Sascha-Dominik Oliver Vladimir Bachmann

Hybrid Wars: The 21st-Century’s New Threats to Global Peace and Security

This article discusses a new form of war, ‘hybrid war’, with inclusion of aspects of ‘cyber-terrorism’ and ‘cyber-war’ against the backdrop of Russia’s ‘Ukrainian Spring’ and the continuing threat posed by radical Islamist groups in Africa and the Middle East. It also discusses the findings of an on-going hybrid threat project by the Swedish Defence College. This interdisciplinary article predicts that military doctrines, traditional approaches to war and peace and their perceptions will have to change in the future.

Russia’s Hybrid War and its implications for Defence and Security in the United Kingdom

This article uses the example of Russia’s aggressive action against Ukraine as an example of a new form of contemporary war fighting, namely hybrid war, and discusses how Russia has been successful in exploiting vulnerabilities of its opponents. The article reports on the United Kingdom as a case study to discuss potential threats and how these can be countered. While using the United Kingdom as an example, the ramifications of such a hybrid approach also apply to South Africa as a state which is vulnerable in respect to economic warfare, cyberattacks and its energy sector. The suggested counteractions could also be seen as lessons learned for a future South African scenario. It is a further development of a short submission to the Defence Select Committee of the UK House of Commons.

Current issues in transitional justice : towards a more holistic approach

This volume is an inter-disciplinary scholarly resource bringing together contributions from writers, experienced academics and practitioners working in fields such as human rights, humanitarian law, public policy, psychology, cultural and peace studies, and earth jurisprudence. This collection of essays presents the most up to date knowledge and status of the field of transitional justice, and also highlights the emerging debates in this area, which are often overseen and underdeveloped in the literature. The volume provides a wide coverage of the arguments relating to controversial issues emanating from different regions of the world. The book is divided into four parts which groups different aspects of the problems and issues facing transitional justice as a field, and its processes and mechanisms more specifically. Part I concentrates on the traditional means and methods of dealing with past gross abuses of power and political violence. In this section, the authors also expand and often challenge the ways that these processes and mechanisms are conceptualised and introduced. Part II provides a forum for the contributors to share their first hand experiences of how traditional and customary mechanisms of achieving justice can be effectively utilised. Part III includes a collection of essays which challenges existing transitional justice models and provides new lenses to examine the formal and traditional processes and mechanisms. It aims to expose insufficiencies and some of the inherent practical and jurisprudential problems facing the field. Finally, Part IV, looks to the future by examining what remedies can be available today for abuses of rights of the future generations and those who have no standing to claim their rights, such as the environment. Since the late 1980s massive political and legal transformations have taken place in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southern Africa, which has challenged many of the presumptions of legal and political foundations of a nation-state including the questions of how to build a nation-state in divided societies or the role of law in democracy building in the face of such massive societal changes driven by a holistic mix of players. This process is by no means over as one can judge but the most current ‘Arab Spring’ or even the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ type of movements across the world, including in the developed states. Participators of these events call for their rights to be upheld and protected; some others lobby for new rights to be recognised and realised. These worldwide phenomena challenge the existing international (legal and political) system and call for some novel and innovative means by which the new challenges can be addressed. Despite the vastness of research done on the subject matter this monograph suggests an innovative, if not challenging, way of utilising what the field of transitional justice has acquired in the process of examining how societies deal with past abuses to meet victims’ legitimate expectations of justice, truth and reparation. This manuscript will look to expand the field even further by suggesting that there are emerging fields which will, and in some instances already have, influenced the way we think about human rights in a global context. It will set forth new dimensions in conceptualising human rights and how their current and future instances of abuse can be addressed. This is a call to look ahead and into the future by trying to define the inadequacies of the current international system in recognising emerging trends. Understanding the world-wide developments, even if not yet fully legally defined, contributes to the work on combating impunity and ensuring respect for victims’ rights. As it is widely accepted that societies have different means of dealing with past (human) rights abuses thus it would be sensible to suggest that widening understanding of the relationship and cross-reference between the different fields and branches of international legal and political scholarship (all which affect human rights field) should also be encouraged. The Changing International Landscape of Transitional Justice: Emerging Trends and Issues will be a scholarly resource bringing together current knowledge and debates in the field and developing the many areas that are currently underdeveloped in the literature. The book will provide full coverage of the arguments relating to hot topics and controversial issues (e.g. hybrid threats, ecocide, ecological jurisprudence, case studies by practitioners from the human rights field). The invited contributors are all experienced academic writers and practitioners in their respective areas of expertise (law, politics, public policy, cultural studies).

Current Issues and Future Challenges in Transitional Justice

This chapter reflects upon the current status and the potential for the field of transitional justice, its theoretical aspects and practical application, to respond to the new and emerging challenges and threats of global significance. We propose a new understanding and approach to transitional justice, which is more responsive to the different types of transitions and conflicts by prescribing varied forms of justice through the different processes and mechanisms, formal and customary. Despite recognising the dangers and disadvantages of over-expanding the field, in order to accommodate the changing needs and experiences of the notion of transitional justice globally there is a necessity to open up new dimensions for exponential development of the field. We conclude with an observation that the notion and concept of transitional justice will continue to change and evolve as the needs of global society for achieving justice develop along new lines of conflicts and future global challenges.

Justice in Transition: On Territory, Restitution and History

Colonialism has had a huge impact upon the legal systems of countries around the world. The historical impact of the British Empire can still be felt today in countries as diverse as Australia and South Africa. This effect is explored in both these countries, both in its historical form of racial discrimination, as well as the modern consequences of this colonial past. This chapter will reflect on the Aboriginal land rights litigation in Australia , as well as the failed South African Apartheid litigation. By using these as examples, it aims to determine how certain conceptions of the Rule of Law and formal equality can lead to profound and ingrained legal discrimination against indigenous peoples.

Corporate Human Rights Responsibility and Multinationality in Emerging Markets – From a Developing Notion to the Legal Dimension

The principal aim of this article is to highlight the evolving concepts and ideas of Corporate Human Rights Responsibility (CHRR) under international law and how it relates to other concepts of corporate responsibility. The point of departure is the observation that there is the need to close an existing impunity gap of Western and emerging market MNCs’ complicity in Human Rights violations committed in the developing world. Two case studies from India and China highlight the present accountability gap. This article understands that the key issue with CHRR is the absence of a binding regime of binding norms, paired with the observation that implementation and enforcement issues seriously hamper any such development. Based on related initiatives such as CSR and ‘Good Corporate Practice,’ this article calls for an approach which is borne by a multitude of stakeholders, from consumers, employees to executive directors. Thus, the main research objective of this paper is to examine the concept of ‘Corporate Human Rights Responsibility’ in the context of Multinationality in emerging markets such as China and India and thereby to assess this distinctive notion through the prism of the legal dimension.