Russia’s war against Ukraine seems to have no immediate end in sight, the strategic competition between China and the US continues, and the expanding military cooperation between China and Russia increases the challenges facing the international community. In this context, the Arctic seems to...

At the NATO summit in July 2024, the United States and Germany announced that, in 2026, the United States would be deploying ground-launched medium-range missiles in Germany that can reach targets in Russia's heartland. This deployment is a critical step because it gives NATO new capabilities in...

The complexities of multipolarity, heightened global tensions, and increasing militarisation are reshaping the disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation landscape within the United Nations. This report examines these evolving dynamics, contextualising their historical importance and...

Scholars have highlighted how local elites can use their de facto power to capture democracy. This makes electoral competition particularly vulnerable in armed conflicts driven by politics. Would a reduction in politically motivated violence perpetrated by local elites promote electoral...

Scholars have highlighted how local elites can use their de facto power to capture democracy. This makes electoral competition particularly vulnerable in armed conflicts driven by politics. Would a reduction in politically motivated violence perpetrated by local elites promote electoral...

In the early 2000s, the Colombian government aired messages during games of the national football team, urging FARC rebels to demobilize. We first study the strategy's effectiveness, leveraging game dates, kick-off times, and spatial-temporal variation in rain-induced signal strength in a...

We estimate Costa Rica’s peace dividend following the end of the civil war and the army’s abolition in 1949 with synthetic control. The country’s average per capita GDP growth increased from 1.42% to 2.28% between 1950-2010, relative to a counterfactual Costa Rica that did not take this...

The armed groups that have formed in Libya since 2011 have progressively taken over the state. They are undergoing a process of institutionalisation, and their representatives are reaching the top levels of the army, the security apparatus and the civilian government. At the same time, they are...

The quest for European Security is a protracted interaction of international diplomacy, war anddomestic politics where this article shows how Kosovo is an interplay of all these components.Kosovo is a case where NATO believes that it is strengthening its position of collective security...

In the West, Russia’s nuclear deterrence strategy is often described as one of “escalate to deescalate”. The thinking goes that Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons at an early stage in a conflict in order to “deescalate” and terminate the confrontation quickly in its favour....

The paper examines the economic crisis in the Soviet Union and in this context analyses why arms control was so important from the Soviet point of view. It further discusses the organic relationship between disarmament and development, and rounds of with a case for conversion of Soviet military...

This article takes stock of the ongoing negotiations on arms control and regional security in the context of the multilateral peace talks on the Middle East. It examines the background conditions that made these negotiations possible and the problem of designing the right sequence within which...

From the late 1970s into the early 1990s, U.S. federal law mandated the executive branch to prepare annual analytical documents known as Arms Control Impact Statements (ACIS). These instruments – obviously patterned after the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), which had been inaugurated...

In this paper we extend dyadic research on conflict processes in international relations, to the analysis of triadic relationship. Specifically, we argue that although conflict can be explained at the dyadic level of analysis, a triadic analysis can greatly enrich our understanding of the...

No abstract avaLandmine contamination affects the lives of millions in many conflict-ridden countries long after the cessation of hostilities. Yet, little research exists on its impact on post-conflict recovery. In this study, we explore the economic consequences of landmine clearance in...

Conflict resolution ensures that peace is restored to conflict environments. Beyond this lies the need to manage the peace that was obtained via conflict resolution. Certain policies and structural institutions have emerged as key ingredients in managing peace. Redistribution of conflict...

The paper analyses the determinants of ratification of international treaties concerning arms control. It theorizes that the ratification of an arms control treaty serves as a signal of a country's intention to avoid arms races and wars. I argue that fast growing countries have a special...

Landmine contamination affects the lives of millions in many conflict-ridden countries long after the cessation of hostilities. Yet, little research exists on its impact on post-conflict recovery. In this study, we explore the economic consequences of landmine clearance in Mozambique, the only...

The administration of President Donald J. Trump has consistently used fear of China to undermine nearly five decades of bipartisan consensus on US–Russian nuclear arms control. The negative consequences of these actions may last far beyond the Trump presidency. If generations of agreement...

This paper assesses the impact of the demobilization, reinsertion and reintegration program in post-war Burundi. Two major rebel groups benefited from cash and in-kind transfers, the CNDD-FDD from 2004, and the FNL from 2010. A panel data of households collected in 2006 and 2010 is combined with...

Natural law principles played an important role in the early development of international legal theory, but were subsequently displaced by positivist ideals. Within the past half-century, fundamental changes in international society have revealed the limitations of a purely positivist approach...

Reviews the prominent works in recent years on the relative merits of total nuclear disarmament, and argue that while nuclear weapons have not become irrelevant, they have become less relevant as a result of the processes of globalization

The emergence of anti-democratic movements is a central puzzle to social science. We study a novel and rich dataset covering Swedish municipalities during the interwar years and find a strong link between the presence of a military garrison and the emergence of fascist parties. We interpret...

This paper assesses the impact of the demobilization, reinsertion and reintegration program in post-war Burundi. Two major rebel groups benefited from cash and in-kind transfers, the CNDD-FDD from 2004, and the FNL from 2010. A panel data of households collected in 2006 and 2010 is combined with...

As a result of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its “hybrid war” in the Donbas, the present-day nonproliferation regime, with its exceptional treatment of the permanent Security Council members, could in the future, paradoxically, encourage rather than stem the construction or acquisition...

Excessive military spendingreduces the available financial reserves for health,education, and other human needs. For poor countries, it increases poverty, unemployment, and destitution.It also strengthens dictatorial tendencies in politics and acts against democratic values. If we want to...

The chapter presents an analysis of the decision-making process of leaders on issues of nuclear armament and nuclear disarmament, through four case studies. The first, pertaining armament, is South Africa, with a focus on Pieter Willem Botha, former prime minister and president of South Africa....

Russia currently has the world's third largest fleet of nuclear power plants with 33 reactors in operation. To supply the country's growing energy demand, Russia plans to double its nuclear energy output by 2035 with ten reactors currently under construction and a number of existing ones being...

This Paper "The Economic Shock to Afghanistan Caused by Aid Reduction and Troops Withdrawal" is the first part of my M.Sc. thesis submitted to the Management and Economics Faculty of the Ruhr-University Bochum, which aims to analyze, quantify and describe the economic shock caused by the...

Historically, Open Innovation Communities (OICs), such as those who make free and open source software (FOSS), have opted out of the patent system for three main reasons: Patents are expensive to acquire and enforce; they are philosophically, culturally, and politically anathema to many OIC...

Paper prepared for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 1992. The reduction in tension between the superpowers offers the opportunity to release funds, a peace dividend that could be put to constructive use. This paper considers whether this opportunity, as...

This report explores the DDR programme in South Sudan; in particular how it has evolved, what the major challenges have been to its implementation and, finally, what can realistically be expected from renewed efforts to disarm and reintegrate fighters vis-à-vis security imperatives on the...