Page 17 - The CoESPU Magazine N 1 - 2018

The preferred methodology would be to invite experienced senior practitioners who have demonstrated
success in overcoming each of these challenges to impart their experience and insights, guided by the
following questions tailored to their specific topic.
How to Properly Assess a Spoiler Threat and Devise a Strategy to Combat it Effectively?
· Were spoilers,
including criminalized power
structures, a major threat to
your mission? What obstacles
did you have to overcome?
· How did you assess
the spoiler threat and how did
your assessment shape the
strategy you pursued?
· What strategy did you
follow and what successes did
you manage to achieve?
· Should missions make
it a priority to combat all
manifestations of organized
crime (OC) and corruption or
should they focus surgically on the nexus between OC/corruption and political power?
· In public discourse, is it necessary to describe the issue in terms like OC and corruption but, inside
the mission, is it necessary to focus on the actual critical nodes of the network involved in the spoiler
threat?
· What conditions must be met before the mission should attempt to arrest a spoiler who is linked to
one of the parties to the conflict?
· What must we understand about the motivations of spoilers before we seek to develop a strategy? For
example, are the spoilers motivated primarily by
greed (wealth), grievance (power to rectify), or
ideology (power to shape policy)?
· What are the most effective means to influence
the incentive structures of spoilers motivated by
each of the above? When is punishment the better
option (e.g. naming and shaming, seizing assets,
taking legal action, defeating militarily), when is
inducement to be preferred, and when does an
appeal to what is proper and/or best for one’s
identity group work best?
· How can coordination among the multiple
international stakeholders be accomplished?
· How can coordination between the international
community and indigenous stakeholders be accomplished when some are spoilers?
· What are the primary lessons to be learned from your experience?
How to Combat Impunity and Reform a Politicized/Criminalized Legal System?

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