Conventional peacekeeping operations are designed as stop-gap measures, either for a brief period of time or with a limited brief in a frozen conflict. This can be functional if the peacekeepers are dealing with institutionalized belligerents, with functioning hierarchies. In

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Conventional peacekeeping operations are designed as stop-gap measures, either for a brief period of time or with a limited brief in a frozen conflict. This can be functional if the peacekeepers are dealing with institutionalized belligerents, with functioning hierarchies. It

Read the rest of Peacekeeping in the Political Marketplace »

Livelihoods, Power and Choice: the Vulnerability of the Northern Rizaygat, Darfur, Sudan, is the latest report on Darfur from the Feinstein International Famine Center. Livelihoods in Darfur are intimately linked to the conflict, none more so than the livelihoods of

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On the face of it, Africa has been relatively unharmed by the world financial crisis. The fact is that it remains the continent that has been the least penetrated by formal institutions of investment and credit – mortgages, bank loans,

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Khalid Omer sent in this comment on my critique, with 13 points, each of which deserves a response. Khalid’s questions are numbered, my replies are in italics. Continue reading →

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With all the attention to the ICC Prosecutor’s application for an arrest warrant against President Omar al Bashir, it is remarkable how little scrutiny has been given to the contents of the Public Application itself. Frankly, it’s a mess. A

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The trial of the Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo finally opened in The Hague yesterday. He is charged on six counts of recruiting and using child soldiers in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those listening

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Suddenly Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army is back in the international news. Predictably, it is not because they have surrendered or the commanders captured and taken to The Hague to face trial, but because they are killing people again. The LRA

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It will be difficult to discuss anything this week but the inauguration of the first black man to be elected President of the United States of America. It is an election that is resonating with historical symbolisms and promises of

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Sudan is in a state of high tension at the moment, and we face a dangerous month ahead. Darfur is witnessing its worst fighting for a year. The immediate cause of the tension is the expected arrest warrant to be

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