CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

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CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

Teachers: David Chuter, Damien Cypryk, Michael Neuman, Romain Poirot-Lellig,

Jérôme Spinoza et Léonard Vincent

Academic year 2015/2016:

Paris School of International Affairs

– Spring Semester

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

David CHUTER

A former UK civil servant, David Chuter spent his career in the Ministry of Defence, where he dealt with a wide range of generally international issues, including European Security, the Balkans (including war crimes and transitional justice) and the political support of arms exports. He has been involved in Security Sector Reform since the defence and security transition in South Africa between 1993 and 1995. From 2005-2008 he worked in the Délégation aux Affaires Stratégiques of the Ministry of Defence, as Special Advisor to the Policy Director. He is now an independent author, lecturer and consultant based in Paris, and author of a number of books on security questions.

Damien CYPRYK

Major in the French army, he is the watch officer for West Africa of the French joint staff where he coordinates cooperation with African partners (operation Barkhane plus Dakar based forces & capacity building). He has been serving for two years in Cameroon as instructor for African students at the regional war college in Yaoundé from 2013 to 2015. Infantry officer, he served in the special operation squadron (1st RPIMa) from 2004 to 2010, with engagements in Ivory Coast (2004, 2006), in Afghanistan (2007, 2012) and in Chad (2010). He has been assigned at the operational HQ in Paris as J3 (operations) watch officer from 2010 to 2012. He attended war college program from 2012 to 2013.

Michael NEUMAN

Director of studies at Crash / Médecins sans Frontières, he graduated in Contemporary History and

International Relations (University Paris I). He joined Médecins sans Frontières in 1999 and has worked both on the ground (Balkans, Sudan, Caucasus, West Africa) & in headquarters (New York, Paris as deputy director responsible for programmes). He has also carried out research on issues of immigration and geopolitics. He is co-editor of “Humanitarian negotiations Revealed, the MSF experience” (London: Hurst and Co, 2011) / “Agir à tout prix? Négociations humanitaires, l'expérience de MSF” (La Découverte, Paris, 2011). He is also the co-editor of “Saving lives and staying alive. Humanitarian Security in the Age of Risk Management” (London: Hurst and Co, 2016. Forthcoming).

Romain POIROT-LELLIG

Former Political Adviser to the Special Representative of the European Union for Afghanistan, based in Kabul from 2008 to 2010, He began his career as a financial journalist at La Tribune) then as a commercial banker and public affairs adviser between Paris and Hong Kong. He is a graduate of Sciences Po, and of the University of Paris (Dauphine). He was also responsible for NATO issues in the Secrétariat général de la défense nationale. He is now an independent consultant.

Jérôme SPINOZA

Currently Africa expert at the Secretariat General de la Défense et de la sécurité nationale (SGDSN, a Prime Minster service), he previously served as political advisor to the EUSR for Sahel and before as Head of the Africa Bureau of the “Délégation aux Affaires stratégiques” of the French MoD. He was political advisor to the French Licorne operation in the Côte d’Ivoire. He took part in electoral observation missions for the EU and the OSCE. He had also worked for local governments in France. He is a graduate of Sciences Po and, of the Freie Universität Berlin and of Paris II Pantheon Assas.

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Léonard VINCENT

Journalist and writer, and specialist in international current affairs, Léonard Vincent directed the Africa office of Reporters sans frontières from 2004 to 2008, before becoming editor in chief until March 2009. Between 2013 and 2014 he was French public broadcaster Radio France's correspondent in Morocco. Now a deputy Editor in Chief at Radio France Internationale (RFI), he published a renowned book on Eritrea (“Les

Erythréens”, Editions Rivages, 2012), directed documentaries and wrote articles on the role of the media in humanitarian crises, for various publications. He is also the author of an independent report on the role of the media in the Seychelles for the Presidency of that country, as well as a novel about the crisis in

contemporary Greece.

COURSE OUTLINE

Session 1: Introduction to the Course

Introduction to the subject (what is a crisis or a conflict?, why intervene?, how does a crisis work, can it be resolved?, how does international involvement affect the resolution of a crisis?), presentation of teachers, election of delegate, allocation of presentations, how to convey oral and written information, short overview of “jobs” in the international “crisis management” area.

Required readings: None

Session 2 Responding to a Crisis (1/2)

Ways of understanding the crisis and questions raised, why and how to intervene or to negotiate. How to understand the crisis. How to react. How to (re)construct the peace. Understanding the mindsets and motivations of the actors. When action is possible and when it is not. How to judge if the situation will be made better or worse. How outside political factors influence the decision. How demands are beaded on history, religion, economic and political imbalances. Link with other crises and issues of the day such (as Yugoslavia with the fall of the USSR, European defence construction, interrogations about NATO’s future…). Presentations should refer (if only briefly, to the current situation in each country, and how far hopes for peace have been realised).

Presentations:

• Bosnia since the Dayton Agreement and Macedonia since the Ohrid Agreement

• The Rwandan Civil War (1990-94): the Arusha Accords and what followed

Recommended Readings:

• Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers

• René LeMarchand, “Reflections On The Recent Historiography Of Eastern Congo”, Journal of

African History, November 2013

• Roland Paris, “Kosovo and the Metaphor War”, in Political Sciences Quarterly, Fall 2002

• P. Richards, No Peace, No War: an anthropology of contemporary armed conflicts, Ohio UP, 2005

• B. Rubin, Blood on the Doorstep: the Politics of Preventive Action, Century Foundation Press, 2002

• G. Andreani et P. Hassner (dir.), Justifier la guerre, Presses Sc. Po, 2005

• Christopher Cramer, Civil War is not a Stupid Thing, Hurst, 2006

• David Keen, Useful Enemies, Yale, 2012

• Kate Jenkins and William Plowden, Governance and Nationbuilding, Edward Elgar, 2006

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• Misha Glenny, The Fall of Yugoslavia, Penguin Books, 1996

Session 3: Responding to a Crisis (2/2)

Presentations

• Great Games? Compare international strategies in the Afghanistan/Pakistan crisis (in the context of

NATO’s departure) and in the Sahel-Sahara (Mali, Libya since 2011)

• Civil crises: international strategies vs. internal dynamics (Libya, Syria, Lebanon)

• Generally all reports by research centres and also think tanks and advocacy structures (ICG, HRW,

etc.). Also Parliament reports (French Assemblée nationale and Sénat, UK, US, etc.)

• Joseph Confravreux, “Le Sahara n’est pas une “zone grise” Mediapart, 14 February 2013

• Olivier Vallée & Jérôme Spinoza, “Sahel, un système de crises complexe”, Questions

internationales, 58, 2012

• Wolfram Lacher (diverse papers about Libya: http://www.swp-berlin.org/en/scientistdetail/

• profile/wolfram_lacher.html)

• Syria Focus Page a http://www.isis-europe.eu/syria-focus

• David Chandler, “Human Security and Post-Intervention: The Case of Libya” online at

http://www.ces.uc.pt/publicacoes/p@x/pdf/[email protected]

Session 4: Exploiting Crises

How certain events (e.g. the non-existent Iranian “nuclear” programme), can still be defined and treated as “crises”. How crises are sometimes managed according to the agendas of external actors. How local political and military actors can make use of the practical and symbolic capital of humanitarian intervention.

Presentations

• Iran 1980-2015: from western target to objective ally?

• South Sudan: Was the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ever going to work?

• Shashank Joshi, « Is a Nuclear Iran as Dangerous As We Think?” online at

http://www.rusi.org/go.php?structureID=commentary&ref=C4F4BA65E76604

• ICG, Iran’s Nuclear Calculus, May 2014

• Béatrice Pouligny, Ils nous avaient promis la paix, Paris, Pr. de Sc. Po, 2004

• James Copnall, A Poisonous Thorn in our Hearts, Hurst 2014

• Matthew Arnold, South Sudan: From Revolution to Independence, Hurst, 2012

• International Crisis Group, South Sudan: A Civil War by Any Other Name, April 2014-11-16

Session 5 – Humanitarian 1/2

Since the 1990s, armed international interventions carried out in the name of humanitarianism and of the restoration of democracy have greatly increased, with the announced objective of providing security for humanitarian assistance operations, protecting civilians, and of advancing nation building. What conclusions can we draw from these experiences? How far have they contributed to the security of populations and to

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delivering aid? What effect have they had on the operation of NGOs? Who and what has benefitted from them?

Presentations:

• Restore Hope” in Somalia (1992-95): the advent of military-humanitarian interventions?

• CAR: from relative neglect to intervention; what role for humanitarian organisations?

• Fabrice Weissman (dir.), A l’ombre des guerres justes, Flammarion, 2003

• Rony Brauman, Le crime humanitaire, Paris: Editions Arléa, 1993

• Gareth J. Evans, The responsibility to protect, Ending mass atrocities crimes once and for all

(Washington D.C : Brooklyn Institution Press 2008)

• Ken Menkhaus, Stabilisation and humanitarian access in a collapsed state: the Somali case.

Disasters, 2010, 34(SS3)

• Roland Marchal, "Somalie: les dégâts d'une improvisation". – in M.-C. SMOUTS (dir.), L'ONU et la

guerre, Bruxelles, Ed. Complexes, 1994, pp. 77-101

• S. Smith, Somalie, la guerre perdue de l’humanitaire, Paris : Calmann-Levy, 1994

• ICG: The Central African Crisis : From predation to stabilisation, June 2014

• ICG: Central African Republic: Better late than never, December 2013

• Médecins sans Frontières, Dossier Centrafrique : La Valise ou le Cercueil, Juillet 2014

Session 6 – Humanitarian 2/2: Public health, biohazard and

international security

Having started in 2013, the Ebola epidemics have demonstrated the limited capacity of a large number of public health actors to respond swiftly and adequately. In recent years, the epidemics of SARS and Avian Flu made the hypothesis that major epidemics could massively disrupt the functioning of the international system more real. Coming back to those recent epidemics, this session will aim at understanding how state and non-state actors at the local, regional and international levels understand and react to these « new threats ».

Presentations

• Public health and international security (Anthrax, Avian flu, SRAS…)

• Responding to the Ebola epidemics (2012 – 2013)

Recommended readings:

• The UN agency that bungled Ebola,

http://online.wsj.com/articles/brian-hook-the-u-n-agency-that-bungledebola-1413931419

• G. Lachenal, Chronique d’un film catastrophe bien préparé, Libération, 18 septembre 2014

• Dr Alice Mesnard/ Paul Seabright, Escaping epidemics through migration? May 2008

• AFD-Hewlett Foundation, Health Risks and Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa

Session 7: Greed or Grievance?

How crises can be linked to the control of wealth and resources.

Presentations:

• Afghanistan: guerrillas and drug traffickers

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• William Reno, Warlord Politics and African States, Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1999

• M. Berdal & D. Malone, Greed or Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars, Lynne Reiner, 2000

• Charles Tilly, “War making and state making as organised

crime”(https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rohloff/www/war%20making%20and%20state%20making.pdf)

• F. Jean et J.-C. Rufin (dir.), Economie des guerres civiles, Paris, Hachette Pluriel, 1996

• Roberto Saviano, Gomorra, Paris, Gallimard, 2007

• Misha Glenny, McMafia : Seriously Organised Crime, Vintage Books, 2009

• ICG, “The Insurgency in Afghanistan’s Heartland”, 27 June 2011

• World Bank “Afghanistan’s Drug Industry” 2006.

• O. Roy : « Afghanistan : la difficile reconstruction d’un Etat », Cahiers de Chaillot #73, ISS/IES, 2004

• David Keen, Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone, Basingstoke, 2005

• Alex Vines, “The effectiveness of UN and EU sanctions: lessons for the twenty-first century », review

article in International Affairs, vol. 88, No 4, 2012

• Mark B. Taylor, « Law, Guns and Money; Regulating war economies in Syria and Beyond »

Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, 2015

Session 8: Reforming the State (1/2)

Relationship between security and development. Use and limitations of the norms of “good governance” and democratisation. “Fragile states”. From peacekeeping to peace-building. Types and limitations of the

concepts of SSR and DDR. Variety of experiences of SSR (Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa) and DDR, Cambodia, Africa, especially Angola and Mozambique, where there is a real historical dimension). Need to understand the logic of local actors.

Presentations:

• Constructing a state: Haiti and Kurdistan compared

• Do elections actually bring stability? (Côte d’Ivoire, Palestine, Bolivia, Algeria 90’)

• David Chandler, Empire in Denial, London, Pluto, 2006 & http://www.davidchandler.org/

• M. Berdal, S. Economedes, United Nations Interventionism, 1991-2004, Cambridge 2007

• Roland Paris: « Peacebuilding and the limit of liberal Internationalism », International Security,

vol.22, n°2, Fall 1997, pp.54-89

• Sen, La démocratie des autres. Pourquoi la liberté n’est pas une invention de l’Occident, 2005

• Jeffrey Herbst, State and Power in Africa, Princeton University Press, 2000

• Jean-François. Bayard, L’Etat en Afrique. La politique du ventre, Paris, Fayard, 2006

• Kate Jenkins and William Plowden, Governance and Nationbuilding : The Failure of International

Intervention, London, Edward Elgar, 2006

• Mark Duffield. Global Governance and the New Wars. The merging of Developement and Security.

London, Zed Books, 2001

• Simon Chersterman, You, the People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration and

State-Building, Oxford University Press, 2004

Session 9: Reforming the State (2/2)

Attempts to reform governments and the security sector. Is “governance” a useful concept? Have attempts to improve it been successful? Are there formulas that can be exported, and do they work everywhere?

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benefit. What if anything have we learned from twenty years of trying to reform security sectors around the world? What are the opportunities and dangers?

Presentations:

• Transforming governance: promise or threat?

• Security Sector Reform, African lessons (DRC, RCI, Mali, Guinea Bissau, RSA, Ethiopia)

• Patrick Chabal, Africa: the Politics of Suffering and Smiling, Zed Books, 2009

• Douglas Johnson, "The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars"

• Earl Conteh-Morgan, Globalization, State failure and collective violence: the case of Sierra Leone,

International

• Journal of Peace Studies, Volume 11, Number 2, Autumn/Winter 2006

• Gavin Catha, Robin Luckham (eds), Governing Insecurity: Democratic Control of Military and

Security Establishments in Transitional Democracies, London, Zed Books, 2003

• D. Chuter, “Understanding SSR”; Journal of Security Sector Management, Vol 4, No 2, 2006

• D. Chuter: La RSS: Un outil utile pour la sortie de crise? AFRI 2010

• Theodore Trefon, Congo Masquerade, Zed Books, 2011

• Sébastien Melmot, Candide au Congo: L’échec annoncé de la réforme du secteur de sécurité, IFRI

2008 (also available in English).

• Blog de Alex de Waal sur le Soudan http://blogs.ssrc.org/sudan/

• Tim Murithi “Towards African Models of Transitional Justice”, available in Google Books

Session 10: Transitional Justice

Crises and justice. How to deal with the past. Can threats of criminal investigation influence how a crisis unfolds? The logic of criminal justice and the risks of political obstacles. Lessons of the ad hoc tribunals and the ICC. Is there such a thing as “truth”, and can it produce reconciliation?

Presentations

• International justice as “victor’s justice”? (Rwanda, Former Yugoslavia, Darfur) or as a mechanism

for resolving a crisis (the above + Sierra Leone & Liberia)

• The alternative: amnesties, pardons and letting the past go. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

• R. Goldstone, For Humanity: Reflections of a War Crimes Investigator, Yale, 2000

• Fabrice Weissman, “Humanitarian Aid and International Justice : Grounds for a divorce”, July 2009

• Blog of Alex de Waal, Making sense of Darfur, http://blogs.ssrc.org/darfur/category/darfur/icc/

• P. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity, Routledge, 2000

• D. Chuter, War Crimes: Confronting Atrocity in the Modern World, Lynne Reiner, 2003

• Richard A. Wilson, The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the

Post-Apartheid State, Cambridge University Press, 2001

• Sandrine Lefranc, “Renoncer à l’ennemi, jeu de pistes dans l’Argentine post-dictatoriale”, in Raisons

Politiques, février 2002, n°5, pp.127-147

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Session 11: Media and Communications (1/2)

Facing the information battlefield. Objectivity? Neutrality? Media coverage vs. experience on the ground, political communications strategies vs. the complexity of reality, perception of reality vs. value judgements, communication vs. information, etc. The contradictions and incoherencies at the heart of the “major issues” of the contemporary world, and their consequences for current crises. How the media influences a crisis.

Presentations:

• ISIL: “glocal” techniques for a 2.0 state-building? How does the self-proclaimed Islamic State wages

a parallel war with images and signs

• Migrations, images and policy making (From Ceuta and Lampedusa to Calais): how reporting on

African migrants often speaks about everything but African migrants

• “Islamic State Online: Jihadist Propaganda 2.0”, Daniel N. Abramson, Geopolitical Monitor,

September 2014 http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/islamic-state-online-jihadist-propaganda-2-0/

• “How The Islamic State Wages Its Propaganda War”, Alison Meuse, NPR, November 2014

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/11/11/363018388/how-the-islamic-state-wages-its-propaganda-war

• Archives of ISIS Propaganda : http://jihadology.net/category/islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-sham/

• “How Islamic State is wielding the Internet in new ways”, Harry Bruinius, Christian Science Monitor,

September 2014 http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Cyber-Conflict-Monitor/2014/0917/How-Islamic-State-iswielding- the-Internet-in-new-ways-video

• “The Islamic State”, Vice News, Full-length video report, August 2014

https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-full-length

• “Le mystère John Cantlie”, Michel Peyrard, Paris-Match, November 2014

http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/Le-mystere-John-Cantlie-647430

• “John Cantlie, otage de l'IE devenu arme de propagande”, Sarah Diffalah, L'Obs, October 2014

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/monde/20141029.OBS3483/john-cantlie-journaliste-otage-de-l-ei-devenu-armede-propagande.html

• “Migration In The Media”, The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford

http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/projects/media

• “Migration tensions down to politicians and media, says report”, The Guardian, December 2011

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/dec/12/migration-concerns-politicians-and-media

• “Perception publique de l’immigration et discours médiatique”, Jérôme Héricourt & Gilles Spielvogel,

La Vie des idées, décembre 2012 http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Perception-publique-de-l.html

• “Priver les clandestins de prestations”, interview du député Eric Ciotti, Le Figaro, août 2014

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/08/10/01016-20140810ARTFIG00147-eric-ciotti-priver-lesclandestins-de-prestations.php?pagination=2

• “Lampedusa : Qui a tué ? Les vrais coupables sont sur la route”, Léonard Vincent, Grotius

International, 10/2013 http://www.grotius.fr/lampedusa-qui-a-tue-les-vrais-coupables-sont-sur-la-route/

• “On n'a rien à perdre quand on a 17 ans en Erythrée”, L. Vincent, Rebonds, Libération, Octobre

2013 http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/10/28/on-n-a-rien-a-perdre-quand-on-a-17-ans-en-erythree_942935

• “Omar et la mécanique du monde”, Léonard Vincent, On ne dormira jamais, Octobre 2013

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Session 12: Media and Communications (2/2)

Presentations:

• Israel/Palestine: Is calling for peace inciting a war? How the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also a war

of words, and the consequences of this parallel conflict on the war itself.

• Burkina-Faso: Another coup in Africa or another revolution in the Third World? How the September

2015 failed coup d'Etat was covered in the international media and how it tells a lot about a specific vision of Africa. How the Burkinabe people was informed about unfolding events and how it mattered for the course of history.

Recommended readings - ISRAEL-PALESTINE

• “Why Israel is losing the American media war”, Benjamin Wallace-Wells, Daily Intelligencer, August

2014 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/why-israel-is-losing-the-american-media-war.html

• “Gaza, the social media frontline”, The Week, July 2014

http://www.theweek.co.uk/middle-east/59554/gaza-conflict-the-social-media-front-line

• “Another War Zone : Social Media in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” by Adi Kuntsman and Rebecca

L. Stein, September 2010 http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/another-war-zone

• “A War Without Weapons: Social Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, Blog of Natalie

Magioncalda,Time of Israel, August 2014 http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-war-without-weapons-social-media-and-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/

• “Israel and Palestinian wage a social media war”, Deutsche-Welle, August 2014

http://www.dw.de/israel-and-palestinians-wage-social-media-war/a-16397320

Recommended readings - BURKINA FASO

• Coverage of the September-October events by Radio France Internationale, Le Monde, Jeune

Afrique, The Guardian, The New York Times.

• Online archives of the BBC, CNN, Russia Today...

But also :

• Le Parisien and other “popular” / tabloïd newspapers in the UK, US, Germany, Russia, etc.

• Reporters Without Borders' press releases on Burkina Faso : http://en.rsf.org/burkina-faso.html

• Canal+, Le Petit Journal, Burkina Faso special edition:

journal/pid6515-le-petit-journal.html?vid=1310313 http://www.canalplus.fr/c-emissions/c-le-petit-journal/pid6515-le-petit-journal.html?vid=1310697

Amnesty International:

“Human Rights After the Coup In Burkina Faso”, September 2015