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The document argues that Israel's ambition to expand the Abraham Accords, particularly to Saudi Arabia, has been thwarted by a combination of far-right domestic policies and Saudi Arabia's strategic pivot toward normalization with Iran, Syria, and Hamas. While existing agreements with states like the UAE remain economically robust, the brief notes that the current Israeli government's actions in the West Bank and its judicial reforms have strained relations with the US and Jordan, while removing the primary incentive for Saudi engagement.

The document analyzes how host governments treat foreign rebel groups, finding a global trend toward increased suppression and decreased support since the mid-1990s. It identifies leadership transitions and US-led 'naming and shaming' after 9/11 as primary drivers of anti-rebel cooperation. The analysis concludes that joint counterinsurgency operations are more effective at destroying rebel bases than unilateral actions.

The document analyzes the role of women in Mozambique's conflicts and the subsequent DDR processes. It contrasts the 1992 program, which largely ignored female combatants, with the 2019 program, which expanded benefits to families and communities but still excluded women from the design and negotiation phases. The authors argue that failing to include female ex-combatants as active agents in peace processes undermines the transformative potential of DDR and risks exacerbating gender inequalities.

Turkey has rapidly become a global exporter of military drones, specifically the Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı models, using this technology to enhance its soft power and establish new geopolitical alliances. This shift is part of a broader quest for 'strategic autonomy'—the ability to make defense decisions independently—driven by past arms sanctions from the US and technical failures with Israeli technology. While the drone sector has provided a significant economic boost, with defense and aerospace exports exceeding $4 billion in 2022, the brief highlights critical concerns regarding the lack of parliamentary oversight, centralized decision-making in the President's office, and alleged human rights violations by end-users in conflict zones like Ethiopia and Libya.

The document analyzes the Mediterranean's electricity grid infrastructure, identifying four main interconnection zones and various proposed projects like the EuroAsia and EuroAfrica Interconnectors. It highlights how geopolitical tensions, particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean, hinder integration while suggesting that the energy transition and EU demand for renewables could drive cooperation. The author proposes guidelines for enhancing interconnectivity, emphasizing the need for political alignment and regulatory cooperation.

The document analyzes three major electricity interconnector projects: the EuroAsia Interconnector (linking Israel, Cyprus, and Greece), the EuroAfrica Interconnector (linking Egypt to Europe via Cyprus), and the Türkiye-North Cyprus Interconnector. It highlights that while these projects aim to end the energy isolation of Cyprus and Israel and enhance regional energy security, they are complicated by geopolitical tensions and financing challenges. The author proposes four scenarios for implementation, ranging from maintaining political divides to a 'regional interdependency' model that uses energy infrastructure to build mutual trust. The paper argues that prioritizing interoperability and inclusive policies—specifically including the Turkish Cypriot community in decision-making—could transform Cyprus into a regional energy hub and support a peaceful settlement of the Cyprus Problem.

The document explores how ethics functions within peace negotiations, arguing that while often implicit or subordinated to power and strategy, ethical considerations significantly impact the process. Using the 'situated holism framework'—which analyzes positions, participants, practices, procedures, and principles—the author identifies key ethical dilemmas, such as the tradeoff between immediate peace and long-term justice, the legitimacy of including controversial stakeholders, and the tension between a negotiator's mandate and the urgency of reaching an agreement. The findings suggest that ethics in this field is often a matter of 'principled realism,' where normative concerns coexist with realpolitik.

The author introduces the 'double duality' framework, arguing that smugglers are simultaneously perceived as problems and solutions by both migrants and states. For migrants, smugglers provide essential mobility but pose risks of exploitation; for states, smugglers undermine border control but provide 'moral capital' that justifies restrictive policies. The paper analyzes how destination states use a 'protection narrative'—casting smugglers as villains and migrants as victims—to maintain political authority while limiting asylum access. It further distinguishes between 'facilitation' and 'exploitation' to show that not all dangers faced by migrants originate from smugglers, and that counter-smuggling measures often shift risks onto the migrants themselves.

The document analyzes the role of women in Mozambique's conflicts and their subsequent treatment in DDR programs. It argues that while the 2019 Maputo Accord's DDR process is more inclusive than the 1992 program due to a three-pillar approach (individual, family, and community), women remain recipients of support rather than decision-makers. The authors highlight a persistent lack of female representation in peace negotiations and DDR design, which they argue undermines the transformative potential of these processes.

The document examines the intersection of disruptive technologies and the 'total defence' concept, focusing on Norway. It argues that the rise of dual-use technologies and hybrid warfare necessitates a re-evaluation of civil-military relations and societal resilience. The authors introduce a framework consisting of temporality, performativity, and imagination to guide policy and operational adaptation. The report highlights lessons from the war in Ukraine, such as the role of commercial tech giants and the vulnerability of critical energy infrastructure, and recommends increased civil-military R&D and improved digital literacy to enhance national security.

The February 2023 earthquakes in southern Türkiye and northern Syria caused massive loss of life and displacement, including a collective trauma for the Turkish Cypriot community after a school volleyball team from Famagusta perished. While the disaster initially sparked empathy and solidarity from Greek Cypriots, political tensions regarding recognition and sovereignty quickly impeded structured cooperation. The authors argue that Cyprus remains vulnerable to natural disasters and should utilize UN-established Technical Committees and EU disaster resilience frameworks, such as prepEU and rescEU, to develop joint crisis management plans.

The document examines how a lack of international diplomatic activity since the 2017 Crans Montana talks has allowed 'faits accomplis' to emerge in north Cyprus, specifically through a massive construction boom and demographic shifts. It argues that these changes make the island's division increasingly irreversible and recommends a pragmatic, incremental strategy to jumpstart negotiations.

The report analyzes how non-Western powers are extending their influence in Afghanistan and the Sahel through economic, political, and security tools. While China and Russia are the most visible actors, their strategies differ: Russia often employs a 'harder' security-focused approach, while China focuses on 'softer' developmental and economic interests. The document finds that while there are expectations that these powers will fill the vacuum left by Western withdrawals, there is limited evidence that a major power shift has materialized. It concludes that the engagement of autocratic states likely allows for the continuation of existing illiberal tendencies rather than actively exporting them, and recommends that Norway focus on its own unique benefits when engaging with these regions.

The document analyzes the systemic underfunding of Global Public Goods for Health (GPGHs), identifying a 'participation trilemma' where traditional donors fear losing authority, non-traditional donors demand more authority before contributing, and recipient countries lack both. It categorizes funding into four pathways: Treaty-based Multilateral Contributions (TMCs), Voluntary Multilateral Contributions (VMCs), Bilateral Contributions (BCs), and Domestic Contributions (DCs). The authors find that VMCs are the most unequal pathway, heavily reliant on a few G7 nations, and propose shifting the narrative from 'development aid' to 'Global Public Investment' (GPI) to engage a broader base of contributors, including Upper Middle-Income Countries (UMICs) and China.

The report analyzes 92 empirical studies (138 distinct analyses) published between 2003 and 2022. It finds a bimodal pattern where migrant exposure either strongly increases or strongly decreases trust, with positive effects more common for social and political trust and negative effects more common for perceptions of physical and economic security. The review highlights a significant Western bias in existing literature and finds strong evidence for the contact hypothesis, where direct intergroup interaction reduces prejudice and increases trust.

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index 2023/24 ranks 177 countries based on 13 indicators across three dimensions: inclusion, justice, and security. The report finds that women's status is more strongly correlated with a nation's peace, democratic health, and climate change preparedness than with its GDP. It highlights extreme global disparities, with Denmark ranking highest and Afghanistan lowest. The report also examines the escalating threat of political violence against women—physical, sexual, and digital—and provides subnational analyses for Colombia and Ethiopia to show how women's status varies within national borders.

The document argues that predictions of a dramatic wave of migration to Europe driven by food insecurity following the invasion of Ukraine are not supported by data from the first eight months of 2022. It explains that migration drivers are complex and that severe food insecurity can actually decrease the ability of the poorest people to migrate due to the high costs of travel. While the invasion has directly displaced foreign students in Ukraine and may indirectly shift migration patterns toward oil-rich economies in the Global South, it is unlikely to have significantly increased irregular migration to Europe or decreased global remittance flows.

The document details the qualitative data collection for the MIGNEX project (2018–2023), which involved 104 focus group discussions, 516 key informant interviews, and extensive field observations and photography across 10 countries. It outlines the research ethics, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on fieldwork, the process of creating an anonymized open data set for focus group transcripts, and the use of NVivo for coding and analysis. The text reflects on the co-production of knowledge, the role of local research assistants, and the challenges of maintaining transparency and equity in large-scale international collaborative research.

The paper analyzes how the EU uses conditionalities and compensations to manage migration through partnerships with third countries. It introduces a typology of these partnerships—carrot and stick, work around, pick and choose, façade, and reversed—and finds that power asymmetries often lead to a focus on irregular migration and return over the legal mobility channels desired by partner countries.

Cyprus currently relies heavily on fossil fuels and suffers from energy isolation and high electricity costs. The report proposes a 'green pivot' involving grid interconnectivity via projects like the EuroAsia Interconnector, the liberalisation of the electricity market through the 'Net Pool' model, and increased investment in solar power and energy storage. By comparing Cyprus to the successful Nordic model, the authors suggest that physical interconnectivity and market transparency could reduce CO2 emissions and lower annual electricity bills for the average consumer by approximately €200.