Policy Papers - September 07, 2010
The United Nations Security Council and Civil War: First Insights from a New Dataset
Chris Perry, Christoph Mikulaschek, James Cockayne
This new IPI report examines trends in how the Security Council has engaged with civil wars since 1989 and the gradual evolution of the Council’s civil-war response strategies, including where and when it chose to engage. The study reveals a comprehensive change in the way the Council has applied its mandate under the United Nations Charter to situations of internal conflict.
The report represents the most comprehensive analysis to date of the Security Council’s approaches to resolving civil wars during the past two decades. It is the first publication produced by IPI’s multiyear research project on Compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolutions in Civil Wars.
Future analysis by this project will seek to provide answers to two questions: To what extent do civil-war parties comply with demands issued by the Security Council? And what factor or combination of factors best explains the variance in the level of compliance — e.g., conflict settings, conflict management strategies, or political dynamics within the Security Council?
In the future, the project will produce a book combining rigorous quantitative analyses and detailed case studies on this very important topic.
IPI will also publish a searchable online database of all Security Council resolutions adopted in the context of civil wars between 1989 and 2006. The IPI Security Council Compliance Database will document the Security Council’s conflict-management efforts and the civil-war parties’ responses to each individual demand addressed to them during the first fifteen years after the Cold War, from 1989 to 2003.
For more information about this ongoing research project, please go to http://www.ipinst.org/securitycouncilcompliance.
The Global Observatory
New Book by “Ground Zero” Imam: Moderation in the Face of Extremism
While promoting interfaith understanding, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was attacked by extremists who used the issue to fan the flames of Islamophobia.
Key Global Events to Watch in May
A list of key upcoming meetings and events with implications for global affairs.
The Global Observatory is a new website by IPI, providing timely analysis on peace and security issues, interviews with leading policymakers, interactive maps, and more.
Contact Us
Adam Lupel | Publications
E-mail
Recent Events
May 10, 2012
Arbour: What the Rule of Law Means
“In my understanding of the rule of law, fundamentally, what the rule of law means is that it embraces the principle of equality before the law,” Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told an IPI audience on May 10, 2012. Ms. Arbour outlined that this means that no one is above the law and everyone has both equal protection and equal benefit of the law. 
May 03, 2012
Shachtman: Cyber Threats Akin to South Bronx, Not Pearl Harbor
“There’s not a danger of a cyber Pearl Harbor… it’s more like the South Bronx circa 1999, where there’s a danger that it becomes such a tough neighborhood that no one wants to set up shop there and people move out,” Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room blog at Wired magazine and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told an IPI audience at a panel on cyber security on May 3, 2011.
April 27, 2012
Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems
An April 27th roundtable discussion at IPI titled “Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems” examined the progress, prospects and challenges of regional and international early warning and response mechanisms to monitor, anticipate, and mitigate potential conflict situations in Africa.