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About Erwin van Veen

Erwin van Veen (@ErwinVeen) is a senior research fellow in the Conflict Research Unit at Clingendael in The Netherlands.

Articles by Erwin van Veen

This week’s front page editor

Rosemary Bechler is a mainsite editor of openDemocracy

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

The return of authoritarianism is priming the Middle East for more conflict

Erwin van Veen 19 December 2017

How is the Saudi-Iranian rivalry overwriting the Arab Spring’s key messages?

From Ramallah to Paris: the Middle East’s forgotten conflict

Erwin van Veen 18 January 2017

There are issues the international community should consider in the wake of the Paris talks if it is serious about its responsibilities under the United Nations Charter.

A new pathway to peace? Danger ahead for Sustainable Development Goal 16

Erwin van Veen 23 August 2016

What is needed is the operationalization of a universal principle into a set of diversified strategies aimed at different categories of countries, and uncomfortable partnerships.

The Iraqi crisis: rethinking the narrative

Erwin van Veen and Nick Grinstead 22 May 2015

An approach to Iraq focused on military intervention, with some humanitarian assistance, has defied the complexity of the domestic and regional kaleidoscope. No wonder it is failing.

Syria’s raging civil war and the west’s inertia

Erwin van Veen 25 July 2014

The Syrian imbroglio is very difficult, not intractable—and the west cannot continue to throw up its hands in despair.

Yemen’s future: like Tunisia or Libya?

Erwin van Veen 2 February 2014

The recent conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference in Yemen might seem to point to progress in that fractured state. But the absence of the rule of law and impartial authority is allowing violence to fester and the international community needs to act decisively.

Gauging ‘success’ in Yemen’s National Dialogue: mission impossible?

Erwin van Veen 27 September 2013

An agreement in 2011 averted dissent developing into violent conflict. The National Dialogue Conference has made progress against a backdrop of drone attacks and terrorist strikes, but as the process draws to a close there is all to play for.

Guns, drugs and dollars: getting global drivers of local violence on the post-2015 agenda

Erwin van Veen 29 April 2013

Leaving violence and conflict off the post-2015 agenda is a clear signal that countries want to keep the door towards increasing international accountability for the use of violence as closed as possible.

Pride and prejudice in Heglig

Erwin van Veen and Ann Fitz-Gerald 17 April 2012

The South Sudanese People's Liberation Army has moved into an oil town on the South Sudan/ Sudan border. While nationalist sentiment runs high, the newly separated states can ill afford renewed conflict: political dialogue is both difficult and urgent.

Stay alive: turning around a failing war

Robert Muggah and Erwin van Veen 14 October 2011

A deep strategic rethink is needed to reverse the dismal failure of the war on drugs and gangs, particularly in the way this has been fought across Central America and the Caribbean. Intimate community engagement and integral policy approaches are crucial steps in moving on from the bankrupt iron fist.

From spring into summer: key peacebuilding actions for Libya

Erwin van Veen 25 September 2011

Libyans face the complex challenge of creating a new order and a new society from the rubble of the old. Lessons learned elsewhere on peacebuilding and statebuilding offer a checklist and an evidence-based framework for action.

Building stable and peaceful states: a new framework for international action?

Erwin van Veen 7 July 2011

It is time to reframe the development discourse on conflict and fragility. A set of international objectives is needed that complements the MDGs to lead efforts to reduce conflict and fragility. But that is not enough. Making this happen will put the leadership, credibility and energies both of fragile countries and international actors to the test.