The efficacy and moral considerations of negotiating with terrorist groups, violent militias and mercenaries
Whether the ends justify the means is an impossible question to answer decisively. How unpalatable are the means and how desirable the ends? There is no definitive rulebook on how violent organisations such as Hamas need to be handled. Each example illustrates a different dynamic that requires a different response.
Political Economy of Human Rights: The Quest for Relevance and Realization
Advancing human rights to the level of global justice requires more than the current circus of councils, commissions, and committees with tedious documents deliberated in lengthy meetings. Coming closer to people in their daily pursuit of liberties and livelihoods is the most productive perspective for progress in the 21st century.
The Trial Will Not Be Televised: Mubarak and the Struggle for Power in the ‘New Egypt’
It is no small irony that while Egypt’s ‘new’ leadership is being lauded for making sure the Mubarak trial is not being rushed through a military court where standards of proof are lower and pressures on the defense can be higher, pro-democracy activists and protesters are being dragged through those same military courts in ever-greater numbers.
Contractors in the “War on Terror”: Enabling Global Military Deployment
What has begun as the “War on Terror” and is now a series of “overseas contingency operations” could in fact only go on in the global fashion that it did for almost ten years now because of the services provided by several hundred thousand contractors. In short, private contractors serve as enablers of this decade-old war, much like they have become enablers of most major Western militaries.
Premature Adulation in Sudan
On July 9th diplomats celebrated the birth of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, like over-stimulated toddlers at a party. The media followed suit, with trivial and sometimes patronising stories about the new national anthem and flag, and the admittedly strange plan to create cities in the shapes of African animals. Sadly, those involved should have focused on the agenda items they failed to address before sending out the independence day invitations.
The Foreign Policy Impact of Privatized Intelligence
America is the only industrialized power that does not use its state intelligence apparatus to steal commercially valuable information on behalf of its domestic companies. What is happening today is that many US based firms are awakening to the advantages that their overseas rivals have gained from intelligence and adopting these practices themselves to fight back.
The Politics of Famine in the Horn of Africa
It is time the U.S. and other governments took a more nuanced approach to politics in the Horn of Africa and followed the lead of international aid agencies on the ground in dealing with local leaders and communities, rather than seeking to impose a top-down central government. The solution to famine in East Africa lies in employment-generating development. It will not offer an instant fix, but it’s a start.
EU foreign policy after Lisbon: what role for small state diplomacy?
While Lisbon may narrow the material differences between small and large states in terms of involvement, it is likely to sustain the differences between states in terms of influence. A strengthened global EU presence will primarily favor the large states given their more extended capacities to cope with the EU’s expanding role in matters of foreign policy.
The Cost of “Friendly” Espionage Against the United States
As the sole remaining superpower the United States is a natural target for espionage activity for a wide range of nations. Not all of those actively spying against the United States are competing powers, as one might assume. The list of nations pursuing an active policy of intelligence gathering in the US includes strategic competitors such as Russia and China but also holds many of the closest allied states.
The Responsibility to Protect and Peacemaking
R2P has the potential to operate as a broader norm-based policy framework. As its normative weight increases and its normalization advances, it could enhance local and international institutional capacities to assess and address the risk of atrocities at an earlier stage through primary prevention, ensure robust measures are taken to halt R2P crimes in a more consistent manner, and rebuild societies emerging from conflict.
