Human rights news from FPB
May 17, 2010 4 min. read

Many stories covered in the past week by other blogs on the Foreign Policy Blog network also have a strong human rights component to them. Here is a roundup of those stories from our own blog network: Goldstone, apartheid, and the duty of a judge: Much has been said in the blogosphere since Yedioth Ahronoth […]

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Where You Sit Is Where You Stand
May 17, 2010 2 min. read

In 1976, Robert Jervis, quoting Ernest May, wrote this: “General Marshall, while Chief of Staff, opposed the State Department’s idea of using aid to promote reforms in the Chinese government.  Then, when he became Secretary of State, he defended this very idea against challenges by the new chiefs of Staff.  In “1910, Winston Churchill, as […]

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World Health Assembly Opens
May 17, 2010 1 min. read

Today marks the opening session of the WHO’s World Health Assembly, the 63rd of its kind.  As the decision-making body of the WHO, the assembly meets annually to convene the health ministers of the 193 member states, approve the budget and appoint the Director General.  Top of the agenda this year is H1N1, which has been […]

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AIDS War Falling Apart, and more
May 17, 2010 2 min. read

A few items of note that I read over the course of last week: Last Sunday, the New York Times published an article, “At Front Lines, AIDS War is Falling Apart”, causing a spate of emails and exchanges across the HIV/AIDS world.  The article cited the funding cuts that I discussed in the round-up two weeks back, […]

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Hi-Speed Secret Trading Caused 'Flash Crash'
May 17, 2010 3 min. read

Using high-speed, high-frequency programmed trades, Traders in effect bend down to pick up those pennies – often millions lying around in the stock market – then do it again, sometimes thousands of times a second. There is nothing wrong with this activity in, and of itself, however, HFTs have become a matter of financial public policy and regulatory review given a glimpse into its potential harm to efficient Markets. Left un-checked this could become the next big financial disaster waiting to happen.

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No New Nukes – Part Deux
May 16, 2010 4 min. read

Yesterday I mentioned a number of big-ticket reasons to think that nuclear power is a very bad bet indeed:  It bleeds money from smarter, cheaper and much more climate-friendly options; it’s dangerous; it’s radically inefficient; it’s not, at the end of the day – that is to say, through the whole life cycle – a […]

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The Moral Dilemmas of Judges
May 14, 2010 3 min. read

Blogs have been buzzing for the past week about Yedioth Ahronth’s report on Richard Goldstone’s actions as an apartheid-era South African judge.  He sentenced at least 28 black men to death (though not all of them were executed, as their sentences had not been carried out by 1995, when the death penalty was abolished in […]

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Next Needed Nonproliferation Step
May 14, 2010 5 min. read

As the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference draws to a close in New York, what’s remarkable is how little attention the meeting has got in the world press. Except for fleeting attention to the idea of making the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free-zone, which Egypt has been promoting as leader of the “group of 77” nonaligned […]

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Read My Lips: No New Nukes
May 14, 2010 4 min. read

I am, of course, borrowing from George H.W. Bush’s timeless declaration.  But what’s really at issue here?  There is no sense at all in building new nuclear capability in this country or, for that matter, any other. In my classes on climate change and on clean tech, I identify nuclear power, along with carbon capture […]

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The Future of Afghanistan
May 14, 2010 4 min. read

We are a people who don’t have money, food or clothes. But we are sleeping on gold. ~ Mohammad Ibrahim Adel, former Afghan minister of mines. Afghanistan is the second most corrupt nation in the world and its people are the poorest outside of Africa. Developing a legitimate economy, effective government, and safety for its […]

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2010 Jane Addams Children's Peace Association Book Awards
May 14, 2010 5 min. read

On the ninety-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the 2010 Jane Addams Peace Association‘s Children’s Book Committee announces the following Award winners and honor books. The Jane Addams Children’s Book Award is given annually to books that engage children in thinking about peace, social justice, world community, […]

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Sadat's Principles and My Hope for Peace
May 13, 2010 11 min. read

By Jehan Sadat As the widow of Anwar Sadat, I cannot count myself an objective analyst of his policies; but I am not the only one who believes that the world is poorer for his absence, nor am I the first to note that statesmen of Sadat’s caliber are in short supply. Perhaps then, it […]

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