There are currently a significant number of protracted armed conflicts worldwide. Illicit economies and their links to violent actors are frequently cited as reasons for their persistence. Drug cultivation, production, and trafficking in places as diverse as Afghanistan, Colombia, and Myanmar...

Surprise and jubilation in the United Nation Security Council (UNSC): 2028 begins with a bang. The permanent members of the body declare that they will voluntarily renounce their right of veto in cases of mass atrocities. This self-limitation, achieved after a long struggle, would have been...

Multiparty elections have become frequent events in almost all countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). But in 2010 and 2011 an exceptionally high number of elections have been held. By mid-20111 presidential and/or parliamentary elections had taken place in 20 countries. While voting has become a...

Liberia and Sierra Leone are commonly categorized as fragile and conflict-affected states. They are seen as being particularly vulnerable to organized crime due to deficiencies in their criminal justice systems and having insufficient control of their borders. But they also have emerged from...

The development implications of transnational organized crime (TOC) have attracted growing attention in Germany and at the international level in recent years. Fragile and conflict-affected countries, which are generally regarded as especially vulnerable to TOC and its impacts, are a particular...

Military operations abroad by the German Armed Forces are always a controversial instrument of German crisis management. Yet, such foreign deployments are likely to remain necessary for the foreseeable future while, at the same time, they are undergoing noticeable change. The conditions shaping...

In the coming legislative period, the Federal Government and the Bundestag will need to redefine the scope of Germany's responsibility in world politics. The potential for action of German foreign policy cannot be properly assessed without taking into consideration the new international...

Given the current crisis in Mali and the renewed rebellion in Eastern Congo, the debate over "finding African solutions to African problems" has emerged with new vehemence. Ten years after the creation of the African Union (AU), the establishment of the African Peace and Security Architecture...