Banks, Guns and Baguettes in Angolagate’s Missing Billions
Joseph Schumacher scrutinises the current situation in Angola, and finds the international financial system wanting. See also our current book review of Joseph E Stiglitz’s critique of the IMF and his prescription for reform.
Every Man for Himself: A Personal Account of Academic Repression
UPEACE Professor Victoria Fontan gives a personal and candid account of academic repression in the United States, exposing, as she puts it “how my research, teaching, and writings were repressed by different sources both within and outside my academic institution during the 2003-2004 year, and how this repression led me to expatriate from US academia into an Iraqi university.” This article was first written for an edited volume on academic repression soon to be published by AK Press. Due to legal threats made against AK Press and the book’s editors, the article below had to be re-written in a sanitized format. Still, it was courageously published by Counterpunch on March 16th 2009. To date, no legal action was initiated in reprisal.
A drizzly but hopeful day in Buduburum
Theresa, one of the would-be returnees to Liberia, is a middle-aged woman whose difficult life experiences show through in the lines etched on her face. She was forced to leave her country four years ago due to the ongoing violence there and has lived in exile in Ghana ever since.
Joanna Gaughan reports from Buduburum, Ghana..
Bill Brown 2
When the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA) began, Bill Brown and Joe Eldridge, and, later, others divided the tasks on a geographical basis. Bill took Central America, and for the next few years dedicated himself to bringing spokesmen for the oppressed and for change to Washington as well as highlighting the state terrorism that existed throughout most of Central America.
Building Respect for the Sheriff
Even in pursuit of the most laudable purposes, the use of military force exacerbates rather than transforms conflict, and perpetuates the cycle of violence and injustice. This is true in compelling cases as well, such as efforts to thwart gross violations of human rights, or for other humanitarian purposes.
Chicken Little Vs Ostrich
Chicken Little Vs Ostrich Author: Matthew Norton Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 09/30/2003 Category: Editorial Perhaps the birds are our Scylla and our Charybdis. On the one hand is hellfire and apocalypse, a vast retribution for our vast sins. Our comeuppance is a looming strife or perhaps devastation of another order […]
Democracy and Governance in Afghanistan
Lack of security, slow progress in the disarmament of militias, and a weakly developed legal and institutional framework for democratic politics are endangering the success of Afghanistan’s presidential and parliamentary elections due to be held in September.
Environmental Security and Urban Development
THE NEXUS BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND CONFLICTS: THE CASE OF THE PROPOSED OGU ENERGY CITY PROJECT. BEING A PAPER PRESENTED BY COMMANDER AH OFORIBO ON THE OCASSION MARKING THE SILVER JUBILEE OF THE LIBERATION CLUB OF OGU ON 11 APRIL 2009 AT ST MARTINS ANGLICAN CHURCH YARD MAIN HALL OGU
Gandhian Values Recognized
Mary King, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the UN-affiliated University for Peace (UPEACE), a global institution whose main campus is in Costa Rica, is the winner of this year’s Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation International Award for promoting Gandhian values outside India. Previous winners of the International Award include Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat of the United Kingdom, and Professor Johan Galtung of Norway.
Give Optimism a Chance
Investing in Peace: How Development Aid Can Prevent or Promote Conflict.
By Robert J. Muscat. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. 2002.
Contrary to much of contemporary prescriptive literature, Muscat does not automatically assume that economic development is always conflict-reducing. Through a series of case studies and a detailed examination of the three cross-cutting themes of development, aid and conflict, Muscat identifies development aid as perhaps “the most powerful tool that the international community possesses as a means of non-violent conflict resolution in the Third World today” (p. xvi).