Will the UN ever manage to reform its Security Council? CSS senior researcher Daniel Trachsler evaluates the organization’s 20-year-long efforts in a new policy brief. He gives an overview of reform proposals and analyzes factors blocking the reform project. Disagreements, regional rivalries and institutional obstacles have led to a Gordian Knot, an intractable problem solved [...]

In a recent open letter Costa Rica President Oscar Arias Sanchez wrote to his Uruguayan counterpart Jose ‘Pepe’ Mujica to ask him to abolish the Uruguayan army. Sanchez’s argument is based on the concept of ‘helplessness’. This theory argues that it is better to have no army at all than a weak army that will [...]

Although high up on the list of security policy priorities, the scope of Islamic terrorism and its ideological underpinnings remain contested. With fundamental implications for counterterrorism efforts, a clear understanding of the roots and implications of jihadism are crucial to the formulation of effective responses. This week’s Special Report sheds light on this complex phenomenon [...]

I stumbled upon a very interesting article by Noora Kotilainen, research assistant at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) in the latest issue of the Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs. Since her excellent piece  has not been translated into English to my knowledge, I thought I would give you a brief summary of her [...]

Are you resilient enough to handle a few questions? Find out what you know about societal resilience, our focus this week, in the ISN Quiz.