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1. Letter to the Editor: Talking to Hamas

Author:
Robert Pastor
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Foreign Affairs
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Daniel Byman ("How to Handle Hamas," September/October 2010) correctly argues that peace between Israel and the Palestinians via a two-state solution requires the involvement and acceptance of Hamas. However, he overstates the difficulty of securing Hamas' agreement to a cease-fire and understates the problem of gaining Israel's agreement. Moreover, although Byman acknowledges the importance of Palestinian reconciliation, he does not identify a key reason for its failure.
Political Geography:
Israel and Palestine

2. Report on a Property Issues Conference

Author:
Jimmy Carter, Jennifer McCoy, George Price, and Robert Pastor
Publication Date:
07-1995
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
The Carter Center and UNDP co-sponsored a Conference in Nicaragua on July 4-5, 1995 to accelerate resolution of the property problem that has entangled the country's politics and impeded its economic development and democratic consolidation. The culmination of more than one year of intensive analysis and numerous expert missions to Nicaragua by the Carter Center, in collaboration with the UNDP Property Project, the Conference brought together for the first time a group of Nicaraguan leaders representing the entire spectrum of affected interests. With Sandinista leaders sitting next to persons whose property was confiscated in the revolution, the meeting was a visible reminder of the remarkable transformation of Nicaragua from a society torn by war in the 1980s to one committed to the search for solutions to national problems through peaceful, legal means. Hosted by the UNDP and chaired by Jimmy Carter and George Price, the meeting provided an important boost to the Nicaraguan leaders to formulate a definitive solution to the property issue. The conference identified the elements of a package solution and the next steps needed to resolve the complex property problem. During the course of the day and a half meeting, significant consensus emerged on a number of general principles: including that small beneficiaries of urban and agrarian reforms should be protected, that former owners should be compensated with improved bonds, and that recipients of larger properties should either pay for or return those properties (see Appendices 1 and 2). In conversations on the issue of U.S. property claims, Nicaraguan officials explained the progress that has been made on resolving the claims of U.S. citizens, of which one-third to one-half were Nicaraguans who were alleged to have been associates of the former Somoza government and are now U.S. citizens. Former president Carter proposed a Follow-up Commission of representatives of the groups at the Conference to meet immediately to translate the consensus and the general proposals into specific decisions and laws. The 18-person Commission was selected and met on July 14 under the auspices of the UNDP. All parties attended, and the Commission moved expeditiously to develop concrete proposals in two subcommittees: (a) to provide security for small property holders and (b) to increase the value of the bonds. The entire group also discussed large property issues, expanding the privatization program, and ways to address abuses. The Commission set a deadline to complete all their work in three months.
Topic:
International Cooperation and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, Central America, North America, and Nagasaki

3. The Carter Administration and Latin America: A Test of Principle

Author:
Robert Pastor
Publication Date:
07-1992
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
Within a single year, two events unprecedented in the history of the United States shook the nation's confidence in itself as the moral leader of the Free World. In August 1974, the president resigned under a pall of scandal, and eight months later, the United States suffered the humiliation of military defeat as it watched the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam fold the American flag under his arm and flee his post by helicopter.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States, Vietnam, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America