On Building Peace : Rescuing the Nation-state and Saving the United Nations

Only 25 years after the end of the Cold War, the Western-dominated global order is fading and our hopes that liberal democracy would spread and bring world peace are evaporating. While the West is increasingly preoccupied with its internal problems, threats to global peace have fundamentally changed: wars among nation-states and their alliances, once the dominant scourge of humankind, have almost disappeared and are replaced by a triple threat from intra-state armed conflicts, the failing of nation-states and the rise of belligerent non-state actors. The global peace we felt within our reach in 1991, is escaping us. __On Building Peace__ seeks the answers that the UN Charter can no longer provide. Once meant as a guarantor for peace, the Charter was never designed to deal with intra-state conflicts and today its core principles are eroded. The book makes two rather simple, but possibly unpopular suggestions for preserving future peace: first, we must rescue the nation-state, not despite but because of globalization, and second, we must not further undermine the United Nations, but expand its Charter for dealing collectively with this triple threat. The struggle for survival in a world of limited resources and environmental degradation will deepen intra-state conflicts. We must prevent slipping back into a new round of Cold War-type confrontations and focus on finding collective solutions for building peace. For the sake of billions of people of future generations, we cannot get this wrong. Twenty-five Years After The End Of The Cold War, New Geopolitical Changes Have Eroded Western Dominance, And In Its Place Has Emerged A Multipolar World Encompassing A Number Of Global And Regional Players. At The Same Time, Intrastate Conflicts Have Begun Replacing Interstate Wars As The Major Threat To World Peace And Security, Causing New Challenges For Diplomats And Other Peacekeepers Accustomed To Focusing Only On The Relations Between Countries. ?on Building Peace? Explores These Issues And Demonstrates The Vital Need For International Organisations Such As The United Nations To Turn A New Eye To Events Taking Place Within Nationstates. Michael Von Der Schulenburg Argues For The Development Of Internationally Accepted Principles And Rules For Intervening In Intrastate Conflicts, Including Those Caused By Corrupt Governments Or Militant Groups. Ultimately,0the Book Offers A Groundbreaking Approach To International Politics And Diplomacy, As Well As New Tools For The Creation Of Effective Peacebuilding Strategies.0. The Fading Of The Post-cold War Peace Order -- The Failing Of The Nation-state -- The Marginalization Of The United Nations -- Rescuing The Nation-state -- Building Peace On Collective Security -- Striking A New Grand Bargain For Global Peace And Security. Michael Von Der Schulenburg. Includes Bibliographical References. Now, 25 years after the end of the Cold War, the global peace order is going through renewed geopolitical changes that are less dramatic than those in 1989 but probably equally important. The post-Cold War Western dominance of global affairs and the singular US superpower status are eroding, making room for a more diffuse multi-polar world with many different global and regional players. Post-Cold War hopes that the winning political system of liberal democracy would spread around the world and bring global peace have turned out an illusion. To the contrary, Western efforts and military interventions to promote liberal democracy have increasingly resulted in the destabilization of countries and whole regions. At the same time, intra-state armed conflicts have, probably for the first time in human history, replaced inter-state wars as the main threats to global peace and security. This has created a completely new global threat scenario. Now, weak and corrupt governments are challenged by powerful belligerent non-state actors, be they Islamic extremist groups, other ideologically-motivated groups, separatist movements, or even transnational crime syndicates. Globalization has turned these local intra-state armed conflicts into international security concerns. Bron: Flaptekst, uitgeversinformatie Twenty-five years after the end of the Cold War, new geopolitical changes have eroded Western dominance, and in its place has emerged a multipolar world encompassing a number of global and regional players. At the same time, intrastate conflicts have begun replacing interstate wars as the major threat to world peace and security, causing new challenges for diplomats and other peacekeepers accustomed to focusing only on the relations between countries. This book explores these issues and demonstrates the vital need for international organisations such as the United Nations to turn a new eye to events taking place within nation states. Michael von der Schulenburg argues for the development of internationally accepted principles and rules for intervening in intrastate conflicts, including those caused by corrupt governments or militant groups. Ultimately, the book offers a groundbreaking approach to international politics and diplomacy, as well as new tools for the creation of effective peace building strategies This book brings together a roster of prominent contributors to present a strategic interactionist perspective on the study of contentious politics in the Middle East in response to the Arab uprisings. The common thread among the contributions is an interest in the micro-level interactions between various strategic players, including not only the mobilisation of protestors during the uprisings but also the responses of regimes. The book also examines short to medium-term adaptations of the regimes and the collective action of opponents in the post-uprisings period, as well as the subsequent trajectories of the protesters themselves in the face of new forms of authoritarianism or democratisation

The first English-language book on Germany's 'best-known important filmmaker'