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It was the first time that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon invited the world’s political leaders and top bureaucrats to "stand up for our common humanity and take action to prevent and reduce human suffering." But has the summit delivered on the hopes that it would substantially improve…

In late March, the FBI announced that it would drop its lawsuit against Apple because it was able to unlock the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, a gunman in the December shooting in San Bernardino, California, without the tech giant’s help and using an undisclosed vulnerability. Apple remains alarmed –…

Während in den USA heftige Auseinandersetzungen um Verschlüsselungsmethoden und die daraus resultierenden Herausforderungen für Sicherheitsdienste toben, herrscht in Deutschland Ruhe. Offiziell gilt das Regierungsmantra der "Digitalen Agenda": "Wir unterstützen mehr und bessere Verschlüsselung",…

Why Map Civil Society Actors in EU Refugee Policy? After a decade of relatively steady numbers of asylum applications, there was a significant increase in people seeking asylum in the European Union in 2015. Since then, media outlets and civil society actors have described the situation unfolding…

UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) frequently seeks to develop protection capacity of refugee-hosting states, for example through creating or adapting national legal frameworks; assistance in registration and status determination; knowledge transfer in government institutions; support of civil society…

Introduction Objectives The humanitarian system has undergone a series of reform initiatives. While progress has been noted in certain areas, a number of issues have been identified time and time again as critical areas in need of improvement. This raises questions about the ability of the…

June 23, 2016 might very well be a watershed moment for the European project. Depending on the results of the British referendum scheduled that day, it may mark the first time that a country leaves the European Union. This will come as a shock to those who still view the EU as a supranational…

Operating in insecure environments is one of the more critical tests for the humanitarian community. Access constraints, uncertainty, attacks and aid diversion make these unlikely settings for innovation. Yet several new approaches come from highly insecure environments. In these settings,…

Key Points There is an urgent need for the EU to revise its South Asia strategy, given the region’s economic importance but also for the security of the European continent.The EU-India partnership has grown stagnant despite shared foreign policy goals because it is set within an old, outdated…

While Europe has taken a great interest in the “crypto war” between the US government and Apple as well as other Silicon Valley behemoths, it has yet to wake up to the gathering storm of encryption policy within its own borders. Various EU governments have proposed unilateral measures on how to deal…

Since being elected last November, Argentina’s new right-of-center president Mauricio Macri cannot complain about a lack of international attention – most of it welcome, some of it unwelcome, including his outing last week in the “Panama Papers” as a former owner of an offshore company. The United…

Executive Summary As a consequence of the Chinese government’s violent repression of the Tiananmen Square protests on June 4, 1989, human rights have become a central topic in the foreign relations of the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese party-state was internationally criticized for the…

He would be forced to “close up shop.” With these words, Gerhard Schindler, head of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), warned against a substantial reform of the agency, implying that stronger regulation of the BND would harm its ability to provide security to Germany. After the recent…

Abstract Reviewing findings from the recent institutional turn in peacebuilding research, this article identifies two conflicting arguments with respect to institutional designs that affect the performance of peace operations. One perspective favours functional decentralization and mission latitude,…

The strategic partnership between India and the European Union has stagnated over the years, producing few results in terms of strategic cooperation. Last year, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi dropped Brussels from his itinerary and planned his trip to accommodate other important European…

For the first time in 88 years, a sitting US president will visit Cuba next week. Last December, Barack Obama announced that he would only visit the island if human rights and fundamental freedoms had improved. It is therefore expedient that exactly one week before Obama’s visit, four political…

In November 2015, when the International Monetary Fund announced it was adding China’s currency, the renminbi (RMB), to its basket of four reserve currencies known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, hailed it as a move that “will bring about a more…

Charlie Savage’s piece on the legal basis for the March 5 US strike against an al Shabaab training camp, which allegedly killed 150 fighters, raises the intriguing question of whether the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) has been stretched yet again, this time to justify US operations…

Executive Summary The report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations is only the most recent example of growing political recognition of conflict prevention and the protection of civilians, in particular by non-military means. Support to local conflict management is key to the…