Displacement and Migration as a Foreign Policy Challenge

Abstract

The chapter focuses on the root causes of forced displacement and the role foreign policy can play in addressing them. The record numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons are a direct consequence of an increasing number of armed conflicts around the globe but in particular in Africa and the Middle East. These conflicts, while each of them has its specific origins, are aggravated by the fact that they take place in a changing international environment with increased great-power competition and shrinking influence of the ‘West’. In addressing these conflicts, international actors have to overcome substantial obstacles both in the international arena and in their domestic politics. Results of international conflict-resolution efforts in the past 30 years are mixed at best. The author argues that successful intervention – on whatever scale – requires well-coordinated efforts and the flexible use of a wide range of instruments in support of a politically defined strategy. It requires the investment of political capital and sustained, often long-term effort. In the end, all conflict resolution is political.