December 2004/January 2005
Vol. X, No. 4
Short Takes
The Future of Israeli Settlements—the Internal Israeli Divide
Just as the Israeli government is preparing to implement its “disengagement plan,” which involves evacuating all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank, the Institute has joined with the Project on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School to study the future of Israeli settlements. The Harvard Law School team, led by Professor Robert Mnookin, is examining ways to prevent civil conflict in Israel—where settlements remain one of the most politically divisive subjects. The project, which involves a dialogue component as well as academic research, relies on both traditional conflict resolution strategies and comparative-based expertise on compensation models.
In early December, Mnookin and his colleague Ehud Eiran presented preliminary findings at an Institute roundtable. An international conference, cosponsored by The United States Institute of Peace, was held at Harvard Law School in mid-October. The Institute brought together a distinguished panel of experts to assess the role of the United States, the international community, and third parties. Samuel Lewis, former Institute president and a former ambassador to Israel, and Robert Malley, a former National Security Council director for Arab-Israeli relations, were among the participants. Findings from the conference will be published in early 2005 in Negotiation Journal. The Institute’s work is directed by Scott Lasensky of the Research and Studies program.
Buyoya VisitsCalling him one of the “most underrated and courageous leaders in Africa,” Ambassador Johnnie Carson introduced Burundi President Pierre Buyoya at an Institute meeting in late September. Buyoya is a Tutsi military officer who has twice led coups d’etat and twice ceded power to democratic forces in that ethnically volatile country. He ceded power to a Hutu transitional government in April 2003 under the terms of a peace agreement that was supposed to lead to national elections in October 2004. (Those elections have recently been put off for six months.)
Buyoya praised the African-led peace talks held in Arusha, Tanzania, that culminated in the power-sharing agreement and the establishment of a timetable for national elections. Arusha, he said, was a “school of dialogue” that created a climate of freedom of expression and ultimately yielded very important compromises. However, there were still several obstacles to completion of the political transition. The constitutional provisions protecting minority Tutsi rights and prerogatives remained subject to debate. The organization of the anticipated free and fair elections presented real challenges. The reform of the military and police, and the demobilization and reintegration of 40,000 soldiers, was dauntingly incomplete. And while the national economy was in shambles, the population held perhaps overly high expectations that the democratically elected government would be able to quickly remedy the situation. Buyoya called on the international community to lend its support to address all of these problems.
Paul Stares, third from right, back row, attended a conference in Beijing on failed states and transnational threats. |
Under the leadership of Research and Studies Program director Paul Stares, the Institute cosponsored a special two-part conference in February 2004 to compare Chinese and U.S. perceptions and concerns regarding weak and failed states in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference brought together security and area experts from the United States and China as well as other nations and has resulted in a number of publications. In September 2004, the Institute published a related Special Report titled “U.S.-China Cooperation on the Problem of Failing States and Transnational Threats.” Written by Banning Garrett and Jonathan Adam, the report examines Chinese and U.S. attitudes and explores the prospects of greater cooperation in dealing with these challenges.
Aid During ConflictOne of the greatest challenges facing humanitarians is how to deliver aid in conflict situations—or, as they are often termed, complex humanitarian-assistance operations. Too often, the aid can end up facilitating or prolonging the conflict. Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan may eventually be seen as a turning point: from the perspective of both humanitarian providers and the military, the first postconflict year in Afghanistan was generally considered successful. A humanitarian disaster was averted, refugee flows were handled effectively, and assistance helped stabilize the country. Yet there were points of friction in the cooperation between civilian and military programs. To pull out some of the lessons learned from the Afghanistan experience, the Research and Studies program, in collaboration with the RAND Institute, undertook a multiyear research project on civilian-military cooperation in postconflict environments. The subsequent report, published by RAND, assesses relief, reconstruction, and humanitarian aid delivery in Afghanistan and provides recommendations based on the lessons learned.
Rule of Law NetworkNeil Kritz, director of the Rule of Law program, and Mike Dziedzic, program officer in the Research and Studies program, are collaborating with the Virtual Diplomacy Initiative under director Sheryl Brown on the development of an International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL). The aim of INPROL is to develop a community of rule of law practitioners and experts to share information and enhance the effectiveness of rule of law missions in post-conflict situations. This will be an Internet-based forum linking rule of law practitioners in the field with experienced practitioners and other experts to create a database of rule of law documents and define a governance and organizational structure for INPROL.
In support of this work, the Institute is also funding the development of an online thesaurus of rule of law terms, which will greatly enhance the ability to categorize and search documents. In addition, the Institute is assisting the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in establishing an internal knowledge network for rule of law field officers, which will be linked to INPROL.
South african author and former grant recipient Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela spoke about her experiences of forgiving at an Institute event. |
A group of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) trainers from Kenya visited the Institute in early October. The trainers were sponsored by the California State University and the Sacramento Center for African Peace & Conflict Resolution (CAPCR), in collaboration with the Sacramento County Bar Association and the International Association of Female Lawyers (FIDA) in Kenya, with a grant from the U.S. Department of State Office of Citizen Exchanges. The purpose of the program is to strengthen internal capacity for institutionalization of ADR in the Kenyan legal system and community by means of activities in the United States and Kenya.
South African AuthorPumla Gobodo-Madikizela, the critically acclaimed author of A Human Being Died That Night: A Story of Forgiveness, a personal account of forgiveness and reconciliation in the new South Africa, and a former Institute grantee, spoke at the Institute in late September.
Also in late September, Her Excellency Narmin Othman, the Iraqi minister of state for women’s affairs, spoke at the Institute about the challenges she faces heading a nascent ministry in the interim Iraqi government. With only thirteen employees and a $1,000 monthly budget, the constraints she faces are challenging indeed; nevertheless, she sounded optimistic about the future of her country and the role that women will play in the new dispensation.
Libraries on the WebWeb users of Google and Yahoo! search engines can now use a new search feature to find information about the Institute library's unique book collection. The feature enables users to search a database containing millions of records of library-owned materials in thousands of. If a search phrase entered in a Google or Yahoo! search matches a title owned by one of the libraries, the search results will return a “Find in a Library” link; users can enter a geographic designation (ZIP code, state, province, country) to help them locate a library that owns the item. The Institute library (http://www.usip.org/library/), while open to the public, does not lend materials to outside users directly, but does make its resources available on-site and through library-to-library resource sharing.
