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.
Human Rights in the Context of International Relations
In the struggle for public justice, international human rights provide not just legal resources as based on positive law, but also political means anchored in public legitimacy. Additionally, human rights function not merely to protect people with regard to the freedoms and entitlements they have already acquired, but in their emancipatory struggles for socio-political transformation as well.
The Linked Challenges of Global Climate Change and Local Peace
The UN Security Council recently met to debate the risks of climate change to global peace and security. Yet, practical measures to address these goals remain superficial, off-target & isolated. Now is the time to shift our focus from direct environmental impacts to broader threats at a local level.
Did Diplomacy Succeed or Fail in Libya?
Although all wars may represent a failure of diplomacy, war is often the last resort of diplomacy. This paradox results from two competing ideas of what the supreme objective of diplomacy should be: peace at any cost, or peace by any means. This is the paradox of Libya. The international military intervention resulted from a mixture of an arguably successful strategy of coercive diplomacy at the UN, and a failure of third-party mediations.
The Responsibility to Protect: Libya and Beyond
Whilst Libya is no doubt important, it is but the tip of the iceberg. In the long run, timely and decisive action such as the international action in Libya will continue to be a recurrent but painful necessity. Yet, we will make most progress towards a world without mass atrocities by reducing the number of cases that become so acute and preventing crises from escalating to the point of imminent catastrophe.
How Iran Adapts Itself to International Sanctions: Asianization of Trade and Economic Regionalism
The recent round of crippling and comprehensive sanctions on Iran will inevitably adversely affect the government’s economic manoeuvrability, but taking their toll first and foremost on the people, the sanctions are likely to fall short of curbing the country’s nuclear activities or changing its domestic and international behaviour
E.H Carr and The Failure of the League of Nations
The dose of reality that E.H. Carr dealt to interwar idealists was significant & timely. It was obvious to Carr that the League was failing and the march to war was underway.
Fixing Gender in International Politics
There a palpable sense of both exuberance and excitement in recent developments in gender and international politics. Though I use the word gender, this still tends to end up meaning women; I wonder why this is, especially as scholarly texts distinctly and convincingly explain that gender is not just about women. And though this is surely true, the idea doesn’t seem to stick, or at least stick where we want it to.
Collateral Damages of Smart Sanctions on Iran
The prospects for democracy, socio-economic development and conflict resolution will be suffering if the West continues to rely on punitive measures. Despite all frivolous claims, the diplomatic route has not been exhausted. Indeed, we are far from it. Since the core problem remains the “security dilemma” in the region, it would be wise for the West to call upon Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Politics of UN Human Rights Council and Iran’s Candidacy
The candidacy of Iran for the UN Human Rights Council is comparable to electing apartheid South Africa to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination or to awarding the US for humane treatment of detainee’s right after the world was shocked with pictures revealing sexual torture and humiliation of naked prisoners.
