New Face Of Hunger
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, warns that the rapidly escalating price of food is increasing world hunger. The prices of basic staples -- wheat, corn, rice -- are at record highs, up 50 percent or more in the past six months. Global food stocks are at historic lows. The causes range from rising demand in major economies such as India ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 12, 2008 14:53
Russia Denounces Kosovo Independence Declaration, On Collision Course with West (Updated)
As expected, Russia is not pleased with Kosovo's secession from Serbia. Russia denounced Kosovo's independence declaration Sunday, warning that the move threatened to ignite a new conflict in the Balkans and calling on NATO and U.N. officials in the territory to nix the decision. Russia requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which held closed-door talks Sunday afternoon. Russia, which ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 18, 2008 05:50
Russia Starts Iran Nuclear Deliveries
Russia has began delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran, defying UN resolutions calling on Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment program. Russia on Monday announced the start of nuclear fuel deliveries for Iran's first atomic power station, brushing aside US and Israeli claims that Tehran harbours secret bomb-making plans. "On December 16, 2007, Atomstroiexport began delivery of the fuel ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 17, 2007 12:10
Let George Do It!
Dave Schuler wins Line of the Day honors for this comment on Alex Knapp's post about the differences between the Clinton and Obama foreign policies: There's a razor's edge between greater reliance on international institutions and “let George do it”. I'm personally and professionally committed to the use of international institutions, particularly NATO and various international trade regimes, as a vehicle ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 14, 2007 14:00
Is the UN to Blame for its Failures?
Joe Nye, the premier soft power theorist, defends the United Nations from its critics from the Right, arguing they don't understand the value of international legitimacy. After the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930’s, the UN was designed to have the Security Council’s permanent members act as policemen to enforce collective security. When the great powers agreed, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 21, 2007 15:10
U.N. Overstated H.I.V. Cases by Millions
The global AIDS crisis is less dire than it has been portrayed, the UN admits. The United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency plans to issue a report today acknowledging that it overestimated the size of the epidemic and that new infections with the deadly virus have been dropping each year since they peaked in the late 1990s. The agency, Unaids, will ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 20, 2007 12:53
Darfur Mission Desperate for Helicopters, Trucks
The latest UN effort to bring peace to Darfur could fail before it starts for want of some trucks and helicopters. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur may fail unless countries can provide helicopters and lorries, a top UN official says. Foot-dragging by Sudan over the make-up of the force could also threaten the mission, he warns. The 26,000-strong ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 16, 2007 09:30
Americans Want Allies, Willing to Go Alone
The United Nations Foundation has released a new survey showing that Americans overwhelmingly prefer multilateral solutions to foreign policy issues. Mark Leon Goldberg provides an executive summary: The United Nations Foundation released the results of a major survey of Americans' foreign policy attitudes today. Americans, the poll finds, are virtually unanimous (86% of all voters) in the belief that working ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 13, 2007 16:14
Bill Richardson’s New Realism
Foreign Affairs has, over the last several issues, had one major Republican and one major Democrat publish an essay under their name outlining the foreign policy agenda they would pursue if elected president. Bill Richardson was either tired of waiting or figured he wouldn't be asked, so instead published his in the latest issue of The National Interest. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 7, 2007 17:00
McCain Calls for ‘League of Democracies’
In a conference call with bloggers this morning, Senator John McCain argued that the United States should convene a League of Democracies to get friendly nations to put more severe pressure on Iran. I was able to get in the first question and followed up on this idea, asking whether he was talking about a "NATO Plus" organization or something ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 25, 2007 11:21
Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Former Vice President Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it. Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary on global ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 12, 2007 05:48
NATO’s Mission Creep
Greg Djerejian reacts to a Bloomberg report that NATO is having trouble sustaining its mission in Afghanistan by wondering what NATO is doing there to begin with. [N]ot a single one of the original signatories in a million years would have imagined half a century on that [the "armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 9, 2007 13:10
Sudan Ready to Declare Cease-Fire
Sudan is on the verge of yet another cease-fire. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir said Friday his government is ready to implement a cease-fire with rebel forces at the start of peace talks over the conflict in Darfur, scheduled for next month in Libya. It was the first time al-Bashir — in Italy to meet with the Pope and Italy's leaders — ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 14, 2007 07:31
Sarkozy: Bombing Iran an Option
French President Nicolas Sarkozy caused quite a stir by raising the specter of bombing Iran to prevent it becoming a nuclear weapon state. The biggest challenge to the world was the avoidance of conflict between Islam and the West, President Sarkozy told the annual gathering of French ambassadors. Iran was the crossroads of the Middle East’s troubles and its nuclear aims ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 29, 2007 10:50
Why Arguing From A Single Example Sucks
Ace of Spades guest Jack M. links a two-and-a-half-year-old story about U.N. peacekeepers committing sex crimes in Congo as part 1 in a 5 part series on "International Law: Why it sucks, why people shouldn't buy into it, and why it should be abandoned." In that spirit, I will use his post as the first of an unlimited series on Logical ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 28, 2007 10:06
