On April 15, 2013, Norway's Minister of International Development, Heikki Eidsvoll Holmås, spoke at the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute. Mr. Holmås' lecture focused on issues of development, income inequality, and global poverty.
Diplomats are rarely dreamers or gamblers. The experience of grinding negotiations means that most ambassadors and their advisers dislike big ideas and unnecessary risks. But sometimes they have to take a gamble in pursuit of national goals.
France’s vow to battle Islamist militants in Mali “as long as necessary” risks plunging the former colonial power into a prolonged campaign, according to diplomats and experts.
The United Nations Security Council has different tools at hand to maintain international peace and security. Yet, beside prominent blue helmets and controversial sanctions, another sophisticated instrument often goes unnoticed: Political Missions.
It took France the better part of a year to craft a UN-backed plan for dealing with the Islamist takeover of northern Mali that would avoid a French military intervention. Yet itonly took only a few hours to turn that project on its head.
Initial French estimates of a brief conflict may be revised as militants are not breaking quickly, French airstrikes continue, and more French troops are on the way.
Read the full Christian Science Monitor article here
History may be about to play a nasty trick on the Obama administration. The diplomatic renaissance in the U.S. seems to be coinciding with a worrying decline in interest in diplomacy among other powers.
The Annual Review of Global Peace Operations and the Review of Political Missions have evolved into the Global Peace Operations Review, an interactive web-portal presenting in-depth analysis and detailed data on military peacekeeping operations and civilian-led political missions by the United Nations, regional organizations, and ad-hoc coalitions. The website can be accessed here Global Peace Operations Review
Diplomatic Fallout: China’s Crisis-Management Crisis
Does China have any real interest in cooperating on international crisis management with the West?
Read the full World Politics Review article here.