• UN Peacekeeping

     

    The UN Approves a New Peacekeeping Force to Fix Mali

    by  • April 25, 2013 • Africa, Peace and Security, Security Council • 

    Displaced Malians

    The United Nations Security Council has authorized a new, ambitious stabilization mission to be deployed in Mali, consisting of nearly 13,000 military and police personnel who will begin operating on July 1 with a mandate of one year to provide security to “key population centers.” The mission, called Minusma (for Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in [...]

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    Illegal Gold Mining Runs Rampant in Eastern Congo

    by  • February 26, 2013 • Africa, Peace and Security, Security Council • 4 Comments

    Internally displaced people in Congo

    Gold is now one of the most problematic conflict minerals in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and United Nations Security Council sanctions on the illegal mining of natural resources, including gold, have done little to prevent smugglers from profiting, says a new report from a German foundation. The foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, is a [...]

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    A Rerun of History in Eastern Congo Threatens Kinshasa Again

    by  • November 26, 2012 • Africa, Child soldiers, ICC • 3 Comments

    Monusco, UN peacekeepers in Congo

    Less than two decades ago, this is what happened to a huge African country once known as Zaire: Rebels backed by Rwanda’s recently installed, ethnic Tutsi-led government moved out of their strongholds in the eastern flank of the country and advanced toward the Zairian national capital, Kinshasa, and overthrew the central government. To Rwandan Tutsi, [...]

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    The Syrian War, Picked Apart by a Diplomat Who Knows

    by  • November 20, 2012 • Middle East, Security Council • 3 Comments

    Jean-Marie Gguehenno of Columbia University

    The new creation of a national Syrian coalition to make the opposition groups more coherent could propel a much-needed breakthrough in the country’s 20-month civil war, Jean-Marie Guéhenno a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, told an audience there on Nov. 13. It has been a costly affair humanitarian-wise: close to 40,000 [...]

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    BOOKS  

    A Search for Truth Behind UN Motives in Africa

    by  • March 8, 2012 • Africa, BOOKS, Security Council • 10 Comments

    lumumba and congo

    “How can a beret colored blue … vaccinate against the racism and paternalism of people whose only vision of Africa is lion hunting, slave markets and colonial conquest; people for whom the history of civilization is built on the possession of colonies?” The question was asked by Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese premier, who was worried [...]

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    A Sobering Security Council Trip to Haiti

    by  • February 21, 2012 • Security Council • 

    Security Council Visits the Fort National UN Base in Haiti

    One of the most interesting developments in the Security Council’s work in the past decades is the increasing frequency and immediacy of “road trips” ambassadors are taking to the most problematic places on their agenda. Recent delegations have gone on missions to Afghanistan and numerous African nations, among other places. A year-old Russian proposal for [...]

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