The Deportation Death Sentence: An analysis of the United States’ role in perpetuating Human Rights abuses against should-be Honduran refugees
The past few years have been unprecedented in the United States, as a record-setting number of Latino immigrants crossed its southern border, including thousands of unaccompanied minors. Recognizing that many of these children were fleeing severe gang and cartel violence, the United Nations began advocating for the recognition of organized crime as a potential cause for refugee status. Children crossing the border are often in need of international protection, but it goes undocumented and underprovided. In this paper, I will analyze how the United States’ unwillingness to recognize certain children as refugees is perpetuating grave abuses in human rights for children fleeing gang and cartel violence with a specific focus on Honduras.
The Tlatelolco Treaty at 50: The Continued Relevance of the Latin American Nuclear Weapons Ban
Latin America and the Caribbean went nuclear weapons free in 1967 with the signing of the Tlatelolco Treaty, an historic accomplishment and an important reference in contemporary International relations.
In 2013, the World Future Council, together with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, honoured the Tlatelolco Treaty with the Future Policy Award on disarmament for its invaluable contribution to advancing regional peace and security, creating a precedent and inspiration for subsequent Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and providing impetus to the global elimination of nuclear weapons.
On 13 February, OPANAL together with the Mexican Foreign Ministry will host a high-level seminar to commemorate the treaty’s anniversary and discuss its relevance in addressing current and future nuclear threats.
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Latin American Integration for the 21st Century
Tara Ruttenberg and Gustavo Fuchs analyze the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) within the new framework of Latin American Integration in the 21st century. They provide insight into existing regional integration initiatives UNASUR and ALBA, and provide commentary as to how CELAC represents a critical tipping point in Latin American integration free from United States dominance.
China’s Oil Security: Diplomacy, Economics and the Prospects for Peaceful Growth
How does China’s pursuit of oil security drive its foreign policy and its participation in world markets? Analysis by Sigfrido Burgos Cáceres.
Sudan: Another resource war?
The world’s attention was recently attracted to the Darfur region in the west of Sudan, where the conflict has escalated in recent weeks, fearing a second Rwanda might take place. An estimated 1,000 people per week are dying in the region.
From Vienna to New York: Diverging attitudes and expectations among NPT members spell trouble for the 2015 NPT Review
The resurgence of Cold War style rhetoric between Russia and “the West”, ongoing concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program, a still elusive nuclear deal with Iran, and the recurrent fear of nuclear-armed non-state actors all stand as stark reminders that humanity still lives with the unacceptable risk of nuclear war. In this timely and important article, Rob van Riet reviews the promises and ambiguities of recent conferences, summits, working group sessions, legal actions, and negotiations on nuclear weapons, and evaluates the potential of the NPT review conference in May this year to make real political progress towards the goal of nuclear disarmament.
Thinking the Unthinkable
Thinking the Unthinkable Author: Fraser Gray Originally published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on 05/01/2006 Officially since 1967, and arguably before then, the US has considered Israel a key ally in the Middle East. As the primary, and by far the largest, recipient of US military aid and diplomatic support since that date, Israel has […]
Structural Violence and the International Political Economy
In the contemporary world, the phenomenon we call globalization has brought to life ideas and predictions previously thought impossible. There has been a global diffusion of information technologies and communications, such as the internet, cell phones and satellite television; the facility of international travel; the increased accessibility of consumer goods and services; and the sharing of unique cultures and customs. While on the surface these realizations seem undoubtedly advantageous, they are not without their own serious downsides. Most notable is the fact that as globalization gained influence in the world, largely throughout the 1990s, the actual number of people living in poverty had increased by almost 100 million(1). To make sense of this dark irony, this increasing polarization between haves and have-nots, we must examine the underlying causes and systems driving the distribution of wealth and debt in the twenty-first century. Broadly, such a system might be referred to as the international political economy
Iran and the Centrality of the IAEA
Iran and the Centrality of the IAEA Author: Dr. Aldo Zammit Borda Originally published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on 03/15/2005 Introduction In February 2005, Iran rejected an EU-3(1) offer that would have limited its nuclear capabilities, to replace its heavy-water nuclear reactor with a lightwater reactor2. This offer was made as part of the […]
Religions and War
The study of religions and war is somewhat inchoate, yet for many years scholars have noted the important role religion plays in national, ethnic and international conflicts. Many have recently pointed to the use and abuse of religious symbolism by politically motivated leaders who employ religious language as a means of generating support for purportedly righteous causes.
We have become increasingly aware that when conflicts are couched in religious and moral language, followers often quickly and enthusiastically fall in line many willing to make ultimate sacrifices to fight on God s behalf, or at least on God s side as defined by their leaders.
Whether such political leaders are sincere in espousing religiously-imbued rhetoric or whether they are simple demagogues, the approach clearly works. It works to a great extent because it seems that many people, no matter what their political leanings, prefer to reduce complex socio-economic, or political conflicts into a zero-sum values game of right and wrong.