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).
SARS and the High Moral Ground
The hysteria surrounding SARS has abated, but has it left a legacy by recasting infectious disease as a more central security concern?
Against the war on women: V-day in the Congo
Remarks by Stephen Lewis,
Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, delivered at the 10th Annual V-Day
Celebrations, New Orleans, LA 4:00 pm CDT, Saturday, April 12, 2008.
Georgia-South Ossetia-Russia: Proposals for Immediate Steps to be taken to End Hostilities and Address Humanitarian Impacts
Kai Brand-Jacobson outines some recommendations for various actors and interest groups, including the Joint Control Commission, the EU, the US, the UN, and the Media. Rather than escalating and intensifying this conflict, these groups must realize that a peaceful resolution and a return to dialogue is in everyone’s best interest.
Peacekeping and the New World Order
The collapse and disintegration of the Soviet Union fundamentally altered the structure of international relations and the expression of violent conflict. Where war was once considered the business of nation states, non-state actors and intrastate wars have come to the forefront of global security concerns. Givi Amiranashvili analyses the legal and political aspects of UN peacekeeping operations in this new geopolitical landscape.
Education for water rights and environmental justice
This essay discusses an abbreviated model of education for peace and water rights.
Parts of this essay are adapted from the author’s earlier
book: The Young Ecologist Initiative: Water Manual: Lesson Plans for Building Earth Democracy (Navdanya, 2007), co-authored with Vandana Shiva and Shreya Jani.
Fixing Obama’s Crooked Cabinet
Fixing Obama’s Crooked Cabinet Author: Pandora Hopkins Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 08/15/2009 Category: Opinion I am a true-blue American citizen, I am a passionate believer in the two-party system, I am a proud Democrat, a member of the reach-across-the-aisle party that is showing the world how the two-party system can naturally […]
Ethical challenges in media coverage of the Zimbabwe crisis
This paper examines some ethical challenges manifested in the media coverage of the Zimbabwe land crisis since it escalated in 2002. The crisis has mainly been around issues of land; with seizure of land from dominating white-minority farmers, for redistribution amongst the black-majority population. Beyond the re-settlement policy, a sky-rocketing inflation, a deteriorating economy, gross human rights violations, poor governance and the dictatorial tendencies of 27-year serving President Robert Mugabe have only help to weaken the country. Within this context, the media are muscled, constrained and operated under draconian press laws. Yet, domestic and international media remain the battle ground for conflicting parties, both within and beyond the national frontiers. A brief recollection of Zimbabwe’s political history, its recent socio-political context and stakeholders as well as the evolution and media landscape put the ethical challenges in context.
Article 2(4) of the UN Charter: Alive and Well
Some have argued that the continued use of force in international relations demonstrates that the prohibition of the use of force in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter is meaningless and outdated. Kanade counters this position with a discourse on the purpose and interpretation of international law, and argues that the UN Charter continues to offer a meaninful and effctive legal framework for confronting threats to global peace and security.
Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Rebuilding Society
Samantha Garcia discusses social and institutional mechanisms for post-conflict reconstruction, with an emphasis on the need for cooperation and coordination between UN programmes, and between the UN and regional organizations. In this way, the specificities of each post-conflict situation, and the wide range of challenges faced by conflict-affected communities and individuals can be most appropriately addressed.
Key Words: El Salavador, Peacekeeping, Post-Conflict Reconstruction.