The Åland Islands constitute a very special case in international law. This island territory under Finland's sovereignty has been demilitarised and neutralised for more than one hundred and forty years and autonomous for more than seventy years. In 1921 the Council of the League of Nations laid down international guarantees for the autonomy and the Swedish character of Åland, and a multilateral convention on Åland's demilitarisation and neutralisation was concluded in the same year. The convention is still in force and Åland's autonomy is firmly anchored in both customary international law and Finnish constitutional law. This volume is the first to comprehensively analyse Åland's international legal status. Coverage of its articles includes: analyses of the status and content of Åland's autonomy, military issues, and the relationship between Åland and the EU. The solution achieved for Åland may provide a valuable model of autonomy. This book is important not only for experts and students of international law, but for anyone concerned with territorial autonomy as a possible means for enhancing political rights of minorities.

This monograph provides a contemporary analysis of the frictions between peacemaking and international human rights law based on the cases of postconflict power-sharing in Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In this context it evaluates the long-standing debate in the United Nations and human rights bodies about the 'imperfect peace'. Written from a practitioner–scholarly viewpoint and drawing from new authentic sources, the book describes the mechanisms used in peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions for managing ethnic or religious diversity, explains their legal limits under international human rights law, and provides a conceptual framework for analysing the nexus between law and peacemaking. The book argues that the relationship between the content of peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions, their negotiation process and the element of time, needs to be untangled to better understand the legal limits of statebuilding in the aftermath of armed conflict. It is a key resource for scholars in human rights law and peace and conflict studies, advisers in peace processes, constitution-makers, and peace mediators.

Global Security and International Political Economy is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This 6-volume set contains several chapters, each of size 5000-30000 words, with perspectives, issues of great relevance to our world such as: Global Security; Global Security and the International System; The Regional Dimension of Global Security; The National Dimension Of Global Security; The Societal Dimension Of Global Security; The Human Security Agenda In World Politics; History Of Empires And Conflicts; The Myth Of The Clash Of Civilizations In Dialogical-Historical Context; Causes And Prevention Of Armed Conflict; International Development Policies And Global Security; Environment And Global Security; Political Economy Of International Security; Political Issues In Human Resource Development; Globalization And The Consumer Society. These volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.