Global Peace & Security

Iraqi and Syrian Kurds have gained increasing international recognition for their efforts in combating ISIS and some observers conclude that the conditions for an independent Kurdistan have never been as favorable as they are now. What are the prospects for a Kurdish nation state? 

Last week NATO announced its plan to deploy troops to six NATO members in Central Europe to strengthen collective defense. Security guarantees for the front-line states have been discussed since Russia’s intervention in Crimea. This publication from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies analyzes the perceptions of governmental and nongovernmental experts in six NATO front-line states.   

The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation of North America are pleased to announce the release of a new publication, The Federal Budget and Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2016: Democracy, Governance, and Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa. U.S. support for democracy, governance, and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa is needed now more than ever.  

The war in Syria has now lasted for more than four years and there is still no end in sight. However, a surge of rebel gains over the course of the last weeks show that Assad’s position is in peril. Is the timing ripe to launch a new, sincere attempt to empower the moderate opposition?

The five-yearly Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is taking place from April 27 to May 22, 2015. In order to increase pressure for nuclear disarmament and to strengthen the non-proliferation regime, nuclear weapons need to be banned under international law.

The recent Charlie Hebdo attacks have raised the level of alert about the security threat foreign fighters might pose to their home countries upon their return from Syria and Iraq. Rudine Emrich, trainee at the Heinrich Boell Foundation, assesses Western governments’ policy responses to violent extremism thus far and highlights what risks and opportunities different policy approaches might harbor.  

The development of women’s representation in the political and security sector over the last decade can be seen in analogy to the developments of their general opportunities. Heinrich Böll Foundation trainee Timea Kasa gives an overview of women’s development in Afghanistan from the US-invasion in 2001 until today and highlights the current state of women’s rights in the country.

A collaboration of the Center for American Progress and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The past four years have swept away the old pillars of U.S. policy toward the Eastern Mediterranean. For the United States and Turkey, the rapidly changing political situation in Syria and Iraq underpins the need for new partners with whom to work toward regional stability and the provision of basic governance. This reality necessitates a re-evaluation of U.S. policy toward Kurdish political groups and a reinvigoration of Turkey’s peace process with its own Kurdish minority.