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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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    20December 2010
    A new farewell to arms: viewing disarmament in a new security environment
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    Advocates of disarmament have long maintained that non-conventional weapons are so destabilising to international peace and security that they should be eliminated altogether. This policy brief provides an overview of the disarmament question and examines how it is entering a new phase in a radical new context of globalisation and rapid technology diffusion.

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    15December 2010
    Global Governance 2025: at a critical juncture
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    Global governance is not slated to become ‘world government’. However, more effective cooperation among a growing assortment of international, regional and national in addition to non-state actors is needed to grapple with the growing interconnectedness of future challenges.

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    01December 2010
    L'après-Lula
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    Que représente, pour le Brésil, la victoire de Dilma Rousseff aux élections d’octobre ? Elle signifie tout d’abord, bien entendu, la continuité du projet de Lula, c’est-à-dire une intégration sociale poussée – les statistiques indiquent que 50 millions de Brésiliens environ ont soit franchi le seuil de la misère soit été intégrés à une « classe C » (classe moyenne basse). Les uns commencent à manger mieux, les autres à s’acheter des biens de consommation durables tels qu’un réfrigérateur, un four à micro-ondes, ou même une voiture.

  • 25October 2010
    2010 Annual Conference - Building on the civil society agenda

    The EUISS Annual Conference 2010 took place this year in Paris on 21-22 October. This year’s theme centred on the changing role played by civil society in the global agenda. Its subsequent focus was on how best to capitalise on these ongoing transformations with a view to building an effective multilateral approach to global and regional problems.

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    22October 2010
    The Institute's quarterly newsletter No. 33
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    In this quarter's issue of the newsletter, EUISS director Álvaro de Vasconcelos, explores the increasing inter-connection of actors beyond the big powers, F. Stephen Larrabee highlights the work yet to be done by the EU in the Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood, and Luis Peral considers the EU's responsibility within the International Criminal Court.

  • 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.

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    13July 2010
    The Institute's quarterly newsletter No.32
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    In this quarter's issue of the newsletter, EUISS director Álvaro de Vasconcelos writes about Europe's need to continue impressing its brand of multilateral governance. Guest author Srdjan Dizdarevic; suggests that for BiH to move faster towards the EU, civil society is key in pushing the country's politicians for faster reforms. EUISS Senior Research Fellow Giovanni Grevi explores the future of global governance amidst the shifts in power away from the EU and the US and toward emerging countries.

  • 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.

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    19April 2010
    Nuclear weapons after the 2010 NPT Review Conference
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    The Non-Proliferation Treaty is a central pillar in global efforts to prevent a destabilising armament competition and, worse still, nuclear war. Chaillot Paper No. 120 analyses the issues affecting the NPT in the lead-up to the 2010 Review Conference that will take place amid rising proliferation concerns and a renewed focus on disarmament.

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    01July 2006
    Gender mainstreaming: implementing UNSCR 1325 in ESDP missions
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    The European Council in December 2005 welcomed the paper produced by the Council General Secretariat on Implementation of UNSCR 1325 in the context of ESDP (doc.11932/2/05). The EU Institute for Security Studies was invited to conduct a case study on gender mainstreaming in ESDP operations, with specific reference to the missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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    01June 2006
    Towards a UN deployment in Darfur: avoiding destabilising repercussions for peacekeeping in Africa
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    On 5 May 2006, a Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed by the Government of Sudan (GoS) and one of the rebel movements in Darfur, the Minawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement. Furthermore, on 16 May 2006, the Security Council of the United Nations (UNSC) adopted a resolution to strengthen the African Union (AU) mission in Darfur prior to the deployment of an United Nations mission.

  • 01May 2006
    Long Term Vision
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    Last November, EU Defence Ministers mandated the European Defence Agency (EDA) to develop a Long Term Vision (LTV) for European Military Capability Needs, with the horizon of 2025. This exercise, known as the LTV's Strand One, was developed alongside two parallel and interconnected strands of work, addressing the Future Military Environment and Technological Trends.

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    01April 2006
    The OSCE in crisis
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    The OSCE is in crisis. There can be no doubt but that the OSCE today, as compared to its heyday during the Cold War and in the mid-1990s, is a far less visible landmark on the European institutional landscape than was formerly the case.

  • 16October 2005
    Troubled waters
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    The United Nations' 60th anniversary summit in New York had some positive results: it reaffirmed international principles and development goals, and established a peace-building commission. However, the summit was not a success with regard to some crucial issues, in particular the reform of the UN Security Council.

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    01September 2005
    Disasters, Diseases, Disruptions: a new D-drive for the EU
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    The European Security Strategy (ESS) issued by the EU in December 2003 devoted its first chapter to what it called ‘global challenges’. Most of those challenges –poverty, infectious disease, drought and famine, violent conflict – affect the Europe of today only indirectly and/or moderately. By contrast, some of them – global warming, infrastructural disruptions, migration flows – may affect European societies in a much more dramatic fashion in the future.

  • 15July 2005
    NPT breakdown
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    After four weeks of diplomatic arm-wrestling, the 2005 Review Conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York ended on 27 May in failure. The final document adopted by the 153 delegations listed conference officials and how many meetings were held, but did not contain a single decision or recommendation on any important issue

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    01July 2005
    Promoting security sector governance in the EU’s neighbourhood
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    With the European Union’s 2004 round of enlargement, its neighbourhood now stretches from the Balkans to the Southern Caucasus, and from Russia to the Southern Mediterranean. This new neighbourhood suffers from serious deficits in terms of security, development and democracy, which constitute a serious challenge for the EU’s own security.

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    01July 2005
    Attention, danger!
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    On avait accusé les électeurs du « non » d’obscurantisme. Les dirigeants font pire, aggravant par le haut la crise que les électeurs d’en bas ont ouverte au sein de l’Union. Du côté des opinions, le message dominant est que rien ne va plus.

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    01June 2005
    The European Union and the United Nations — Partners in effective multilateralism
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    This Chaillot Paper offers some ideas on how the European Union and its member states can contribute to the reform of the United Nations, a theme that will be high on the agenda during the celebration of the UN's 60th anniversary in autumn 2005.

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