In the inaugural post of “Throwing BRICS,” Siphamandla Zondi argues that South Africa’s dual identity is an ingrained ambiguity ensuring that the BRICS will remain a major priority in its foreign policy.
U.S. ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty will eventually happen, not for any foreseeable political change of heart, but for the all too sadly foreseeable continued disappearance of the Arctic ice in an arena in which the United States has no say – but will need one.
One can see why some would argue that the Annan plan has failed. However, it is important to retain a realistic perspective about how much a third-party mediator can hope to achieve given the circumstances.
While South Sudan is clearly facing great problems and even grave danger at the moment, there is still room for optimism. The people are resilient and determined, they are proud of their new nation, and they have a remarkable capacity for hope.
The UN mandate to achieve a political solution that will afford Western Sahara its long denied right to self-determination is a farce and everyone knows it.
Syria is different to all other countries hit by the Arab Spring. The international community’s main security concern should be the fate of Syrian WMDs.
The best response to the crisis in Syria is the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to oversee an inclusive political process for a new Syrian constitution.
The China–Russia veto does not prove the irrelevance of the UN Security Council. Rather, it proves that the politics of the Security Council must be got right before an R2P military intervention; and the political equilibrium should be maintained during the operation.
The fact is that humanitarian intervention is here to stay. Instead of trying to get rid of it there is more prudence in allowing the lesser evil of a streamlined and legally-regulated form of humanitarian intervention to continue.
My most recent interview was with Madeleine Albright, the US foreign policy practitioner and policy-maker, the women’s rights implementer in foreign policy during her time as a US Ambassador to the UN and as Secretary of State, the daughter of a Czechoslovak dissident who was a recipient of US support during WWII and the Cold War, and finally as the academic examining foreign policy.
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