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ISN Weekly Theme: Turkey at the Crossroads

Atatürk's deathbed at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, courtesy of Serdar Gurbuz/flickr

This week the ISN explores the geopolitical implications of Turkey’s strategic location at the intersection of civilizations. For the first time since its Ottoman glory days, the country appears poised to capitalize on its position at the crossroads of East and West.

In this week’s Special Report:

  • An Analysis by Philip McCrum examines Turkey’s rising geopolitical prowess on the regional and international stage.
  • A Podcast interview with Dr Ali Tekin explores the political gravitas Turkey has gained through its status as a pipeline thoroughfare.
  • Security Watch stories about a brewing military coup scandal, energy pipeline politics, regional relations and much more on Turkish current affairs.
  • Publications housed in our Digital Library, including a recent Atlantic Community paper on how the US and EU are “Seizing Opportunities from Turkey’s Growing Influence”.
  • Primary Resources, like the full text of Ataturk’s speech on the tenth anniversary of the Turkish republic.
  • Links to relevant websites, among them the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies’ analysis of “Turkey’s Strategic Imperatives (2010-2012)”.
  • Our IR Directory with relevant organizations, including the Turkish Statistical Institute.

Rwanda’s Mutsinzi Report: A Diplomatic Coup

hundreds of skulls and bones on a shelf
Genocide memorial in Nyamata church, Rwanda/ Photo: hoteldephil, flickr

Could it be that sometimes historical truth and political gain really do go hand-in-hand? It appears so for Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

A Rwandan investigative committee has just issued a massive new report on the 1994 assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana – a murder that sparked the genocide of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the hellish hundred days that followed.

Drawing on extensive research and nearly 600 interviews, the report concludes that Hutu extremists in Habyariman’s own government took him out to curtail the power-sharing peace agreement he was about to implement with Kagame’s Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

Habyarimana’s plane was shot down in his own backyard on the fateful night of 6 April 1994 by a pair of surface-to-air missiles. The role of the plane crash in launching the small central African country into a swift and shocking spiral of violence has been well documented. The question of ‘who done it?’, however, has remained in dispute.

Continue reading “Rwanda’s Mutsinzi Report: A Diplomatic Coup”

Guns for…Guns?

A serene sunset in a war-ravaged Niger Delta / Photo: Sigma Delta, flickr
A serene sunset in a war-ravaged Niger Delta / Photo: Sigma Delta, flickr

To say the new Nigerian guns-for-amnesty plan faces “difficulties” is, well, understated at best. Some observers see it as a full-on theater of the absurd.

The ill-conceived peace plan was designed to bring militants out of the Niger Delta swamps to hand over their weapons in exchange for a daily stipend lasting a couple months. Unfortunately, harsh reality is already steering far from lofty conception: Not only are the anti-government militias not lining-up to make peace, but some experts say that common criminals are actually expected to capitalize on the deal.

“The money realized will be used to rearm,” Anyakwee Nsirimovu, chairman of the Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition told the NY Times. “Criminals who claim to be militants will come forward and take the amnesty, and that will be delaying doomsday […].”

It’s not just that $13 a day for 60 days doesn’t sound like much of a deal to the battle weary militants; it’s that they’re fighting for something more fundamental. For years, these guerrilla warriors have battled injustice, squalor and poverty for their share of the Niger Delta’s vast oil wealth. Experts agree that without a real redress of the local population’s grievances, fighting will continue.

“As long as the equity situation is not solved, you will continue to have people who will blow up pipelines,” Nsirimovu concluded.

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ISN Weekly Theme: Energy Security

A deserted road, an unprotected oil pipeline / Photo: toniluca, flickr
A deserted road, an unprotected pipeline / Photo: toniluca, flickr

This week we take a look at some of the myriad meanings of energy security in an age of dwindling resources, increasing demand, exposed infrastructure and the resulting opportunities for exploitation:

  • The Center for Security Studies’ Jennifer Giroux and Anna Michalkova discuss how violent non-state actors target vulnerable oil and gas supplies to leverage their political and criminal agenda;  Chatham House’s Alex Vines examines the militancy threat against energy infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa; and ETH Zurich graduate student and former ISN intern Carolin Hilpert offers some solutions to this security dilemma in Energy Infrastructure Exposed the latest ISN Special Report.

  • ISN Publications features a CEPS working paper, Long Term Energy Security Risks for Europe, which uses a sector-specific approach to examine existing and potential EU energy supply risks.

  • ISN Primary Resources highlights a July 2008 G8 declaration on energy security and climate change.

Improve the Planet with the Click of a Mouse?

 

Do you know the impact of your ecological footprint?
Uncover your ecological footprint / photo: Vu Bui, flickr

Looking for another reason to pass on that second glass of wine with dinner?

Turns out indulging in more Merlot not only increases your caloric intake, but your global footprint as well.

I learned this from a website I stumbled across the other day – Consumer Consequences – that offers a new twist on measuring your global ecological footprint. It builds on the methodology behind the Ecological Footprint Quiz, which “estimates the amount of land and water area required to sustain your consumption patterns and absorb your wastes on an annual basis.” Consumer Consequences builds on this idea by helping a user answer the question, How many ‘Earths’ would be needed to sustain life if everyone lived like me?

The site maintained by American Public Media assesses the total number of ‘global acres’ (biologically productive space on earth) each part of your life consumes and projects how many planets would be needed if everyone consumed like you.

The quiz asks a series of questions to help evaluate consumption in six areas: home (how and where you live); energy use (electricity used in the home); trash disposal; transportation; food and drink; and shopping (use of goods and services).

Turns out even though I live in a small apartment, am a diligent recycler who buys organic and doesn’t own a car, it would still take the biologically productive space of three earths if everyone lived like me.

The site also offers tips on how to reduce your ecological footprint and influence environmental policy.

Now if only sustainable living were as simple as taking the quiz…