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Tag Archive for: United Nations
Tag Archive for: United Nations
Abbott’s visit to New York: more than just business and investment
Tony Abbott arrived in New York overnight to commence the US leg of his latest overseas trip. While it’s anticipated this portion of the trip will have a heavy business, trade and investment focus, it’s also expected that time will be made for Prime Minister Abbott to make his first courtesy call on the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.
It’s notable that Abbott’s meeting with Ban Ki-moon will take place against that trade and investment backdrop. Julie Bishop’s speech to the UN General Assembly in September 2013 occurred in a similar setting. Having been Foreign Minister for only nine days at that point, Bishop’s statement focused almost exclusively on the ability of economic growth and trade to foster sustainable development, or the importance of ‘aid for trade’ (as previously noted here).
The government’s current focus on economic diplomacy and forthcoming reductions in Australia’s aid program could be one of several subjects to emerge in discussion (along with others that have drawn criticism, including Australia’s asylum seeker policies). But, such sensitive subjects and differences are unlikely to be the principal focus of Abbott’s meeting later today. And if they are, Abbott would be better off refocusing the discussion to areas where Australian engagement with the UN has recently been more consistent, namely, support of the organisation’s efforts to maintain peace and security efforts. Read more
Women, Peace and Security: progress in the ADF
It was refreshing to see some positive news emerging from the United Nations recently, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointing the first-ever female force commander of a UN peacekeeping mission. Major-General Kristen Lund from Norway will take up command of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Cyprus in August. It’s a good news story for the United Nations. But the fact that this is the first senior female UN military appointment raises questions about whether the women, peace and security agenda is advancing in national defence forces, and whether countries like Australia are positioning themselves effectively to support those efforts.
The share of military positions held by women in UN peacekeeping operations has remained steady at approximately 3% in the last few years, well behind female police (approximately 10%) and civilians (29% of international staff). That’s partly explained by the UN’s reliance on member states to provide military personnel—if countries don’t have initiatives in place to support the participation, retention and promotion of women in their national defence forces, then they can’t deploy them to UN peacekeeping operations. Read more
Central Africa: pushing UN peacekeeping to its limits
Last week the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2149 (PDF), authorising the deployment of a peacekeeping mission to the Central African Republic. As a current non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Australia has been directly engaged in negotiations to deploy a UN peacekeeping mission to protect the civilian population from the atrocities that have been taking place. The UN Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic—or ‘MINUSCA’ as it’s referred to in UN circles—is now set to join the growing number of complex, multidimensional peacekeeping missions currently managed by the international body.
The adoption of resolution 2149 authorising MINUSCA is a welcome development. Inter-communal violence has increased in the Central African Republic (CAR) since the overthrow of the former President Bozizé in March 2013, and despite the presence of the African Union-led peacekeeping mission and French military forces, atrocities against the civilian population have continued to escalate. In January 2014, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of CAR asked the UN to deploy a peacekeeping mission, but it has taken several months for the UN Security Council to provide authorisation. Read more
Afghanistan – what next?
My new ASPI paper ‘Afghanistan—transition to transformation‘ is a look at the future of Afghanistan as the ADF mission there winds down. ‘Transition’ (2001–2014) is the primarily UN-led period designed to rebuild the basic national institutions and infrastructure necessary to re-establish Afghanistan as a functional state. That’s almost over now, and ‘Transformation’ (2015–2024) is the ensuing Afghan-led and owned decade, during which the Afghans will be responsible for further developing the outcomes of transition, to create not just a functional but also stable and durable state. The aims are reasonably clear but the challenges many.
The responsibility for national security during transition rests with the UN-mandated US/NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which includes ADF elements. National security during transformation will be the responsibility of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). One of ISAF’s missions has been to develop the capability of the ANSF to enable them to take over their responsibility for national security in 2015. Read more
Cyber statecraft: learning from ocean diplomacy
The Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, was recently in Dubai to lead the Australian delegation at the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The conference considered amendments to the International Telecommunications Regulations, which assist in the operation of telecommunications networks across national borders. Some of the amendments are seeking to extend the regulations to cover internet governance. This is now the job of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN).
As my colleague Toby Feakin wrote last week, Australia wants to make sure that any amendments to the ITRs don’t fundamentally change the way the internet operates.
Australia, along with US UK, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Qatar and Sweden walked away from the ITU negotiations last week, over fears that the new text of the new ITRs could be interpreted as giving the ITU control over elements of the internet.
The final treaty text (PDF) contains a resolution that explicitly ‘instructs the [ITU] Secretary-General to take the necessary steps for the ITU to play an active and constructive role in…the internet.’ Yet after the conference Senator Conroy said that ‘Australia does not support any changes that would undermine the current multi-stakeholder model for internet governance or fundamentally change the way the internet operates.’
Feeding the nuclear watch dog
Earlier this month, Myanmar announced that it will sign the Additional Protocol to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements—a bold step for a country that has long been suspected of having nuclear weapons aspirations. If the government follows through on this pledge, it will make it much easier for the IAEA, often referred to in the media as the UN’s ‘nuclear watch dog’, to investigate these suspicions and either confirm them or lay them to rest. This is because the Additional Protocol allows the IAEA to conduct more thorough safeguards inspections of a country’s nuclear facilities—it gives the watch dog more scope to sniff out dodgy activities (PDF).
Since the Additional Protocol was introduced in September 1997, 139 states have signed it, and 119 have brought it into force (PDF). This is an important albeit partial victory for international nuclear governance, demonstrating a commitment among more and more states to higher standards of nuclear transparency. The ultimate goal of the Additional Protocol is to build confidence that states are complying with their nonproliferation obligations, which in turn helps to prevent further nuclear proliferation and to promote conditions that are more conducive to nuclear disarmament. Viewed in these terms, it’s easy to see why the IAEA is regarded as an international agency of major strategic significance. Read more
Piracy: a solution is possible
In mid-June I chaired an international conference in Perth aimed at developing responses to piracy and related crimes at sea. The meeting was sponsored by the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence, and a summary of the deliberations as well as some very useful background papers by Sam Bateman has been released by ASPI today.
Three separate regions accounted for the vast bulk of the 439 actual and attempted piracy attacks in 2011: Southeast Asia, in particular the eastern approaches to the Straits of Malacca; the Horn of Africa; and the Gulf of Guinea. In each region the causes of piracy differ. In Southeast Asia stealing and reselling tug boats is a major problem. Ships left idle and at anchor in the wake of the global financial crisis are easy targets for attacks. Off the Horn of Africa and deeper into the Indian Ocean, piracy is the by-product of political authority breaking down in Somalia. Fishing communities can turn to piracy for a livelihood and become vulnerable to more organised criminal elements looking to make money from ransoming ships and their crew. In the Gulf of Guinea, piracy frequently involves stealing oil from tankers in sophisticated operations built around avoiding tax payments and illegal bunkering.
The causes are varied but the solutions share some common features; tightening up the policing of harbours and ports, and boosting cooperation between national agencies and between regional navies and maritime enforcement bodies. The good news here is that collective action will work to reduce the problem. Close cooperation in Southeast Asia, for example, is reducing the number of serious acts of piracy (although ironically increased reporting of lower-scale incidents seems to obscure the scale of overall reduction). Read more