Complex Emergencies In The 21st Century

The AU System does not shy away from its inglorious past that characterised the OAU from its inception in 1963 until the start of its transformation during the early 1990s. Coming of age at the height of the Cold War, the OAU was politically torn between competing East-West political ideologies that instilled fear among and between the newly independent African states. African leaders of that era, who were also founding fathers of the continental Organisation, were driven by an inordinate desire for power for safeguarding national independence and sovereignty. By extension, this resulted in many of them remaining in office for far longer than was necessary. Convinced of their mandate to safeguard Africa's sovereignty, they sought to claim that they were the only ones bequeathed with love of country, sufficient wisdom and commitment to safeguard national independence.

Analysing the abusive systems that surround and produce humanitarian disasters, this text gives particular attention to the economic, political and psychological functions of civil conflicts and humanitarian disasters.

This book presents a new framework of analysis to assess natural and man-made disasters and humanitarian crises, and the feasibility of interventions in these complex emergencies. The past half-century has witnessed a dramatic increase in such crises - such as in Haiti, Iraq and Sudan - and this volume aims to pioneer a theory-based, interdisciplinary framework that can assist students and practitioners in the field to acquire the skills and expertise necessary for evidence-based decision-making and programming in humanitarian action. It has four major objectives: To provide a tool for diagnosing and understanding complex emergencies, and build on the concepts of state security and human security to provide a ‘Snap-Shot Analysis’ of the status quo; To provide a tool for analysing the causes of crises as well as the related stakeholder field; To provide a frame to structure and analyse the information required to evaluate, monitor and/or design interventions for different actors on a project and/or programme level; To combine concepts used in the humanitarian field with underlying theory in a practically relevant way. The book will be of much interest to students of humanitarian intervention, human security, peacebuilding, development studies, peace studies and IR in general.

This edited book provides an insight into the new approaches, challenges and opportunities that characterise open source intelligence (OSINT) at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It does so by considering the impacts of OSINT on three important contemporary security issues: nuclear proliferation, humanitarian crises and terrorism.

This book explores the implications of newly developing risks such as hugely damaging hurricanes, new diseases, terrorist attacks, and disruptions to critical infrastructures.

The authors explore ways in which warfare creates hunger. The cases of Angola, Sudan, Tigray, Eritrea, Mozambique and Somalia illuminate the nature of complex emergencies in situations of war. Other chapters focus on the reforms required of the UN's machinery, reassess the role of relief in time of war, and ask how the international community should respond to the new circumstances of post-Cold War international interventions.

South Africa has done much in the 15 years since the fall of apartheid to establish its leadership on the continent. It has been a constant architect of Africa's new peace and security architecture and an advocate of new diplomatic norms.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.