Monthly Archives: November 2014
UN peacekeeping and lives in Congo
By David Bosco Friday’s Boston Globe featured an examination of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, with particular emphasis on the role of the “intervention brigade,” which the Security Council authorized early last year. The author, Thanassis Cambanis, reaches some … Continue reading
In her second term, President Rousseff must reassert Brazil’s global role
By Oliver Stuenkel Two and a half decades after the end of the Cold War, global order remains fundamentally unipolar. Yet paradoxically, neither US economic nor military dominance are the decisive factors. The global economy is multipolar, and while the … Continue reading
The General Assembly, the ICC, and the North Korea precedent
By David Bosco According to this Associated Press account, the North Korean regime staged a large rally in Pyongyang to protest the recent UN resolution urging a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC): Thousands of protesters in Kim Il … Continue reading
World Bank releases third report on climate change impact
By David Bosco The World Bank has announced the release of the third in a series of major reports it has commissioned on the impact of climate change. The new iteration, authored by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, … Continue reading
The North Korean paper trail
By Leslie Vinjamuri Last Tuesday, a United Nations General Assembly committee condemned North Korea for its appalling human rights record and urged the Security Council to refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court. The resolution, which … Continue reading
Will US admissions of torture matter to the ICC?
By David Bosco Michael Hayden, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, is worried about increasingly formal U.S. admissions that it engaged in torture. In a Washington Times column, he noted with concern a … Continue reading
Washington’s short-sighted opposition to China’s new regional development bank
By Oliver Stuenkel [Crossposted from Post-Western World] When China’s Xi Jinping first mentioned his idea of a new China-led development bank for the region, some of his own officials were surprised that he had already aired the concept publicly. At … Continue reading
The politics of next year’s BRICS Summit in Russia
By Oliver Stuenkel [Crossposted from Post-Western World] When Russia hosted the first BRIC Leaders’ Summit in June 2009, which was attended by Brazil’s President Lula, Russia’s President Dimitry Medvedev, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and China’s President Hu Jintao, Russia’s … Continue reading
Does the United States buy votes at the United Nations?
By David Bosco In the latest issue of International Organization, David Carter and Randall Stone examine whether U.S. foreign aid helps buy votes at the UN General Assembly. The data they’ve gathered and analyzed tells an interesting story: U.S. aid … Continue reading
When international organizations tweet, who’s listening?
By Martin Edwards [Crossposted from the Permanent Observer.] Social media presents new opportunities for interactions between international organizations and civil society. There have already been some interesting works on this front produced by Burson Marsteller and Ilan Manor, and a … Continue reading
Points of Order 