Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Le peintre français Pierre Soulages, célèbre pour son travail de la couleur noire et l'invention de l' "outrenoir", est décédé le 26 octobre à l'âge de 102 ans. Le musée Soulages, ouvert à Rodez, sa ville natale, en 2014, rassemble 500 de ses oeuvres.

La ville de Lisbonne a inauguré le 29 octobre à Praça Europa une sculpture en céramique de Maria Ana Vasco Costa en hommage à Simone Veil. L'inauguration a été organisée dans le cadre de la clôture de la Saison France-Portugal 2022 et s'est déroulée en présence de la Première ministre française Élisabeth Borne et de son homologue portugais Antonio Costa.

La ville de Berlin accueillera du 3 au 6 novembre la 59e édition de son festival de jazz, le programme alterne à la fois des icônes du jazz qui définissent les tendances, et de jeunes talents issus d'une grande variété de styles.

Jusqu'au 19 février 2023, le musée d'art contemporain de Cracovie présente l'exposition "Life recorded in 745 notebooks", qui rassemble 745 volumes du journal intime de Janina Turek (1921-2000), dans lesquels l'auteure, pendant 57 ans à partir de 1943, a décrit minutieusement la vie quotidienne et les activités humaines les plus simples

Les musées royaux des Beaux-Arts à Bruxelles exposent jusqu'au 12 février 2023 140 œuvres de Pablo Picasso. Cette exposition, en partenariat avec le musée national Picasso-Paris, tend à éclairer les rapports du peintre avec l'art abstrait, en commençant par "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" en 1907. En marge de l'exposition sont organisées des conférences et rencontres.

Le musée national d'Écosse à Édimbourg présente, du 5 novembre au 23 avril 2023, une exposition des œuvres de Bernat Klein, designer textile d'origine serbe, qui s'est installé en Écosse après la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

Le musée national de Stockholm présente les dessins de Giorgio Vasari jusqu'au 8 janvier 2023,. Coproduite avec le Louvre à Paris, l'exposition se concentre sur la fabuleuse collection de dessins d'artistes italiens couvrant la période allant du XIVe à la fin du XVIe siècle réunie par Giorgio Vasari.

La Fondation Canal de Madrid accueille jusqu'au 8 janvier 2023 l'exposition "Alice au pays des merveilles", basée sur le livre de Lewis Carroll et exposant les œuvres de Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst et Marie Laurencin, ainsi que des timbres tirés des illustrations originales que John Tenniel a réalisées pour la première édition du roman en 1865.

Pour célébrer le tricentenaire du sacre de Louis XV, le Château de Versailles lui dédie une exposition jusqu'au 19 février 2023..400 œuvres présentent sa vie, ses passions et son influence sur l'art. L'exposition est organisée en partenariat avec le Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

Le Rijksmuseum van Oudheden de Leiden présente l'exposition Byblos, le plus ancien port du monde jusqu'au 12 mars 2023. L'exposition présente plus de 500 œuvres en partenariat avec le musée national de Beyrouth, le musée du Louvre, le British Museum et le musée archéologique de l'Université américaine de Beyrouth. Byblos, ville située sur la côte de l'actuel Liban, a joué un rôle extraordinaire en Méditerranée et au Moyen-Orient à partir de 3000 av. J. -C. , grâce au commerce du bois de cèdre.

Obwohl noch Krieg herrscht, sei es richtig, jetzt schon den Wiederaufbau der Ukraine zu planen, sagt der Politikwissenschaftler Jörn Grävingholt im Kontext der internationale Expertenkonferenz über den Wiederaufbau der Ukraine am 25.10.2022 in Berlin.

Wladimir Putin eskalierte im September 2022 den russischen Krieg gegen die Ukraine. Er kündigte eine Teilmobilisierung an und wiederholte seine Drohung mit dem Ein­satz von Nuklearwaffen. Es war aber vor allem die proklamierte Annexion der ukrai­nischen Gebiete Luhansk, Donezk, Saporischschja und Cherson, mit der er einen Schlussstrich unter die Friedensbemühungen seit dem 24. Febru­ar 2022 zog. Wolo­dymyr Selenskyj hatte Putin seit seiner Wahl 2019 und auch in den ersten Wochen nach dem erneuten russischen Überfall immer wieder zu einem Gipfeltreffen aufgefordert. Am 4. Oktober 2022 erteilte er in Reaktion auf die Schritte der russischen Seite direkten Gesprächen per Dekret eine Absage. Die ukrainisch-russischen Verhandlungen seit dem Beginn der russischen Aggression 2014 sowie seit dem 24. Februar 2022 zeigen, wie sehr diese vom Kriegsverlauf, aber auch vom politischen Kontext abhängen.

Among the many significant geopolitical consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine has been the reinvigoration of the Middle Corridor, both as a regional economic zone comprising Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Turkey but also as an increasingly attrac­tive alternative route between Europe and China. Russia’s war has disrupted overland connectivity via the New Eurasian Land Bridge, also known as Northern Corridor, which passes through – now heavily sanctioned – Russian and Belarusian territory. While the Middle Corridor will not be able to fully replace the Northern Corridor, regional integration along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is likely to increase its potential at the expense of Russia in the long-term. Ankara’s close cultural ties with the Central Asian republics combined with the latter’s willingness to diversify their foreign relations away from Moscow and Beijing provide Turkey with greater leverage in the region. The EU and Turkey share a common interest in enhancing Eurasian connectivity for several reasons: to promote peace and prosperity in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, to enhance commercial access to Central Asia, to increase the resilience of European supply chains, and to diversify European energy supplies. Strengthening Eurasian connectivity would also work to balance Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence in Central Asia.

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Five years after its inception, the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System (CPAS) has evolved from a pilot project into a system for bringing together planning and performance assessment in iterative cycles in all United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. CPAS supports multiple Action for Peacekeeping Plus (A4P+) priorities, including strategic and operational integration, and performance and accountability of peacekeepers. CPAS is also at the forefront of UN Peacekeeping’s embrace of technology and the integration of system-wide data for improved mandate delivery.

CPAS has emerged as one of the flagship vehicles through which the UN can better demonstrate the impact of its peacekeeping missions and improve their performance. The system allows missions to set out a framework that details how their operations influence stakeholders and processes in the country and helps missions assess, based on data, whether and how they make progress against mandated priorities. At present, peacekeeping operations have used CPAS to conduct thirty performance assessments since 2018, which have generated over 300 recommendations aimed at improving their operations and refining their planning.

In this context, IPI and the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN, in partnership with the UN Department of Peace Operations, cohosted a policy forum assessing the rollout, implementation, and impact to date of CPAS in UN peacekeeping on October 27th.

Panelists highlighted CPAS’s progress and challenges as a tool for mission-wide impact assessment, strategic planning, and integration. Daniel Forti, Research Fellow at IPI’s Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, described CPAS as an “ambitious, imperfect, and worthwhile experiment for UN peacekeeping.” Interventions also reflected on CPAS’s trajectory over the coming months and offer recommendations to sustain the system’s future, particularly in considering the current geopolitical context of UN peacekeeping.

The policy forum launched an IPI publication on UN peacekeeping and CPAS, written by Daniel Forti. This event and publication are part of IPI’s broader workstream on A4P+, funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. DPO’s Division for Performance, Evaluation and Training also shared its own internal lessons-learned study on CPAS at the event.

Welcome and Opening Remarks:
Jenna Russo, Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, International Peace Institute
Djeyhoun Ostowar, Deputy Head of Political Section, Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN
David Haeri, Director of the Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training, UN Department of Peace Operations

Speakers:
Daniel Forti, Research Fellow, Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, International Peace Institute
Major General Patrick Gauchat, Head of Mission and Chief of Staff, UN Truce Supervision Organization (via VTC)
Souleymane Thioune, Chief of Staff, UN Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (via VTC) 
Kym Taylor, Chief of the Evaluations Team, Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training, UN Department of Peace Operations  

Closing Remarks:
Jenna Russo, Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, International Peace Institute

The European Union Circular Economy Action Plan (EU-CEAP) is key to transitioning to a circular economy and climate neutrality under the EU Green Deal, with developing and emerging countries (DECs) playing an important role. First, DECs are essential for the primary material chains, for example, supplying material for electric vehicle (EV) batteries to the European Union (EU). Second, DECs are involved in secondary material chains: To recycle its plastic packaging, Europe relies on DECs. But despite the essential role DECs play in Europe’s transition to a circular economy, the EU-CEAP’s impact on DECs has largely gone unexamined in literature and policy discourses – a shortcoming that could reinforce Eurocentrism and jeopardise the much-needed willingness to cooperate on multilateral solutions to global challenges (Messner, 2022). This policy brief and associated discussion paper (To, 2022) outline challenges and opportunities for DECs that are related to the EU-CEAP and present recommendations for German development cooperation. In the plastic packaging sector, DECs will likely be impacted by stricter waste shipment regulation (WSR), along with higher EU recycling targets, mandatory recycled content for plastics, and bans on certain single-use plastic items. Hence, the following recommended policy actions:
• To lower the risks of illegal plastic waste trade and disposal, DECs must be helped to enforce the WSR and meet tightened import regulations.
• The impact of plastic waste imports on DEC domestic markets in light of changing WSR must be monitored; discussion about stricter EU waste export regulations should be initiated accordingly.
• In response to plastic waste imports, plastic recycling in DECs must be improved by raising standards and investments in advanced machinery as well as working conditions for informal labourers.
• Changing EU plastic ban regulations must be monitored to anticipate increased demand for plastic alternatives.
For EVs and batteries, EU-CEAP regulations that could impact DECs include stricter due diligence requirements for raw materials, higher targets for retrieving secondary battery materials, as well as reusing, repurposing and recycling EVs and their batteries. In response, the following policy actions are recommended:
• Help DEC suppliers meet tighter supply-chain require-ments in light of the expected steady increase in demand for virgin raw materials from DECs.
• Help expand road infrastructure to make it possible to reuse EVs, ensure EV batteries for repurposing, and provide recycling machinery and know-how.