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Global governance

Global governance - understood as a combination of security providers, policies and underlying norms – is directly affected by the simultaneous evolution of threats and shifting centres of power. On the one hand, the world remains characterised by instability, conflict and human suffering, as well as by high levels of strategic uncertainty. On the other, institutions like the United Nations, the African Union or the European Union itself – as well as non-governmental organisations – have developed a wide range of tools to tackle evolving dangers.

International law and regimes, including norms on intervention (peacekeeping, the responsibility to protect) or justice (International Criminal Court), also provide a political and legal framework for global regulation efforts.But existing mechanisms are being increasingly called into question over their effectiveness and levels of legitimacy, in particular by those not represented in decision-making. This in turn challenges the position and role of the European Union and its aspirations to be both a norm-setter and a broad security provider.

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    13May 2016
    DPRK: it takes more than two to talk
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    The international community continues to put pressure on Pyongyang with the aim of quickly restarting the negotiations over the DPRK's nuclear agenda. Whether or not sanctions will succeed, however, depends on how well the restrictions are implemented.

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    14January 2016
    China's multilateralism: higher ambitions
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    China’s global activism is reaching new heights under President Xi Jinping’s leadership. Beijing is hoping to exert itself as a new multilateral leader by venturing into previously unchartered realms such as cybersecurity. The question is, how will China pursue its new ambitions?

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    30September 2015
    UNSC Resolution 1325 fifteen years on
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    October 2015 will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and conflicts. This Brief shows how UNSCR 1325 has contributed to an increased recognition of the importance of gender issues and of women’s role in the EU’s external policies, and examines the Union’s efforts to incorporate the values of the Resolution into its foreign policy toolkit.

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    23July 2015
    Sanctions: moving targets and goalposts
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    This Alert makes the point that sanctions regimes are not static: the relative importance of crises for a foreign policy actor can evolve over time, as domestic, regional or global politics change. As a responsive sanctioner, the EU, too, has displayed its ability to hit moving targets in this regard.

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    17July 2015
    EU sanctions in context: three types
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    This Brief provides an overview of EU sanctions practices. Considering the combined and interactive effects of co-existing sanctions regimes, it also examines the implications of sanctions measures, often closely interlinked with UN practice, for the EU as a multilateral actor.

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    16July 2015
    EU sanctions: exit strategies
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    The EU stands out as a responsive sanctioning actor. This Alert argues that by signalling its commitment to reward compliance through a phased exit strategy, the Union lends credence to the reversibility of sanctions.

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    09July 2015
    Sanctions against Iran: the role of pivotal rising powers
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    Rising powers can play a pivotal role in enhancing the multilateral sanctions regime against Iran. But their readiness to support the endeavours of the major sanctioning actors is not a given.

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    05June 2015
    BRICS bloc(k) rising?
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    With the five BRICS countries continuing to expand and institutionalise their cooperation on key international issues in an attempt to further increase their global clout, this Brief takes a look at the EU’s response to their rise. Should the BRICS be treated individually or as a group by the Union?

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    13May 2015
    Sanctions against Russia: evasion, compensation and overcompliance
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    Putin’s inner circle have tried to evade the US and EU sanctions imposed on them and have been amply compensated for their losses by the state. But with intra-elite tensions on the rise and sanctions depressing Western lending across the board, their effect on Russia’s strategic calculations should not be underestimated.

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    24April 2015
    Sanctions against ‘aggressors’– seven lessons
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    This Alert analyses the ‘track record’ of sanctions as a foreign policy tool. It gives a brief historical overview of the practice of sanctions, showing how in recent years international sanctions have tended to shift from being comprehensive to targeted, and examines the ‘lessons learned’.

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    19December 2013
    Peacebuilding in 3D: EU and US approaches
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    This Chaillot Paper examines the concept of peacebuilding and the emergence in recent years of a comprehensive approach to conflict management that combines both civilian and military instruments. It highlights the importance of peacebuilding as a foreign policy goal and analyses US and EU approaches to the issue, focusing on the likely future trajectory of transatlantic cooperation in this area.

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    06December 2013
    Mali, Centrafrique : les contours d’une réponse multiforme
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    L’envoi de troupes françaises en République centrafricaine est une étape d’une approche qui rappelle celle gouvernant la gestion de la crise malienne. Mais les parallèles entre ces deux processus soulignent certaines difficultés, notamment les relations difficiles entre organisations régionales et sous-régionales, les carences de l’approche régionale et la faiblesse des acteurs africains. Quelles solutions existe-t-il, et l’UE est-elle en mesure d’apporter des solutions?

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    29November 2013
    Crowd-sourcing – crisis response in the digital age
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    Making use of all available resources is of paramount importance to mitigate the social and economic costs of humanitarian and natural disasters. This alert examines how information and communication technologies, coupled with crowd-sourcing – the practice of obtaining information, ideas and services from large (often online) groups of people – are increasingly proving to be valuable tools in tackling some of the key challenges in such situations.

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    29November 2013
    BRICS – the next layer
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    As some of the BRICS countries – heralded at the turn of the millennium as the new drivers of the global economy – experience declining growth, this alert examines who might replace (or integrate) the BRICS as the motor of future dynamism in the world economy as well as in the geopolitical arena.

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    29November 2013
    BRICS – what’s in a name?
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    This brief analyses what impact the five BRICS countries are likely to have in global politics in the years to come, and what future trajectory the grouping might take. The BRICS ‘club’ may or may not last – in its present or another formation – but its rise is a wake-up call for the EU to deepen its bilateral relations with individual BRICS and possibly reconsider its own position in the emerging system of global governance.

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    08November 2013
    Funding peace operations: better value for EU money
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    This Brief examines the question of EU funding for peace operations. It highlights the fact that, despite being a major financial contributor to a large number of peace operations, under current conditions the EU does not wield political influence commensurate with its financial engagement.

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    13September 2013
    Partnering in crisis management: ten years of EU-UN cooperation
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    A decade after the UN and the EU signed a Joint Declaration on UN-EU Cooperation in Crisis Management, this brief examines the achievements and obstacles faced by the two organisations in this field. With the December 2013 European Council on defence looming, what opportunities exist to further enhance this partnership?

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    30August 2013
    UN-veiling world governance
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    With the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations set to open shortly in New York, this alert re-examines what global governance means today in an environment where the state-centric Westphalian system has long given way to a more multi-centric and less regulated world.

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    15July 2013
    Ukraine’s gas loop
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    This alert examines the battle for supplying gas to Kiev, explaining how the once powerful monopolistic strategies of Gazprom - take-or-pay clauses, market partitioning and destination clauses - have either been neutralised or even turned against the company through the logic of the market and the regulatory power of the EU.

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    01July 2013
    Iraq: closing a chapter
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    After 23 years of punitive measures put in place under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, Iraq has finally cleared the way to end its pariah status in the international system. Although tensions remain with neighbouring Kuwait over a variety of outstanding issues, as this alert proves, a painful chapter in Iraq’s history has nevertheless been closed.

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  • 01October 2010
    Civil society's roles in global governance

    This final preparatory seminar for the EUISS Annual Conference 2010 took place at the European Commission in Brussels on 1 October 2010. The seminar was a joint initiative of the EUISS, the European Commission Directorate General for Research and the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS). The main talking points of the seminar included the role of civil society in the implementation of international agreements on areas ranging from human rights protection, to peace keeping, fair trade, environment and health protection.

  • 28June 2010
    Current challenges to humanitarian action in conflict situations

    Co-organised with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), this seminar explored the diversity of humanitarian approaches to conflict affected areas and the key legal principles guiding them.

  • 08June 2010
    Global governance — 2025

    The EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and the National Intelligence Council of the United States have undertaken a joint project on ‘Global Governance 2025’. The project is supported by the Atlantic Council and the Transatlantic Policy Network.

  • 20November 2009
    EU Washington Forum 2009: responding to the Obama Agenda

    Bringing together leading politicians and thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic, the Forum reinforced the conviction that the future of global governance depends on effective multilateralism and increased EU-US cooperation.

  • 22October 2009
    2009 Annual Conference - Managing a post-crisis world

    The EUISS Annual Conference was held in Paris on 22-23 October 2009 when the implications of the current global economic crisis for the international order, in particular the added strain it places on effective multilateralism were discussed.

  • 08October 2009
    India-EU Forum on Effective Multilateralism

    The inaugural India-European Union Forum on Effective Multilateralism on 8-9 October 2009 in New Delhi gathered Indian and European thinkers and policymakers in a series of debates on how an EU-India strategic partnership based on effective multilateralism can work towards solutions to global problems such as climate change, the financial crisis, and terrorism.

  • 27April 2009
    Current developments in post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction

    This conference looked at how international post-conflict reconstruction efforts can be improved. Participants discussed conceptual, legal and institutional frameworks as well as technical considerations such as coordination, planning and coherence.

  • 24November 2008
    R2P — How to make the international system more responsive?

    The EUISS organised a Panel Discussion in New York on R2P in cooperation with the Liaison Office of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union with the United Nations, and the collaboration of the Center on International Cooperation, NYU.

  • 31October 2008
    2008 Annual Conference - Partnerships for effective multilateralism: managing global crises

    The Institute’s 2008 annual conference took place on 30-31 October in Paris. It opened with the traditional address by EU High Representative Javier Solana, who outlined the current challenges in EU foreign policy, particularly in the light of the global financial crisis.

  • 06June 2008
    The EU and global governance: rules, power and priorities

    The first seminar in the series addressing 'European Interests and Strategic Options' was held in Rome on 5 and 6 June 2008 in cooperation with the Istituto Affari Internazionali and addressed the Union’s goal to develop ‘an international order based on effective multilateralism’.

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