In January, I reproduced a fine picture of Nicolas Sarkozy atop a French tank in Lebanon. Today, the NYT opens a profile of new U.S. Afghanistan-Pakistan...
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).
Kentucky: community resilience threatened by peanuts
While the UK struggles with snow, spare a thought for Kentucky, which is suffering from an ice storm: The storm has been blamed for 27 deaths in Kentucky,...
Ban Ki-moon: angry at the top
The Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat has interviewed Ban Ki-moon, and the English transcript of the Secretary-General's comments is powerful stuff: When was the last...
High noon in Darfur
UN officials always describe their nightmare scenario as "another Srebrenica": peacekeepers standing by as civilians are massacred. Their dream scenario is,...
Credit crunch = peacekeeping crunch
News from Lebanon: BEIRUT: Poland has said it may withdraw its troops from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), prompting fears of a "crunch"...
The more ruthless Obama gets, the more I admire him
From New York magazine's blog: During the election season we heard a lot about "60" — that magic number of Senate seats that would allow the Democrats to...
The EU has closed down
OK, it's only NYC East Village Gastropub "EU" - but it makes for a snappy photo: What went wrong? The original review from New York magazine rings a...
Eat like you’ve never heard of Alex Evans!
Alex has got a good deal of media attention for his excellent new Chatham House report on future of food crises but the Daily Telegraph got the real scoop -...
“African ownership”: an African critique
Last year, I wrote a couple of posts (here and here) warning of a rift between African countries and the West over how to administer peace and justice on the...
Vanity Fair attempts to stoke feud between Bhutto Clan and Puff Daddy
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RxgiLARd5I&eurl[/youtube]
Nicolas Sarkozy has a very big tank
We have noted Nicolas Sarkozy's attraction to large domestic appliances (first his TV, then his telephone table...). So we are not surprised to see him, third...
The Bush administration finally finds a treaty it likes
From the State Department (with some explanatory notes added by GD): Statement by Secretary Condoleezza Rice Washington, DC January 9, 2009 January 11 marks...
Vanity Fair attempts to stoke feud between Bhutto Clan and Puff Daddy. Yes really.
So, Benazir Bhutto's daughter has released a rap video lamenting the loss of her mother just over a year ago:...
The next defeatism
Bob Herbert of the New York Times: Our interest in Afghanistan is to prevent it from becoming a haven for terrorists bent on attacking us. That does not...
Predictions for 2009: we count our chickens before they’re hatched. Literally.
Charlie has got some debate going with his ten predictions for 2009, and I'm not going to try to rival it. But after a year of following food prices...
Georgia: the EU’s in the dark
Long before this year's Georgian war, I chatted to a European foreign policy expert recently returned from the Caucasian flash-point. He was shocked to...
Look, it’s really not easy being a pirate, don’t make it any harder…
From the BBC: Somali pirates say they have thwarted an apparent revolt by the crew of a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship, according to reports. An unnamed pirate...
“24” rings death-knell for UN peacekeeping
Like the UN didn't have enough problems already... After Darfur and Congo, the blue helmets have to take on Jack Bauer. The two-hour prequel to the new series...
Old-fashioned nonsensical spy drama!
In these days of spies having to roam around the Middle East trying to communicate in Arabic, Farsi, etc. it's nice to know that there is somewhere that...
Does Europe matter?
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The True Cost of COVID-19 School Closures
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