Kosovo - Model United Nations Simulation Exercise (2007)

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Region

• Europe: global recession and dividing lines - Federico Bordonaro
• NATO: position of France, its cohesion and future enlargement - Olivier Kempf

European Union

• European Union: foreign policy, communitarianism and civilisation - James Rogers
• European Union: geographical imaginations - Luiza Bialasiewicz
• European Union: geopolitical and chronopolitical othering - James Rogers
• European Union: geopolitical visions - Luiza Bialasiewicz
• European Union: global position and political integration - Federico Bordonaro
• European Union: Grand strategy, normative power and military policy - James Rogers
• External problems for Europe’s energy policy - A brief geopolitical analysis - Elmar Hellendoorn

Areas

• Cyprus: Geopolitical Realities, Representations and Aspirations - Emel Akçali
• France: national identity, urban riots and the 'War of Memories' - Jérémy Robine
• Georgia: Abkhazia, South Ossetia and conflict resolution - Marietta König
• Georgia: Saakasvili, corruption and the opposition - Marietta König
• Georgia-Russia - Model United Nations Simulation Exercise (2008) - David Criekemans
• Kosovo: self determination, secession and multi-ethnic regions - Gyula Csurgai
• Kosovo - Model United Nations Simulation Exercise (2007) - David Criekemans
• Geopolitics of energy and the role of Russia in global power shifts - David Criekemans
• Russia: global position, Eastern Europe and energy policy - Federico Bordonaro
• The inevitable flaws in Russia’s great power project - Martin Müller
• Russia and the US in a New World Energy Order - Timothy Boon von Ochssée

Books, Courses, External links, Quotes

Please check: Education

Dr. David Criekemans (December 2007)

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You can download the simulation exercise:

PDF-file of Simulation Exercise (879 kB)

Introduction

David Criekemans

Related external links

Onderzoeksgroep Diplomatie en Geopolitiek

Personal page of David Criekemans

"Geopolitiek, ‘geografisch geweten’ van de buitenlandse politiek?", Garant / Maklu (Antwerpen / Apeldoorn), 2007

For more than eight years since the unanimous adoption of resolution 1244 (1999) by the UN Security Council, the international community has been trying to find a solution to the ‘final status’ of Kosovo. Since February 2007, this debate is accelerating; the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, unveiled a plan to set Kosovo on a path to independence. The plan –although fully backed by the West– is highly controversial, both in Serbia and in Russia. To make matters worse, the relations between the Russian federation and some Western countries such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom have rapidly deteriorated as a result of conflicting interests:

• Washington’s intention to install anti-ballistic missile-facilities in the Czech republic and Poland "to protect against Iran" (but Moscow thinks it is targeting Russia);
• The UK-Russia row over the murder of ex-FSB spy Litvinenko, and Moscow’s unwillingness to extradite the FSB-spy and main suspect Lugovoi, resulting in the reciprocal expulsion of British and Russian diplomats;
• Western fears over Russia’s reliability and intentions regarding its gas and oil deliveries;
• The Russian row with Canada and the US about their respective territorial claims over the North Pole (gas &oil reserves);
• Russia’s restlessness over a further NATO-enlargement.

The ‘Kosovo-dossier’ risks becoming a victim of the rapidly deteriorating East-West-relationship. Russia might very well decide to take a stand in this dossier, bearing in mind its symbolic importance as a precedent in other potential secession cases and to repel any further Western intrusion in what they consider to be their ‘sphere of influence’. This setting forms the core of the negotiation exercise which you are about to embark upon.