Grants and Contributions

This project explores how the full spectrum of United Nations (UN) peace operations can better protect civilians. Also, it seeks to understand how mis and disinformation affect UN peace operations' ability to protect civilians in 5 UN peace operations contexts. These contexts include Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, South Sudan and Sudan. Project activities include: (1) researching the full spectrum of UN peace operations and the impacts of disinformation on the protection of civilians; (2) developing issue briefs; (3) organizing round tables to share research findings; and (4) holding a dialogue series to encourage discussion.

With Canada’s support, the Henry L. Stimson Center aims to increase the effectiveness of United Nations (UN) peace operations to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers by: improving the UN Member States’ understanding of how to implement the Vancouver Principles (VPs), and enhancing the ability of peacekeepers to identify and develop plans to prevent or mitigate risk factors associated with the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

This project aims to improve the capacity of recipient states to reduce threats posed by malicious cyber activity, including cybercrime. Project activities include: (1) facilitating a regional training on international law and cyber norms; (2) convening virtual roundtables to examine the threat of cyber scam compounds in Southeast Asia; (3) producing awareness-raising materials on cyber security through a South Asian lens; and (4) launching the Global Cyber Accountability Report. The Stimson Center implements this project.

This project examines how to embed leadership approaches prioritizing gender-responsiveness and equality in United Nations (UN) peace operations. Project activities include: (1) compiling research on existing literature examining gender-responsiveness and peace operations leadership; (2) conducting workshops with current, potential, and former UN mission leaders to share their perspectives on gender-responsive leadership; (3) drafting and publishing an issue brief on how mission leadership uses gender-expertise in uniformed peacekeeping missions; and (4) arranging workshops on how gender-responsive leadership contributes to mission effectiveness

Building on Phase I of the project, in Phase II the Stimson Center will partner with American University to conduct a range of activities to field test the desktop NCCT prototype, to identify a commercial partner to develop and field test a more advanced, online version of the NCCT in a subsequent phase, and to develop a strategy for wider deployment based on the results of the field tests. The products will include: (1) an agreement on the particulars for field testing of the prototype with at least one jurisdiction (e.g., the length of the test, test standards and milestones, evaluation criteria; (2) a manual of instructions on using the prototype tailored to the field test jurisdiction(s); (3) provide live demonstrations to the field test jurisdiction(s) and support on installation and use of the tool for the test; (4) conduct and follow-up on the field test(s); and (5) engage potential cheminformatics developers on creating an online version of the prototype, finalize criteria for their selection, and select a developer for Phase III.

The Stimson Center will develop a Cheminformatics tool (Non-Proliferation Cheminformatics Compliance Tool (NCCT)) to address the challenge faced by front-line officers (e.g. border security, export controls, customs, security) to easily determine if a given chemical falls within the scope of a national or international control list.

This Project is composed of three separate Project activities (ASI + CW + STEP):
• to further develop the UNSCR 1540 Assistance Support Initiative (ASI) tool to establish an online catalogue of all UNSCR 1540 beneficiary-donor opportunities that will refine, populate and update the online 1540 Committee Catalogue Website with “match-making” beneficiary-donor opportunities, making it more robust, sustainable and useable with an extended language translation capability; ASI Phase 2 will explore synchronization with other databases, including those of the BTWC, the CWC and the IAEA to extend match-making opportunities and further enhance UNSCR 1540 implementation;
• to develop a Chemical Weapons (CW) Legal Frameworks Compendium Tool that will deliver a set of potential international standards for securing CW-related materials and facilities and analyse the indices, measures and standards to identify vulnerabilities in states and sectors with accompanying recommendations to address these vulnerabilities; and
• to implement a Security and Trade Efficiency Platform (STEP) program in the Southeast Asia region to enhance efforts to prevent illicit trafficking of strategic goods through Asian ports. A comprehensive evaluation of WMD proliferation vulnerabilities for countries in the ASEAN region will be undertaken and one country in the region will be selected and engaged with a view to identifying WMD-related supply chain security gaps found in regulatory and operational processes, as well as on-the-ground outreach to better understand and rectify operational weak points in the supply chain process that could be used to divert or traffic dual-use WMD materials in the selected country and eventually in the Southeast Asia region.