CSS Blog NetworkThe CSS Blog features the analyses of CSS experts, entries in the CSS Mediation Perspectives series and graphics produced by the CSS, which cover a range of international relations and security-related issues.
This week’s featured graphic maps the nations in which major cyber theft incidents were initiated and countries affected by these attacks between 2000 and 2018. To find out what this highlights about the eclipse of Western military-technological superiority, read Michael Hass’ chapter for Strategic Trends 2019 here.
Image: © Jeremy Brickhill, Lines of Control and Withdrawal, from «Mediating Security Arrangements in Peace Processes»
Mediation Perspectives is a regular series of blog contributions by the CSS Mediation Support Team and occasional guest authors.
Jeremy Brickhill’s publication “Mediating Security Arrangements in Peace Processes” clarifies the role of ceasefires in a peace process. Understanding this role is necessary if ceasefires are to foster the transition from war to peace rather than leading to a stalemate situation. What is unique about Jeremy’s booklet is that, as a former fighter in the Zimbabwean liberation war with Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army, he can provide insights and models of ceasefires from the perspective of someone who knows the psychology of fighters. We have now translated his publication into Russian, Arabic, and Spanish, because there are few publications on ceasefires, and even fewer that highlight the role of ceasefires in a peace process as clearly and practically as his.
During the repatriation operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, Switzerland benefited directly and indirectly from the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), despite not being a Participating State thereof. The increasing severity of natural and socio-technical hazards and their far-reaching consequences underscore the importance of international collaboration in other crises beyond the current pandemic. A new CSS Risk and Resilience Report, commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), therefore assesses the costs and benefits of potential Swiss participation in the UCPM.
This week’s featured graphic points out the importance of trends for the Swiss civil protection system. For more on uncertainties, challenges and opportunities of trends in civil protection, read Andrin Hauri, Kevin Kohler, Florian Roth, Marco Käser, Tim Prior, and Benjamin Scharte’s CSS Risk and Resilience Report here.
This week’s featured graphic maps the mosaic of competing claims in the Eastern Mediterranean as of December 2020. For more on Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean, read Fabien Merz’s CSS Analyses in Security Policy here.