No. 20 - September 2011

Global Public Policy Institute Newsletter

Greetings!

We would like to draw your attention to three publications. The first is a new book, The New World of UN Peace Operations: Learning to Build Peace? Published by Oxford University Press, the book provides an organizational biography of the UN peace operations apparatus and its efforts to turn itself into a learning organization over the past decade.

In the second publication, Uniting on Food Assistance, GPPi and Cornell University recommend ways to improve EU and US approaches to humanitarian food assistance. The action paper offers 15 recommendations for EU and US policymakers to address deficits in international governance, in needs-based food assistance, in linking relief and development and in donor cooperation.

Written by GPPi and advisory company Climate Focus, the third publication examines China’s increased involvement in Africa's renewable energy sector. Titled Towards an Energizing Partnership? Exploring China's Role as Catalyst of Renewable Energy Development in Africa, the report assesses the potential benefits and challenges related to Chinese involvement in Africa's renewable energy sector and identifies ways in which African countries can reap the benefits while minimizing risks.

In other news related to the institute, GPPi director Wolfgang Reinicke has been named inaugural dean of the new School of Public Policy and International Affairs at Central European University in Budapest. Further, last summer Anne-Marie Slaughter rejoined the GPPi advisory board after leaving her position as director of policy planning at the US State Department.

Our newsletter appears three times a year to keep you informed about the institute, to post our newest publications, and to share interesting recent news on global public policy-making.

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2. New and active projects

Research

Strategic Management in Peace Operations
This research project analyzes the management of post-conflict police reform in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

Human Rights and Global Governance: Will China’s Rise Lead to a New Normative Order?
As China rises, what will be the consequences for the international order with respect to human rights? This research project analyzes China’s position on human rights in the UN.

Origins of Strategy for Justice and Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan and Pakistan
This project focuses on the justice and security sector reform strategies of Germany, the United States, NATO and the EU with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the period 2002-2010.

Humanitarian Assistance: Truly Universal?
Mutual respect and common interests as entry points for cooperation with non-Western humanitarian donors

Common Goals – Different Approaches?
Strengthening transatlantic cooperation on global energy issues

Learning to Build Peace?
The United Nations, peace operations and organizational learning

EU Foreign Policy Towards China
The institutional politics of cooperation

Global Climate Governance and the Making of China's Climate Change Policy
Actors, interests and policy-formulation

Consulting

Evaluation of the ProCap and GenCap projects

Humanitarian Coordination in a Changing World

Networking United Nations Private Sector Focal Points

Debate

Global Governance 2020

Transatlantic Energy Governance Dialogues

Global Atlanticists

Topic 1

Humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa

Getting Serious About Food Security Partnerships
By Mark Allegrini and Kate Ritterspach, German Marshall Fund Blog, 23 August 2011
While high-level donor dialogues have produced commitments to coordination and a more holistic approach, there remain large gaps on the ground. Donors must leverage the skills and financial resources of other donors, host countries, regional institutions, civil society and businesses.

Africa Hungers for Good Governance
Wall Street Journal, 27 July 2011
Corrupt leadership has robbed African farmers and businessmen of their ability to invest in the future and prosper. Unstable governments and shaky property rights compound the problems. Western governments are complicit too. And Western food-aid programs often have the perverse effect of destroying the ability of local farmers to sell their crops at home.

Here We Go Again: Famine in the Horn of Africa
By Simon Levine, Overseas Development Institute Blog, 6 July 2011
The humanitarian system is geared to respond to the wrong signals, and is systemically incapable of responding adequately and on time. These problems have been well analysed and there is no excuse for these inadequacies to be revealed yet again.

Topic 2

Libya intervention

For Libya, A Light Hand May Be Best
By Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times, 26 August 2011
The West is good at doing what seems nearly done in Libya: the bombing and breaking. Now comes rebuilding/transforming/saving a soul-crushed country – and the question of whether even to try. Answering this question poses the further question of whether an era of influence is ending for the West, to be replaced by something less familiar: modesty.

Libya: A Small War With Big Consequences
By François Heisbourg, The New York Times, 29 August 2011
The small and successful war in Libya will have major strategic consequences for both NATO and the European Union, as a result of President Barack Obama’s decision to “lead from behind,” and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refusal to get involved.

Yes, Nation-Building Can Work! And There’s a Model Out There for Libya.
By Gerald Knaus, The New Republic, 25 August 2011
Nation-building projects are sometimes necessary, but the West's ineffectual and narcissistic debates are not. Rather than obsessing over the size of our own role in such interventions, we should learn to pay deference to the local capabilities and local knowledge of the foreign countries we are trying to help.

Planning for Libya 2.0
By Daniel Serwer, Foreign Policy, 17 August 2011
A botched transition to a new regime could imperil the security and welfare in a post-Qaddafi Libya, discredit the NATO intervention, provide haven to international terrorists, lead to a new dictatorship, and even break up the country.