The transition towards multipolarity in the international system has concerned many observers in recent years. This is based partly on the assumption that multipolarity will create competition rather than cooperation as international actors promote or object to intervention in conflicts based on their own geostrategic, economic or political interests.
While violent conflict is a key obstacle to overall human development, and to economic development in particular, the impacts of conflicts on people vary greatly. Conflict exposure may vary by gender, political view, socio-economic status or mere bad luck. Socio-economic research on conflict has demonstrated that the circumstances of conflict matter greatly to policies designed to overcome legacies of conflict. Successful reconstruction policies must therefore build on specific local conflict legacies, considering how people were affected by war and violence.
The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has yet to enter into force because of the unwillingness of a number of states—including India—to ratify it. Although India initially participated in negotiating the CTBT, it subsequently walked out of the negotiations and has never signed the treaty.
The case of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the surrounding region shows how the establishment of effective air traffic and safety management systems would lead to better controls on the transfer by air of weapons, valuable raw materials and other strategic commodities which may be smuggled or subject to illicit taxation.