Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

L’économie russe confrontée à ses difficultés. Entretien avec Sergei Guriev. Institut Montaigne jeu 15/03/2018 - 14:23

Le 18 mars 2018, 110 millions de citoyens russes sont appelés aux urnes pour (ré)élire leur prochain Président.

DT 5/2018 - 15/3/2018
Andrés Cajiao, Paola González, Daniel Pardo y Oswaldo Zapata

¿Cómo ha sido la evolución de las estructuras armadas organizadas en Colombia y cuáles son las características de las redes de narcotráfico Colombia-España?

Trotz kleinerer Unterschiede: Die Frage nach dem richtigen Umgang mit dem Iran ist eines der Felder, auf dem deutsche und russische Interessen weitgehend übereinstimmen. Besonders, wenn es um das Atomabkommen geht. Experten beider Länder weisen immer wieder darauf hin, dass eine mögliche Aufkündigung des Abkommens mit dem Iran durch die USA verhindert werden sollte: In diesem Fall drohten schwerwiegende Folgen für die gesamte Region des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung vier Experten aus Bayern nach Moskau eingeladen, um mit hochrangigen russischen Gesprächspartnern die aktuelle Lage im Iran und in weiteren Brennpunkten im Nahen und Mittleren Osten zu diskutieren und das Potenzial für eine erweiterte deutsch-russische Zusammenarbeit auszuloten.

ARI 37/2018 - 15/3/2018
Patrícia Lisa

Las presiones migratorias en la UE son una cuestión central del Espacio de Libertad Seguridad y Justicia, siendo fundamentales sus perspectivas de desarrollo en el próximo bienio.

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Development programs tend to include women affected by conflict and violence as passive beneficiaries, rather than as active agents in strengthening gender equality, peacebuilding, and sustainable development. And where development partners do support women’s agency in strengthening recovery and reconciliation in rural areas, they often fail to link these activities to wider processes of women’s mobilization, peacebuilding, and statebuilding.

Confronting that reality requires looking at women as “actors rather than only as passive victims,” said Ursula Keller, chair of the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET). It requires focusing “very strongly on women’s participation, but really meaningful participation: not just counting women but making women count,” she said.

Ms. Keller was speaking to a March 14th policy forum at IPI on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations, cosponsored by IPI, GENDERNET, and the Governments of Sweden and Switzerland.

In introductory remarks, Deqa Yasin Hagi Yusuf, Somalia’s Minister of Gender and Human Rights Development, said that during the recent conflict in her country “women provided the backbone of our economy” and that now that the conflict is largely over, “gender equality is a central objective for sustaining peace and development in our current national development plan.” Among the “significant strides” she reported were that women occupy 24% of the seats in the two houses of Parliament, an inclusive human rights commission has been formed with four women among the nine commissioners, and the country’s first legislation on sexual offenses has been developed under the leadership of her ministry.

Ms. Keller reported the findings of a new OECD policy report into how donors can provide these gender equality projects with support that is both qualitatively and quantitatively better. Gender roles and inequality can often be a driver in conflict, she said, naming societal expectations of masculinity as a cause for violence. Programming that considers gender-sensitive pathways can best tackle fragility as “conflict and fragility places enormous burdens on women’s rights,” she said. She also noted that “women’s active participation in peacebuilding and statebuilding can actually contribute to peace and resilience.”

Barbro Svedberg, Policy Specialist for Women, Peace, and Security at the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) said that women, peace, and security resolutions had been paramount to a collective understanding of “women as drivers of positive peace,” and had had an enormous impact on Swedish “feminist” foreign policy over the last year.

Sida considers the interlinkage of gender equality, conflict sensitivity, and human rights, as “key elements in all of our programming,” said Ms. Svedberg, adding that “gender equality, for Sida, is a prerequisite for peace.” Describing Sida’s two new strategies, she said “The first, gender equality, should inform the other, [peacebuilding and statebuilding].”

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, International Coordinator of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, reiterated the significance of this interlinkage, highlighting that “gender inequality, conflict, and fragility are all parts of the same equation. Each one cannot be isolated from the other two.” She also acknowledged that “gender inequality is one of the drivers of conflict.”

Considering conflict and fragility as functions of gender inequality rather than inequality as a consequence of conflict, Ms. Cabrera-Balleza urged institutional supporters to offer sustainable and not project-based donations. “Sustainable peace is not a project,” she said, “it is a way of life and it should be part of our global culture.”

Sarah Douglas, Deputy Chief of Peace and Security of UN Women, said that the women’s empowerment aspect of the Sustainable Development Goals creates an effective framework that shifts thinking from technical to political approaches and “challenges us…to use political analysis when we’re thinking about development and peacebuilding in the aftermath of conflict.”

Ms. Douglas conceded that UN analysis of conflict usually focused more on women’s oppression than their “capacities for peace,” and argued, “that’s what a gender perspective can also bring.”

Because deliberation at United Nations headquarters can reflect a strikingly different vision of conflict than the reality on the ground, she emphasized the need that conversation at headquarters reflect the lived experience of “women on the ground in a much more authentic way.”

Referring to the importance of “breaking down silos” and adopting a more holistic approach to policy making, Ms. Douglas concluded that policy must consider, “Who are the women’s organizations at the grassroots level who are actually holding the fabric of society together and how can they be mobilized, supported, encouraged, have doors open to them to really be able to expand their work and ensure sustainability?”

IPI Research Fellow Sarah Taylor was the moderator.

La menace sur le commerce mondial est sérieuse. Comment y répondre ? Institut Montaigne mer 14/03/2018 - 18:18

Le relèvement des tarifs douaniers sur les importations d’acier et d’aluminium par les Etats-Unis n’aurait qu’une importance mineure si les circonstances de la décision du président Trump n’étaient pas si particulières. L’Europe ne peut y être indifférente.

Echanges avec Carlos Ghosn Institut Montaigne mer 14/03/2018 - 16:39

Carlos Ghosn, président-directeur général du groupe Renault, a été reçu mercredi 14 mars pour un petit-déjeuner organisé par l’Institut Montaigne. Cette rencontre fut l’occasion de recueillir son sentiment sur l’évolution actuelle du marché automobile, très marqué par l’émergence des voitures électriques et autonomes, ainsi que ses prévisions quant aux menaces et aux opportunités que devrait affronter ce secteur dans le futur.

Blanc 14 mars 2018 Activé Avec Carlos Ghosn, président-directeur-général du groupe Renault. Fermé Non Non

L’Italie, une exception politique en Europe ? Institut Montaigne mer 14/03/2018 - 12:58

Alors que les élections du 4 mars dernier en Italie ont laissé le pays dans une nouvelle crise politique, Marc Lazar, professeur d’histoire et de sociologie politique à Sciences Po, analyse trois grandes tendances politiques à l’oeuvre en Europe : perte de vitesse d

Sécurité privée : d'une logique d'externalisation à un modèle de co-construction Institut Montaigne mar 13/03/2018 - 17:28

En France, la sécurité privée est aujourd’hui dans une situation paradoxale : elle n’a jamais été aussi présente, visible et indispensable que depuis la reprise des attentats dans l’Hexagone (6,6 milliards d’euros de chiffre d’affaire et 167 800 salarié

Syrie : le dilemme des "lignes rouges" Institut Montaigne mar 13/03/2018 - 16:18

Comme si la tragédie syrienne avait besoin d’une escalade dans l’horreur, les indications récentes d’emploi d’armes chimiques se sont faites, depuis la fin 2017, de plus en plus claires.

Voting in America: What does the future hold?Wednesday, March 14, 6:30 PM
Museum of Cycladic Art, AthensPlease RSVP here

There are more than half a million elected officials in America, from the dog catcher of Duxbury, Vermont, to the President of the United States. Americans are called upon to vote more frequently and amply than in any other democratic country in history.

Yet voting in America has come to be plagued by a growing number of woes, from perennial voter disaffection to an allegedly outmoded electoral regime, from an excessively decentralized approach nation-wide to election administration to a widespread reliance on shoddy technology and a singular lack of security against hacking, meddling, and malevolent interference by external actors.

2018 is another election year, and the stakes are high. Can citizens cast their ballots with confidence? Are elections safe from outside intervention? Are there any signs of improvement in how Americans administer their elections? How drastic is the current state of affairs?

In collaboration with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the Dukakis Center will convene a panel of experts to share their thoughts on the future of voting in America. The present event is a follow up to a round table on “Voting in America” staged in Thessaloniki in October 2016.”The Future of Voting in America”

• Michael Ertel, Supervisor of Elections, Seminole County (Florida)
• Charles Stewart III, Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Aristides N. Hatzis, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Law & Theory of Institutions,University of Athens
• Moderator: Athanasios Ellis. Editor in Chief, Kathimerini English Edition

The event will be in English

Ja, Blindentischtennis gibt´s. Auf dem großen Aktionstag "Nur mit Dir!" trafen sich in Nürnberg Menschen, die einfach gemeinsam Spaß haben wollten. Ob mit oder ohne Behinderung. Im Interview erzählt Irmgard Badura, die Beauftragte der Bayerischen Staatsregierung für die Belange von Menschen mit Behinderung, von ihrer Arbeit und ihren Zielen.

Vor der Präsidentenwahl in Russland, die am 18. März 2018 stattfindet, hat der Kreml die von Wladimir Putin seit 2000 ausgebaute »föderale Machtvertikale« nochmals gestrafft. Was den Nordkaukasus anbelangt, gilt das besonders für die Teilrepublik Dagestan. Dort griff Moskau 2017 mit einer rigiden Säuberungsaktion ein und tauschte die gesamte politische Führung aus. Einen auffälligen Kontrast dazu bildet Tschetschenien, das seit 2007 unter der Herrschaft Ramsan Kadyrows steht. Präsident Putin betrieb seit Anfang der 2000er Jahre eine Politik der »Tschetschenisierung«, indem er die Bekämpfung des bewaffneten Aufstands an lokale Sicherheitskräfte delegierte. In der Folge etablierte sich unter Putins Protektion eine Republikführung, für die in der russischen Öffentlichkeit mittlerweile Bezeichnungen wie »tschetschenisches Khanat« kursieren. Zur Machtfülle Kadyrows gehört eine eigene Außenpolitik, die sich vor allem an den Mittleren Osten richtet.

Einerseits bekundet Kadyrow mit Nachdruck die Zugehörigkeit seiner Republik zu Russland und präsentiert sich als »Fußsoldat Putins«. Andererseits hat er das Föderationssubjekt Tschetschenien in einen Privatstaat verwandelt. Dieses ambivalente Verhältnis zwischen Teilrepublik und Machtzentrale beruht wesentlich auf dem Loyalitätspakt zwischen Putin und Kadyrow. Allerdings erhebt sich selbst im engeren Kreis um den russischen Präsidenten mitunter Kritik an diesem Arrangement. An der Schwelle zu Putins vierter Amtsperiode stellt sich die Frage, wie dauerhaft der Pakt sein kann. Zu den Kosten, die Moskau für Tschetscheniens »Befriedung« durch Kadyrow und seine Anhänger in Kauf nahm, zählen gravierende Menschenrechtsverletzungen. Seit 2017 geraten sie wieder stärker ins Blickfeld internationaler Politik und Berichterstattung.

Parlé par 274 millions de locuteurs, le français est la deuxième langue la plus apprise dans le monde par 125 millions de personnes et l’une des rares langues à être enseignées sur les cinq continents, par 900 000 enseignants. Vingt-neuf pays l’ont choisie comme langue officielle. Le français est aussi la quatrième langue d’Internet, la […]

The post L’Élan de la francophonie : Une communauté de langue et de destin (1) appeared first on Fondapol.

Une consultation citoyenne intitulée « Mon idée pour le français » a été lancée en janvier 2018 par le ministère de la Culture et celui de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères afin de stimuler la réflexion sur la promotion de la francophonie et du plurilinguisme dans le monde. Alors que le président de la République […]

The post L’élan de la franchophonie : Pour une ambition française (2) appeared first on Fondapol.

Das duale Ausbildungssystem in Deutschland ist weltweit hoch angesehen. Bei Messen der "NürnbergMesse" in China wird auf diese deutsche Spezialität nun ein besonderer Fokus gelegt.

Interview avec Dominique Reynié : les prochaines élections en France et dans l’UE risquent de voir encore progresser les populistes Autriche, Hongrie, Pologne… le camp antieuropéen progresse sur le continent. Et cette montée des populismes risque de s’accroître avec les prochaines élections. Quelles seraient les conséquences d’une telle poussée ? Comment la combattre ? Éléments […]

The post Interview avec Dominique Reynié : L’arrivée au pouvoir des populistes peut faire s’effondrer l’Europe appeared first on Fondapol.

Plan prison : trois questions à Jean-Marie Delarue Institut Montaigne lun 12/03/2018 - 14:29

C’est devant les professeurs, personnels et élèves de l'école d'administration pénitentiaire (ENAP) d'Agen qu’Emmanuel Macron a présenté mardi 6 mars son “">

Elcano Policy Paper 1/2018 - 12/3/2018
Salvador Llaudes, Ignacio Molina, Miguel Otero Iglesias y Federico Steinberg

La decisión vía referéndum del pueblo británico de abandonar el proyecto comunitario tiene sin duda consecuencias no sólo para el Reino Unido, sino también para los restantes 27 Estados miembros de la UE, y muy particularmente para España.

With the signing of the 2030 Agenda, the international community has committed to ending poverty in all its forms. This first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) recognises poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon that goes beyond the simple lack of a sufficient amount of income. However, the way the SDG 1 and, in particular, Target 1.2 – “reduce … poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions” – are formulated poses challenges for its operationalisation.
Which specific dimensions of poverty should a country focus on? How can we identify them? Is it possible to agree on a universal set of dimensions with which to compare poverty across several countries?
Recently, significant advancements have been made in the measurement of multidimensional poverty; however, how dimensions of poverty are selected is often overlooked. Empirical studies have employed different approaches, ranging from a data-driven approach to the use of participatory methods or surveys to detect context-based dimensions. This Briefing Paper discusses the pros and cons of the existing approaches and argues in favour of a new one, called the Constitutional Approach. The central idea is that the constitution of a democratic country, together with its official interpretations, can be a valid source of ethically sound poverty dimensions.
What is the value added of the Constitutional Approach? And what are the policy implications of adopting it?

• The approach is grounded on a clear understanding of what poverty is, rather than an ad hoc approximation of it based on data availability. Only with a clear definition can poverty be measured, and anti-poverty strategies adequately designed and implemented.
• By drawing on norm-governed national institutions that have shaped societal attitudes, the resulting list of dimensions is more legitimate and likely to be accepted and used by national policy-makers and endorsed by the public. The selecting of valuable societal dimensions is not just a technocratic issue but must be grounded in shared ethical values.
• The approach does not require the collection of additional information to understand which poverty dimension should be prioritised. However, one must consider that this approach is only suitable for democratic countries, whose constitutions: are the result of a broad-based participatory process, still enjoy wide consensus and recognise at least the principle of equality among all citizens.
• To compare multidimensional poverty at the global level, the approach could be extended by examining a core list of overlapping dimensions across several countries.

Given the above strengths, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which has a vital role in the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network, could recommend this approach to governments to track country progress in SDG 1.