Africa is the world's poorest continent. Between 1974 and 2003, the per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa declined by 11 percent. Africa continues to trail the rest of the world on human development indicators including life expectancy; infant mortality; undernourishment; school enrollment; and the incidence of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. The international aid lobby advocates more foreign aid and greater debt relief for Africa as solutions.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Humanitarian Aid
Over the past two decades, terrorist organizations have increasingly relied on suicide attacks to achieve political objectives. The specific goal sought in almost all suicide terrorist campaigns in modern history is the same: to compel a democratic state to withdraw combat forces from territory prized by the terrorists. This holds true for al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization of greatest concern to most Americans. Al-Qaeda's efforts to mobilize people to kill Americans are driven principally by a simple strategic goal: to drive the United States and its Western allies from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim countries.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, America, Arabia, and Arabian Peninsula
Although it is possible that negotiations between the leading powers in the international community and Iran may produce a settlement to the vexing issue of Iran's nuclear program, it is more likely that those negotiations will fail. If that happens, U.S. policymakers face a set of highly imperfect options.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Nuclear Weapons
The danger posed by Russia's inadequately secured stocks of nuclear weapons and fissile material is a major national security concern for the United States. Various cooperative U.S.-Russian programs aimed at securing nuclear material, weapons, and design intelligence have been mounted since the 1990s, but clever and determined adversaries may be able to circumvent or defeat the defenses that the United States and its partners are attempting to put in place. U.S. programs are by their nature reactive: they have long time horizons; they focus preeminently on the supply side of the problem; and they face serious technological limitations. Russia's imperfect commitment to nonproliferation also undermines the effectiveness of U.S. nonproliferation efforts.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Foreign Policy, and Nuclear Weapons
There is growing bipartisan recognition that the pathway out of poverty is not through consumption but through saving and accumulation. That idea has led to a number of interesting and innovative experiments by state and local governments and by private charitable organizations and has helped fuel the drive for personal accounts as part of Social Security reform.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, Economics, and Government
On August 31, 2006, the United Nations (UN) Security Council passed Resolution 1706, authorizing the deployment of a robust UN peacekeeping force to provide protection for the people of Darfur. This proposed force would transition from the current African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which has had neither the resources nor the numbers to ensure security in the region. Africa Action welcomed the passage of this Security Council Resolution as an important step forward. It recognized the need for an international intervention in Darfur and the responsibility of the international community to take new action on this crisis.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and United Nations
Good evening, and thank you Dan for that nice introduction. It is a pleasure to be here at the Asia Society. Thank you, Vishakha [Desai, President] for your remarks and also for inviting me.
Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns is the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the Department of State's third ranking official. Prior to his current assignment, Ambassador Burns was the United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As Ambassador to NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department U.S. Mission to NATO at a time when the Alliance committed to new missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war against terrorism, and accepted seven new members.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Asia
Well it all depends, of course, on how people react to internal experience. I obviously see this as a major asset because I spent 28 years in the United Nations system in a wide variety of activities. I have worked for refugees and humanitarian operations, as well as in peacekeeping at the end of the Cold War; in the Secretary-General's own office, where I've seen his work at close quarters, and then in the management of a rather large department which I have essentially been able to reform.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Diplomacy, and United Nations
Energy security means different things to different countries. Importing countries primarily focus on supply. Since the oil price shocks of the 1970s, the focus of energy security has been on achieving adequate supplies at reasonable prices, without incurring serious disruptions. Recent high prices have intensified this concern and renewed interest in policies to bring prices down.
Topic:
Security, Energy Policy, and Oil
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Europe, Middle East, India, Asia, and Saudi Arabia