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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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    09April 2010

    The New START, a bilateral nuclear arms reduction treaty, aims to significantly reduce the weapons stockpiles of both the US and Russia. While it may be seen as a positive step towards disarmament and for US-Russia relations, getting it past the US Senate is Obama’s next big challenge, writes Jean Pascal Zanders.

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    23December 2009

    It is not all gloom and doom. The Copenhagen Summit was the first of its kind. Never before had the international community been so well represented in its willingness to engage in efforts to save the world from the effects of climate change. It was in the context of Copenhagen that the United States committed itself to a thorough - if insufficient - emissions reduction scheme. The other top polluter, China, also began to use a different language compared to only a couple of years ago. Progress has been made. But given the scale of the challenge, it is profoundly unsatisfactory.

  • 20November 2009

    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.

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    28October 2009
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    In the world in 2009, how can the main global players establish a common approach to security and what form will this take? In particular, will this common approach to security be derived from or related to the concept of human security? In order to answer these questions, contributors to this Chaillot Paper were asked to analyse how threats to national and international security are defined in the country of concern.

  • 22October 2009

    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.

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    08October 2009

    Articels in this ISSue: Álvaro de Vasconcelos looks back to 1989 and draws conclusions for Europe today, Ahmet Davutoglu outlines his vision of future EU - NATO cooperation and the role of non-EU allies in contributing to the European Security and Defence Policy and Jean Pascal Zanders looks at Obama and the the first steps toward disarmament.

  • 08October 2009

    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.

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    26June 2009

    Giovanni Grevi sketches out a new scenario for the changing international system: the interpolar world. He suggests that the shifts in global power will be shaped by the necessities of increasing interdependence - not least to confront shared challenges, from the economic crisis to climate change, and their political and security implications.

  • 27April 2009

    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.

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    20January 2009

    This collaborative effort of the EUISS research team highlights what it considers to be the major political event of 2009: the election of President Barack Obama and the impact that the change in the American administration will have on the world. It covers the priority areas for US-EU cooperation of global governance, climate change, disarmament and non-proliferation, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and transatlantic relations.

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    01April 2005

    The European Union has identified the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as a key threat to its security, and considers the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a cornerstone of its strategy of fighting the spread of WMD. A successful outcome of the NPT Review Conference in May 2005 is thus of essential interest to the Union.

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    01November 2004

    The European Security Strategy of December 2003 and the draft Constitutional Treaty, adopted in October 2004, define the EU’s new global role. The European Union is determined to fight against major threats and challenges globally, strengthen security in its neighbourhood and contribute to an international order based on effective multilateralism.

  • 22September 2004

    Todo el mundo está de acuerdo en que hay que reformar el Consejo de Seguridad, pero es difícil encontrar dos países que piensen lo mismo sobre su reforma. En 1945, justo al final de la segunda guerra mundial, la conferencia de San Francisco decidió crear un Consejo con competencias inéditas en la historia: mantener la paz, incluso a través de medidas coercitivas contra los Estados.

  • 01July 2004

    While various summits in June have introduced several plans to promote political reform and cooperation in the `broader' Middle East, none of them is likely to change the desperate situation of that region. They amount to giving aspirin and applying small plasters to someone who has suffered from a heart attack. The Middle East's afflictions are so complex and serious that they need another kind of treatment

  • 19March 2004

    José Luis Zapatero - "ZP", come lo chiamano i suoi sostenitori - non poteva non mantenere gli impegni assunti in campagna elettorale, cioe' la promessa di ritirare il contingente spagnolo di 1300 uomini che opera in Iraq sotto comando polacco (e con assistenza Nato) come parte delle forze di occupazione...

  • 01March 2004

    Trois paradoxes définissent l'attitude de l'Union face au monde extérieur. Le premier est typique de la modernité post-guerre froide : à de rares exceptions près, il est beaucoup plus facile aux Européens de s'entendre sur l'analyse des crises extérieures que sur l'analyse de la politique américaine. Autrement dit, le monde rassemble, l'Amérique divise.

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    01December 2003

    The main subject of this paper is a long-term analysis of the voting behaviour of the European Union (EU) member states in the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). Data on voting in the General Assembly is readily available, although not always in machine-readable format.

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    01June 2003

    During the last year, the Institute has participated in a consortium of policy research organisations in the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia that aims to strengthen the G-8’s ‘Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction’ initiative. The consortium, led by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS, Washington, DC), seeks to support and promote cooperative threat reduction (CTR) activities.

  • 01April 2003

    The days between 24 February (when Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States submitted to the UNSC a draft resolution to authorise a collective war on Iraq) and 20 March (when the United Kingdom and the United States launched a military intervention in Iraq, with logistical and political support from some other states) will be remembered as a crucial moment in history.

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    01April 2003

    Could it be that Europeans, like Americans, believe that from now on ‘the mission determines the coalition, and not the other way round’? That was the new American strategic dogma established as transatlantic doctrine by Donald Rumsfeld after the 11 September attacks.

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