Regional water cooperation in the Arab – Israeli Conflict: A case study of the West Bank

Post Cold War diplomatic training

Victor Shale's paper refers to a specific time period: the post-Cold War period which brought about new forms of conflicts, and high levels of terrorism. In the light of the change in traditional diplomacy, his paper examines multistakeholder diplomatic training and its importance as an approach in penetrating different cultures, and examines whether this approach could be used to minimise intractable conflicts.

Return to the UN: United Nations diplomacy in regional conflicts

‘… lively … persuasive … careful analysis… This is a very readable study, combining narrative strength with political acuity, and informative on the years of disappointment … Much has changed since the UN’s annus mirabilis, but Berridge’s conclusions still stand’, Nicholas Sims, London School of Economics, Millenium.

Health, security and foreign policy

Over the past decade, health has become an increasingly important international issue and one which has engaged the attention of the foreign and security policy community. This article examines the emerging relationship between foreign and security policy, and global public health. It argues that the agenda has been dominated by two issues – the spread of selected infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS) and bio-terror. It argues that this is a narrow framing of the agenda which could be broadened to include a wider range of issues. We offer two examples: health and internal instability,...

Metaphor and War: The Metaphor System Used to Justify War in the Gulf

Searching for Meaningful Human Control. The April 2018 Meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (Briefing Paper #10)

In this briefing paper, Ms Barbara Rosen Jacobson analyses the debate of the April 2018 meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). The group was established to discuss emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS).

How safe are we? Security risks of the social networks

We are witnessing an extreme proliferation of the social networks, which can be seen in two ways: an expansion of social network websites, and an increase in the number of people who are starting to use them. The author describes the risks associated with social networks, mostly associated with user's privacy, and the responsibility for those risks. This paper also analyses whether the rules proscribed so that social network providers can distance themselves from possible abuses are really designed to help the users be safe.

Dealing with cybersecurity challenges

'Various governments have come up with different interventions to address these challenges, like cybersecurity which is on the rise. The development of human resource and capacity building has been identified as one of the stumbling blocks.' - Godfrey Ahuma from Ghana

International domain names from a multilingualism and security perspective

From an Internet governance perspective, multilingualism and security have been two of the cornerstone themes since its inception. The security theme addresses topics regarding the Domain Names System (DNS), Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Internet attacks, security awareness, and policies and legal measures to ensure a safe and secure Internet experience. Security is a very diverse area where multiple topics should be tackled, and ignoring one or more topics while securing other areas would still jeopardise the safety of Internet users.

Decision-Making in the UN Security Council: The case of Haiti, 1990-1997

Question: 'When is a "Foreword" not a "Foreword"? Answer: When it is written by Adam Roberts. This book started life as an Oxford doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Roberts, and the former supervisor has done both the former student and readers of this book a great service by prefacing it with a seven-page essay in which he underlines its importance in convincing detail. So this, unlike ninety-nine per cent of examples of the same genre, is a Foreword that should not be ignored.

Intractable Syria? Insights from the Scholarly Literature on the Failure of Mediation

Track 2 diplomacy and Pakistan

Mediation in the Yugoslav Wars: The Critical Years, 1990-95

Peace Negotiations and Time: Deadline Diplomacy in Territorial Disputes

Small States and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of the EU: A Comparative Analysis

The Search for Peace

DDoS – Available Weapon of Mass Disruption

The increasing militarisation of cyber-space comes in response to fears of critical damage caused by digital weapons like Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS). Understanding that the botnets are the key platform behind DDoS, we compared the costs of running a large-scale attack with the approximate downtime loss in a country-scale attack in case of Serbia, showing that DDoS are readily available weapons of possible mass disruption. Taken as a whole, this paper suggests responding to risks by combating cybercrime as the DDoS enabler, rather than by militarisation.

Diplomatic security and the birth of the compound system

High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighbourhood

John le Carré: The Biography

I thought to review this book because I had enjoyed the spy novels of John le Carré and, having introduced a chapter on secret intelligence into the latest edition of my textbook and mentioned him in it (p. 155), was keen to see if Adam Sisman had turned up anything new about the novelist’s own short career as an intelligence officer in what was then West Germany.

A clash of professional cultures: The David Kelly affair

The Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, the senior British arms inspector in the UN inspection mission to Iraq who was found dead in an English wood in July 2003, offers revealing insights into the contrasting professional cultures of journalists, politicians and scientists. This paper focuses both on the language and on the transgressions associated with each of the three professional cultures under investigation.

The Role of Diplomacy in the Challenges to Maritime Security Cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea: Case Study of Nigeria

There is presently a pervading feeling that the West and Central African states are long overdue to take control of their maritime environment. However, these expectations show no indication of materialising in the short term.

Managing the Cold War: A view from the front line

Michael Alexander, a Russian-speaking senior British diplomat who died in 2002, was a major behind-the-scenes figure in what he calls the ‘management’ of the cold war to a peaceful conclusion.

Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent

Regional water cooperation in the Arab – Israeli Conflict: A case study of the West Bank

The conflict between Israel and Arab countries, with several devastating wars, is about territory and land, and maybe just as crucially on the water that flows through that land. This dissertation, an analysis of the management of water in the West Bank, as a case study, seeks to underline the possibility of using soft power diplomacy, in addition to mediation and water cooperation, for a more collaborative kind of approach to the conflict.

The Yugoslav diplomatic service under sanctions

Sanctions adversely affect all the structures of the state and society, and render difficult, if not impossible, the normal operation of services, including the Foreign Service.This paper discusses the challenges faced by the Yugoslav diplomatic service when the country was under sanction.

The Falkland Islands War: Diplomatic Failure in April 1982

International multistakeholder cyber threat information sharing regimes: Policy considerations for scaling trust and active participation

This paper examines cybersecurity information sharing mechanisms. It looks at the research into public-private partnership (PPP) theory, their application for cybersecurity, and the burgeoning field of international cybersecurity collaboration, and draws conclusions on what policy elements are needed to foster success in architecting a platform for cybersecurity information sharing on a large scale. The paper surveys existing information sharing regimes and the policy objectives they attempt to reach, including capacity building, standardized languages for information sharing, liability prote...

Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations

How important is the role of small states security in the maintenance of international peace and security?

The game of International Peace and Security has for a long time been one played only by the great powers, leading to the singling out of small states in its deliberations. These states would create their own rules and be their own referees, whilst the existing small states would conduct themselves as mere spectators. However, following the effects of the end of the two World Wars, the creation of the UN and decolonization, the role of small states in the maintenance of international peace and security has gathered new responsibilities and in consequence it has made them important agents and m...

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: Mapping the GGE Debate (Briefing Paper #8)

International Politics: States, Power and Conflict since 1945, Third Edition

This textbook is designed to support a general undergraduate course on International Relations. It is based on the second year course which I taught at the University of Leicester in the late 1970s and 1980s. The book was first published in 1987 and was brought out in a second, fully revised edition in 1992. The third edition was published by Prentice-Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf in paperback in 1997 and is now available in a Pearson Education ‘Print on Demand’ edition (ISBN 0-13-230327-2).

Diplomatic Security under a Comparative Lens – Or Not?

“Diplomatic security” is the term now usually preferred to “diplomatic protection” for the steps taken by states to safeguard the fabric of their diplomatic and consular missions, the lives of their diplomatic and consular officers, and the integrity of their communications; it has the advantage of avoiding confusion with the controversial legal doctrine of diplomatic protection.

Embassies as Command Posts in Anti-Terror Campaign

The Demilitarization of American Diplomacy: Two cheers for striped pants

The trenchant contribution to this subject of the outstanding American scholar-diplomat Laurence Pope is published in Palgrave’s ‘Pivot’ series of short books designed to be brought out quickly.

An Examination of the Role of Women in Conflict Management: Sierra Leone Case Study

This paper examines the role of women in conflict management, using Sierra Leone as a case study.

Internet governance and service provision in Zimbabwe

From an Internet governance perspective, multilingualism and security have been two of the cornerstone themes since its inception. The security theme addresses topics regarding the Domain Names System (DNS), Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Internet attacks, security awareness, and policies and legal measures to ensure a safe and secure Internet experience. Security is a very diverse area where multiple topics should be tackled, and ignoring one or more topics while securing other areas would still jeopardise the safety of Internet users.

The Secret History of Dayton: U.S. Diplomacy and the Bosnia Peace Process 1995

The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century

Peacetime Regime for State Activities in Cyberspace

The publication covers in a multi-disciplinary approach the technical, legal, policy and diplomacy aspects of State activities in cyberspace during peacetime. It consists of 23 chapters of academic nature, elaborated by 24 authors specialised in the respective areas of expertise. Diplo's Dr Jovan Kurbalija contributed the chapter on E-diplomacy and Diplomatic Law in the Internet Era.

Diplomacy under a Foreign Flag: When nations break relations

Diplomatic Interference and the Law

Q: ‘Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington? A: Because there’s no American Embassy there.’ This old joke serves to highlight the belief – entrenched deeply in poor, weak states – that diplomatic missions too often meddle in the ‘internal’ or ‘domestic’ affairs of the countries in which they are located, sometimes with dramatic consequences. It is a view that was held in the years following the Second World War by the former Yugoslavia, then struggling to extricate itself from the Soviet orbit, and prompted it to press successfully for the codification of dipl...

The Clash of Civilizations

All Fall Down: America’s fateful encounter with Iran

All Fall Down is the definitive chronicle of Americas experience with the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis of 1978-81. Drawing on internal government documents, it recounts the controversies, decisions and uncertainties that made this a unique chapter in modern American history. From his personal experiences, the author draws revealing portraits of the people who engaged in this test of wills with an Islamic revolutionary regime.

Cyprus: the search for a solution

Lord Hannay, a senior British diplomat with great experience of multilateral diplomacy, retired in 1995 but was then persuaded to accept the position of Britain’s Special Representative for Cyprus. In this role he played an influential part in the UN-led effort to broker a settlement to the Cyprus conflict until the negotiations temporarily foundered in May 2003, when, with a mixture of relief and regret, he stepped down. (There is a postscript on the referendums held on the island in 2004 on the fifth version of Kofi Annan’s settlement plan.) He has written a brilliant account of the cour...

The Peace Brokers: Mediators in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-79

DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War

DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain's ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War.

Managing Global Chaos

The Embassy: A story of war and diplomacy

This book tells the story of the vital role played by the US Embassy in Monrovia in helping to mediate an end to the brutal, 14-year civil war in Liberia in 2003.

Embassies in Armed Conflict

Cybersecurity in the Republic of Fiji

This paper discusses cybersecurity in Fiji and offers recommendations to challenges such as the vulnerability of systems due to lack of a cybersecurity framework. The poorly framed laws and lack of appropriate policies.

Weapons Overview

Preventive Diplomacy: Stopping Wars Before they Start

Barriers to conflict resolution in Africa: Mediating beyond power and ethnicity in the EAC and SADC countries through a Kenyan case study

This paper assesses the relevance of ethnicity and power in conflicts occurring in the EAC and SADC regions through a case study of Kenya. It engages with elites’ power contestation and the manner in which power has historically caused violence and instability in Kenya. Further, an account of researches on ethnicity and its inducing of violence is made. Through this, one discovers the importance of ethnicity beyond that of being a channel for the upsurge of violence.

Diplomats at War: British and Commonwealth diplomacy in wartime

In their Preface, the editors of Diplomats at War say that the two world wars in the twentieth century had a “catalytic impact upon the practice of diplomacy”; among other things, they continue, this produced “an unprecedented revolution” in the way heads of mission conducted their business.

The Role of Nigeria in Restoring Peace in West Africa

Remmy Nweke attempts a search into the rationale behind Nigeria‟s decision to make Africa the cornerstone of her foreign policy.

The security of small nations: Challenges and defences

The 'essentially contested concept' of security is analysed, and some main kinds of ambiguity and dimensions outlined: level, kind of threat and kind of defence. Discourses on security, particularly of small nations, must avoid being trapped into dealing only with one level (national, which in practice normally means state), one kind of threat (military) and one kind of defence (again military). There is no clear relation between kind of alignment and military expenditures, but non-aligned states are overrepresented both among the very high armers and among the very low armers. Increasing gaps...

Lilliput under threat: The security problems of small island and enclave developing states

The development of multilateral diplomacy and its fundamental role in global security and progression.

This dissertation is written to present the notion of peace and security to be the direct result of international cooperation through multilateral means

Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror

All memoirs are incomplete; instant ones even more so; and memoirs about security matters are the worst, in this respect. The book, however, manages to disappoint in an unusual way.

South Africa and the Simonstown Agreements

In John Young (ed.), The Foreign Policy of Churchill’s Peacetime Administration 1951-1955 (Leicester UP, 1988)

Virtual Reality and the Future of Peacemaking (Briefing Paper #14)

Female leadership in conflict prevention, diplomacy and UN peacekeeping initiatives

Spies in Uniform: British Military and Naval Intelligence on the Eve of the First World War

Matthew Seligman, who is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton, sets as his target the claim - recently revived by Niall Ferguson - that the British decision for war in August 1914 was made despite the absence of any compelling evidence that Germany was prompted by a 'Napoleonic' design.

Governance and conflict in the Mano River Union States: Sierra Leone a case study

The MRU states (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) experienced more than two decades of bitter conflicts. With the exception of Guinea which was spared a full-scale civil war, the other three neighbouring MRU states went through violent civil conflicts which resulted in massive human suffering, social dislocation and the destruction of the region's economy.

The secret life of a cyber vulnerability

The comic brings a worrying, yet realistic and educative story that follows a life of a cyber vulnerability, from its inception to its deployment for an actual cyberattack.

Blundering Into Disaster: Surviving the First Century of the Nuclear Age

Cybersecurity in the Western Balkans: Policy gaps and cooperation opportunities

Report on cybersecurity cooperation in the Western Balkans.

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate

The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict

Effectiveness of U.S. Economic Sanctions with Respect to Sudan

Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad

The Argentine seizure of the Malvinas [Falkland] Islands: History and Diplomacy

The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross: Commentary

The Fundamental Principles are the result of a century of experience. Proclaimed in Vienna in 1965, they bond together the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and guarantee the continuity of the Movement and its humanitarian work. In this succinct commentary intended for the general public, Jean Pictet explains the meaning of each of the seven Fundamental Principles; he analyses them on the basis of different criteria and presents all their various aspects, thus mak...

A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West

Note: The author of this review compares Noam Chomsky's A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West and David Fromkin's Kosovo Crossing: American Ideals meet Reality on the Balkan Battlefields.

Cybersecurity competence building trends

Report on cybersecurity competence building trends in OECD countries.

The National Security of Small States in a Changing World

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

Meeting the needs of microstate security

This article examines the pressing security concerns of microstates, particularly against the backdrop of recurring themes of vulnerability in the literature. It reviews those arguments in the early years of decolonization which expressed scepticism about the prospects for independence in such very small dependencies given their lack of defensive capacity and the geopolitical risks which they face in a potentially dangerous external milieu. The article argues that these doubts and concerns have not been realised in the actual experience of microstates particularly in terms of conventional thre...

FDR’s Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis: From the rise of Hitler to the end of World War II

What effect did personality and circumstance have on US foreign policy during World War II? This incisive account of US envoys residing in the major belligerent countries – Japan, Germany, Italy, China, France, Great Britain, USSR – highlights the fascinating role played by such diplomats as Joseph Grew, William Dodd, William Bullitt, Joseph Kennedy and W. Averell Harriman. Between Hitler's 1933 ascent to power and the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, US ambassadors sculpted formal policy – occasionally deliberately, other times inadvertently – giving shape and meaning not always intended by ...

From U Thant to Kofi Annan: UN Peacemaking in Cyprus, 1964-2004

2004 marked the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations presence in Cyprus. Since March 1964, the UN has been responsible for addressing and managing both peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts on the island.

Culture and Conflict: Challenges for Europe’s Foreign Policy

Education and Conflict: Complexity and Chaos

Conflict resolution and peace building (disseration by Unisa Sahid Kamara)

Unisa Kamara's dissertation seeks to give an account of the Sierra Leone conflict and the different measures and strategies including diplomatic attempts and efforts that were employed by various parties in trying to secure a peaceful and durable solution to it. The paper discusses the peace building measures and activities that were employed in sustaining the Sierra Leone peace process after the attainment of a negotiated settlement.

Tested in Times of Transition

Embassies under Siege

Keeping the Peace in the Cyprus Crisis of 1963-64

After some difficulties, a UN force was established in Cyprus (UNFICYP) following the collapse of the bicommunal independence constitution of this former British colony - a constitution which the Greek Cypriots had always felt too favourable to the Turkish minority - at Christmas 1963. In this book, Alan James, Professor Emeritus of Keele University and leading authority on peacekeeping, provides what is likely to be regarded as the definitive history of the creation of this force.

Introducing child safety in Romanian schools: Does the existing primary and secondary curriculum address online safety?

This paper examines the idea of an online child safety policy for Romania, which would provide an initiative to encourage smart online behavior in young children, prepare them to surf the Internet, and educate them to avoid its dangers. As technology develops and more and more children spend time online, they are exposed to numerous threats, dangers and potential abuse. Children need to learn how to behave online, how to critically assess their activities online and act accordingly.

Kosovo Crossing: American Ideals meet Reality on the Balkan Battlefields

The author of this review compares Noam Chomsky's A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West and David Fromkin's Kosovo Crossing: American Ideals meet Reality on the Balkan Battlefields.

Exploring the Relevance of Engagement and Containment Approaches in the European Union’s Management of Relations with Russia

Since 2006, Russia has grown more assertive and even hawkish in its approach to the European Union (EU), even seen as attempting to divide the large EU membership so as to consolidate its influence in Europe.

Diplomacy Before and After Conflict

A kind of diplomatic incantation: Exchanging British and Japanese diplomats in the Second World War

The Responsibility to Protect

Mediation in International Relations

The Diplomatic Kidnappings: A Revolutionary Tactic of Urban Terrorism

A New Wave for the Reform of the Security Council of the United Nations: Great Expectations but Little Results

The reform of the Security Council of the United Nations (UNSC) has been an elusive issue at the United Nations (UN). While practically all Member States agree on the need to change the structure of the most powerful body of the world organization, so far there has been no agreement about what elements of that reform or about the substance of the reform itself.

War and the Private Investor: A Study in the Relations of International Politics and International Private Investment

United Nations, Divided World, 2nd ed

Modern Diplomacy – Opening address

Opening address of the Honourable Dr. George F. Vella, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Environment of Malta.

South Africa

In R. Allison and P. Williams (eds), Superpower Competition and Crisis Prevention in the Third World (Cambridge UP, 1989), pp. 206-16.

DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War

The publication of these memoirs in autumn 2005 caused a public furore in Britain so I shall not waste time giving any background on Sir Christopher Meyer. (Just punch his name into Google, which will enable you in the blink of an eye even to find out from the BBC website which records he chose when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.)