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The policy brief examines the tension between peace and justice in the context of war terminations, specifically analyzing the role of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It argues that the ICTY's early lack of effectiveness was due to a lack of political will, as it was initially used as a 'public relations devise' to avoid military action. However, the author contends that resolute justice serves as a deterrent to war criminals, incapacitates political actors through isolation, and consolidates peace by preventing future cycles of violence. The text highlights that when peace processes prioritize impunity, they incentivize the accumulation of power over the cessation of atrocities.

The document examines the 'political architecture' of liberal peacebuilding, which seeks to establish liberal market democracies in post-conflict states. It argues that while this approach is dominant in international politics, it faces significant legitimacy challenges. Communitarians argue it imposes external Western values over local cultures; critical theorists contend it reinforces a hegemonic and unjust global order; and postmodernists critique its reliance on technocratic 'social engineering.' The author proposes alternative frameworks, such as 'building the capacity for peaceful self-governance' and 'dialogic peacebuilding,' to reconcile liberal ideals with local autonomy and global justice.

The article analyzes post-conflict institution-building in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, finding that an 'assumption of intransigence' led to the institutionalization of ethnicity, which has hindered peacebuilding. It argues for flexible institutional designs based on in-depth conflict assessments to de-ethnicize politics and ensure inclusivity.

The document argues that conventional 'drop-and-store' and 'flush-and-discharge' sanitation systems are unsustainable due to water scarcity, pollution, and nutrient loss. It proposes ecological sanitation (eco-san) as a closed-loop system that treats human urine and faeces as resources. The guide details technical methods for sanitizing excreta—primarily through dehydration and decomposition—and provides diverse examples of eco-toilets from Vietnam, China, Zimbabwe, and Sweden. It emphasizes the agricultural value of recycled nutrients, the management of greywater, and the necessity of community participation and behavioral change for successful implementation. The document concludes with a vision for 'eco-cities' and 'eco-stations' to manage urban waste sustainably.

The document details the transition of Bulgaria's power sector from a state-monopoly under the National Electric Company (NEC) to a restructured model featuring independent producers and distributors. It highlights the tension between the Bulgarian government's rapid implementation and the IMF/World Bank's preference for a sequenced approach starting with a robust regulatory framework. Key issues include the social burden of rising energy costs on impoverished households, the environmental impact of lignite coal, and the geopolitical pressure from the EU to decommission old nuclear units at Kozloduy NPP.

The report finds that Sida's support for Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) has been fragmented and ad hoc, heavily prioritizing mine clearance (85% of funding) over other essential components like impact assessment and survey. While Sida has been a major global donor, its funding trended downward after 1998. The evaluation highlights a 'quiet revolution' in HMA, shifting from output-based measures (mines removed) to impact-based measures (societal effect), and argues that Sida must institutionalize impact assessment to ensure sustainable, development-oriented assistance. It analyzes various implementation channels, noting that NGOs are flexible and innovative but struggle with long-term sustainability, while government/military channels offer better sustainability but may lack humanitarian sensitivity. The report also critiques Sida's R&D and technical initiatives, such as the Mine Detection Dog project in Cambodia, for failing to base needs on local stakeholders and lacking sustainability.

In an address to the Kosovo, Africa and Humanitarian Intervention Conference, President Nelson Mandela highlights a "disparity of treatment" in how the international community responds to crises in different regions. He contrasts the readiness of the international community to intervene and commit resources to Kosovo with the failure to act during the genocide in Rwanda and the lack of promised support for peacekeeping in Sierra Leone. Mandela emphasizes that the lessons from the Independent International Commission on Kosovo should help advance dialogue on conflict resolution and calls for the global village to share concern for human suffering regardless of geography. He concludes by citing the Burundi peace process as a positive example of renewed international interest in African stability and reconstruction.

The report examines the shift in international norms where state sovereignty is increasingly balanced against the protection of human rights. It analyzes the rise of 'neo-interventionism' in Africa, the transition of NATO from a defensive alliance to a regional security actor in the Balkans, and the persistence of stubborn states like Iraq and Algeria that resist external interference. The authors argue that while the non-intervention norm has weakened, interventions must be grounded in specific case-by-case duties and multilateral authorization to avoid the abuse of power.

A coalition of European civil society organisations (CSOs) is protesting a campaign of disinformation led by some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the European People’s Party (EPP) and far-right groups. The attack specifically targets the legitimacy of public funding for environmental NGOs under the LIFE programme. The statement argues that independent CSOs are essential for a functioning democracy and a fully informed decision-making process, contrasting the modest public grants received by NGOs with the high spending of corporate lobbyists in Brussels.

The text argues that Africa has lost its Cold War-era strategic importance, leading to a rise in regional conflicts and state fragility. It discusses a shift toward subregional security arrangements (such as ECOWAS and SADC) as African nations and donors move away from reliance on the UN. The author contends that stability requires a focus on domestic security and 'collaborative security' based on transparency and reassurance rather than collective defense, warning that supporting weak, undemocratic states to provide regional security without international oversight may have negative consequences.

The document presents a statistical overview of Russia's demographics, economy, and military capabilities, alongside a strategic analysis of its 'Positive' achievements—such as energy sector consolidation and the halting of military decay—and 'Negative' challenges, including corruption and the expansion of NATO and the EU into Ukraine.

The notes detail the necessity of strengthening the Ituri Interim Administration (IIA) and addressing the 'justice vacuum' through the International Criminal Court to prevent impunity for war crimes. In the Kivus, the success of the DDRRR process is hindered by MONUC's non-political approach toward FDLR leaders to maintain relations with Rwanda. Operationally, MONUC faces severe resource constraints, logistical challenges due to ruined infrastructure, and the need for additional troops to effectively enforce the arms embargo and provide security in remote forest regions.

The authors argue that fragmentation should be understood through three dimensions: the number of organizations, the degree of institutionalization, and the distribution of power. They hypothesize that extreme fragmentation across all three dimensions increases the likelihood of widespread, indecisive infighting, while cohesion—achieved through fewer organizations, stronger institutions, or concentrated power—reduces the probability of such violence. The paper illustrates these dynamics using cases from Darfur, Chechnya, and Sri Lanka.

The study examines whether ethnic civil war increases ethnonationalism and if direct exposure to violence strengthens these attitudes. Using data from 1989 and 2003, the author finds that while ethnonationalism increased significantly in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, it remained stable in Kosovo and Macedonia. Individual war exposure only significantly increased ethnonationalism in Croatia, suggesting that the relationship between conflict and nationalism is context-dependent rather than deterministic.

The authors analyze how violence spreads in space and time during civil wars, distinguishing between relocation diffusion (shifting violence) and escalation diffusion (expanding violence). Using a modified joint count statistic and Monte Carlo simulations on ACLED event data from Bosnia, Kosovo, Burundi, and Rwanda, the study finds that violence typically expands in scope, supporting the theory that irregular warfare lacks demarcated front lines.

The report details a conference in Brussels where representatives of Greek Cypriots (GCs) and Turkish Cypriots (TCs) discussed the legal, normative, and economic challenges of property restitution and compensation. Key tensions include the GCs' emphasis on the right of the legal owner to choose the remedy and the TCs' focus on the rights of current users and the principle of bizonality. The proceedings explore the role of the Immovable Property Commission (IPC), the impact of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings, and the financial impossibility of full market-value compensation, suggesting alternative market-based exchange mechanisms and the need for social reconciliation.

The study examines the link between civil war exposure and authoritarianism using survey data from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Croatia. It finds that while direct personal loss does not consistently increase authoritarianism, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are strongly associated with a more authoritarian value orientation across all three countries. The author argues that the individual's ability to cope with trauma, rather than violence itself, is the primary driver of these values, which may hinder democratic consolidation in the region.

The report argues that formal education systems can either fuel or mitigate armed conflict depending on their inclusivity, quality, and relationship with the community. Through case studies in Guatemala, Nepal, and Liberia, the author identifies four conflict-transforming concepts: equitable inclusion, positive socialization, the creation of social capital, and the provision of socio-economic benefits. The study finds that educational exclusion and authoritarian teaching methods often mirror and reinforce the structural inequalities that drive conflict, while participatory, child-centered education and equitable resource distribution can raise the opportunity costs of joining rebellions and foster a culture of non-violence. The report recommends that national governments and international donors integrate education into peacebuilding processes, prioritize social justice in curricula, and better link schooling to the labor market to ensure that education provides tangible hope and economic mobility.

The research argues that transnational ethnic ties increase the risk of civil war, but this effect is conditional on the domestic demographic size of the marginalized group. Using a triadic model and geocoded data, the authors find that larger excluded groups with kin in neighboring states are significantly more likely to engage in conflict than those without such ties, while the governmental status of the external kin group does not have a statistically significant impact.

The research paper analyzes individual-level support for the 2001 Framework Agreement in Macedonia using a geo-referenced survey from 2005. The authors test whether local ethnic settlement patterns or proximity to conflict zones influence reconciliation preferences. The primary finding is that ethnic identity is the dominant factor, with ethnic Albanians strongly supporting the agreement and ethnic Macedonians predominantly opposing it, while contextual factors like local ethnic parity or distance to violence have only feeble or insignificant effects.