He is outspoken on migration and refugee issues, was involved in brokering an upgrade in U.S.-Cuban relations and takes part in debates on hot-button topics from income inequality to climate change. Francis’ view of the papacy is clearly geopolitical.
The refugee crisis in Europe stems from competing state and non-state actors in Syria and uneven responses by state and supra-state actors in Europe. But one of the most interesting—and useful—responses to the crisis have been at the individual level.
In the wake of the Paris attacks, American politicians of all stripes are rushing to burnish their security credentials. In their proposals they are undermining the one measure that might exhibit America’s basic motives in Syria, while adding nothing to U.S. security
With the mass migration of refugees to Europe, the monitoring and identifying of claimants has been overwhelmed or simply ignored. With the latest attacks in Paris, there has to be accountability by governments to monitor who they allow into their countries.
NATO’s cooperation with Algeria offers potential in combating international human trafficking networks. Reviving the ‘regional NATO’ plan for a joint military organization of Saharan states would allow governments to better disrupt the routes used to transport many migrants to the Mediterranean coast.
The global forced migration crisis is perhaps the most under-reported and disturbing development facing the world today.
If the reports of the dead are true, this would be Boko Haram’s deadliest attack to date. War between the Islamic extremist group and Nigeria began in 2009, and has claimed an estimated 13,000 lives in six years.
Jan Egeland recently sat down with Reza Akhlaghi of the Foreign Policy Association to discuss the plight of Syrian refugees, which has been reflected in a newly released report jointly produced by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The Syrian conflict has presented itself as a complex situation that has resulted in countless amounts of analysis and news articles dedicated to the political and security aspects of the crisis. Although these writings are indispensable for the ability to understand what is taking place, there hasn’t been enough attention on another aspect of the […]
Evicted from Bhutan at the age of 11, Vidhyapati Mishra spent two decades in U.N.-funded Bhutanese refugee camp in eastern Nepal before resettling in the United States. Just a week before his departure from Nepal to Charlotte of North Carolina, self-learned journalist Mishra also featured in the New York Times with his powerful narrative story […]
Syria long ago became a source of a steady trickle of bad news but recent reports coming from several UN agencies working in Syria highlight just how dire the humanitarian situation there has become. First up is a new report from the World Food Programme and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that found as […]
Long a controversial issue, Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers is getting renewed attention after two boats sank in the Indian Ocean last week. Although the government had been tracking both boats for days, no attempts were made to lend assistance until after they disappeared from radar. Furthermore, the government opted not to recover the bodies […]
On June 11th, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that more than 6,000 Nigerians had fled to Niger to escape armed clashes between government forces and armed insurgents associated with Boko Haram (“Western education is sinful”). This displacement is one of the latest developments in an escalation of violence that has gripped […]
The Secretary General’s latest quarterly report on the Africa Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) makes for grim reading. Citing frequent military clashes between the Sudanese government and armed rebel forces, the report states that increased violence in the region has displaced more than 300,000 people since the beginning of the year, more than […]
The idea of arming the Syrian rebels is being chatted up once again. The debate will wander and focus in many theoretical directions. Yet essentially the decision will focus on one key pivot: is the goal a short-term or long-term victory? The safe bet: short-term considerations will win out. The U.N. proclamation that the one […]