With things looking very bad on the Korean peninsula - and quite a few experts wondering whether the Pyongyang's aggressive behavior is a sign that the regime...
Richard Gowan
Richard Gowan coordinates the International Security Institutions program at the Center on International Cooperation, New York University. He is also the UN Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate of the Foreign Policy Center (London).
Why Catherine Ashton needs a good crisis
Over at E!Sharp, I've just published a piece arguing that Catherine Ashton's tenure as the EU's foreign policy chief could be defined by a crisis somewhere:...
Will the gay rights movement crash Canada’s G20?
Question: what does the following sorry tale have to do with the G20? Two gay men in Malawi, convicted this week of unnatural acts and gross indecency, were...
Great problems in disaster management: can you save a gerbil during a catastrophic earthquake?
Global Dashboard asks hard questions about whether communities and systems are resilient enough to survive catastrophes. But I don't think we've ever asked...
Thailand: no to the UN
Yesterday, I briefly blogged about how the Thai crisis underlines the obstacles to international mediation in Asian conflicts. I noted a new paper from CIC...
US to UK: time for discipline on the EU
Yesterday's meeting between Hillary Clinton and William Hague seems to have gone well. The Washington Post reports that there was a "simpatico vibe" in the...
Avoiding the next Thailand
The Thai military have now declared parts of Bangkok a "live firing zone" as their struggle with the Red Shirt protestors intensifies. One of the most...
Annals of astonishing reportage
From the NYT (emphasis added)... A renegade Thai general was shot in Bangkok on Thursday as the military prepared to encircle the barricaded encampment of...
The end of European exceptionalism?
While there's a lot of talk about the sheer size of the EU stability package agreed yesterday, doubts are already mounting about how much good it can do - as...
The little drone that wanted to go home
Last month, Ireland withdrew its peacekeepers from the UN peacekeeping force in Chad. Some of their military hardware had tried to get home early: The Irish...
OMG! Ban Ki-moon rocks American Idol
Dag Hammarsjkold never did this! Ban Ki Moon will make his prime-time American television debut this evening on...American Idol. Yes. You heard correct....
Ban Ki-moon to Central Asia: stop talking!
An unfortunate glitch in a story from the UN News Center*: Mr. Ban will begin his official visit [to Central Asia] in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, where he will...
Indian peacekeepers need better PR – and big picture thinking too
Eighteen months ago, I wrote a post for GD asking whether India was about to pull its troops out of UN missions. This was inspired by two very good Indian...
James Bond voting Tory (in disguise)!
The BBC has published a story entitled "Business Leaders Back Conservative Tax Pledge" (which may rank with "Dog Would Like to Bite Man, But Chases Tail For...
Global Governance: a very French debate
This week, all the big ideas for the future of world order are coming from Frenchmen. Here's WTO Chief Pascal Lamy speaking in Brussels on how the EU should...
Fighting fat!
The BBC reports that U.S. forces may soon be slimmer targets for Taliban snipers: Burger bars and pizza joints in Nato bases across Afghanistan are being...
The fierce urgency of the Universal Postal Union
The State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs has just released a fact-sheet entitled U.S. Multilateral Engagement: Benefits to American...
A rare display of EU common sense on the G20
Regular (or obsessive) readers will be familiar with my exasperation at the EU's inability to rationalize its presence in the G20, G8 and similar loose-knit...
Public event, Brookings, Wednesday 24 March: can the UN and NATO be reformed?
As a service to readers in Washington DC - if we have any - I'm pleased to announce that I'll be speaking at a public event at Brookings on UN and NATO reform...
The UN, EU and civilian peace ops
The EU needs an independent review to get a grip of its civilian peacekeeping efforts.
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Local Week Article Summary
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