This is your last drink for tonight, understand? This was the week the UN stopped being fun. To start with, the US is trying to stop diplomats turning up at...
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).
Europe and Obama: no miracles ahead
ECFR has just published a brief multi-authored paper looking at what President Obama's re-election means for Europe (I was one of the contributors). The...
It’s the apocalypse! Bring your own lunch…
Here is a tempting invite from the UN Department of Public Information... The Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is pleased to invite...
Pigs in crisis!
Global food scarcity is approaching a catastrophic tipping-point: Might want to get your fill of ham this year, because "a world shortage of pork and bacon...
Diplomacy vs. interior design
From Vogue: H/T Rebecca Katz.
The failure of the green movement and the neo-medieval rustic apocalypse
Aeon, a new online magazine focusing on ethics and aesthetics, launches this week. Managing Editor Ed Lake (an old friend, I should disclose) gets it off to...
Why the UN won’t invade Texas: it would lose
There has been much hilarity this week over comments by Tom Head, a Texan judge who predicts that President Obama is going to authorize a United Nations...
What’s left for the UN in Syria?
The Security Council decided today to close down the UN observer mission in Syria, which I once predicted would be a "heroic failure". But this isn't quite...
Have you heard who will replace Annan? It’s Mr. Inaudible!
There's mounting confusion at the UN about who will replace Kofi Annan as the envoy to Syria. Everyone knows that it's meant to be veteran UN mediator...
Would you ever ask a man that question?
Here's a great Hillary Clinton moment: Interviewer: Okay. Which designers do you prefer? Hillary Clinton: What designers of clothes? Interviewer: Yes. Hillary...
Cows versus squirrels: a mammalian metaphor gone mad
What on earth is all this about? When the winter comes in the squirrel has already stored 3000 nuts in different tree holes that provide the food...
The EU says it is “doing nothing” in Kosovo
The EU rule of law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) is adopting an unusual PR strategy: “EULEX is doing nothing in the fight against high level corruption” is the...
“Cool UN”: multilateralism gets hot and sweaty
The following email was circulated to UN staff in New York today. As summer approaches in the Northern Hemisphere and the mercury rises, it is time again to...
Nick Clegg and the deformed parsnips
Nick Clegg spoke at the British embassy in Berlin today. The audience was impressed by his fluent German. But why on earth did the Foreign Office decorate the...
So Conrad Black, tell us what you really think about France…
A while back I posted an excerpt from an essay by George Orwell about Hitler that, for me, was a perfect piece of political commentary. It was concise, sharp...
Syria: Annan’s dilemma
Kofi Annan's efforts to pacify Syria face growing criticism. Violence continues and few hope that real peace talks can happen soon. Diplomats are...
In praise of Brooklyn
This is a bit of a diversion from the normal Global Dashboard diet, but as a Brooklyn resident I cannot help reproducing parts of a sterling defense of NYC's...
Syria: war is bad for hotels and fairgrounds
The Syrian government defies belief: In a letter to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly made public on Thursday, Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari,...
Those magnificent presidents in their flying bathrooms
There was mild amusement yesterday when newly-minted President Hollande had to delay his arrival in Germany after lightning struck his government jet. The...
When NATO was cool
Robert Silvers is best-known for editing the New York Review of Books since its foundation, but he started out at The Paris Review, the classic "little...
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Justice is missing the boat
The year 2020 will go down in history as the year when much changed. One thing seems to remain constant: the fact that the justice sector is slow to change. As a consequence, it seems to be missing a rather big boat. Good things often come out of bad things. It is no...
An emerging ministers of justice movement
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Un mouvement émergent des Ministres de la Justice
Depuis le mois d'avril, nous appelons les leaders de la justice du monde entier à sortir de leur cagibi national et à se réunir afin de partager leurs craintes, leurs échecs, leurs succès ainsi que leurs stratégies, comme le font les ministres de la santé publique. La...