The Global Eye : International Crisis Group

Showing posts with label International Crisis Group. Show all posts

Saturday, 11 June 2016

Nigeria: The Challenge of Military Reform (International Crisis Group)

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/west-africa/nigeria/237-nigeria-the-challenge-of-military-reform.aspx

Thursday, 2 June 2016

Buhari’s Nigeria: Boko Haram Off Balance, but Other Troubles Surge (Nnamdi Obasi, International Crisis Group)

Nigeria's newly elected President Muhammed Buhari gives a speech during a press conference, in Lagos, Nigeria, on 1 April 2015. Anadolu Agency/Stringer

The peaceful election in March 2015 of President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general, raised hopes that some of Nigeria’s most pressing security problems could soon be tamed. One year later, the new government has struck at the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency. But Nigeria is sliding deeper into other difficulties

http://blog.crisisgroup.org/africa/nigeria/2016/05/30/buharis-nigeria-boko-haram-off-balance-but-other-troubles-surge/

Pakistan’s Jihadist Heartland: Southern Punjab (International Crisis Group)

Southern Punjab must be central to any sustainable effort to counter jihadist violence within and beyond Pakistan’s borders, given the presence of militant groups with local, regional and transnational links and an endless source of recruits, including through large madrasa and mosque networks. The region hosts two of Pakistan’s most radical Deobandi groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed, held responsible by India for the 2 January 2016 attack on its Pathankot airbase; and the sectarian Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which was at least complicit in, if not solely responsible for, the 27 March Easter Sunday attack that killed more than 70 in Lahore. To reverse the jihadist tide, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s federal and Punjab province governments will have to both end the climate of impunity that allows these groups to operate freely and address political alienation resulting from other governance failures these groups tap into

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/pakistan/279-pakistan-s-jihadist-heartland-southern-punjab.aspx

Friday, 27 May 2016

Time to seize the moment in Sri Lanka (Alan Keenan, International Crisis Group)

The bloody end of Sri Lanka’s long civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been marked across the country this month in very different ways, highlighting both the tentative progress made over the past year and the profound divisions still be overcome seven years into peacetime

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/op-eds/keenan-time-to-seize-the-moment-in-sri-lanka.aspx

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in Wonderland (Mark Schneider, International Crisis Group)

The late socialist leader Hugo Chávez should be turning over in his grave as the poor are suffering the most from Venezuela’s economic collapse. His successor, President Nicolás Maduro, is attempting to cling to power by railing against a recall referendum, a provision that Chávez himself included in the constitution

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/latin-america-caribbean/andes/op-eds/venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-in-wonderland.aspx

South Sudan’s South: Conflict in the Equatorias (International Crisis Group)

South Sudanese SPLA soldiers inspect a burned out car in Pageri in Eastern Equatoria state on August 20, 2015. AFP PHOTO/SAMIR BOL

The formation of a transitional government following Riek Machar’s return to Juba in April marked the most significant milestone of the August 2015 Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS) that ended the twenty-month civil war. Yet the ARCSS, designed to address a war primarily fought between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) in the Greater Upper Nile region, is an imperfect solution to other conflict fault lines, notably in the Equatoria region. Conflicts there are driven by a combination of national governance issues – federalism, security sector reform and a new constitution – that the ARCSS addresses – and localised grievances. Though the Equatorian conflicts appear to be on the wane, the agreement’s ability to address national political and security governance issues as well as regional-specific questions about the status of Equatorian opposition forces will determine if they revive

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/horn-of-africa/south-sudan/236-south-sudan-s-south-conflict-in-the-equatorias.aspx

Thursday, 19 May 2016

Sri Lanka: Jumpstarting the Reform Process (International Crisis Group)

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena (front) stands for the national anthem during a ceremony to swear in Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party, as Sri Lanka's new prime minister in Colombo, August 21, 2015. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

The unexpected chance for lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka that followed President Maithripala Sirisena’s January 2015 election faces increasing turbulence. Initial moves by Sirisena’s government halted and began to reverse the slide into authoritarianism and family rule under Mahinda Rajapaksa. Its reform agenda is ambitious: restoring the rule-of-law and ending impunity for corruption and abuse of power; a new constitution; a complex package of post-war reconciliation and justice mechanisms agreed with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC); and major policy changes to jump-start a beleaguered economy. Progress, however, has been slower than key constituencies expected and lacks the coherence and resources needed to sustain it. The “national unity” government expanded the political centre and isolated hard-line nationalists, but the window for change has begun to close. Seizing Sri Lanka’s unprecedented opportunity for reform requires bolder and better coordinated policies, backed by a public relations campaign to restore sagging popular support

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/278-sri-lanka-jumpstarting-the-reform-process.aspx

Sunday, 10 April 2016

Statement on Lessons from Latin America: UNGASS Must Not Become a Missed Opportunity (International Crisis Group)

Since 1961, the international community has invested huge resources to enforce the UN mandate to create a “drug free” world. Yet, after decades of interdiction and eradication, organised crime around the globe has merely shifted routes and markets. Massive corruption, violence and human rights abuses are consequences of a too often militarised response. World leaders who meet 19-21 April at the UN Special Session on drugs (UNGASS) must do much more than review the struggle. They must begin to fix its flaws, stem the bloodshed and bolster societies besieged by transnational crime. Crisis Group recommends that UNGASS draw lessons from a history of failed strategies and poor results and from our field experience to look closely at Latin America, where cartels outgun national police, coerce and corrupt officials and produce countless victims in a battle to control drug production, transport corridors and distribution networks.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/publication-type/statements/statement-on-lessons-from-latin-america-ungass-must-not-become-a-missed-opportunity.aspx

Steps Toward Stabilising Syria’s Northern Border (International Crisis Group)

On both sides of the Syria-Turkey border, uncompromising strategies are propelling further escalation and spillover of a dangerous conflict. Turkey is confronting both an ever-more implacable insurgency of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as well as advances in Syria of PKK affiliates like the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Should this continue, likely results include intensified bloodshed in south-east Turkey, a significant blow to the Turkish economy and expansion of violent instability into currently calm areas of western Turkey and north-east Syria. The Islamic State (IS), always keen to seize opportunity from chaos, has both incentive and capacity to help engineer it. What is especially troubling is not only the potential for greater upheaval in a suffering region, but also the extent to which the immediate calculations of each local protagonist (Ankara, the PKK and its affiliates and IS) lead it willingly to this abyss. Avoiding the dangerous unravelling this would entail may require immediate adjustments by the U.S., the lone actor with significant influence over both Ankara and the PKK-YPG camp.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/syria-lebanon/syria/b049-steps-toward-stabilising-syria-s-northern-border.aspx

How to Preserve the Fragile Calm at Jerusalem’s Holy Esplanade (International Crisis Group)

Even as protest and violence surge around Israel and in the West Bank, the Holy Esplanade, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and Palestinians as al-Haram al-Sharif, is, ironically, quieter than in years. Supremely important religiously and nationally to Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, it has repeatedly been the epicentre of violence and protest. Today’s surprising calm is the product of quiet understandings in 2014 and 2015 between Jordan’s King Abdullah and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But as the religious calendar enters the holiday season, activists on both sides are likely to regain their footing. Crisis Group has previously urged bolstering the Status Quo, the informal arrangement from the mid-nineteenth century that has regulated management of the Esplanade since Israel conquered it in 1967. This remains crucial, but most immediately important is maintaining the understandings on access.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/israel-palestine/b048-how-to-preserve-the-fragile-calm-at-jerusalem-s-holy-esplanade.aspx