Transitional Security Arrangements: A Comparative Perspective

What can Cyprus learn from comparable cases? How have other settlements addressed security challenges, including the need for external guarantees and protection of human security? This paper draws on a range of settlements, but pays particular attention to other conflicts that include a de facto state or have been characterised by significant kin-state/patron-state involvement. Like the Cyprus conflict, these are at the extreme end of the spectrum of territorial solutions, which calls for creative solutions that fudge the issue of sovereignty. The paper finds a lack of examples of robust security guarantees being provided by a patron state, but there are examples of softer guarantees. The paper also considers other forms of guarantees that can supplement, or in some cases replace, external security guarantees. This includes the use of phases, built-in targets and conditions. The paper concludes by considering security within the state’s constituent units, in particular protections for local minorities.

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Authors

Nina Caspersen

Editors

Ahmet Sözen, Jared L. Ordway