April 12, 2005
Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies // Nanyang Technological University

Abstract:

In an effort to make European troops more employable in out-of-area operations, the United States has urged NATO to set goals of having each member nation able to deploy 40 percent of its forces abroad with at least 8 percent of each nation's military actually deployed at any given time. The motivation behind this idea would be to help sustain the ongoing shift from reliance on territorial defenses during the Cold War to expeditionary forces in the post-September 11 era. Even so, this objective may be exceedingly difficult for new NATO members to achieve, given the competing budgetary and political pressures to which they are subjected....

April 7, 2004


Abstract:

The United States's increased interest in Eurasia over the past year has added confusion to an already muddled debate over nation- and state-building in the region. In particular, U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan drew global attention to what and who a post-Taliban regime would look like. But the Bush Administration's blanket caution over "nation-building" in Afghanistan blurred the crucial difference between state-building and nation-building: the former concerns developing institutions of governance; the latter concerns developing a shared identity. ...

October 4, 2007
Track Impunity Always

Abstract:

Kirilas Kurakinas was born around 1922. A former official of the Soviet Lithuania's People's Commissariat of internal affairs (NKVD, a predecessor of the KGB), he and two other persons of the People's protection brigade (cf. "ramifications"), have allegedly participated in the murder of a Lithuanian family in hiding from the Soviet Army in 1945. It is alleged that the three of them burned Leopoldas Gaidys's house, killing four people including his pregnant wife and six-month-old child.

October 4, 2007
Track Impunity Always

Abstract:

Petras Bartasevicius was born around 1923. A former member of the Soviet Lithuania's People's Commissariat of internal affairs (NKVD, a predecessor of the KGB), he and two other persons of the People's protection brigade (cf. "ramifications"), have allegedly participated in the murder of a Lithuanian family in hiding from the Soviet Army in 1945. It is alleged that the three of them burned Leopoldas Gaidys's house, killing four people including his pregnant wife and six-month-old child.

October 4, 2007
Track Impunity Always

Abstract:

Jouzas Sakalys was born around 1923. A former member of the Soviet Lithuania's People's Commissariat of internal affairs (NKVD, a predecessor of the KGB), he and two other persons of the People's protection brigade (cf. "ramifications"), have allegedly participated in the murder of a Lithuanian family in hiding from the Soviet Army in 1945. It is alleged that the three of them burned Leopoldas Gaidys's house, killing four people including his pregnant wife and six-month-old child.

June 7, 2006
Council of Europe

Abstract:

The United States of America finds that neither the classic instruments of criminal law and procedure, nor the framework of the laws of war (including respect for the Geneva Conventions) has been apt to address the terrorist threat. As a result it has introduced new legal concepts, such as "enemy combatant" and "rendition", which were previously unheard of in international law and stand contrary to the basic legal principles that prevail on our continent. Thus, across the world, the United States has progressively woven a clandestine "spider's web" of disappearances, secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers, often encompassing countries notorious for their use of torture. Hundreds of persons have become entrapped in this web, in some cases merely suspected of sympathising with a presumed terrorist organisation....

December 7, 2004
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Abstract:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed shortly after the end of the Second World War to counter the threat of Soviet invasion of Western Europe. The treaty setting up the alliance was signed in 1949 by 10 Western European nations as well as Canada and the United States. NATO's mandate is to provide a common defence for the European and Atlantic areas, and to address common issues faced by the member countries.

August 31, 2004
European Centre for Minority Issues

Abstract:

The Ethnopolitical Map of Europe is intended to cover those regions in Europe, including the Balkans, the Baltic Sea area and the Caucasus, which are currently facing or have recently experienced ethnopolitical tension or conflict. The clickable map is guiding the users to official documents which reflect international involvement in the reduction of ethnopolitical tension and resolution of interethnic conflicts in different countries and regions of Europe. Further, the map provides information on population statistics, current national legislation and relevant literature on the ethnopolitical situation in those countries. ...

November 15, 2010
Amnesty International

Abstract:

This report compiles the latest evidence of European countries' complicity in the CIA's programmes in the context of the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA. "The EU has utterly failed to hold member states accountable for the abuses they've committed," said Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office. "These abuses occurred on European soil. We simply can't allow Europe to join the US in becoming an 'accountability-free' zone. The tide is slowly turning with some countries starting investigations but much more needs to be done." Intergovernmental organizations such as the Council of Europe, the European Union and the UN have been at the forefront of investigating human rights violations associated with the CIA rendition and secret detention programmes. Following disclosures in their reports, inquiries into state complicity or legal processes aimed at individual responsibility took place or are currently in progress in countries such as Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom....

December 10, 2008
International Centre for Migration Policy Development

Abstract:

A Survey and Analysis of Border Management and Border Apprehension Data from 20 States. With a Special Survey on the Use of Counterfeit Documents. Based on the contributions of the border services of 20 Central and Eastern European states, the 2006 Yearbook again provides its valuable overview and analysis of irregular migration trends in the region. Over the past ten years the annual Yearbook on Illegal Migration, Human Smuggling and Trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe has come to be regarded as an authoritative source of information on recent border trends and in particular on the phenomena of illegal migration, human smuggling and trafficking. The annual Yearbook covers the most recent trends in illegal migration and human smuggling in the region, including long-term trends in border apprehensions, shifts in source, transit and destination countries, demographic characteristics of irregular migrants, the relationship between legal and illegal border crossings, new developments in the methods of border crossings and document abuse and on removals of irregular migrants. In addition, this year’s edition for the first time features a Special Survey on the use of counterfeit documents for illegal migration purposes. This Survey is based on the contributions received from document specialists or Special Units dealing with document security in the countries under review and provides the first comprehensive overview and analysis of patterns and trends in the use of counterfeit documents for illegal migration purposes in Central and Eastern Europe....

September 8, 2008
Amnesty International

Abstract:

This bulletin contains information about Amnesty International’s main concerns in Europe and Central Asia between July and December 2007. Not every country in the region is reported on; only those where there were significant developments in the period covered by the bulletin, or where Amnesty International (AI) took specific action. A number of individual country reports have been issued on the concerns featured in this bulletin. References to these are made under the relevant country entry. In addition, more detailed information about particular incidents or concerns may be found in Urgent Actions and News Service Items issued by AI. This bulletin is published by AI every six months....

May 14, 2007
Government Accountability Office

Abstract:

In March 2003, a U.S.-led multinational force began operations in Iraq. At that time, 48 nations, identified as a "coalition of the willing," offered political, military, and financial support for U.S. efforts in Iraq, with 38 nations other than the United States providing troops. In addition, international donors met in Madrid in October 2003 to pledge funding for the reconstru#ction of Iraq's infrastructure, which had deteriorated after multiple wars and decades of neglect under the previous regime. This testimony discusses (1) the troop commitments other countries have made to operations in Iraq, (2) the funding the United States has provided to support other countries' participation in the multinational force, and (3) the financial support international donors have provided to Iraq reconstruction efforts....

September 5, 2006
Congressional Research Service

Abstract:

The mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan is seen as a test of the alliance's political will and military capabilities. The allies are seeking to create a "new" NATO, able to go beyond the European theater and combat new threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Afghanistan is NATO's first "out-of-area" mission beyond Europe. The purpose of the mission is the stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan. The mission is a difficult one because it must take place while combat operations against Taliban insurgents continue. U.N. Security Council resolutions govern NATO's responsibilities. The NATOled International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) faces formidable obstacles: shoring up a weak government in Kabul; using military capabilities in a distant country with rugged terrain; and rebuilding a country devastated by war and troubled by a resilient narcotics trade. NATO's mission statement lays out the essential elements of the task of stabilizing and rebuilding the country: train the Afghan army, police, and judiciary; support the government in counter-narcotics efforts; develop a market infrastructure; and suppress the Taliban....