Research Blog

From counterinsurgency and containment, through negotiation and mediation, to integration and cooptation, state and international approaches to address non-state armed actors face significant obstacles. On the other hand, official, state-based actors, specialized non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private actors—including elder statesmen, influential international figures, and retired high political officials—have developed independent conflict resolution approaches, leveraging their non-state status to [...]

According to William Zartman the elements necessary for a ripe moment are a Way Out and a Mutually Hurting Stalemate. This paper further develops ripeness theory by taking a closer look at these two conditions of ripeness. It finds that the two necessary elements of ripeness – Way Out and Mutually Hurting Stalemate – constrain [...]

Specifically, we examine two pairs of efforts to resolve the conflict in Israel and Palestine: the “Road Map” and the track two Geneva Initiative of 2003, and the Olmert Peace Plan and Jimmy Carter's visit to the Middle East in 2008. In the first pair, NGO efforts yielded unexpected results. The Palestinians were ready to [...]

To reduce the humanitarian consequences of conflict for civilian populations, specifically, NGOs and private actors involved in conflict mediation/resolution employ one of three general approaches: some pursue the more immediate approach of facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance in territory controlled by NSAGs; some promote international norms concerning the protection of civilians and combatants, with [...]

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the dynamics and the results of the norm diffusion practices occurring between the ICRC and non-state arms carriers in environments of conflict and fragile statehood. The paper aims to conceptually describe the methods used by the ICRC and to provide an answer regarding the difficulties [...]

The number of armed conflicts featuring extreme violence against the civilian population in areas with no or little State authority has risen significantly since the early 1990s. This phenomenon has been particularly prevalent in the African Great Lakes Region. This collection of essays evaluates, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the various traditional and alternative instruments for [...]

Proponents of the declaratory and the constitutive theory of recognition differ in their understanding of what comes first: statehood or recognition. While according to the declaratory theory, states are created because they fulfill certain criteria of statehood and hence should be recognized, according to the constitutive theory, recognition calls states into being: “Does one state’s [...]

We have seen the consequences of such policy in recent conflicts in the Middle East in particular. For instance, in Syria, the power vacuum left behind by the exile opposition and the protracted nature of the struggle has produced a large number of resistance groups in the country that operate under no effective leadership. Some [...]

Sporadic liberalization may have an effect on peoples’ attitudes toward drug laws. Through decriminalization, legalization and potentially legal advertising, marijuana may lose the social and criminal stigma currently associated with it. In the U.S., national and statewide polls conducted since the legalization votes in Washington state and Colorado show greater public acceptance of marijuana legalization [...]

Key Points: Through the delivery of aid, some countries have tried to export their preferred drug control policies and have leveraged the recipients’ need for aid to influence their policy approach. The approaches adopted in many aid agreements seem to be insulated from the advances in the global debate about alternative drug policies and harm [...]