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401. Food Price Inflation: Explanation and Policy Implications

Author:
Karen H. Johnson
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Increases in the prices for major food crops that are traded globally have reached extraordinary levels, sparking riots in some countries and becoming the focus of widespread debate and policy concern. During the current crop year, the price for wheat is nearly 90 percent above its average for the preceding five years, that for corn 60 percent, and that for rice more than 35 percent. At the June summit meeting of the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, officials from around the world engaged in discussions of who or what is to blame.
Political Geography:
United Nations

402. Legal texts of the international criminal tribunal for rwanda: Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal of Legal Studies
Institution:
The Africa Law Institute
Abstract:
The Security Council, Reaffirming all its previous resolutions on the situation in Rwanda, Having considered the reports of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 3 of resolution 935 (1994) 1 July 1994 (S/1994/879 and S/1994/906), and having taken note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur for Rwanda of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (S/1994/1157, annex I and annex II).
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
United Nations

403. Water in the 21st Century: Defining the Elements of Global Crises and Potential Solutions

Author:
Umpanu Lall, Tanya Heikkila, Casey Brown, and Tobias Siegfried
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Will we run out of fresh water in the 21st century? The media highlights the parched lands, dry riverbeds and springs and falling groundwater tables across the world daily. Over a billion people living in developing countries without access to safe drinking water are facing economic and water poverty. Another real and troubling indicator is the rapid rate of aquatic habitat degradation and biodiversity loss in the last century. Projected changes in climate due to greenhouse gases invariably portray a future world that is much drier in the tropics—where over half the world's population lives—and suggest a global increase in floods and droughts.
Topic:
World Bank
Political Geography:
America and United Nations

404. Water Wars: Obscuring Opportunities

Author:
Geoffrey D. Dabelko and Karin R. Bencala
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Speaking at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon weighed in on water conflict: The challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all is one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today...Too often, where we need water, we find guns instead. Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon.
Topic:
Environment
Political Geography:
United Nations and Switzerland

405. Water, Sanitation and the Millennium Development Goals

Author:
Roberto Lenton, Kristen Lewis, and Albert M. Wright
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
Increasing access to domestic water supply and sanitation services, while at the same time improving water resources management and development, are catalytic entry points for efforts to fight poverty and hunger, safeguard human health, reduce child mortality, promote gender equality and manage and protect natural resources. They are, therefore, a critical component to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—the integrated set of eight goals and eighteen goal-specific, time-bound targets. The MDGs were adopted at the United Nations Millennium Summit with the objective to make real progress in tackling the most pressing issues facing developing countries. The seventh Millennium Development Goal focuses on environmental sustainability, and one of the three specific targets within this goal is Target 10: to cut in half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Topic:
Health
Political Geography:
United Nations

406. Assessing the Impact of Dialogue Processes: Some Reflections from the Field

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
The growing use of dialogue processes to address emerging crises worldwide and to find consensus among stakeholders on a particular complex economic, social or political issue has been accompanied by the need and demand for better evaluation methodologies to: 1. Measure the impact of dialogue interventions (intended and unintended consequences), 2. Better understand when and how dialogues should be used and how they can be designed and conducted for maximum impact, 3. Convince external and internal actors to participate in, or support such intervention, and 4. Help build the field of dialogue by identifying good practices, systematizing lessons learned and finding common elements for comparative studies.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
United States and United Nations

407. Kenya in Crisis

Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Since the announcement of the contested presidential election results on 30 December 2007 giving a second term to Mwai Kibaki, Kenya has been in its worst political crisis since independence. Over 1,000 people have died and 300,000 have been displaced in violence with a serious ethnic character. As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan conducts negotiations for a political settlement, calm has partly returned, but the situation remains highly volatile. To address the causes of the crisis, it will not be enough for the Annan team to broker a deal on the mechanics of a transitional arrangement between political opponents and schedule negotiations on a reform agenda. A sustainable settlement must address in detail a program of power sharing, constitutional and legal reform and economic policies that convinces the drivers of violence to disarm. For negotiations to succeed, the international community must enhance its pressure, including aid conditionality and threats and application of targeted sanctions against spoilers.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Democratization, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, and United Nations

408. Burma/Myanmar: After the Crackdown

Publication Date:
02-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The violent crushing of protests led by Buddhist monks in Burma/Myanmar in late 2007 has caused even allies of the military government to recognise that change is desperately needed. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have thrown their support behind the efforts by the UN Secretary-General's special envoy to re-open talks on national reconciliation, while the U.S. and others have stepped up their sanctions. But neither incomplete punitive measures nor intermittent talks are likely to bring about major reforms. Myanmar's neighbours and the West must press together for a sustainable process of national reconciliation. This will require a long-term effort by all who can make a difference, combining robust diplomacy with serious efforts to address the deep-seated structural obstacles to peace, democracy and development.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, and War
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Burma, United Nations, Southeast Asia, and Myanmar

409. Timor-Leste: Security Sector Reform

Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Four years after Timor-Leste gained independence, its police and army were fighting each other in the streets of Dili. The April-June 2006 crisis left both institutions in ruins and security again in the hands of international forces. The crisis was precipitated by the dismissal of almost half the army and caused the virtual collapse of the police force. UN police and Australian-led peacekeepers maintain security in a situation that, while not at a point of violent conflict, remains unsettled. If the new government is to reform the security sector successfully, it must ensure that the process is inclusive by consulting widely and resisting the tempation to take autocratic decisions. A systematic, comprehensive approach, as recommended by the UN Security Council, should be based on a realistic analysis of actual security and law-enforcement needs. Unless there is a non-partisan commitment to the reform process, structural problems are likely to remain unresolved and the security forces politicised and volatile.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Development
Political Geography:
United Nations, Australia, and Southeast Asia

410. Implementing the Rule of Law in Integrated Missions: Security and Justice in the UN Mission in Liberia

Author:
Till Blume
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
“[W]hile trying to achieve a coherent approach, we must be cautious not to let our focus on the mechanics of coherence overshadow the UN's objectives “. This article seeks to review the concepts of integrated missions, rule of law (RoL), and security sector reform (SSR) – as well as analyse the United Nations Missions in Liberia's (UNMIL) efforts at integrating both concepts in its implementation plans and procedures. Firstly, an overview of integration efforts will be given. Thereafter, the RoL coordination and implementation of holistic planning and thinking in UNMIL will be described. At the end of the article, the focus will turn to some of the key challenges and policy implications that come with integrating RoL and SSR.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United Nations and Liberia