Earlier this week, the U.N. Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published a highly critical report alleging that Afghan security forces have engaged in “systematic torture” in prisons and detention facilities. According to interviews with more than 300 suspects held in these facilities, Afghan security forces engaged in beatings, sexual assault and other acts that might constitute […]
Over the last month I’ve participated in two Department of Defense sponsored Bloggers roundtable on Afghanistan and one sponsored by the Army on the role and importance of our forces in Europe to our National Security policy. What I like about these forums is it gives me an opportunity to hear views about important topics […]
Operation Unified Protector, NATO’s mission in Libya, is winding down. Claiming victory, the Obama administration is chiding those who opposed U.S. involvement. While NATO has succeeded in preventing Muammar Qadhafi from further targeting civilians, the mission has exposed a significant alliance weakness: the unfair sharing of the burden for common defense among NATO members. In […]
Regardless of how much you want to shield the children of the world from exposure to sexual content, it is increasingly difficult and near impossible. Shy of eliminating all forms of media from your child and then never leaving the house with them in tow, you really can’t. We live in a world where sex […]
Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev has added his two rubles to the ongoing commemorations of the Reykjavik Summit that almost did away with nuclear weapons. Whether its been a post-Soviet conversion or his ability, now long out of power, to wax poetic on things nuclear, Gorbachev has been speaking out about the value of nuclear […]
The numbers are unsettling. According to a story in last Sunday’s Review section of the New York Times, Chinese manufacturers showed off 25 different kinds of remotely controlled aircraft at an aerospece show this time last year. In all, 50 countries are thought to have built or bought UAVs, and more do so all the […]
Anyone in the business of studying violence should look askance at recent US claims that Iran’s Quds Force – a unit belonging to the Pasdaran, aka the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – is behind the amateurish plot to assassinate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US. The main issue in contention here is […]
The good folks at Masters in Environmental Science have collated some very good infographics on climate change that are worth your seeing. Here is one on the “carbon footprint” that shows how different countries are performing both on a gross output basis and per capita. (All credit here to Miller-McCune, the excellent media outlet, and […]
A child’s first access to human rights comes with the registration of their birth. Birth registration is more than than a right, but the key to the future. Without a birth certificate a child is left to wander through life vulnerable to abuse and victimization. Despite how valuable birth registration is to a child’s welfare, registering […]
3 women share the Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Committee has awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to three women for working to promote democracy, security and women’s rights. Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni opposition leader Tawakkul Karman will split the $1.5 million prize. Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland praised […]
In light of the amazingly dramatic reveal of an Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. at his favorite DC dinner spot using a Mexican drug cartel gun for hire (calling Robert Ludlum!), I thought it pertinent to cite a recent Der Speigel interview with former IAEA Deputy Director for Safeguards Olli […]
In July, the UN declared a famine in two regions of Southern Somalia, the first such announcement in the region since the infamous 1984 famine in Ethiopia. Somalia continues to find itself gripped tightly by starvation; the famine has claimed the lives of some 30,000 children in the last 3 months alone. More than 12 […]
Even before it was a country, the United States has drawn people eager to realize the opportunities that it affords to new arrivals. For refugees living in the United States, however, their arrival often accompanies a traumatic break from their homelands because of conflict or persecution. The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement initiated a program […]
This past Friday, October 7th, was the 25th anniversary of the summit meeting of then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was a meeting that now-famously almost led to an agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to completely abolish nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, that did not come to pass. […]
Working with a local telecommunications company, the World Food Programme (WFP) has developed a program in the Ivory Coast to facilitate cash transfers that can be used by thousands of Ivorians to by food despite a climate of political violence. WFP provides $75.00 per month to households, benefiting 54,000 people in the Ivory Coast. However, […]