Search

Begin New Search Topic United Nations Publication Year within 25 Years

621. Unwilling and Unable: The Failed Response to the Atrocities in Darfur

Author:
James Traub
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Abstract:
Starting in mid-2003, the government of Sudan responded to an armed rebellion in the western state of Darfur with a massive campaign of killing and expulsion carried out both by regular army troops and by a proxy force known as the Janjaweed. United Nations (UN) sources estimate that this orchestrated effort led to the death of at least 300,000 people, while over two million were forcibly displaced. Extensive documentation by the UN, human-rights organizations and the media leaves no doubt that the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, and did so over a period of many years. Yet all attempts to stop the killing, whether by neighbors, regional organizations, Western states or the UN Security Council, proved ineffective. In 2005, states-including Sudan-unanimously agreed that they had a responsibility to protect populations from mass atrocities; but this abstract commitment has had little effect on the Sudanese government or on other UN member states who had made this pledge.
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, Genocide, Human Rights, United Nations, Armed Struggle, and Sectarian violence
Political Geography:
Africa

622. Under a Cloud of Uncertainty: AIPAC's 2010 Policy Conference, 21--23 March

Author:
Cléa Thouin
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
ON THE SECOND DAY of the 2010 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference, Eric Cantor, the Republican Whip for the 111th U.S. Congress, declared, “We gather today under a dark cloud of uncertainty.” Cantor may have been referring to most participants' favorite subject, the Iranian “nuclear threat,” but his statement proved an apt description of the overall atmosphere at this year's conference. The conference came in the midst of unusually fraught public tensions between the United States and Israel over the announcement two weeks earlier of new settlement construction in East Jerusalem. The dispute over an issue as important to the United States as the peace process, against the background of recently revealed statements by the U.S. military high command that the nonresolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was negatively impacting U.S. security and military operations elsewhere in the world, directly challenged AIPAC's fundamental founding premise: the identity of U.S. and Israeli interests. As a result, the conference was colored by a palpable level of uncertainty about the way forward for the pro-Israel community in the United States. TELLING THE STORY AIPAC's fifty-first annual conference, which took place from 21 to 23 March in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., was billed as the largest ever, with 7,500 delegates. The size itself posed challenges. To accommodate such numbers, the plenary sessions were held in a 780-foot-long conference hall—more than twice the size of a U.S. football field. This meant that despite the extravagant 500-foot split screen, the crowd on one side of the hall could not see what was happening at ground level on the other side, sometimes resulting in serious confusion. On more than one occasion, for example, half the audience, spontaneously joining with commotion on the other side of the hall without being able to see the source, unwittingly applauded pro-Palestinian activists protesting speeches, particularly by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Middle East Quartet envoy (and former British prime minister) Tony Blair. These were two of the main speakers, the other most highly anticipated speaker at this year's conference being U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Besides four plenary sessions (and a gala dinner) that featured the main speakers, the program consisted of approximately one hundred “breakout sessions”—focused panels, university-type seminars, and advocacy training sessions led by scholars, professionals, or lobbyists. These took place concurrently before or after the plenary sessions, and most were repeated more than once in the course of the conference (sometimes with different speakers). There were also luncheons and dinners with distinguished guests, most of which (as well as some panels) were “by invitation only,” restricted to select AIPAC members. Only one plenary session was held on the last day of the conference, as most of the morning was dedicated to training workshops in preparation for AIPAC's traditional day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. These workshops were organized by region, with participants attending lobbying sessions for their specific region so as to receive targeted training on their congressional representatives. The overall conference theme, “Israel: Tell the Story,” represented AIPAC's effort to redirect the increasingly negative public narrative on Israel that has emerged since Israel's winter 2008–2009 assault on Gaza. This was part of a broader attempt to shift from a defensive campaign aimed at refuting criticism of Israel to an offensive campaign focused on advancing a positive picture of Israel, that of “an innovator, a Jewish homeland, an open society, a light unto the nations.” AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr outlined in broad strokes the new strategy, expressly calling on his audience to shed their “defensive mentality,” which he argued focused “all too often on the slights Israel faces,” and instead “tell the story of Israel's hand extended in peace . . . Israel's example of freedom and democracy.” The results of the conference fell short of this goal. The only successful “storytelling” took place at the opening plenary session titled “Innovation Nation,” which framed Israel's modern technological entrepreneurship as a continuation of early Zionist settlers' alleged ability to “make the desert bloom,” and in a video (one of many screened on the conference hall's mega screen) that depicted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a humanitarian vanguard without ever hinting at the possibility of improper conduct during Operation Cast Lead (OCL). Only four “breakout” panels addressed the Israel-as-innovation-nation theme—two on Israel's economic and technological achievements, the other two on its military innovation. Moreover, most panels on Israel throughout the conference could be seen as “defensive,” for example, “Singled Out: Delegitimizing Israel at the United Nations,” “Mainstream to Fringe: Reality of Anti-Israel Effort in America,” or “Tough Questions: Answering Israel's Detractors.” Similarly, although a number of secondary speakers, from a Paraguayan entrepreneur to a Nigerian doctor, were tasked with “telling Israel's story” during the conference's plenary sessions, they were never the focus of the sessions at which they spoke and instead seemed to be no more than fillers before anticipated speakers like Clinton and Netanyahu. Even main speakers like Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz inevitably found themselves defending Israel's policies—whether on settlements or on the IDF's conduct during OCL—rather than actually telling the story of what Kohr called the “small miracle we know as Israel.”
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
America and Israel

623. Betting on Perseverance Why the Double Track Approach is Still the Best Way to Deal with the Iranian Nuclear Conundrum

Author:
Riccardo Alcaro
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The standoff over Iran's nuclear programme, suspected of harbouring secret military ends, is widely considered a major flashpoint. A nuclear Iran – as the argument goes – would dramatically alter the regional balance in the Gulf, providing the Islamic Republic with a formidable deterrent against external aggression, while augmenting its ability to exert influence on its neighbours and eliminating the strategic advantage of its rival Israel, the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East. An Iranian bomb could also trigger a regional nuclear arms race since such countries as Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, might feel compelled to emulate Iran. This would in turn result in the eventual collapse of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime based on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Given the stakes, it comes as no surprise that curbing Iran's nuclear programme has rapidly become a foreign policy priority for western powers, Israel, and the majority of Arab states, which have a history of rivalry with and mistrust of Persian and Shia-dominated Iran.
Topic:
Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, and Sanctions
Political Geography:
Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt

624. The EU's Contribution to the Effectiveness of the UN Security Council: Representation, Coordination and Outreach

Author:
Nicoletta Pirozzi
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
This paper aims to assess the EU's contribution to the work of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and outline the prospects for future developments under three main dimensions: representation, coordination and outreach. The first part analyses the EU's presence in terms of its unitary representation and coordination among the EU members of the UN Security Council, with a particular focus on the innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. The second part is dedicated to the EU's contribution, in terms of process and outreach, to the main policy areas within the SC's competence. These include traditional SC matters, such as peacekeeping and non-proliferation, as well as emerging and still contested competences of the UN's supreme organ, such as climate change. The paper was prepared for the second meeting of Working Group I on “The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?”, held in Rome on 14 May 2010, in the framework of the IAI-University of Kiel project on “The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations” (Effective Multilateralism).
Topic:
United Nations and International Security
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Lisbon

625. The Reform of the UN Security Council

Author:
Natalino Ronzitti
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
This paper aims to review the proposals for reform of the UN Security Council (SC) put forward since the 1950s and evaluate the most recent ones in order to see whether reform is desirable and/or feasible. The author analyses key issues at the centre of the current debate on SC reform (size of an enlarged Council, categories of membership and regional representation, the veto, SC's working methods, relations with the General Assembly). He also examines the future role of the European Union in the SC, and such issues as closer coordination among EU members and the Lisbon Treaty's safeguards for the rights of permanent members, including the veto. The paper was prepared for the second meeting of Working Group I on “The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?”, held in Rome on 14 May 2010, in the framework of the IAI-University of Kiel project on “The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations” (Effective Multilateralism).
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe

626. Report of the Seminar "The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?"

Author:
Jacopo Leone
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
In the framework of the IAI-University of Kiel project on “The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations” (Effective Multilateralism), the present report offers an account of the positions and ideas that emerged during the second meeting of Working Group I on “The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Role for the EU?”, held in Rome on 14 May 2010. With its concise overview of all the papers presented at the conference and the relative debates, this report is meant to provide a basis for fruitful further reflection in view of the project's final conference, to be held in Berlin at the beginning of 2011.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, United Nations, and International Security
Political Geography:
Europe

627. Sexualised violence in conflict: Norwegian capacities and challenges

Author:
Randi Solhjell
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:
This report addresses the challenges and opportunities facing Norway in relation to the combat against sexualised and gender-based violence (SGBV) in war and conflict situations. In presenting a map of Norwegian actors and agencies in the field, it constitutes a critical resource that both emphasises Norway's potential to contribute and recommends proposals for improvement.
Topic:
Political Violence, Gender Issues, Human Rights, United Nations, and Sex Trafficking

628. Somalia: Line in the Sand--Identification of MYM Vulnerabilities

Author:
Eloy E. Cuevas and Madeleine Wells
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:
The influence of Islam on governance and clan politics has both negatively and positively affected the people of Somalia. It has facilitated justifying the removal of national, regional, and grassroots or clan leadership, especially if socioeconomic conditions and quality of life standards have been degraded or the leadership failed to ensure the safety of the people. Additionally, charismatic clan leaders have leveraged the low level of education among the Somali population to incite leadership changes. On a positive note, enforcement of Islamic law (Sharia) has been a major factor in helping to stabilize the lawlessness that has gone unchecked throughout the ungoverned parts of Somalia. By establishing courts and increasing the appointment of judges, Islamic leaders have attempted to bring normalcy to people's daily lives, amid all the street-level battles, clan intra and interconnected struggles for leadership and influence, and the presence of foreign fighters on both sides of the conflict.
Topic:
Diplomacy, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Africa

629. Mark Mazower. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations

Author:
Jan Klabbers
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
International lawyers have long held international organizations in high esteem. Paul Reinsch, arguably the first author to write comprehensively on the law of international organizations about a century ago and largely responsible for laying the foundations for the functionalist approach to international organizations, already welcomed them as working for the common global good. The sentiment culminated in Nagendra Singh's classic statement that organizations serve the 'salvation of mankind'. States were considered bad; organizations, by contrast, were considered inherently good.
Topic:
United Nations

630. Thomas Grant. Admission to the United Nations, Charter Article 4 and the Rise of Universal Organization

Author:
Anne-Laurence Brugère
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
'Every constitution encounters the difficult problem of distinguishing interpretation and adaptation, progressive development and amendment'. The question whether, and to what extent, the practice of an organization does not merely interpret but also modify its constitutive instrument lies at the very heart of Thomas Grant's volume on Article 4 of the United Nations Charter. The volume, divided into seven chapters, is based on a thorough account of the United Nations' practice from 1945 onwards in the matter of admission, from the 'early years' (Chapter 2) to the present day controversies over Kosovo and Taiwan (Chapters 5 and 6). Grant highlights perfectly the shift in 1955–1956 from a rigorous process over admission to the presumed right of states to membership; that is to say, from the wartime alliance to the universal organization (Chapter 3). This, in turn, raises the question of the legal justification for this change, a key issue addressed in Chapter 4 which this book review will concentrate on. The legal framework applicable to admission is examined in the first and last chapters. Chapter 1 intends to give an overview of the provisions of the Charter governing admission, though it deals exclusively with the procedural mechanism set out in Article 4(2). As for Chapter 7, it examines the legal con - sequences for a state of being admitted to the United Nations.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Taiwan and Kosovo