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Over the weekend, I watched the Great Decisions episode on the responsibility to protect (R2P).  The episode consists of a conversation with Joe Volk (from the Friends Committee on National Legislation) and Monica Serrano (from the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect), among other experts, including Ban Ki Moon, who chime in on the […]

I came across the following course given by the Institute for a Humane Education (IHE)  a non-profit, 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to creating a humane world through humane education.  The organization states that; They foster a compassionate, just, sustainable world by training humane educators and by providing people with the tools, knowledge and motivation to […]

Nicolas Sarkozy made the first visit ever by a French president to Haiti, once his nation’s richest colony — offering aid to a country laid to waste after a catastrophic earthquake.

A national food security assessment completed in December 2009 in Niger showed approximately 7.8 million people, totaling three-fifths of the country’s population, face moderate to severe food insecurity, say UN officials.  Specifically, 2.7 million Niger citizens suffer from severe food insecurity and 5.1 million suffer moderate food insecurity. An irregular and shortened rainy season last […]

Amnesty International (AI) has suspended a senior officer for raising concern over the charity’s association with groups that support the Taliban and promote Islamic Rights ideas. An article published on February 7 by the Sunday Times quotes Gita Sahgal as questioning AI’s high-profile relationship with Guantanamo-detainee Moazzam Begg.  Gita Sahgal is or now was…head of […]

Last year there was Jack Goldsmith’s The Cheney Fallacy. Then, a few months later, came Eric Posner’s article in Foreign Policy. Now comes John Bellinger’s New York Times editorial (h/t to Opinio Juris). These editorials hit the nail on the head.  As Bellinger writes, “the Bush administration demonstrated a greater commitment to international law in […]

In case you missed it, the New York Times had an interesting article last week about the Holder v. New Humanitarian Law Project case.  The case concerns Ralph Fertig, who would like to provide support to the Kudistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to help them peacefully achieve their objectives.  However, Fertig’s endeavor may be illegal, as […]

In the January/February 2010 edition of Foreign Affairs, Carlisle Ford Runge and Carlisle Piehl Runge wrote an article titled “Against the Grain, “ which questions if the current global balance between food prices (high) and food supply (low) invites a return of the theories of Thomas Malthus, who posited that overwhelming human population growth would be held back by a decreasing availability of food. […]

I’ve been trying to stay out of the thick of the vastly media-inflated controversy over the science.  There are folks, in any event, who are much better grounded in the complexities of the arguments than I am.  These include the very good minds at RealClimate, Skeptical Science, Stoat and Climate Feedback, among others.  I have […]

Following documentary filmmaker Paul Martin’s kidnapping in Gaza on Monday by Hamas, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) noted that the kidnapping came just when he was about to give evidence at a military tribunal. The IFJ called it a “shocking violation of journalists’ rights” and demanded his immediate release. IFJ and its UK affiliate, […]

While the debate over the current ban against openly gay service members in the US military continues in Washington, there is another story about the consequences of breaking barriers in the military that is also getting attention: the ongoing prevalence of sexual violence against women in the military. The BBC carried an interesting story this […]

Last week I blogged about the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR); I thought this week I’d take a look at the Intelligence Community’s annual threat assessment.  The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair presented the report before Congress on February 2.  I found it interesting that in spite of the spotlight focused on the […]