Andrea Warnecke

This article examines the sources of authority of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) conducting peacebuilding independently of peace operations. Expanding Inis Claude’s notion of the two identities of the UN, the article suggests re-imagining the state/non-state divide in international organization by distinguishing between governmental and non-governmental sources of authority, rather than between different types of organizations. Similar to international non-governmental organizations, IGOs depend on moral and expert credibility as non-state sources of authority in peacebuilding. This reliance and the in-built pro-government bias curtail their ability to engage in transformative peacebuilding, rendering it likely that IGO interventions contribute to maintaining existing power imbalances.

Since the early 1990s, building peace in war-­‐torn societies has emerged as a new field of international practice. Given its ad hoc mode of development, this new field of practice has been characterised by considerable concern with improvement and collective learning. These efforts notwithstanding, the field continues to attract criticisms about its failure to engage with local contexts and to address the political dimensions of peace processes. Such criticisms are particularly important since many peacebuilding actors and observers have repeatedly emphasized the political nature of peace processes. Not only is depoliticization criticized by members and observers of the field alike, but it has also been linked to drawbacks in particular interventions. Why, then, has peacebuilding emerged as a depoliticized and de-­‐contextualized practice in the first place, and how can we account for the persistence of depoliticization? The thesis focuses on the agencies tasked with conducting pea...

In recent years, following the political upheavals in Ethiopia, Somalia and what later became Eritrea, large-scale migration from the Horn of Africa has to a significant extent been conflict-induced. Conflict-generated migration is usually large, rapid and includes entire extended families or communities. It is assumed that these migrant communities tend to be predominantly characterised by the source of their migration or flight which subsequently continues to shape the communities’ identities in their new residence country and serves as a focal point for community mobilization.

Summary: This paper analyzes the likely intersections between climate change, migration and conflict. The paper identifies some of the most relevant factors that might turn environmentally induced migration into a source of conflict and hold major implications for receiving areas. Scientific literature is still inconclusive about the conflict potential of environ mentally induced in-migration and the mechanisms potentially linking it to conflict onset. In general, such mecha nisms tend to apply more often in cases of conflict induced as opposed to environmentally induced migration. In a possible chain of events leading from environmentally induced migration to conflict in a receiving area, a host of other factors comes into play, including the causes and type of migration and responses to and perceptions of migration. The impacts of current and future climate trends are likely to increase the pressures that trigger environmentally induced distress migration and migration as a means ...

This study asks whether the United Nations system is capable of conducting peacebuilding in contested intra-state settings. At the core is the dichotomy be- tween the political and the non-political parts of the UN, and the question of the degree to which the non-political parts can conduct peacebuilding irrespec- tive of Security Council backing. To explore this question, this study first reviews key peacebuilding actors and authority structures within the UN Secretariat and across the UN system. Secondly, it provides an in-depth assessment of the on- going reform process of the UN peacebuilding architecture. The analysis traces the process by which the reasoning on peacebuilding best practices and related reforms have shifted from developmental and structural notions towards an en- gagement with political negotiation and mediation. The argument holds that the UN’s perennial pre-occupation with improving peacebuilding coherence and coordination across its bodies and specialized agencies is bound up with the attempt to project greater political leverage vis-à-vis host state governments. In this regard, while the Peacebuilding Commission as an inter-governmental advi- sory body has so far failed to deliver on its promises in linking the political and non-political parts of the UN, it has helped bring about a re-politicized under- standing of the role of UN peacebuilders across the organization. More recently, the discussion on peacebuilding reform appears to have come full circle by ac- knowledging the fundamental dilemma of conducting intra-state peacebuilding in ‘non-cooperative’ environments as a challenge to be addressed at the political level of intergovernmental cooperation rather than through the non-political parts of the UN system.

"Summary: This paper analyzes the likely intersections between climate change, migration and conflict. The paper identifies some of the most relevant factors that might turn environmentally
induced migration into a source of conflict and hold major
implications for receiving areas.

Scientific literature is still inconclusive about the conflict potential of environmentally induced in-migration and the
mechanisms potentially linking it to conflict onset. In general, such mechanisms tend to apply more often in cases of conflict induced as opposed to environmentally induced migration. In
a possible chain of events leading from environmentally induced migration to conflict in a receiving area, a host of other factors comes into play, including the causes and type of migration and
responses to and perceptions of migration.

The impacts of current and future climate trends are likely to increase the pressures that trigger environmentally induced distress migration and migration as a means of adaptation
to environmental change. At the same time, climatic and non-climatic factors further strain governance capacities and weaken the stability and the natural resource base of receiving communities, thus making it harder for them to respond to migration appropriately.

Consequently, governments and donors need to invest in (a) extending the knowledge base, for instance by conducting long-term case studies, and (b) supporting mechanisms for receiving communities in devising migration governance strategies based on this knowledge."

This analysis attempts to sum up and compare existing mechanisms in OECD member states for early warning and the prevention of crises. Based on this analysis, the comparative advantages of single measures are to be presented. At the same time, recommendations for future engagement will be formulated. In the framework of this research, BICC has also developed a BICC conflict matrix as an analytic tool for measures taken for crisis prevention.

Excerpt:" Migration is an old phenomenon. However, the recent discussions about migration are still burdened with fears. New potentials and challenges of migration have recently reinforced calls for the establishment of an overall system of international migration ...