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April 2012
April 2012 - Vol 2, Issue 4
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Highlight

The Challenges Forum: 9-11 May 2012         

 

From 9 to 11 May 2012 the GCSP, in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport, will host the International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations.

The Challenges Forum is an initiative of the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Sweden. It aims to provide the international community with a dynamic, strategic and broad-based platform for regular debates on peace operations among leading policy-makers, practitioners and academics. It contributes to the global dialogue on the preparation, implementation and evaluation of peace operations, to generate practical recommendations and to encourage action for their effective implementation.

The 2012 theme is "Cooperation and Coordination in Peace Operations. United Nations and Regional Organizations Perspectives". Through a series of Panel sessions and Working groups, the Challenges Forum will look at different challenges posed to the broad range of actors of peace operations (United Nations, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, local actors) in interacting among each other so as to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their action.

The Conference will gather approximately 200 participants from more than 50 countries, among which the five permanent members of the Security Council and the main troop contributors to UN peace operations.

For any questions, please contact Ms Isabelle Gillet.

News

Call for Applications - Master of Advanced Studies in International and European Security 9 October 2012 - 13 June 2013

The GCSP is pleased to announce the 7th edition of its Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in International and European Security, jointly run with the European Institute of the University of Geneva (IEUG). The MAS in International and European Security is a nine month academic programme designed to prepare participants for leadership roles in government and international organisations, and will be taught by highly qualified academics, high-ranking diplomats, government officials and distinguished experts from around the world.  

For further information and to apply please visit http://mas.gcsp.ch/.

More information on all GCSP training courses is available here.


Renowned Swiss Diplomat Heidi Tagliavini Retires

Heidi TagliaviniAmbassador Heidi Tagliavini, an internationally renowned Swiss diplomat retired on 1 March 2012.

Ambassador Tagliavini has made a remarkable contribution to Swiss humanitarian and peace policy throughout her career. She also has a very rich experience in conflict management through her work with the UN and the OSCE. During her impressive career she has been the UN Secretary General's Special Representative to Georgia, the Deputy State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs, the head of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia (IIFFMCG - CEIIG) for the European Union (based at the GCSP in 2009), and most recently she led the OSCE's observation mission of Russia's elections.

In 2008, the GCSP was greatly honoured by her appointment as a Diplomat-in-Residence at the Centre. Over these past years the GCSP faculty and staff, course participants and the broader international community in Geneva have been able to benefit from her extensive knowledge on many occasions. It has been a great pleasure to work with her and count her as a member of the GCSP family. We take this opportunity to wish her all the very best.

Training

Upcoming Expert Training Modules - APPLY NOW!

1 May:
Climate Change. This one-day training module explains the science and politics of climate change. It also addresses the challenges that climate change poses to security.

2 May: Food Security. This one-day training module considers the key issues that make food security an issue relevant to wider security concerns. It considers the multi-faceted nature of food security - including availability, access and utilization - that are most relevant to policymakers and planners.

3 May: Global Public Health. This one-day training module explains current issues in global health and identifies solutions that have been developed to address them. At the same time, it allows participants to discuss the long-term sustainability of these solutions, and identifies gaps that must be addressed.

24 May: Meeting the Cybersecurity Challenge. This one-day training module focuses on exploring the trends in cybersecurity and looks at measures taken at the national and international level to improve network and information security.

24- 25 May: Nationalism and the International System. This two-day training module focuses on some of the key theoretical underpinnings of various approaches to nationalism, transposing them on a series of contemporary challenges and opportunities.


Upcoming Training Courses

7-15 May
: Defence Attach� Orientation Module for Western and Central African countries, Dakar (in French). The course is dedicated to training of defence officials working in a multilateral environment (such as Defence Attach�s). The module develops a link between international security policy and the practical responsibility of a Defence Attach�.

7-25 May: The Multilateral System in the 21st Century: Actors, Strategies, Policies. Co-organised with the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and designed for diplomats and other governmental officials already posted or to be posted in a multilateral setting, as well as for those particularly interested in multilateralism, this course provides participants with strong practical skills and a comprehensive understanding of contemporary multilateralism.

24-26 May: From Civil Protest to Change: Transition and Stability. This training course is organised by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (Geneva Academy) and the GCSP. Against the background of recent political transitions in the Middle East and North Africa, the course will cover legal and non-legal issues related to the evolution from civil protest to change, and provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the transitional processes and associated challenges.

 

9-12 July: GCSP Summer Workshop 2012: "Managing Partnerships and Designing Exit Strategies for EU Crisis Management Operations". The workshop is targeted to PhD candidates and post-doctoral fellows working on EU security policy, with a focus on inter-institutional cooperation and exit strategies in the broad field of crisis management. The workshop aims to provide a platform for scholarly exchange - giving participants an opportunity to showcase their research and receive feedback on findings and research methodologies.

 

16 July - 16 September: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Disarmament Online Course. The eight-week course is designed to familiarise participants with the provisions, history and complexities of the NPT and its relationship to disarmament in particular. Each week of the course is structured around one of the major themes of the NPT, and provides a detailed analysis of the corresponding Treaty provisions.

 

 

Past Training Courses  

 

23-25 April: GCSP Expert Training Modules took place covering such topics as Demography, New Frontiers in Intelligence, Movement of People discussing various challenges and presenting policy responses.

16-20 April: Advanced Course for Political Advisors in EU Missions and Operations. The political advisors' (POLAD) course was done under the auspices of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) in partnership with the Austrian National Defence Academy and the Egmont Institute in Brussels who also organised complementing weeklong modules on the topic. The course included lectures on the role of political advisors, as well as sessions on practical skills development in speechwriting, reporting, briefing, negotiation, mediation, and media presentation techniques.

Events

Upcoming Events   


9 May 2012: Public Discussion: "The Arab-Israel Conflict and Iran: Prospects for Peace and War" with Brigadier General (Retd) Shlomo Brom, Senior Research Associate, The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Tel Aviv; Dr Jalal Al Husseini, Senior Researcher, Institut Francais du Moyen-Orient (IFPO); Dr Geoffrey Kemp, Director of Regional Strategic Programs, Center for the National Interest, Washington, D.C.; and chaired by Dr Pal Dunay, Director of the International Training Course in Security Policy, GCSP. 

9-11 May 2012: International Forum: Challenges of Peace Operations (see Highlight section above). 

  

15 May 2012: Public Discussion: "New Security Challenges in the Mediterranean" with keynote speaker Dr Mahmoud Gebril, Former Chair of the Executive Board of Libya's National Transitional Council and chaired by Dr Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme (GCSP), and Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. 

23 May 2012: Public Discussion on Afghanistan-Pakistan relations with Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, Security Analyst, Jane's Information Group, Pakistan; Mr Hekmat Karzai, Director, Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies (CAPS), Afghanistan; Dr Christophe Jaffrelot, Senior Research Fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Research Director, National Centre for Scientific Research. 

31 May 2012: Public Discussion "The Future of Transatlantic Security: Prospects and Challenges after the NATO Chicago Summit" with Dr Barbara Zanchetta, Visiting Fellow, Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) and Professor Jussi Hanhim�ki, International History Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. 

  

Past Events

 

26-27 April: Seminar on "Leadership and Cooperation in Complex Environments". This seminar was co-organised by German Armed Forces College/Hamburg and the GCSP, and delved into the complexity of the civil dimension operations that are vital to strategy, conflict prevention, and mitigation all around the world.

Group photo 23-25 April: Annual General Meeting of the Association for Security Sector Education and Training (ASSET). The GCSP and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) jointly hosted the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Security Sector Education and Training (ASSET). This meeting brought together about 37 representatives of organisations and institutions engaged in Security Sector Reform Education and Training.

24 April:
Public Discussion " Preventing intelligence failures in an interconnected world: how much better can we do?" with Professor Gregory Frye Treverton, Director, Center for Global Risk and Security, RAND - Corporate Headquarters; Mr Jeff Norwitz, Director for National Security Initiatives, SARK Securities Inc.; and chaired by Dr Christina Schori Liang, Co-Director of the New Issues in Security Course (NISC), GCSP. 

20 April:
Hosted Event: Governance for Peace in Fragile States: Strengthening Legitimate Politics, Securing the Social Contract. The United Nations Development Programme and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform organised a lunch-time seminar take a closer look at new approaches to nurturing state-society relations within nationally driven peacebuilding and statebuilding efforts.