Peace and security

The Global Governance of Autonomous Weapon Systems

GGI’s Peace and Security and AI and Global Governance sections have launched a new research and policy advice project on “The Global Governance of Autonomous Weapon Systems: Policy Gaps, Regulation Challenges and Governance Opportunities”. The project, carried out in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation (GCF) in Stockholm examines the complex challenges as well as various actors’ recent, current and future approaches related to governing and regulating Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS), including lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS). The project will focus on the multiple implications of the development and use of AWS and will provide a comprehensive overview of various existing and potential future approaches to their global governance. This includes a mapping and review of the numerous ongoing initiatives and frameworks to address the challenges AWS pose, including efforts by the United Nations (UN GGE, General Assembly, Office of the Secretary General), regional groups, alliances of states and initiatives advanced by NGO alliances. Based on this analysis, the project will identify key policy and legal gaps, the tensions between the fast-paced development of AWS and AI in the military realm on the one hand and the search for the effective governance of AWS and the mitigation of risks they pose. This also includes a discussion of the potential consequences of AWS on warfare, highlighting concerns regarding accountability, human control, and the violation of international laws such as International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Criminal Law (ICL), and International Human Rights Law (IHRL). Finally, the project will advance concrete policy recommendations, based on the input gathered from background interviews with more than 40 core experts (including representatives from the diplomatic and military communities, international and regional organisations, NGOs, civil society and academia as well as the private sector) and on outcomes of the discussions of a high-level expert workshop in Brussels in April. It is hoped that the outcomes of this project will lead to the creation of a strong network and evidence-based proposals for approaching the issue of the global governance of AWS more concretely and more effectively.

EPON – The Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network

The Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network Peace operations are one of the most important international mechanisms for contemporary conflict management. However, their effectiveness remains the subject of confusion and debate in both the policy and academic communities, and there is a distinct lack of independent, research-based information about the effectiveness of such operations. The Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network aims to enhance the effectiveness of international peace operations by enabling and supporting collaborative research. The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), together with over 40 partners from across the globe, has established an international network to jointly research the effectiveness of peace operations.

Transatlantic Approaches to Global Arms Control

GGI has teamed up with the Stimson Center in Washington DC for a new project on global arms control. The research and advice project “Transatlantic Approaches to Global Arms Control: Opportunities, Challenges and Ways Ahead” is funded by the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Washington DC and seeks to identify concrete paths towards a renewed transatlantic partnership for tackling core challenges in the realm of arms control. The project includes three expert workshops on transatlantic approaches to tackling the challenges of small arms and light weapons (SALWs), chemical weapons and the implementation gap of the Arms Trade Treaty. The project runs until the end of 2021 and will lead to a final public report.

Implementing the Protection of Civilians in UN Peacekeeping (IPOC)

With the concept of PoC turning twenty and the UN in the process of reviewing its policy on PoC, the German Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg) has initiated a process for preparing and in-depth study seeking answers to the challenges related to the implementation of PoC mandates. In order to enhance Germany’s “PoC preparedness” in the future, the study report will place a particular emphasis on how the German Armed Forces, the German Police, the Federal Foreign Office, and the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development can contribute to this overarching goal. The study project and the preparation of the subsequent report are carried out by an international research consortium consisting of the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK), the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University (ISGA), and the Brussels based Global Governance Institute (GGI). Throughout the project cycle, several workshops will be held in New York City, Washington DC, and Berlin.

Europe’s Return to UN Peacekeeping: Challenges, Opportunities and Ways Ahead

The project, coordinated by GGI, examines the core obstacles, prospects and ways ahead for a selected pool of European countries that are currently intensifying, or are likely to intensify, their engagement with United Nations peacekeeping: Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. In addition, the project addresses other issues concerning the role of Europe and the European Union in UN peacekeeping and the re-engagement of larger EU member states, such as France, the UK and Germany. Thematic issues to be explored include, inter alia, the historical record of European countries' participation in UN Peacekeeping, current military capacities of selected countries and the prospects of enhanced inter-organizational cooperation between the European Union and the UN in Peacekeeping.

Informing Conflict Prevention, Response and Resolution (INFOCORE)

INFOCORE is an international collaborative research project funded under the 7th European Framework Program of the European Commission. It comprises leading experts from all social sciences dealing, and includes nine renowned research institutions from seven countries. Its main aim is to investigate the role(s) that media play in the emergence or prevention, the escalation or de-escalation, the management, resolution, and reconciliation of violent conflict. INFOCORE provides a systematically comparative assessment of various kinds of media, interacting with a wide range of relevant actors and producing diverse kinds of conflict coverage. It focuses on three main conflict regions – the Middle East, the West Balkans, and the African Great Lakes area. Its findings address both the socially interactive production process behind the creation of conflict coverage, and the dynamics of information and meaning disseminated via the media. INFOCORE focuses on the conditions that bring about different media roles in the cycle of conflict and peace building. It generates knowledge on the social processes underlying the production of conflict news, and the inherent dynamics of conflict news contents, in a systematically comparative fashion. Based on this perspective, the project identifies the conditions under which media play specific constructive or destructive roles in preventing, managing, and resolving violent conflict, and building sustainable peace. INFOCORE reconstructs the production process of conflict-related media contents, focusing on the interactions between professional journalists, political actors, experts/NGOs, and lay publics. It analyzes these actors’ different roles as sources or advocates, mediators, users and audiences in the production of professional news media, social media, and semi-public expert analysis. To assess the roles of media for shaping conflict perceptions and responses to ongoing conflicts, INFOCORE analyzes the dynamics of conflict news content over time. It identifies recurrent patterns of information diffusion and the polarization/consolidation of specific frames and determines the main contextual factors that influence the roles media play in conflict and peace building. Specifically, the project assesses the roles of individual agendas and resources, professional norms, media organizations and systems, political systems, and characteristics of the conflict situation. The INFOCORE project team has taken up its work on January 1, 2014. Its findings and selected data will be accessible to all public. During and beyond the project duration, we invite collaboration by interested researchers and practitioners.

UN Peacekeeping 1948 – 2012: Lessons Learned

International Research Project involving 42 senior scholars in order to provide a systematic and comprehensive assessment of all UN-led peacekeeping operations fro, 1948 – 2012.

Operationalising the Responsibility to Protect: Towards a Truly Global Approach

International Research Project on assessing how concretely the UN’s norm of protecting civilians from mass atrocities and crimes against humanity. Emphasis on an inclusive, global dialogue – including the role of regional organizations.

Command and Control in Peacekeeping: A Comparative Analysis of NATO, EU and UN Approaches

Research Project on a Comparative Analysis of Command and Control approaches by the EU, NATO and United Nations in the field of peacekeeping and global crisis management. Lead: GGI Peace and Security Section Output: three analysis papers, one book chapter, one conference.

European Union Security Policy: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects

International Research Project (in cooperation with the University of Cambridge) on the lessons learned and future paths of the EU’s Security and Defence Policies.