Category: CARPO Reports


Urbanism in Flux. Smart and Sustainable Cities as Spaces for Regional Cooperation in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula 

Urbanism in Flux. Smart and Sustainable Cities as Spaces for Regional Cooperation in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula 

by Sina Winkel and Sebastian Sons

Cities generate 75% of global CO₂ emissions from energy use, with rapid urbanization projected in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in the GCC countries. Urbanization poses challenges like housing shortages, congestion, pollution and inefficient public transport. In response, GCC countries are developing smart cities, such as Saudi Arabia’s NEOM and the UAE’s Masdar City, aiming for high quality of life and economic growth. However, these projects face issues like social inequalities, infrastructure deficits and environmental impacts. Despite technological advances, obstacles to sustainable development persist. The authors of this CARPO Report argue that regional cooperation is crucial to addressing these challenges and fostering sustainable urban growth through initiatives that emphasize cultural heritage, environmental education and community engagement, promoting socio-economic and environmental resilience. 

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CARPO Reports, CARPO Sustainability Series, Tafahum
Energy Injustice and Its Role for Environmental Peacebuilding

Energy Injustice and Its Role for Environmental Peacebuilding

Ahmad Al-Wadaey, Tobias Zumbrägel and Ali Alamudi

This Report discusses the crucial but understudied impact of oil extraction industries on local communities and the environment in Yemen’s Hadhramawt governorate. By combining conceptual approaches of energy justice and the environmental peacebuilding literature, it provides a novel perspective on how environmental pollution via the oil industry in Yemen creates injustices and grievances and might hamper sustainable peace efforts. Using a mixed method approach of both quantitative and qualitative analyses, the empirical assessment in two districts of Hadhramawt governorate, Tarim and Sah, confirms assumptions about widespread and severe oil pollution negatively impacting the local population. Based on a household survey and additional expert interviews, it further describes potential avenues for remediation that offer recommendations for concrete action on environmental peacebuilding strategies.

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CARPO Reports, CARPO Sustainability Series, Impact of Oil Extraction Industries on Local Communities and the Environment in Hadhramawt, Yemen, Tobias Zumbrägel
China, Corona, Climate Change – Three Gamechangers for the Arab Gulf States 

China, Corona, Climate Change – Three Gamechangers for the Arab Gulf States 

by Stefan Lukas and Sebastian Sons 

This CARPO Report analyzes how the Corona pandemic, China and climate change are acting as major gamechangers for the Arab Gulf States, reshuffling old geopolitical, economic and social structures. These new developments in the region also mean that European players will have to come up with new strategies if they are not to lose more political relevance in the future. Hence, the authors not only describe the main trends, but also identify possible courses of action for European decision-makers. 

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CARPO Reports, Global autocratic collaboration in times of COVID-19
Research Cooperation with the ‘Global South’ [in German]

Research Cooperation with the ‘Global South’ [in German]

by Sarah Wessel 

This CARPO Report outlines the critical debate about the ‘Global South’, the effect of unequal distribution in the emergence, generation and acceptance of specific knowledge regimes as well as central challenges in cooperation with sometimes politically sensitive and crisis-ridden contexts. The concluding recommendations for research institutions, funding organizations and politics encourage a debate on how research cooperation can be structured globally on an equal footing if research and innovation are increasingly becoming fields of geopolitical contestations. 

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Allgemein, CARPO Reports
The Role of the Environment in Peacebuilding in Yemen 

The Role of the Environment in Peacebuilding in Yemen 

by Bilkis Zabara and Tobias Zumbrägel 

This Report addresses the relationship between violent conflict and environmental governance in Yemen. It translates the concept of environmental peacebuilding to the case of Yemen, where it has not received broader attention in terms of post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation efforts. The study compares six different governorates, namely Sana’a, Dhamar, Ibb, Ta‘iz, Aden and Hadhramawt and finds that all governorates face specific threats. If these challenges are not addressed adequately and in a sustainable manner, they can accelerate social conflict and ultimately threaten long-term solutions for peace and stability in the country. To promote the concept of environmental peacebuilding, the Report provides several suggestions for concrete action by international actors working on Yemen.  

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Allgemein, Bilkis Zabara, CARPO Reports, CARPO Sustainability Series, Publications, Research Cooperation on Peacebuilding in Yemen, Tobias Zumbrägel
‘Broken People Can’t Heal a Nation.’ The Role of Arts in Peacebuilding in Yemen

‘Broken People Can’t Heal a Nation.’ The Role of Arts in Peacebuilding in Yemen

by Yazeed al-Jeddawy, Maged al-Kholidy and Kate Nevens

This Report looks at how the arts and peacebuilding have historically intersected in Yemen, and how traditional arts are alive today and are being used to promote peace and war. It demonstrates the variety of ways in which the arts promote and educate on the values of peace, equality and cultural diversity while also being a tool for documenting life during war, telling untold stories and preserving collective memory. It also highlights the use of art for advocating against violence and human rights violations, for supporting the psychosocial wellbeing of traumatized people, and for rebuilding relationships in communities torn apart by the war. The Report concludes with recommendations for a number of different ways in which the arts can make a direct and indirect contribution to peacebuilding in Yemen.

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Allgemein, CARPO Reports, Kate Nevens, Maged al-Kholidy, Publications, Yazeed al-Jeddawy
Turning Interdependence into Complementary Action

Turning Interdependence into Complementary Action

by Julia Gurol & Parisa Shahmohammadi

This CARPO Report lays out what the role of China could be in the quest to safeguard the JCPOA. It outlines the viewpoints of Brussels and Beijing, and sketches converging and diverging interests and their influence on respective policy choices. It assesses two scenarios for the future of the JCPOA and puts forward the argument that despite deepening political constraints (e.g. normative differences, systemic challenges and increasing mistrust), there is a need for complementary action between the E3 countries and China with regard to the JCPOA.

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CARPO Reports, Julia Gurol, Parisa Shahmohammadi, Publications
Understanding Peace Requirements in Yemen

Understanding Peace Requirements in Yemen

by Mareike Transfeld & Marie-Christine Heinze

This CARPO Report serves as a background paper to five short studies Yemeni-international researcher tandems will develop in the course of 2019. It places a particular focus on ‘peace requirements’, a term that seeks to draw attention to the manifold challenges to establishing stability and building peace in Yemen and the resulting efforts which will be required. In laying out these peace requirements, the CARPO Report focuses on the following relevant sectors: economy, politics, culture and society, security and justice, education, and environment. In a last step, it takes a look at the challenges to and capacities of five different actor groups in Yemen to address these needs: civil society, women, youth, the media and the private sector.

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CARPO Reports, Mareike Transfeld, Marie-Christine Heinze, Publications, Research Cooperation on Peacebuilding in Yemen
Back to Crisis Mode. Iran’s Quest to Manage Internal Crises and External Pressures [in German]

Back to Crisis Mode. Iran’s Quest to Manage Internal Crises and External Pressures [in German]

by Adnan Tabatabai

This CARPO Report is dedicated to an analytical discussion about how the ongoing crisis surrounding the nuclear agreement between the E3/EU+3 and Iran is affecting the foreign policy conduct of the Islamic Republic, its internal power balance, as well as the future of state-society relations in Iran. This is the German translation of the original version, which was published by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in cooperation with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).

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Adnan Tabatabai, CARPO Reports, Publications
Addressing Security Sector Reform in Yemen. Challenges and Opportunities for Intervention During and Post-Conflict

Addressing Security Sector Reform in Yemen. Challenges and Opportunities for Intervention During and Post-Conflict

edited by Marie-Christine Heinze

This CARPO Report is the result of a conference with the same name, which was jointly organized by CARPO and the Regional Office Gulf States of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) at the Dead Sea in April 2017. The papers by prolific experts on Yemen included in this publication discuss the changes, obstacles and limits for successful security sector reform in Yemen during and after the conflict and offer respective recommendations for national and international policy-makers in the field.

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Addressing Security Sector Reform in Yemen, CARPO Reports, Marie-Christine Heinze, Publications
Returning to Transitional Justice in Yemen. A Backgrounder on the Commission on the Forcibly Retired in the Southern Governorates

Returning to Transitional Justice in Yemen. A Backgrounder on the Commission on the Forcibly Retired in the Southern Governorates

by Jens Kambeck

This CARPO Report focuses on the work of the Commission on the Forcibly Retired in the Southern Governorates, which was established in the framework of the GCC Initiative. The author argues that if the unity of Yemen is to be preserved, the only path forward is to take concrete and earnest steps to rebuild trust between North and South through transitional justice, once the ongoing war has come to an end. Such a trust-building process can—amongst others—build on the work of the Commission presented here. The CARPO Report thus concludes with respective recommendations.

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CARPO Reports, Jens Kambeck, Peacebuilding and State building in Yemen, Projects, Publications
Iran Votes. A Primer to the Elections of Parliament and the Assembly of Experts

Iran Votes. A Primer to the Elections of Parliament and the Assembly of Experts

by Adnan Tabatabai

The twin elections of 26 February 2016 are the first to be held after the nuclear agreement between Iran and P5+1 has been signed. This CARPO Report sheds light on the current political climate in Iran and presents analytical criteria to apprehend both the interplay between parliament and government, as well as the key tasks for the Assembly of Experts. The main electoral contenders and parties are then introduced before the author provides insights on how senior officials view these dual elections. It concludes by highlighting the electorate’s key demands and by presenting a set of parameters to look into the upcoming months.

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Adnan Tabatabai, CARPO Reports, Publications
Yemen. Actors, Factors, Scenarios [in German]

Yemen. Actors, Factors, Scenarios [in German]

by Marie-Christine Heinze

Three years after nation-wide protests forced Yemen’s President Ali Abdallah Salih to step down, the country is in a highly volatile state. Numerous, largely armed actors fight for the advancement of their strategic interests while Houthi militias increasingly block the efforts of the newly elected government in the capital city Sanaa. Regional and international actors are also relevant for the political developments of the past three years and those of the future. This CARPO Report offers an overview of the current context, the most important actors as well as relevant factors for future developments in Yemen. Three possible scenarios for the next 1-2 years are elaborated and options for German development agencies are proposed. Available only in German.

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CARPO Reports, Marie-Christine Heinze, Publications