider today?

2. Is it too easy to assume that no evil structure can be surpassed? With respect to Afghanistan, did we err in thinking that any regime created in the aftermath of the Taliban would be an improvement? Quick to break that which all were too happy to label as evil, with stories such as that published today on the creeping institutionalisation of the sorts practices which had led to the popularity of the Taliban in the first place, one has to wonder at that wisdom.

3. Is there a better strategic framework to conduct successful regime change?

 

 

Notes

[1] I am not arguing that this is the origin of the story. But it ought to be, because it’s rather quite perfect.

http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/f22704d4-5e18-11e5-98ac-bc764e083742_113.92_thumb_169_1442829239_1442829239_129_97shar_c1.jpg

EU Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs meet on 22 September 2015 in Brussels to continue discussions on migration. They are focusing on the Commission proposal for the emergency relocation of 120.000 persons in need of international protection from member states exposed to massive migratory flows to other EU member states.

Download this video here.

La Slovénie et les réfugiés : le devoir d'hospitalité ou les règles européennes ?
L'UE cherche un plan pour les réfugiés en Croatie et en Slovénie
La Croatie ferme ses frontières et recherche un « plan B » pour les réfugiés
La frontière serbo-croate est fermée : chaos en Croatie après l'arrivée de milliers de réfugiés
Réfugiés : situation de plus en plus critique en Croatie
Réfugiés dans les Balkans : premiers passages en Croatie
Réfugiés : la Hongrie interdit l'accès de son territoire aux migrants, la Serbie panique
Réfugiés : la Croatie et la politique de l'autruche
La Croatie, une brique obéissante dans le mur européen contre les migrants
Migrations : la Croatie, nouveau pays de transit sur la route de l'Europe occidentale
Réfugiés : « comment j'ai réussi à échapper à la police hongroise et à l'enfermement dans un camp »
Réfugiés : en Hongrie, la course contre la montre
Balkans : l'épopée des migrants et l'hypocrisie européenne
Enjeux migratoires en Croatie (2/2) : ceux qui partent, ceux qui restent
Les dernières infos • #RéfugiésBalkans : Le ministre croate quitte le Sommet UE sur les réfugiés

/ Courrier des Balkans, #OpenEurope, Migrants Balkans, Croatie, Slovénie, Questions européennes, Populations et minorités, Relations régionales

La Slovénie et les réfugiés : le devoir d'hospitalité ou les règles européennes ?
L'UE cherche un plan pour les réfugiés en Croatie et en Slovénie
La Croatie ferme ses frontières et recherche un « plan B » pour les réfugiés
La frontière serbo-croate est fermée : chaos en Croatie après l'arrivée de milliers de réfugiés
Réfugiés : situation de plus en plus critique en Croatie
Réfugiés dans les Balkans : premiers passages en Croatie
Réfugiés : la Hongrie interdit l'accès de son territoire aux migrants, la Serbie panique
Réfugiés : la Croatie et la politique de l'autruche
La Croatie, une brique obéissante dans le mur européen contre les migrants
Migrations : la Croatie, nouveau pays de transit sur la route de l'Europe occidentale
Réfugiés : « comment j'ai réussi à échapper à la police hongroise et à l'enfermement dans un camp »
Réfugiés : en Hongrie, la course contre la montre
Balkans : l'épopée des migrants et l'hypocrisie européenne
Enjeux migratoires en Croatie (2/2) : ceux qui partent, ceux qui restent
Les dernières infos • #RéfugiésBalkans : Le ministre croate quitte le Sommet UE sur les réfugiés

/ Courrier des Balkans, #OpenEurope, Migrants Balkans, Croatie, Slovénie, Questions européennes, Populations et minorités, Relations régionales

 A lire, “Dimension humanitaire du désarmement nucléaire et danger du nucléaire militaire en France“

(lire la suite…)

Un quart de siècle après son père, le général Lanata devient chef d'état-major de l'armée de l'air

Un quart de siècle après son père, le général Lanata devient chef d'état-major de l'armée de l'air

TASHKENT, 21 September 2015 – An OSCE-organized week-long training course for Uzbek law enforcement bodies on identifying and tracing illegitimate assets and the various instruments of asset forfeiture and recovery began today in Tashkent.

Experts from the Basel Institute of Governance will share international best practices with senior representatives in charge of international legal co-operation and the fight against corruption and money laundering within the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior and other law enforcement bodies.

“The ability to launder ill-acquired assets outside of the jurisdiction of their country of origin is one of the major enablers of corrupt behaviours,” said Ambassador Gyorgy Szabo, Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan. “This is why the OSCE regards the identification and recovery of illegitimate assets, no matter where they might be hidden, as a crucial element of the fight against corruption.”

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan organized the training course jointly with the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, the Basel Institute of Governance and the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan.

During the course, participants will also learn about the mechanisms of international mutual legal assistance and how they can be used during anti-corruption investigations.

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Általános : Ezen a héten a szakbizottságok üléseznek az Európai Parlamentben. A tagállamok adószabályait vizsgáló különbizottság Németország, Franciaország, Spanyolország és Luxemburg pénzügyminiszterével folytat eszmecserét országuk adózási gyakorlatáról. Mario Draghi, az Európai Központi Bank elnöke az eurózóna helyzetét vitatja meg a Parlamentben. Az Európai Bizottság menekültválság kezelésére tett javaslatai is napirenden lesznek a héten.

Forrás : © Európai Unió, 2015 - EP

Hungarian soldiers build a new section of a border fence, along the Croatian border

Amid the diplomatic fighting over the size of the refugee scheme, one question has been buried: will it actually work?

As some analyses have noted, there is a lot of doubt over the practicalities of the plan to share out 120,000 refugees across Europe. The main one is pretty fundamental: how do you make sure a refugee stays in the country where he or she is sent when systematic border checks no longer exist?

The proposals being debated this weekend, and seen by Brussels blog, touched on this. In short, member states have few tools to keep refugees in one country beyond cutting their benefits, making them repeatedly check-in with authorities and, well, asking them nicely not to leave.

Read more

Il y a un an éclatait le scandale LuxLeaks révélant le contenu de centaines d'accords fiscaux conclu avec le fisc luxembourgois. Quelques mois après, la Commission européenne a présenté un plan d’action et une liste noire paneuropéenne de paradis fiscaux. Où en est la lutte contre les paradis fiscaux en Europe ? Quels sont les critères pour désigner un paradis fiscal ? Toute l'Europe revient sur ces questions d'actualité aux côtés de Christian Chavagneux, économiste, éditorialiste à Alternatives Economiques et de Eric Robert, conseiller fiscal auprès de l'OCDE. Interviews de Vanessa Mock, porte-parole à la Commission européenne pour les Affaires financières, la fiscalité et les douanes et du lanceur d'alerte Hervé Falcianni.

The sophisticated Russian fighter aircraft Su-30SM is rightly believed to be one of the most successful projects of the domestic aviation industry in recent years, according to Russia's Zvezda news network.

Alexis Tsipras va pouvoir rempiler pour un nouveau mandat. Pour la deuxième fois en huit mois, son parti sort vainqueur des élections législatives. « Nous allons nous retrousser les manches pour travailler dur », voilà les mots du Premier ministre sortant, qui va reconduire sa coalition avec les souverainistes. Son parti, Syriza, obtient au total 145 sièges sur 300. Alexis Tsipras devrait former dès lundi un gouvernement durable chargé de mettre en œuvre le difficile plan d'aide au pays accepté à contrecœur en juillet.

Général : Le Président de la Banque centrale européenne Mario Draghi débattra avec les députés de l'état de l'union monétaire. Cinq Ministres des Finances européens, dont le Français Michel Sapin, se rendront au Parlement afin d'évoquer leurs politiques fiscales respectives. Les députés de la commission des libertés civiles débattront des dernières propositions de la Commission pour résoudre la crise migratoire.

Source : © Union européenne, 2015 - PE

Allgemeines : In dieser Ausschusssitzungswoche diskutiert der Präsident der Europäischen Zentralbank Mario Draghi mit den EU-Abgeordneten über die Lage in der Eurozone. Die EU-Abgeordneten sprechen mit den Finanzministern Frankreichs, Deutschlands, Italiens, Spaniens und Luxemburgs über die nationale Steuerpolitik dieser EU-Mitgliedstaaten. Des Weiteren stehen die von der EU-Kommission vorgestellten Lösungsvorschläge für die Migrationskrise auf der Agenda.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2015 - EP

General : The European Commission's latest proposals to solve the refugee crisis will be discussed by the civil liberties committee this week, while the economic affairs committee will question Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, on the state of the euro zone. In addition the tax rulings committee will discuss tax policies with the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : The European Commission's latest proposals to solve the refugee crisis will be discussed by the civil liberties committee this week, while the economic affairs committee will question Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, on the state of the euro zone. In addition the tax rulings committee will discuss tax policies with the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP