Tomorrow, President Trump will address the United Nations for the first time in what is sure to be a spectacle of high-drama. Trump and his administration have made no secret of their disdain for the U.N. and for global cooperation in general, including by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement in June.… continue »
The day-to-day news cycle focuses on critically important national security issues, such as North Korea saber rattling, the ongoing Russia investigation, or whatever else happens to be the national security topic du jour. This flood of daily national security news makes it difficult to take a step back from the day-to-day news cycle and look at the broader security and geopolitical trends that are taking place—but that is exactly what climate change and its corresponding security impacts demand.… continue »
As we process the news that President Donald Trump is ending the DACA program, we shouldn’t forget that last month, Trump sealed the fates of more than 2,700 children attempting to flee criminal violence and economic malaise in Central America.… continue »
On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, held a press conference at his headquarters in Geneva, intending to focus on systematic violations of human rights taking place in Venezuela. This is what the lead UN official for human rights does – calls out governments for serious violations of fundamental rights, conducts high-level fact finding, and encourages countries to meet their international obligations.… continue »
Earlier this year, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney spoke at the United Nations to press the global body to hold the Islamic State accountable for rape and other crimes committed as part of its reign of terror in Iraq and Syria.… continue »
Nikki Haley, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, bragged on Twitter recently about cuts to UN peacekeeping funding, saying:
“Just 5 months into our time here, we’ve cut over half a billion $$$ from the UN peacekeeping budget & we’re only getting started.” pic.twitter.com/LA7IKqupff
— Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) June 29, 2017
Haley’s ill-advised and alarming boast and promise to cut more funds is a serious risk to UN peacekeeping operations.… continue »
The majority of the world’s countries just adopted a new treaty banning nuclear weapons, placing them in the same category of international law as other weapons of mass destruction (chemical and biological weapons) or that cause unacceptable harm (landmines and cluster munitions).… continue »
On June 23, after years of slow yet meaningful progress in developing State consensus regarding the application of international law norms to cyberspace, the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security (otherwise known as the Group of Governmental Experts, or GGE) collapsed.… continue »
Saif Gaddafi in 2005
Six years after his capture during the Arab Spring uprising against his father Muammar Gaddafi, and despite pending charges in the International Criminal Court, Saif al Islam Gaddafi has been set free by his captors, a western-Libyan militia known as the Abu Bakir Siddiq Brigade.… continue »
The Internet, a historically unparalleled source of information and expression, has also become a playground for censorship, punishment and propaganda. Not a day goes by where an individual is not arrested, prosecuted or threatened for the content of a tweet or a post.… continue »
