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Despite Africa’s demands for increased influence, they are not in a position of power and it is within their interest to maintain positive relations with the developed powers. They have numbers but despite their economic growth in the past decade Africa is still more dependent than any other region on foreign help. Th... | |
An African voice would change priorities for the better An African state with veto power in the UNSC would have much more leverage to get African positions listened to. This is something that is particularly important as Africa is the region that is most commonly on the UN agenda. An African permanent member would lik... | |
Countries on the UNSC do already take an interest in the Africa, illustrated by French troops helping local democratic governments form Mali and CAR defeat various outlaw rebel groups. [1] Secondly, simply giving a veto to an Africa nation, does not guarantee that they will promote beneficial policies. South Africa fo... | |
The current UNSC Membership is outdated The composition of the council is outdated and must adapt to a much-changed world in the 21st century. It is clear that there is growing discontent among African countries regarding the current structure of the UNSC. “We don’t understand why you have three countries out of five... | |
Assessment of fees for the UN is not done on the basis of the influence of the member within the UN, rather it is done through a formula based on national income. The payment is for membership, not to buy influence. [1] As far as peacekeeping forces are concerned, South Africa is already a prominent contributor. In th... | |
There is no evidence that an African state would constantly use the veto if they had it. No African state has the kind of interests around the world the current members have so a veto is only likely to be wielded over African issues. Such a veto will simply be ensuring that the African side is put before the council. ... | |
International competition for seats on UNSC African countries are not the only ones who wish to have a chair at the P5 table. There are more financially and military prominent countries who also have expressed their desires for having a veto power. [1] Among them, the most important are Germany and Japan who are, the ... | |
Who should get the seat? There is not just competition from countries outside Africa but also internally. If there is only to be one permanent African member or even two who should it be? With no defined criteria for UNSC membership any African state could stake a claim. There are however three or four serious contend... | |
Proportionality When looking at contributions to the UN, in 2010 no African countries are in the Top 27. [1] Those who fund an organisation deserve to lead it and have their opinion count the most. Of course, there is the need for a democratic council such as the UNGA, where all the countries, regardless of contributi... | |
More vetoes mean less action The reason there are only a few states with veto power is to prevent most states from being able to block essential security action that is in the international interest. More members increase the chances of vetoes and deadlock. There have been 263 vetoes since the founding of the UN with... | |
A dispute over who which African state obtains membership is a sideshow. What matters is the principle that an African state should have permanent membership. | |
That there should be competition for a seat at the highest international table is no surprise. However this is not a reason against reform. Nor should Germany and Japan be considered stronger contenders than an African country; why should Europe get a third and Asia a second permanent member before Africa has one? | |
Additional crimes in the remit of an African Criminal Court could cause more problems than they solve. Drug trafficking was rejected from the remit of the ICC [1] because it would overburden the court, which is intended to deal with international crimes. While the idea of prosecuting coups sounds good, in practice it ... | |
An African Criminal Court would be better Instead of the ICC structure, the African Union has proposed an African Criminal Court. An ACC could not only bring justice home to Africa, by creating a court which will not appear to African nations as being imposed by outsiders, but also be able to have additional remits to... | |
The principle of complementarity means that the ICC is only a backstop court – it only takes on a case when a state is unwilling or unable to have it dealt with in its own national courts [1] . If the ICC were a tool for external interference, it is solicited by the states in that most situations follow on from referr... | |
The ICC has an anti-African bias Every person indicted by the ICC so far has been an African, for events which occurred in Africa, all bar one case, the Libya situation (in which no trials have started and seem a long way off), are in sub-Saharan Africa. The ICC has not brought actions against anyone involved in conf... | |
Almost all the cases involve self-reference – the only ones that did not are UN Security Council references, done in the same way as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda were set up. The other case, Kenya, was set up when the ICC prosecutor use... | |
Justice is more than just a road to peace; it is a goal of its own. [1] For most African states this should not be a cause to leave the ICC as they are unaffected by ICC indictments affecting a peace process. Even for those whom it does affect it is only transitory until a solution is reached. Such concerns moreover c... | |
Tool for external interference. The ICC creates a way that foreigners, and in particular the west with its tendency towards intervention, can remove and imprison African leaders [1] . Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya, who has been indicted by the court, has referred to it as a “toy of declining imperialist powe... | |
Detriment to peace process The ICC has not been particularly effective in dealing with the situation in Uganda, the ICC prosecutions having been a distraction to local community reconciliation and leading to further violence [1] . Similarly, the situation in Darfur has not been helped by ICC involvement, with mass de... | |
Independent nations are capable of trying war crimes themselves. The ICC is an unnecessary intrusion on national sovereignty. It should be up to each state to determine its own legal system as to how criminal matters should be prosecuted. The principle of complementarity is no guarantee as it is up to the ICC itself ... | |
Impunity has occurred in some cases, due to the ICC system not leading to prosecutions, such as in Sri Lanka. At any rate, the ICC is not needed – African courts can deal with individuals, not a foreign one. | |
ICC is cheaper Africa bears little of the cost of the ICC – by far its largest contributions come from the European Union, and its member states. This, coupled with the fact that the ICC is cheaper than the ad hoc tribunals due to economies of scale, means that justice can be delivered to war criminals and those who ... | |
ICC necessary to provide fair trials Domestic legal systems will often suffer from a lack of judicial independence and potentially politicised prosecutions, and are also open to allegations of victors’ justice, or whitewashes by a judiciary biased towards the winners of the conflict. The ICC, as an effective court an... | |
No impunity The ICC means an end to impunity. It has meant that warlords such as Germain Katanga have been able to be prosecuted for things like using child soldiers, which are universally reviled. What the African Union leaders are simply advocating by withdrawal from the ICC is impunity for themselves. They see one... | |
Is justice something to be subjected to simple financial parameters? Even so, what is the ICC cheaper than? It may be cheaper than individual criminal tribunals like the ICTY and ICTR, but that assumes that such tribunals are desirable. It should be left up to individual states to bring action. | |
Moral responsibility is not about comparisons if it were then what about those European countries that have not been open armed like in Hungary they have made it illegal to help Syrian refugees [1] . Riot police in Hungary have used teargas and water cannon to send them off. [2] Saudi Arabia has been doing enough to ac... | |
The Gulf states have a moral responsibility to take in Syrian refugees It is a moral responsibility for gulf states to take in Syrian refugees both in terms of common humanity and as they all belong to the same culture and regional organisations (i.e. The Arab League). The numbers taken by the gulf states look particu... | |
Taking in refugees is not the only thing that countries can contribute in combating the Syria refugee crisis. Gulf countries are known to have donated a total of around £589m in addition to other aid they have delivered. This is vital to make the camps that have sprung up along Syria’s borders liveable. | |
The Gulf states are a convenient place to settle Syrian refugees With language being the basis of communication, and most of the gulf state’s population speaking in Arabic, which is the language widely spoken by Syrians the Gulf states are a natural choice to take in refugees. Syria and the Gulf states also have simil... | |
The affinity as a result of joint linguistic and cultural ties between Syrians and the gulf may be of little use if the refugees are heavily restricted in where they live or can do. If they are put into camps with little contact with the outside world the refugees could simply be cut off from this social network. Syria... | |
Unfortunately the refugee crisis is not happening at a good time economically for the Gulf. Oil prices have slumped. As a result there is a turbulent economy with many losing their jobs. [1] There is high levels of competition for those jobs that do exist and in the gulf people often get their jobs through influence (W... | |
European countries have taken in a huge number of refugees while gulf states have taken none There were 1,294,000 claims for asylum in Europe in 2015 with more than a fifth of these coming originally from Syria. [1] Although many Arab states have shouldered their share of the burden, particularly neighbouring Jordan a... | |
Gulf countries could benefit from refugees Just like Gulf countries have greatly benefitted from expat immigration, the U.A.E being a great example of such growth where the expat population is estimated to be 84% of the UAE population [1] , Gulf countries in the same way can make use of Syrian refugees immigrating. Sy... | |
The effort to fund and arm the rebels has not shown any result, it’s been over 4 years and yet nothing has solved the problem. Rather the situation has got steadily worse with moderate opposition first losing out to Daesh, and then to Assad since Russian air support tipped the balance. Arming rebel groups simply helps ... | |
Refugees can’t be choosers in a situation where their country has been destroyed. A survey conducted among refugees arriving in Germany showed that around 68% of the people fled just to save themselves from the imminent threat. [1] The Gulf States may not be a model of democracy and human rights but migrants would be c... | |
ISIS could infiltrate to Gulf States The 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris show that ISIS has the ability to infiltrate countries through refugees. Although the participants in these attacks had been living in France and Brussels some had also been to fight in Syria and at least one, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, returned along t... | |
The Gulf states want to solve the root of the refugee crisis; getting rid of Assad Gulf countries have been trying to fix the problem politically rather than taking in a few refugees, which would be beneficial to most of the Syrians? The vast majority of Syrians would prefer to go home to a Syria with the civil war ov... | |
The Gulf states are themselves not bastions of freedom Syrians are leaving Syria as a result of a civil war born out of the Arab Spring, it was an attempt to gain more freedom within a dictatorship. [1] Such a population is unlikely to wish to move to a country where freedoms are often restricted. All the countries of... | |
The incidents that occurred in Europe were involving native Europeans themselves, although they did travel to and back from Syria. Just like Europe could have home grown terrorists, the same likeliness applies to the gulf states. In fact statistics even show that one of the highest number of recruits for Daesh has bee... | |
This infrastructure still costs money, whatever event it is around: a state could launch an infrastructure drive without a football tournament that would be much more focused on the real needs of the people. Foreign investment can have significant costs, such as preferential access to natural resources. The work can of... | |
Legacy of infrastructure The benefits of hosting these events for African nations include the ability to concentrate on infrastructure for the event. In addition to sporting infrastructure, which could last well in excess of 50 years, homes, hospitals, roads and schools have been constructed in Gabon’s host cities [1]... | |
There were only two host cities in each country, however. This is understandable: the African Cup of Nations does not use as large a number of venues as other tournaments. The 2013 edition in South Africa used a larger, fifth, venue for three matches only, and the 2015 event will revert to four venues. | |
The ACN in Gabon shows what can be done by smaller African nations A key reason for hosting any big sporting event is that it puts the host in a shop window. Unless the event is a disaster (as, arguably, Angola’s tournament was due to the gun attack on the Togo team), which it was not, it creates an opportunity for th... | |
Aside from the cost issues, the event is short-lived, a few weeks. An event such as the African Cup of Nations will only be remembered for a while, and then it will just be a footnote in history, fading from the memory quicker than an event like a World Cup. The ACN is focused largely within Africa, when all the PR ben... | |
The African Cup of Nations brings very few tourists with it; Ghana vs Guinea had only 4,000 fans while the Zambia vs Sudan Quarter final only had a few hundred spectators. [1] Numbers like this are clearly not going to boost local shops and bars much. Even the investment does not boost local small businesses; the contr... | |
Benefits spread across the country The benefits of these events, unlike hosting an event such as an Olympic Games (which would be outside the reach of Gabon or Equatorial Guinea, especially with the increasing trend of the IOC to select major world cities in medium or high income countries), is that more than one site... | |
Helps small businesses There is a big benefit for small businesses in hosting the large sporting events. The hosting of the tournament in 2012 has been credited by African Economic Outlook with playing a role in the “robust” economic growth in the country in that year turning the country around from negative growth in... | |
Few countries in Africa meet with approval on the part of Freedom House. At any rate, sport and politics are supposed to be separate. Also, human rights concerns could be advanced by placing these countries under the spotlight, rather than the usual position of them being ignored | |
There are always other things that any sum of money could be spent on. Every nation, even ones with large economies and high development standards have other things to spend money on. The reason why many nations desire to host prestigious sporting events, giving them varying level of government support, at local or na... | |
Empty seats Organizers in Gabon had to hand out free tickets to fill stadia [1] . This not only makes the tournament appear unpopular to TV viewers, it reduces the revenues of the event. It would be better for the sport if the Africa Cup of Nations was held in countries that are likely to sell out more of the matches... | |
Showcasing countries with poor human rights records Allowing a country to host a major sporting event gives them a big boost in international prestige. Repressive regimes to not deserve this. Equatorial Guinea, a dictatorship run by Teoodoro Obiang, is one of the world’s worst human rights offenders, with the worst p... | |
Cost could be spent on other things Gabon’s government invested €370 million in the games. [1] Even though it is one of the more stable West African countries, there are still many people living in grinding poverty – nearly 20% of the population, according to the World Bank [2] . While infrastructure development is we... | |
Ticket sales, while good for revenue, are not crucial. The African Cup of Nations has never been an event with large scale sellout crowds for every match like a World Cup. Disposable incomes are lower in Africa compared to the rest of the world. This coupled with the vast size of the area covered by the confederation ... | |
While membership in the European Union might contribute to peace, economic cooperation and good diplomatic relations being a member is neither the cause such stability nor is it sufficient on its own. There are countries outside the European Union that are stable states – such as Norway and there are countries within t... | |
EU expansion is good for current members politically. Expansion means extending a project which has ensured unprecedented levels of peace and cooperation among former enemies in western Europe for nearly half a century. This was the original purpose of the European project. The European Union started out as the Europe... | |
That there were immense trade increases during the period when the new member states were joining does not necessarily show causality or that these same increases would not have been created without EU membership. Development and economic integration is something that will occur regardless of whether applicant countrie... | |
EU expansion is right. It is right to extend the economic and political benefits enjoyed by existing EU members to the rest of Europe. States in eastern Europe are still recovering from the “dead hand” of communist rule imposed after deals between the USSR and the USA and Britain at the end of World War II. Many withi... | |
European Union expansion is not a moral process. No one in Europe is trying to claim some kind of ‘civilising mission’. The remaining countries that are outside the European Union cannot be said to be countries that the members of the European Union had abandoned to Russian rule in the same way that could be said of Po... | |
While an argument for cooperation (including logistic and financial support) between the EU and neighbouring states, it is not an argument for granting full EU membership to these states. While the prospect of membership may motivate countries to introduce reforms, premature accession can cause this progress to grind t... | |
EU expansion is good for current members economically. The current economic crisis within Europe masks its immense success in turning new member states into prosperous economies while also benefiting those who were already members. Between 1999 and 2007 trade between the new and old member states grew from 175 billion... | |
Expansion furthers EU ideals. The prospect of joining the EU has been an impetus for reform in many ex-communist countries, driving changes (e.g. legal reforms, privatizations, human rights) that are desirable in their own right. The progress made in a few years by the first wave of eastern European states to join the... | |
According to the principle of free movement of people, citizens of EU may work and study anywhere in the EU. This is a very important chance for every individual and should be embraced. By spending part of their education or training in another EU country, they acquire an insight into other work environments and gain s... | |
Conflicts of interest between member states are inevitable. Britain has consistently been one of the outlier states even though it has been a member since 1974 and has many interests in common with the other old members of the EU. It has remained outside the Eurozone and the Schengen agreement and disagrees on policies... | |
The European Union is no longer in a financial position to be taking in new members. The financial crisis and European Union member states’ having to bail each other out means that there will be less money available for any new members. The bailouts have cost the EU more than $500 billion plus financing the European S... | |
Expansion would be unpopular. As expansion moves outward to places that are further and further away from the western European countries and into countries that are culturally less ‘European’ there is bound to be less enthusiasm for allowing them to join. Turkey is the country most likely to be a victim of public opin... | |
There will be an even greater brain drain from poorer countries to richer. As the EU expands allows poorer and poorer countries to join there are likely to be increasing problems with internal migration creating a brain drain. The EU will not in the future be able to be nearly as generous in terms of funds to develop ... | |
Expansion will create conflicts of interest between members. Continuing expansion will mean a dilution of common national interests between the member states. National interests are to a large extent based upon geography and the economy. The EU-15 could be said to have both a unity of purpose; preventing another war b... | |
Previous enlargements were unpopular as well with support in the low 40s percentage points in 2001 however this rapidly increased to above 50% as enlargement approached before falling back, possibly as a result of media attention towards the possible negative consequences such as immigration. [1] Therefore basing poli... | |
First of all while many members of the EU are experiencing low or even negative growth the bailouts don’t actually make Europe poorer as they have so far been loans that will have to be paid out. Even if current members are unwilling or unable to give large subsidies to any members that may join the European Union in t... | |
Further expansion is not in NATO’s interests. The alliance is based on the principle that the security of one is the security of all, so that all members will go to war if any one member is attacked. This is a very serious commitment and should not lightly be extended to new nations. The irresponsible manner in which G... | |
Expansion is in the interests of NATO Expansion to include Georgia and Ukraine is in the interests of NATO. After more than a decade without a clear role, the alliance now once again stands for the principle of solidarity between western liberal democracies. The hopes of the 1990s for a new world order in which a demo... | |
In retrospect, the decision to welcome the former Soviet states in the Baltic into NATO appears foolish. They continue to have a prickly relationship with Russia, which has some legitimate concerns about the treatment of large Russian minorities in Latvia and Estonia, and about the siting of US nuclear defences. Their ... | |
The people of Ukraine and Georgia want to join Many people in both Ukraine and Georgia wish to join NATO, and that is the best reason for welcoming them into the alliance. NATO is an alliance of democratic states and should respond positively to the request of a sovereign nation. In Georgia a non-binding referendum on... | |
It is far from the settled will of the Georgian and Ukrainian peoples that they wish to join NATO. Georgia’s President Saakashvili did wish to join, but after his disastrous attempt to regain control of South Ossetia was unable to bring his country with him. Saakashvilli was defeated in parliamentary elections and ran ... | |
There is a strong precedent for expansion There is a strong precedent for letting Ukraine and Georgia join NATO. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are also former Soviet states, and Russia objected to their entry into NATO quite as much as it objects today about its Black Sea neighbours. [1] Yet Russia was not allowed a v... | |
Dramatic and depressing as events in Georgia in 2008 were, the loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia actually make Georgia better suited to NATO membership than before. There would have been a clear danger of allowing Georgia into NATO if the status of these breakaway regions was unsettled, with the obvious potential for ... | |
We do not need to buy Russia cooperation by sacrificing Georgian and Ukrainian sovereignty. The West would like Russian cooperation in a whole range of areas, but this isn’t a zero sum game where if one side wins the other must lose out. Russia should also worry about issues such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, cl... | |
The West is reliant on Russia’s Gas reserves NATO’s European members have an additional reason not to offend Russia by continuing to expand the alliance in defiance of Moscow. Much of Europe depends on imports of Russian gas for their energy needs, Russia currently supplies 25% of European gas and this may rise to as ... | |
NATO is divided on how to deal with Georgia The conflict in Georgia showed how NATO is already badly divided over how to respond to Russia. Old European states such as Germany and Italy are much readier to accommodate Russian interests than America, [1] which is supported by newer NATO members such as Poland and the C... | |
The West needs to deal with Russia Western countries should seek to compromise with Russia, as they need its cooperation in a whole range of areas. Global efforts against terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, energy security and organised crime will all fail without Russian participation. Russia’s veto pow... | |
Russian strength is illusory – the country’s wealth is highly dependent on the energy exports and its economy is very vulnerable to a fall in oil and gas prices. Russia needs to sell its oil at $115 per barrel for the budget to balance. [1] Despite recent hostility to foreign oil firms attempting to operate in Russia, ... | |
Both countries are among the most prosperous economies in the entire world and have nothing to gain from EU membership. Through their EEA and EFTA memberships, as well as bilateral deals with Brussels, both Norway and Switzerland have access to the Single Market and are fully integrated into the European economy. While... | |
Benefits of joining the European Union Both Norway and Switzerland already gain from their economic association with the European Union, but they would realise much greater benefits if they formally joined the organisation. Being imperfectly integrated into the European economy means that consumers pay higher prices f... | |
While it is true that trading freely with the EU requires acceptance of many of its rules, neither country has given up control over those areas they consider key policy areas. These are the areas that Norway and Switzerland most important such as agriculture, fishing (highly important for Norway) and foreign affairs. ... | |
It would be easy to assimilate into the EU Both Switzerland and Norway would be warmly welcomed within the EU family and guaranteed a speedy entry into the Union. As advanced economies with strong legal and political institutions, they would be easy for the EU to assimilate, especially given their close involvement in... | |
There is little room for small states in a globalizing world Both countries would benefit from pooling sovereignty in an increasingly globalised world. For relatively small states true independence is no longer possible, with countries like Switzerland and Norway at the mercy of bigger economic forces. Thus Switzerlan... | |
Being small may well be the best way of avoiding the effects of globalization. Globilization is not only transferring power up from the state level to a more globalized level but also down to the local level. This works to the advantage of small states and as a very decentralized state this is particularly likely to be... | |
It is clear why the EU would like to welcome the rich Swiss and Norwegians within its embrace, but why would either country want to sign up for a project which would involve their citizens’ taxes being given away to other countries? EU waste and fraud are legendary, so it is easy to understand why voters have consisten... | |
There is no moral obligation upon either state to join the EU. Both can continue to play a full part in promoting peace and stability outside the organization. As a NATO member with a firmly internationalist outlook, Norway already makes a big contribution to peacekeeping around the world. Indeed its valuable role as a... | |
Norway and Switzerland already implement many EU policies Both Norway [1] and Switzerland [2] have agreements with the EU allow them the access to its enormous market that they need to survive economically, but at the same time they have to abide by EU rules that they have no influence over making. Norway in particula... | |
The EU shares the same values as Norway and Switzerland The European project has been a great political success in first ensuring, and then extending democracy and stability within the European continent. As strong democracies Switzerland and Norway surely belong within the EU family, and should play their part in adv... | |
Replacing their currencies with the Euro would also benefit both Switzerland and Norway. Over the past ten years the Euro has gained in strength and credibility, and is now clearly the world’s second currency after the dollar. The high volatility of sterling shows the danger of trying to maintain your own currency as a... | |
Many other countries in the European Union are proud of their sovereignty, Britain for example was also initially reluctant to join the EU and has worried about losing sovereignty ever since. All the Eastern European states have been dominated by outside powers much more recently than Norway has and yet welcome the EU.... | |
CAP and Fisheries policies would damage traditional industr By remaining outside the EU itself, neither has to sacrifice key elements of its domestic economy to Brussels in a way countries like the UK do. For cultural and environmental reasons both countries protect and subsidise their small family farms, which would ... | |
Requirement to join the Euro Even if EU membership were in the interests of Switzerland and Norway, the requirement that all new members join the Euro provides a strong argument against joining the Union itself. At present, both countries have strong currencies, with the Swiss Franc a major international reserve curre... | |
Strong traditions of Sovereignty Both Norway and Switzerland greatly value their sovereignty and do not want to give it up to Brussels. The Swiss have a tradition of proud independence stretching back to the middle ages, while the Norwegians still remember what it was like to be politically dominated by Denmark and Sw... | |
Just as a high degree of reliance upon free economic markets was instrumental to the growing prosperity in the modern era of the First World nations, so too a free economic market at the international level would tend to enhance the growth and development of a strong world economy. As for national government anti-cycli... | |
Economic globalization suggests the need for political globalization Economic interaction among the nations of the world, in the form of trade, investment and migration, has reached such a point today that it is meaningful to think of “the world economy.” Economic globalization suggests the need for political globaliz... | |
Although the problems of resource depletion and environmental deterioration are indeed serious global problems, it is unreasonably optimistic and idealistic to believe that a world government, in and of itself, would be an effective instrument toward the reduction of these problems. The world government would likely pr... |
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