Human Rights Watch is calling on the EU to deploy European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) in Gori, Georgia. While Russian forces starting withdrawing from the region on August 22, reports of kidnappings, beatings, and looting of civilians by Ossetian militias and criminal gangs are emerging. Georgian police were not allowed to move beyond a […]
A week ago, the newspaper Bosnia Daily (no online edition) reported that an arrest of General Ratko Mladic, the highest-ranking war crimes suspect from the 1990's conflict, was still at large. De Weld reports that it's not quite that simple, and Mladic's whereabouts and living situation are the subject of a myriad of contradictory reumors […]
I’d like to recommend Foreign Policy Digest as a resource for information and analysis. Here is how they describe themselves on their About page: FPD focuses exclusively on world affairs and provides a platform designed specifically for the new social media generation. The purpose of the digest is to provide greater access to international issues […]
“Just because a child's parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.” – Marian Wright Edelman, American children's rights activist and president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund. Regardless of the reasons, the state, race, religion or social status […]
On Wednesday, I joined thirty of my fellow citizens to listen as my city and a local non-profit presented a land use and transportation plan for the next sixty years. The meeting, promoted as a call to arms, was slightly lackluster – as the city didn't seem full of passion for the plan, the non-profit […]
"The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations took place in Accra, Ghana, from 21-27 August. The Accra Climate Change Talks took forward work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as work on emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto […]
The Council on Foreign Relations’ campaign website published a great synthesis of interviews with the international press corps at the Democratic National Convention in Denver to find out how their national publics views of the US presidential debate. CFR.org interviewed reporters from Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Kuwait, Germany, Denmark, among others. It's a great read. The […]
The Washington Post's “Washington Sketch” program recently featured an interesting piece covering Al Jazeera English's attempt to cover the Democratic National Convention in nearby Golden, Colorado (video available here). This move to feature 'small-town’ America's views on the convention was met with much resistance by some if its townspeople who view Al Jazeera as Anti-American, […]
Former war crime fugitive and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic refused Friday to enter a plea at the U.N. court for the former Yugoslavia, saying he did not recognize the authority of the court. Karadzic stands accused of overseeing a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslims and Croats in the area, including a massacre at […]
The Jordanian Ammon News Agency featured a story Wednesday alleging that units of the Iranian Basij are ready to strike throughout the Arab Gulf states if Iran is attacked. In fact, the author describes them as 'time bombs’ waiting to explode in the region. The Basij is a large volunteer paramilitary force (estimated at upwards […]
As a child of the 80's when the word famine is mentioned I can distinctively hear my mother telling me to ear my entire plate of my despised broccoli, because "there are starving children in Ethiopia". I know wonder if more than 20 years later I will soon find myself uttering those same words at […]
The United Nations Foundation released a public opinion poll this week, focusing on Americans’ foreign policy priorities. The headline: “New Opinion Research Shows American Voters Reject “Going It Alone”, Embrace International Cooperation.” From the press release: “An underlying shift is occurring in American attitudes regarding the international role and priorities of the United States. Voters across the party […]
Chokepoints – I’ve written a good number of times about various big renewable energy projects coming on line and in the pipeline, how $7 trillion is one number that a leading expert predicts is going to be the sum total of renewable business globally just a couple of decades down the road, and how distributed […]
The International Criminal Court at the Hague Thursday charged former U.N. war crimes spokesperson Florence Hartmann with two counts of contempt for disclosing sensitive information regarding Slobodan Milosevic during his prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugloslavia. The Hague accuses Hartmann of disclosing the information in her 2007 book, “Peace and Punishment,” […]
How much help should the U.S. offer Georgia? More U.S. humanitarian assistance has recently arrived in Georgia and aid is welcome but that fact the aid is delivered by warships is not making Russia happy (AFP – Second US aid ship arrives in Georgia): A second US naval ship carrying aid to Georgia arrived in the […]