January 12, 2011
Institute for British-Irish Studies // University College Dublin
Abstract:
The paper examines as a case study the territory of Timor-Leste (East Timor), the small half-island located about four hundreds miles north of Australia and east of Java, Indonesia. In particular the focus is upon the evolution and progression of the territory from colony to independent nation-state and the patterns of conflict and settlement that have marked the disputed and contested area and its people. A central narrative is that, while independence for East Timor looked most unlikely in the late 1990s, a confluence of developments and factors combined to enhance the prospects and reality of this outcome in 1999.
The paper examines a number of themes including: the historical and geo-political context; the brief interregnum between de facto Portuguese decolonisation and Indonesian re-colonisation; the invasion and occupation of the territory by Indonesia; referendum and independence for East Timor; post-conflict matters of justice; the international dimension; and the comparative dimensions of the East Timor case study....
November 1, 2010
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice Univeristy
Abstract:
In the past 10 years, the rehabilitation of Muslim radicals has become a pressing issue. Great
numbers of radicals have passed in and out of various incarcerating institutions and are returned
to their societies where they frequently rejoin radical groups, sometimes more radicalized and
technically proficient than they were prior to their incarceration. Both Muslim and non-Muslim
governments have sought different methods to rehabilitate radicals, ranging from arranging
debates between radicals and mainstream Muslim religious elite to confronting them with
betrayals and denunciations by relatives, friends, and associates. There are also full-scale “reeducation”
camps. This policy paper will seek to evaluate these methodologies and propose for
the United States a workable policy for re-integrating radicals into society, thus defusing the
power of recidivism....
September 20, 2010
Conflict and Health // BioMed Central
Abstract:
Large disasters affect people who live both near and far from the areas in which they occur. The
mental health impact is expected to be similar to a ripple effect, where the risk of mental health consequences
generally decreases with increasing distance from the disaster center. However, we have not been able to identify
studies of the ripple effect of man-made disaster on mental health in low-income countries. The objective was to examine the hypothesis of a ripple effect on the mental health consequences in
populations exposed to man-made disasters in a developing country context, through a comparison of two
different populations living in different proximities from the center of disaster in Mollucas. There was significantly more psychological distress “caseness” in IDPs than non-IDPs. The mental health
consequences of the violent conflict in Ambon supported the ripple effect hypothesis as displacement status
appears to be a strong risk factor for distress, both as a main effect and interaction effect. Significantly higher
percentages of IDPs experienced traumatic events than non-IDPs in all six event types reported. This study indicates that the conflict had an impact on mental health and economic conditions far
beyond the area where the actual violent events took place, in a diminishing pattern in line with the hypothesis of
a ripple effect....
June 15, 2010
National War College Review // United States Naval War College
Abstract:
TheMalacca Strait is a narrow waterway that extends nearly six hundred nauticalmiles
fromthe Andaman Sea to the South China Sea, betweenMalaysia
and Indonesia. The strait provides a vital shipping lane for vessels sailing from
Europe and the Middle East to East Asia, as well as smaller vessels on local voyages.
Unfortunately, when we think of the Malacca Strait, images of a waterway
infested with pirates often spring to mind.
While this image could arguably have been justified in the past, it is now rather
outdated. According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which produces
quarterly and annual reports on piracy and
armed robbery against ships, there were only three successful
and four attempted attacks by pirates on shipping
in the Malacca Strait in 2007. While piracy has certainly been a concern in the waterway
in the past,with reported attacks reaching seventy-five in 2000, the number
of cases has been falling since 2005, largely as a result of a number of countermeasures
introduced by the three littoral states of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
This decrease in attacks was achieved despite a 10 percent increase in
cases worldwide.
This article will discuss the reduction in pirate attacks in the Malacca Strait
and how the attacks themselves have changed over the last decade. Themeasures
attributed to the reduction will then be discussed, as well as the underlying principles
and attitudes that have shaped these initiatives. Particular attention will
be given as to how the issue of sovereignty, a principle of utmost importance in
Southeast Asia, has impactedmultilateral and bilateral cooperative efforts to address
the transnational problem of piracy, including a series of International
Maritime Organization (IMO) meetings convened to tackle pressing issues affecting
the safety and security of shipping in theMalacca Strait. The conclusions
will make recommendations regarding issues that require further action....
April 13, 2010
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies // Graduate School of Nanyang Technological University
Abstract:
Convicted terrorists from Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) have attested to using the Internet in one way or another during their operations, from sending messages to one another to looking for extremist fatwas online to justify their actions. That said, one would however be hard pressed to prove the primacy of the Internet in their step up to violence. More often than not, more traditional elements remain the key to individual religious radicalization and political violence in Southeast Asia - blood relations and marriage ties. This paper revisits these kinship linkages as well as quasi-kinship ones that include teacher-disciple bonds and the wider fraternity of ikhwan-ship (brotherhood) with particular regard to JI. Keeping counterterrorism efforts in context is important or else governments could run the risk of carelessly appropriating vital resources on less immediate concerns....
Indonesia 
