The Somali Federal Government (SFG), established in August 2012, has been widely welcomed as Somalia's first "post-transition" government, receiving breathlessly upbeat media coverage and plaudits from the international community. Matt Bryden argues in this report that these buoyant judgments are based on highly selective appraisals of the situation. The SFG remains frail and embattled. Furthermore, there are major question marks over its inclusiveness and its relationships with other Somali authorities and factions. Less than a year into the SFG's mandate, hope and optimism are steadily...

Satellite imagery and geospatial analysis tools offer an unprecedented opportunity to harness new technologies in order to help resolve boundary disputes. The South China Sea in Focus: Clarifying the Limits of Maritime Dispute uses these tools to provide a first and necessary step toward tackling the overlapping maritime disputes in the South China Sea: determining which waters are and are not in dispute under international law. The report opens with a set of geographic information system (GIS)-based maps that provide an easily understandable benchmark against which policymakers and academics...

There is a broad and enduring international consensus that good governance and the rule of law are important for the attainment of sustainable development results. But recognizing that good governance is important for development is one thing; carrying out effective international programs to support improved governance is something very different. It seems logical that international cooperation efforts intended to help achieve such results should include programmatic support for these important elements. During the past 30 years the development cooperation agenda has expanded to include...

The ability to access and economically develop vast amounts of America's unconventional natural gas resources, especially large shale gas formations, has altered our national view on energy and has subsequently changed the discourse at the federal, state, and local levels. Since 2008, when the economic viability of shale gas resources first became widely recognized, policymakers and industry leaders have worked to better understand the nature of this resource; the risks and opportunities associated with its production, transport, and use; and the potential strategic implications of the United...

When recipients cannot absorb the aid and attention they are offered, the common response is "capacity building"--as if the source of the problem is the recipient's implementation capacity. In this report, Robert D. Lamb and Kathryn Mixon present the results of their research on the sources of absorptive capacity. They find that this sort of "blaming the victim" mentality, while common, is not always justified. While it is true that many aid recipients do not have adequate capacity for implementation, it is equally true that many aid programs are designed and implemented without an adequate...

The CSIS Working Group on Private-Sector Development in Fragile, Conflict-Affected, and Violent States identifies tools available to the international business community and the U.S. government to assist these countries, as well as the gaps in needed resources. Participants examined cases from Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, and Liberia to glean examples of successes and failures in private-sector development, with the goal of identifying potential roles for host governments and the international private sector. This report presents the results of those discussions.

Twenty years ago, India launched its "Look East" policy. For most of those 20 years, Myanmar's isolation, mistrust between India and its neighbors, and poor infrastructure connectivity hindered the development of links between South and Southeast Asia. With Myanmar's tentative opening and improved relations between India and Bangladesh, an opportunity exists for India to boost trade and security ties with mainland and maritime Southeast Asia. And the United States, during President Barack Obama's second term, is committed to rebalancing toward Asia, with India playing a pivotal role. With...

America's nuclear energy industry is in decline. Low natural gas prices, financing hurdles, failure to find a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste, reactions to the Fukushima accident in Japan, and other factors are hastening the day when existing U.S. reactors become uneconomic. The decline of the U.S. nuclear energy industry could be much more rapid than policy makers and stakeholders anticipate. China, India, Russia, and others plan on adding nuclear technology to their mix, furthering the spread of nuclear materials around the globe. U.S. companies must meet a significant...

In development, stabilization, and peace building, donors increasingly recognize the importance of being sensitive to the local contexts of their efforts. Yet the use of "blueprints" remains widespread. Even when standard approaches are modified for particular aid partners, there often remains a poor fit between donor efforts and local conditions. When recipients cannot absorb the aid and attention they are offered, the common response is "capacity building." While it is true that many aid recipients do not have adequate capacity for implementation, this report presents the results of a case...

The Center for Strategic and International Studies launched the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) in 2003 in order to revitalize and strengthen a community of nuclear weapons experts whose training and background increasingly emphasize multidisciplinary expertise, especially among younger generations. In support of this goal, the PONI conference series was created to provide a forum for facilitating new and innovative thinking on how to address the evolving role of nuclear weapons in international security and to gather people from across the policy and technical communities to discuss key...