Top 15 articles of 2015

Top 15 articles of 2015

TransConflict recommends the following 15 articles published during 2015.

 Suggested Reading Conflict Background GCCT

1) The great wandering

David B. Kanin – Mass migration continues to define Europe as a system of human fluid dynamics. Read on…

2) The Syrian catastrophe and the world’s deafening silence

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir – The bloodletting and massive destruction that has swept the nation is not a mere tragic event; the magnitude of the destruction and loss of lives is catastrophic by any measure unseen since the horror of World War II. The world is largely watching with apathy, and those with unique interests in the conflict play politics with the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who died in vain as there is no salvation in death while unspeakable anguish and pain still awaits the living. Read on…

3) America’s default setting

Gerard M. Gallucci – When the US doesn’t know what else to do but politics seems to require some form of action, the US defaults to its military and intelligence capabilities. This is really not a substitute for actual policy and without fitting into a comprehensive, sustained strategic framework usually makes things worse. Read on…

4) The Genocide Convention – an unused but not forgotten standard of world law

Rene Wadlow – On the anniversary of the 1948 Convention on Genocide, it is imperative to identify a relevant existing body – such as the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) – to strengthen in order to be able to deal with the first signs of tensions, especially “direct and public incitement to commit genocide.” Read on…

5) Law and genocide – lessons from the Balkans

Matthew Parish – An appreciation of the limitations of legal process in passing historical judgments may well have been uppermost in the minds of the Judges of the International Court of Justice, when they were called upon, in the aftermath of cruel civil conflict, to keep the tinders of ethnic warfare alight. Read on…

6) The future of (nuclear) war

David B. Kanin – The taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is fading as newer nuclear powers consider whether to use them as they would any other tools of war. Read on…

7) Fighting Cold War in Russia and Ukraine

Matthew Parish – Cold War has not two protagonists but three or more. The contemporary struggle over the future of Ukraine betrays a similar pattern. The familiar exhortations against Russia refer to the sanctity of international law and the unforgivable violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Yet behind these principles lies a more prosaic reality. Ukraine has become the new buffer nation between Russia and the EU. Read on…

8) The invisibility of gender violence in International Criminal Law – addressing sexual violence against men and women in conflict

Kirthi Jayakumar – Legislation and policy addressing Gender-Based Violence (GBV) have been vague at best, making efforts to address GBV almost futile. No legislation explicitly talks about sexual violence in appropriate terms. By packing them under the umbrella of “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” or “torture” and “genocide”, these offences are not given the attention that they need under the ambit of international human rights and international humanitarian law. Read on…

9) The five phases of post-war Kosovo – a retrospective view

Chris Deliso – It is possible to distinguish five overlapping phases in Kosovo’s post-war history that help explain the cumulative failures which have dramatically diminished hopes of ordinary Kosovars for a brighter future, seven years after their initial euphoria over self-declared independence. Read on…

10) Agreeing to end civil wars – reflections from the Balkans to Ukraine

Matthew Parish – If civil wars were not destined as a rule to yield uneasy but stable partition, then it is hard to see why they would be fought. The weaker side would simply capitulate and avoid the human suffering and mortal political risks. Civil wars matter, precisely because they result either in new territorial boundaries being created or in existing boundaries moving. Read on…

11) The banality of evil in Republika Srpska – a victim’s perspective

Haris Subašić – Almost twenty years after the Srebrenica genocide and ethnic cleansing in Prijedor, the Republika Srpska government still broadly denies these traumatic experiences of Bosniaks and Croats through various forms of structural discriminatory policies. These exclusivist discriminatory politics are based on lingering Serbian nationalism that originated in the eighties. Read on…

12) Solipsism and free speech – a bleak morning in Paris

Vladimir Ninković – Given the current tensions between many Muslims and the West, further events like the bleak Parisian January cannot unfortunately be excluded. Such tensions, however, will only be further exacerbated by the selective application of free speech and culturally-insensitive, one-sided provocations. Read on…

13) Conflict and intervention – the role of multilateralism

Gerard M. Gallucci – There are five good reasons for the major powers – especially the US – to commit themselves to consensus decisions on multilateral intervention achieved through the Security Council in cases of communal conflict, such as Syria. Read on…

14) The US must stop enabling Israel

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir – By demonstrating tough love, the US can fulfill its moral obligation to best serve Israel’s national security and preserve it as an independent Jewish and democratic state, which for nearly all Israelis is their most cherished dream. Read on…

15) Coercive Utopia

David B. Kanin – The European Union is an obstacle to Balkan Development. The desire to get into the European Union is an even bigger obstacle. Read on…


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