Development

The Geopolitics of Energy Transformation: On Practicalities of the Big Shift

The Geopolitics of Energy Transformation: On Practicalities of the Big Shift

According to a ground-breaking report, A New World: The Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation, issued recently by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the global energy system is undergoing fundamental changes which will have a lasting geopolitical impact. Specifically, the Report argues that “energy transformation will alter the global distribution of power, relations between states, the risk of conflict, and social, economic and environmental drivers of geopolitical instability” or that “green energy will shift...

28 Feb 2019
Development and Security Perceptions Along the Belt and Road

Development and Security Perceptions Along the Belt and Road

Introduction The idea of the Silk Road to China has been intriguing humanity for more than 2000 years. The routes and roots of silk, one of China’s most important exports historically, has not only connected China to Central Asia and the Arab world but has defined China’s destiny. Today, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013, represents a way to create a “community of shared destiny” by (re)connecting trade and infrastructure of...

30 Jan 2019
The Fragile State Index in 2016

The Fragile State Index in 2016

Introduction The Fragile State Index (FSI) for 2016 has just been released by the Fund for Peace (FFP). It is their twelfth annual report. The FSI shows a colour coated global map indicating state stability. The overall impression one would get looking at this year’s map is that the majority of the world’s states are yellow, orange and red, indicating various stages of instability and state fragility or outright failure. The states declared to...

12 Jul 2016
Implementing Ownership in Fragile and Least Developed Countries: Could it be done from the outside?

Implementing Ownership in Fragile and Least Developed Countries: Could it be done from the outside?

Since 2000, aid effectiveness agenda has become a high priority among donors. In this context, OECD organized a series of high-level fora, which have provided the setting for a number of key declarations and agreements on aid effectivness. Among them, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, endorsed in 2005 by hundreds of donor agencies and recipient governments, laid out a roadmap to improve the quality of aid and its impact on development. It stressed...

01 Nov 2015
Security and Development: Questioning ‘righting wrongs’ strategies and the role of the international community

Security and Development: Questioning ‘righting wrongs’ strategies and the role of the international community

Last March 8, David Malone, a Canadian career diplomat and an international development and security scholar, gave a talk at the New York University of Abu Dhabi to discuss the changing role of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in conflicts and new possibilities for development assistance in the contemporary era. Indeed, whereas the Council is supposed to be the main transnational entity approving or rejecting requests of intervention in conflict-ridden areas, and tackling...

11 Mar 2015