Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Alors que les Républicains, sonnés par leur échec cinglant aux élections européennes , se cherchent un chef et que Nicolas Sarkozy publie ce jeudi un nouveau livre (« Passions », aux Editions de L’Observatoire), le politologue Dominique Reynié analyse le « champ de ruines » à droite. Sauf circonstance « exceptionnelle », le directeur général de la Fondation pour l’innovation politique, professeur à Sciences Po, ne […]

The post La droite ne doit plus parler à ses seuls militants appeared first on Fondapol.

En Algérie, d’importantes manifestations pacifiques se tiennent depuis le mois d’avril, réclamant le retrait de la candidature d’Abdelaziz Bouteflika pour un cinquième mandat présidentiel. Ce mouvement s’inscrit dans le cadre plus large d’une revendication en faveur de davantage de démocratie dans le pays. Au Soudan, d’importants mouvements populaires ont également mené à la destitution du Président al-Bashir au mois d’avril 2019 ; la période de transition qui…

Lundi 24 juin, un échange était organisé autour de Jean-Paul Agon, président-directeur général de L’Oréal. Ce dernier a partagé les éléments constitutifs de sa stratégie, les principes fondamentaux et les grandes transformations du groupe.

¿Cuál es el estado actual del desarrollo de capacidades tecnológicas de la economía China y cuáles los desafíos que afrontará en el corto y medio plazo para posicionarse y consolidarse como líder mundial en innovación?

There are currently fourteen UN sanctions regimes, which member states are legally required to implement. Many of these are implemented in the context of armed conflict, where international humanitarian law outlines obligations to protect the provision of and access to principled humanitarian action. But despite efforts to make sanctions regimes more targeted, they continue to have unintended consequences, including impeding or preventing the provision of humanitarian assistance and protection—particularly when they coexist with counterterrorism measures.

This issue brief explains the various ways in which sanctions regimes can impact humanitarian action. Acknowledging that this is not a new issue—though one that may be of increasing concern—it identifies several factors that make it challenging to resolve. Finally, it lays out some avenues for progress, pointing to existing efforts and highlighting where more could be done.

Given that sanctions regimes are mostly targeted and that member states are bound to uphold the principles in the UN Charter and international humanitarian law (where it applies), sanctions should protect and not inhibit humani­tarian action. Where sanctions hinder aid, the impact on civilian populations is immediate, and efforts to backtrack will always come too late. Going forward, member states, the UN, financial institutions, and humanitarian actors should proactively and preventively tackle this problem. While the most effective courses of action will require political will, stakeholders at all levels can take incremental steps to help mitigate the impact.

Download

À l’occasion de cafés-débat, la Fondation pour l’innovation politique se propose de réagir et d’interagir autour de différents ouvrages. En présence de l’auteur et de Dominique Reynié, directeur général de la Fondation pour l’innovation politique, la discussion s’anime librement au gré des questions et réflexions de l’équipe. Ce 18 juin 2019, la Fondation pour l’innovation politique […]

The post Discussion avec Bruno Durieux autour de l’ouvrage « Contre l’écologisme. Pour une croissance au service de l’environnement » appeared first on Fondapol.

The European Union’s (EU) citizens have voted, and now the EU institutions are due to be reorganised for the next political cycle. Most attention is focussed on personnel issues, but the reorganisation of policy priorities and the structure of the EU Commis­sion are equally important. At the end of Jean-Claude Juncker’s term as President of the European Commission, the results are mixed: The Commission has become more focussed and internally coherent, but even at the end of the legislative period, many of its legislative proposals were not able to obtain a majority in the European Par­liament and/or the Council of the EU. The mission statement of the political Commission has increasingly proven to be incompatible with the control tasks of the EU’s highest executive body. The new Commission will operate in an even more difficult political environment and will itself become more party-politically heterogeneous. Its realignment should therefore also be used as an opportunity to interpret the “Spitzen­kandidaten” principle differently and negotiate a joint political programme for the EU between the Parliament, the Council, and the new Commission.

Analyse politique et géopolitique de la semaine avec le professeur de relations internationales Bertrand Badie, la philosophe Monique Canto-Sperber, la journaliste du Monde Sylvie Kauffmann et le politologue Dominique Reynié.   Retrouvez l’intégralité de l’émission ici

The post France : sommes-nous condamnés au chômage de masse ? / Le Monde de Donald Trump : stop ou encore ? appeared first on Fondapol.

jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery("#isloaderfor-uzsnly").fadeOut(2000, function () { jQuery(".pagwrap-uzsnly").fadeIn(1000);});});

The subject of the June 21st Speaker Series event at IPI was “The Risks of Politicizing Humanitarian Action: The UNRWA Perspective,” and the speaker, Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), focused his comments on what he said was the most misunderstood of all principles governing humanitarian work—neutrality.

“Neutrality is often misunderstood as ‘indifference’ when in fact it is a crucial action enabling principle,” he said. “It is crucial because what it means and entails is a fundamental consideration—you as an organization are not taking sides. The misunderstood part is that it sounds sometimes like neutrality is a reflex of taking a step back, physically moving away from the conflict or battlefield.” To the contrary, he said, “our humanitarian work is only possible if we engage… and this can be achieved only if we engage in dialogue with everyone.”

UNRWA provides education, health care, microfinance, and relief and social services to some 5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, an area that Mr. Krähenbühl identified as “one of the most polarized and politicized places on the planet.”

A former Director of Operations at The International Committee of the Red Cross with more than 25 years of experience in humanitarian, human rights, and development work, he pointed to a key misunderstanding about neutrality in conflict contexts. “Neutral does not mean, ‘I am not in favor of the other one, but I agree with you.’ It means, ‘I do not take sides. I am here in a conflict environment, and there is no need to take sides.’”

Maintaining a neutral position is always under challenge in the conflicted region where UNRWA operates, and he gave an example, stemming from the discovery that the fundamentalist organization Hamas had built a tunnel under one of the agency’s schools in Gaza. “We found out, we informed the different parties, and we condemned Hamas and contributed to the sealing the tunnels,” he said. “This is how far UNRWA is prepared to go to protect its neutrality, to not allow any actor in the region to play with its installations or undermine credibility of its work.”

UNRWA is holding its annual pledging conference starting June 25th, and a particular concern is how to make up for the cut last year in longstanding financial contributions to the agency from its traditionally most generous donor, the United States. He said that the agency had reduced its spending by $92 million and received increased funding from 42 countries and institutions in response to the American action, and its purpose now was to sustain that and keep the annual budget level at its current $1.2 billion. “If every single donor would preserve and maintain their level of contribution reached in 2018, we would be able to cover the financial needs of UNRWA,” he said.

He said the budget was balanced for the first half of 2019 but already was showing a deficit for June. A lack of funding would cripple the agency’s provision of services, especially in the fields of health and education, threatening to delay the opening of schools in August. He declared himself “passionate” about UNRWA’s education program and cited a comment about it from former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown—“There is not a single other actor in the humanitarian system that runs an entire education service of over one half million boys and girls.”

Mr. Krähenbühl said that providing education affected the stability of the entire region and alluded to a statement from King Abdullah II of Jordan. “The Jordanian King said that if the 122,000 boys and girls in the kingdom no longer had access to education, it would become a matter of national stability,” he said.

In a general assessment of the U.S. cuts, he said he didn’t challenge the right of a country to take such action, but he lamented what he called “the accompanying narrative that somehow that UNRWA is a key actor in perpetuating the refugeehood among Palestinians.” He added: “This analysis doesn’t stand serious review.”

Asked about the particular effect of the cutbacks on girls and women, he noted that there was gender parity in the parliament representing 280,000 students in Gaza. The president of the parliament, he said, was a 15-year old girl. “Every time we have funding challenges, we worry that it will impact young girls and women,” he said, “and this, in particular is something we are trying to limit.”

IPI Vice President Adam Lupel moderated the discussion.

À l’occasion de cafés-débat, la Fondation pour l’innovation politique se propose de réagir et d’interagir autour de différents ouvrages. En présence de l’auteur et de Dominique Reynié, directeur général de la Fondation pour l’innovation politique, la discussion s’anime librement au gré des questions et réflexions de l’équipe. Ce 18 juin 2019, la Fondation pour l’innovation politique […]

The post Discussion avec Thierry Lepercq autour de l’ouvrage « Hydrogène, le nouvelle pétrole » appeared first on Fondapol.

La segunda victoria electoral por mayoría absoluta del primer ministro Narendra Modi y su partido Bharatija Janata, de centroderecha y nacionalista hindú, confirma su liderazgo y le consolida en el poder de la mayor democracia del mundo.