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Russiske nasjonalister vs vestvendte siden Den kalde krigens slutt

The Role of the Civilian Component in African Union Peace Operations

The role of civilians in African Union (AU) peace support operations (PSOs) is still not fully understood. As a result, civilian capacity development has not been well resourced in comparison with the military and police dimensions of the African Standby Force (ASF) and has only modestly developed since 2006. As at the end of 2016 the AU has deployed approximately 400 civilians across its PSOs in Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, Somalia and Sudan. The average size of the actual civilian component in each mission totalled approximately fifty people. The civilian components most commonly found in AU PSOs are Political Affairs, Human Rights and Protection, Public Information, Humanitarian Liaison, Safety and Security, Civil Affairs, Gender and Mission Support. Despite AU policies and PSO doctrine, the value of a multidimensional approach to PSOs, and the role that civilians perform in this larger context, is not widely recognised in the AU Commission, AU PSOs or among the AU’s key PSO partners. The AU has struggled to articulate clearly why it needs a multidimensional approach, what the function and contribution of the civilian components are, and how the civilians staff contribute to achieving the mandate of a particular mission. This will have to change if the AU is serious about undertaking comprehensive stabilisation operations.

Outsidership and the European Neighbourhood Policy. The case of Norway

This paper examines how and to what extent Norway adapts to and is affected by the European Union’s policy towards its neighbours in the East. In line with the overall topic of the special issue, it investigates how Norway handles its ‘outsidership’ when formulating its policies towards Union’s Eastern partner countries that have signed Association Agreements with the EU (Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova). While Norway is not an EU member, it is still highly integrated in to most of the Union’s policy areas. It even has the habit of signing up to most of the EU’s declarations on foreign policy. However, the European Neighbourhood Policy is one of the policy areas where Norway is not participating. This means that it has the liberty to choose a different approach than the EU in its bilateral relations with these countries. Thus, this paper investigates what kind of balance Norway seeks between autonomy and integration in relation to the ENP partner countries. As this article shows, Norway seem to align itself to the policies of the EU also in this area, sometimes even without the Norwegian officials being fully aware of the extent to which this is happening.

Burden-sharing in NATO. The Trump effect won’t last

The Trump Administration has adopted a more confrontational and transactional approach to burden-sharing in NATO. It has threatened to “moderate” its commitment to the Alliance unless the European members increase their defence spending (US Mission to NATO 2017), and contribute more to out-of-area operations. Since President Trump entered the office, European defence spending has risen at a quicker pace, and the nature of the defence debate in Europe has changed. The Europeans are no longer debating whether they need to increase their spending; the questions discussed are how fast and how much. Is this evidence of a “Trump effect”, and will it last? This is the question addressed in this policy brief. Because it is hard to predict the future, we adopt an historical perspective.