How Lebanon’s security sector works amidst state collapse
This paper examines how hybrid security orders in Lebanon were renegotiated during shocks, specifically the state collapse from 2019 to 2023 and the regional war in 2023–2024. It employs the framework of Areas of Limited Statehood to analyse the coexistence of formal and informal governance amid the Lebanese state’s challenges. The study contributes to the understanding of governance by focusing on ‘state effects’ – the tangible practices that emerge in such contexts. The analysis reveals that Lebanon’s hybrid security system employed flexible, bottom-up strategies to cope with the economic collapse, such as relying on international security assistance, circumventing regulations, downsizing activities and rent seeking. However, increased corruption risks undermining the stability these solutions initially provided. Additionally, the paper discusses the Lebanese army’s expanded role in the aftermath of the recent conflict with Israel, highlighting its challenges in enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 while maintaining internal cohesion amid rising discontent among Hizbullah supporters.
Safeguarding the WPS Agenda across Africa amid a Changing Global Order
Over the past 25 years, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has gained increasing prominence at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). UNSC engagement has focused primarily on the protection of women and girls – rather than on prevention or effective participation. Further, implementation of the agenda has been inconsistent and uneven across mandates. More recently, geopolitical tensions, a rise in authoritarian politics and escalating anti-feminist sentiment have further undermined the WPS agenda – often subordinating it to domestic political dynamics. This policy brief examines the state of the WPS agenda against a backdrop of dwindling donor funding and shifting global priorities. It reflects on key achievements by local women’s networks across Africa and considers how gains may be sustained and the agenda advanced amid new political and financial constraints. It argues that promoting the WPS agenda in an increasingly volatile political order requires a multifaceted approach that addresses the challenges posed by global conflict, inequality and authoritarian resurgence. This includes strengthening existing frameworks, expanding the scope of the agenda to address a broader range of issues and ensuring that women’s voices are meaningfully included in decision-making related to peace and security.
Integrating ad hoc coalitions in international conflict management
While United Nations peacekeeping has been in decline since 2014, ad hoc coalitions have become prominent in international conflict management. We argue that these two trends have changed the field of international conflict management into what we call ‘conflict management à la carte’. Contemporary examples of ad hoc coalitions in international conflict management are the Multinational Joint Task Force, fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad region, but also maritime missions such as the US-led Coalition Task Force Sentinel in the Gulf region and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti. After analysing the implications of this turn for international conflict management, we sketch out three types of differentiated ad hoc coalition integration in international conflict management and discuss examples. We then provide recommendations for how to synergize and integrate ad hoc coalitions with UN-led and regional organization-led initiatives, to enhance mission effectiveness and preserve a robust and legitimate toolbox of institutional responses for international conflict management. In conclusion, we argue that as the UN reorients itself towards becoming a service provider through adopting a modular approach, it should continue to invest in interorganizational cooperation on issues of logistics, financial and human rights accountability, including with ad hoc coalitions.
The Institutional Dynamics of Global Governance in Hard Times: Innovation or Decline?
In the introduction to this roundtable, we argue that global governance currently faces hard times because it is affected by a set of significant developments revolving around the changing distribution of state power, the rise of nationalist populism, and the frequent occurrence of transnational crises, while seeking to facilitate collective action on complex cooperation problems. Against this backdrop, the essay identifies two major institutional dynamics of global governance in hard times: first, the drift of formal intergovernmental organizations (FIGOs) that is caused by them being gridlocked in a period of significant changes in their social, (geo)political, economic, and technological environment. Second, the proliferation of various types of low-cost institutions. To help us think systematically about how these two interrelated institutional dynamics affect global governance, the essay develops the innovation thesis and the decline thesis. The “innovation thesis” suggests that by transitioning from a rather exclusive and hierarchical system revolving around FIGOs into a more inclusive and heterarchical system revolving around institutional diversity, global governance is currently being adapted to its new environment. The “decline thesis,” by contrast, argues that the two institutional dynamics undermine rules-based multilateralism and may lead to a shift back toward traditional (great) power politics that does not respect institutional constraints.
Peace Operations Review Week
Peace Operations Review Week in New York brings together global experts and practitioners to explore the future of peace operations and contribute to the UN’s Review on the Future of All Forms of Peace Operations.
The Neighbourhood: Europe’s enlargement moment
Mark Leonard launches a new podcast series with Lykke Friis to explore the future of EU enlargement and Denmark’s role in shaping it. The episode...
From the Algiers Process to the Inter-Malian Dialogue: Women’s Participation in Peace and Reconciliation Processes in Mali 2013-2025
This research note discusses challenges and opportunities regarding women’s meaningful participation in the Algiers peace process (2013-2023) and the Inter-Malian Dialogue for Peace and National Reconciliation (DIMPR) (2023-2025). Activists, practitioners and policymakers have used UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), the WPS agenda and related policy frameworks to push for women’s meaningful participation, at all levels, in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts around the world. Still, women remain under-represented in peace processes. In Mali, women, girls and other marginalised groups are directly affected by conflict yet face significant challenges in influencing conflict resolution and dialogue processes. Women’s meaningful participation in future conflict resolution and dialogue efforts in Mali and the Sahel is therefore key to ensuring a broader involvement of the affected populations and more sustainable peaceful solutions.
Report on the Status of Norwegian Support to Women, Peace and Security
This report aims to provide an overview of Norwegian support to WPS, with a focus on the work of the Foreign Service in the priority countries identified in Norway’s National Action Plan for 2023-2030 (NAP). Based on interviews, conversations, observation and desk research, the report discusses the support to WPS and the challenges to implementation in the priority countries. The report also addresses aspects related to institutionalization and mainstreaming, as well as monitoring the progress of implementation and results. The report finds that there is a high degree of knowledge in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the work and support to WPS, and that the 2023-2030 NAP has thus far been successful in setting overarching priorities and in mobilizing and raising awareness. Yet there is variation in the extent to which the NAP is a driver or tool of strategic implementation of efforts. Regarding institutionalisation and mainstreaming across the foreign service, the report finds that many important tools, frameworks, policies and practices have been established, but that this work is somewhat uneven and requires continued effort.
Topographies of global-local connections in the Amazon: An analysis of networks of stakeholder participation in international environmental projects
Global governance has long been pushed to localize, incorporating local voices and knowledge to become both more equitable and effective. This has been particularly the case for global environmental governance, where polycentric modes of governance are found to help local actors acquire responsible stewardship and use resources sustainably. However, the selection of which local actors and knowledges will be incorporated in global governance is still dependent on major international development organizations and funding agencies. This article poses the following questions: Which types of actors are incorporated in the global governance of the Amazon and how do they participate therein? To that end, we analyze the network of stakeholders involved in development, execution, or governance of internationally funded projects in the Amazon. Analyzed projects which were part of a major multilateral initiative—the Global Environmental Facility—focusing on those whose main activities are in the Amazon Rainforest biome. The analysis sheds light on the hierarchies and patterns of exclusion in these networks, identifying which types of actors occupy central and peripheral position, and which others are underrepresented. This will expand our understanding of the politics of global local entanglements in the governance of the Amazon.