The military call it Gitmo, the journalists Guantanamo, the world – a human rights disaster where the individual ceased to exist. The Geneva Conventions were summarily tossed aside. This is a war where rules and conventions no longer apply said Albert Gonzalez in his Memorandum to President Bush in 2002. And for the next seven […]
“Peace is in the waves at sea. Peace must begin with you and me!” – Student, Gander Middle School, Gander, Newfoundland, Canada “Why destroy when we could create, Keep the peace, erase the hate.” – Normal Community West High School, Normal, IL, US “As I look around the world I sigh, And think, We could […]
Public Diplomacy blogger Mark Dillen recently posted on Barack Obama's appearance on Al-Arabiya TV, highlighting some initial positive feedback to the new president's interview. There's no question that Obama's gesture was a unique, and relatively genuine, effort to set the tone for the ‘new face’ of US Middle East policy. However, one might wonder if […]
Congressional Research Services – Congress’ think tank – has a significant report out discussing the legal issues associated with President Obama's executive order closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (link available here). The report constitutes the most comprehensive publicly available treatment of the issues surrounding Gitmo closure yet offered by the United States government, […]
A justice at the military court in Guantanamo Bay moved against an executive order issued by U.S. President Barack Obama to delay tribunals there for 120 days. Judge James Pohl denied delay requests for a case involving Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri for his role in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 […]
Talking to our children about violence and war is difficult in its own right, as no parent wants to bring their child into the harsh reality that is our globalized world. And while yes, sheltering children from violence is ideal, it is not an option that holds feasibility for long. Soon children will catch a […]
Things have been difficult for U.S. ally Turkey lately. The rebuff from the EU over accession has sent ripples of shock and consternation through the secular military and the increasingly Islamic political class. Tensions between them are high and there have been rumors of a coup. The stress may be getting to the prime minister, […]
The first witness in war crimes trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga reversed his testimony hours after relaying accounts of his conscription as a child soldier. The young man told the court rebels from Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots nabbed him and forced him into a military camp when he was in the fifth grade, […]
Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most notorious of the Nazi extermination camps. We hope you’ll join us in taking a moment to memorialize the more than 1 million people – mostly Jews, but also Gypsies and political prisoners – who were murdered at Auschwitz and […]
The 27-nation European Union has come up with its proposals for how to proceed after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. As you know, the world is going to sit down in Copenhagen in December and finalize an agreement. (See Further Thoughts on Poznan here from December.) EurActiv reports here that “According to the Commission, […]
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is far from being anything remotely close to new, and who's right and whose wrong remains muddled in the smoke and dust of war. However one thing is clear, and that is that the children on both sides of the war are caught in the middle. Currently Gaza's children […]
In his inaugural address President Obama offered a new engagement with the Muslim world, specifically addressing them by name and telling them, “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” That new way forward was on full display today as he granted the Arabic satellite network […]
You might think Barack Hussein Obama would choose a safer audience than the Arab world for his first TV interview as President. But he chose Dubai-based Al Arabiya, and he chose well. With all the innumerable problems facing the United States, the most daunting long-term problem is America's relationship to the world; within that context, […]
President Obama is apparently working hard to keep his campaign pledges. He has now had his first interview with Al Arabiya, while repeating his promise to give a speech in a Muslim capital in the first 100 days of his administration. In some ways, President Obama's approach to the presidency feels like the campaign season […]
A truly thoughtful essay from Harry Eyres, Freedom and the price of oil, appeared in this past weekend’s “FT.” It’s a meditation, to a great extent, on the ecologist Ivan Illich. Eyres writes of Illich: “He had the barmy-seeming idea that we would do better – that is to say would lead more human, fairer […]