Diplomacy & Crisis News

Célèbre auteur uruguayen, figure de la gauche latino-américaine et collaborateur de longue date du « Monde diplomatique », Eduardo Galeano est décédé en 2015, à l'âge de 74 ans. Son dernier ouvrage (un recueil d'histoires et de contes parfois presque aussi brefs que des haïkus) paraît pour la première (...) / Amérique latine, Culture, Histoire, Idées, Intellectuels, Littérature, Uruguay - 2017/05

A “staggering” average of 71 verified grave violations a day, are committed against children by parties to conflict in more than 30 settings across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

Le viol, la répartition des tâches domestiques, mais aussi l'interruption volontaire de grossesse : autant de questions touchant à la condition des femmes qui sont éminemment politiques, mais qui sont pourtant de plus en plus souvent renvoyées à leur « vie privée ». / Femmes, Médias, Politique, (...) / Femmes, Médias, Politique, Réfugiés, Société, Médecine, Droits des femmes - 2010/03

Last week, I traveled to Azerbaijan together with former Israeli Communication Minister Ayoob Kara, who visited Agdam, a city in the war-torn Karabakh region and Baku, where the Honorable Kara was one of 22 foreign experts who gave a talk at Ada University as part of a panel titled “Development in the post-conflict period in the South Caucuses.”   Other speakers included Hikmet Aliyev, the special advisor of Azerbaijan’s president, Fuad Muradov, the chairman of the State Committee on the Work with the Diaspora, and a number of other Azerbaijani government ministers.

In the tour of Agdam, the Honorable Kara saw the ruins of a city, where 100,000 people used to live in the Soviet period.  He saw the ruins of the historic Bread Museum, which used to house a loaf of bread that was preserved by Soviet soldiers dating from the Second World War.  All that remains of that museum is a half-destroyed mural.   He saw tombs dating from the Karabakh khanate, a world heritage site which were partially destroyed.  He saw a mosque, which until recently housed pigs and goats, and was used as an Armenian watch tower.  And he saw the remnants of a cemetery, where all of the bones were thrown away, with the tombstones and gold teeth in the graves being sold for use in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  And until relatively recently, all of these areas were covered in landmines.     

After seeing that, Kara gave an interview to Eurasia Daily, where he declared: “I witnessed terrible destruction.   Mined areas are the greatest disaster of our time.  During our visit, we stated to the government of Azerbaijan that we could provide technological support to Azerbaijan in the field of mind clearance.  Israel has invented a new robotic technology to clear landmines.   With the help of these robot machines, any type of mine can be safely removed from various depths of the earth without manual interference.  We have informed the Azerbaijani government about this in detail and made our proposals.” 

According to him, all of these robots will be able to clear off landmines without the need for landmine maps.   For Azerbaijan, this is critical, as officials in the Azerbaijani government claim that only 25% of the landmine maps that Armenia gave them are usable.    Presently, there are up to a million mines that were planted in the Karabakh region.   

At the conference, Vugar Suleymanov, the chairman of the Mine Action Agency of Azerbaijan, proclaimed: “Azerbaijan is one of the most landmine contaminated countries in the world.    Mines are indiscriminate.   Since the end of the war, there were 228 landmine incidents, which injured 184 and killed 39.”   

However, the Honorable Kara believes a better future is within reach.   In the interview, the Honorable Former Minister also related that he would like to support the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.   Kara proclaimed in his speech: “Azerbaijan has the land of Karabakh.  It is legitimate. Armenia has to accept it.  Different people have to push to find a solution that the two states can be in a better relationship.  Peace is the right way to go.  It is not easy.   It will not happen tomorrow, but it could happen in the next several years if we work hard on it.”

According to him, “The State of Israel can help with different innovations, technologies that both sides need.  For that reason, we can influence.  We have the power to do it as we crossed the same thing in different states in the Middle East.  Peace can happen if you influence that and convince the other side to support that.”

The Honorable Kara declared that this is what happened with the Abraham Accords, when Israel succeeded to make peace with four different countries: “Step by step, after Trump was elected, this has become a reality and the same thing could happen here.   I think that after I visited Shusha last year with Rachel, we understand that you need different things to support the Karabakh area.   I can help you to find a solution for everything that is necessary there.  I know that there are a lot of people coming from Israel here to help but I think as the former Minister of Communication, Cyber and Satellite, I have the connections needed to help Azerbaijan.”

The respectable former minister called upon the State of Israel to use all of its power in order to help Azerbaijan obtain the conditions needed to make peace with Armenia.  He also called upon the foreign experts at the conference to do everything in their power to help Azerbaijan: “Slowly, slowly, the conflict will subside if we work together.   If the world says something together, it will be more powerful than just Azerbaijan or Israel saying something.” 

Leaders in Libya must resolve outstanding issues so that long-awaited presidential and parliamentary elections can finally be held, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council on Monday. 

Legalized cannabis use in some countries and states appears to have accelerated daily use and related health impacts, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed in a new report released on Monday.

At least ten people have reportedly been killed by what Ukrainian authorities have said was a Russian missile strike on a crowded shopping centre, and attack which the UN condemned on Monday as “utterly deplorable”.

On Monday, thousands of people gathered at Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, for the first day of the long-awaited UN Ocean Conference. Riding on the global momentum generated by the event, experts are pushing for a new international commitment to combat pollution, including at sea.

“High level” violence has resulted in “scores of Palestinian and Israeli casualties”, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Monday.

Although climate change threatens everyone, women and girls often suffer its harshest and most violent consequences, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday. 

De la controverse sur le traité constitutionnel européen au rejet du contrat première embauche (CPE) émerge un débat de civilisation. Quelle place pour l'humain face au marché ? Quelles valeurs la société veut-elle défendre ? Depuis des décennies, qu'il s'agisse de la théorie de la « fin de l'histoire et (...) / Europe, Droits humains, Économie, Idées, Jeunes, Libéralisme, Mouvement de contestation, Politique, Société - 2006/05

A UN conference on transforming the world's urban areas is underway in Poland this week, which will include a dialogue on urban crisis recovery and reconstruction, centered on neighbouring Ukraine.

At the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the international community to commit and unite around the protection and preservation of our seas.

Que disent, après coup, les anciennes figures du régime de M. Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali des violations des droits humains commises alors ? À l'opposé des réactions célébrant le caractère historique du processus de justice transitionnelle mené par l'Instance vérité et dignité, il en existe d'autres qui (...) / Tunisie, Droits humains, Justice, Mouvement de contestation, Prison, Maghreb, Torture, Dictature, Répression - 2017/05

Coincée entre deux puissances qui voient en elle tantôt un grand marché, tantôt un pion géopolitique, l'Ukraine, sous la conduite de son gouvernement autoritaire, zigzague sur une voie étroite. / Europe, Europe de l'Est, Russie, Ukraine, Économie, Énergie, Géopolitique, Nationalisme, Relations (...) / Europe, Europe de l'Est, Russie, Ukraine, Économie, Énergie, Géopolitique, Nationalisme, Relations internationales, Relations bilatérales - 2013/12

Trois ans après le début du conflit entre Kiev et la région séparatiste du Donbass, aucune solution ne semble se dégager. Le président ukrainien souffle le chaud et le froid, hésitant entre l'instauration d'un blocus ferme et le rétablissement de liens économiques contrôlés. Du côté de Donetsk, la (...) / Europe de l'Est, Russie, Ukraine, Armée, Conflit, Géopolitique, Relations internationales, Autodétermination des peuples, Frontières, Relations bilatérales - 2017/05

Des tensions inédites, et particulièrement vives, entre les juges et les responsables politiques auront marqué la campagne présidentielle française. Au-delà des événements particuliers de la compétition électorale, magistrats et élus rejouent ici une pièce ancienne mais actualisée par la montée en (...) / Europe, Europe de l'Est, Droit, Droits humains, État, Histoire, Idées, Politique, Europe centrale - 2017/05

Peacekeeping operations have become a fixture within the international arena and core practice of international organizations since the end of the Cold War. However, these operations, particularly those run by the United Nations, have had a torrid relationship with intelligence collection and analysis. There has been consistent opposition by member states to establishing an intelligence office within the UN, and, up until 2017, the UN had no procedures for acquiring and analyzing information in support of their peacekeeping operations. Despite this improvement, not having a standing office capable of independently deciphering and combing through the piles of information has severely limited the ability of the UN to prepare and support its peacekeeping operations. The current policy is too reliant on the kindness of its member states which does nothing but create a situation where vital information is given based on national interest. However, a permanent office capable of doing so in a way that protects civilians and the reputation of the UN is not only easily conceivable but entirely feasible.

Two reports commissioned by the UN Secretary-General have begged the UN to establish an office for acquiring and analyzing information pertinent to the operation’s success. The Brahimi Report, which debuted in 2000, detailed an office capable of collecting and analyzing data for the Secretariat to plan peacekeeping operations and identify potential conflicts. The Brahimi Report notes that an information analysis office would allow for developing short-term and long-term mission planning and crisis response. Had this office been implemented, it would have allowed several peacekeeping operations to possess adequate resources and prevented disasters like the kidnapping of over 200 UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, which happened that same year. The UN was again warned of the dangers of being unable to independently analyze information in the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO Report) report, which further pleaded for the UN Secretariat to expand its analytical capabilities to support peace operations. The UN took these cries for reform and formulated an intelligence and information analysis policy that relied upon member states willingly turning it over to the UN, potentially exposing their sources, methods, and collection from peacekeepers.

The unreliability of the status quo therefore necessitates the creation of an office as described by both reports and addresses any potential concerns laid out by UN member states. This office must be impartial, assist in the planning of peacekeeping operations, and make use of emerging technologies.

Covert and clandestine operations have been a prominent feature within states’ intelligence agencies since their very inception. This is likely a feature that has probably led to the opposition of an intelligence analysis service. However, the rise of social media platforms and the Internet have led to the expansion of open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools that make information gathering and analysis accessible to even the average person. Therefore, an intelligence analysis office that the UN would not need to rely on secretive methods; instead, they would be utilizing techniques and practices widely available worldwide. The only real need for classification by a UN information office would be to protect human intelligence (HUMINT) sources for their safety.

Intelligence needs to be politically independent and free of bias to be effectively understood and respected by decision-makers, especially when coming from the UN. Moreover, since this office would need to be constantly analyzing information to plan for peacekeeping operations, states may feel threatened by being labeled as a threat to international peace and security. As such, an office meant to support peacekeeping operations would need to be professional and adhere to the same recruitment and hiring practices that all UN employees go through. Of course, maintaining the utmost professionalism is crucial to any intelligence agency. Still, it will be incredibly essential to one serving at the bequest of the UN; an international organization meant to support international peace and security.

Being able to assess and take action on information accurately is crucial to the success of any operation, especially peacekeeping ones employed by the UN. Without a longstanding office, the ability of peacekeepers to conduct themselves will eventually diminish and render them unable to protect civilians, one of their highest priorities effectively. However, new technologies and robust professionalism by analysts can make for the perfect early warning system for crises that may require the presence of UN peacekeepers. As a result, these operations will be better resourced, planned, and overall more effective.

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Peter Roberto is a M.A. candidate at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations where he is the Incoming Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Diplomacy & International Relations and conducted research with the National Security Fellowship.

Délaissée par la métropole, dont elle dépend pour presque tout, la Guyane reste coupée économiquement de ses voisins. La porosité de sa frontière la rend toutefois perméable aux trafics d'or comme au prosélytisme évangélique. En première ligne, les Amérindiens jouent leur avenir en tant que peuple. / France (...) / France Outre-mer, France, Guyane, Christianisme, Amérindiens, Inégalités, Minorité nationale, Droits des minorités, Pauvreté, Religion, Spiritualité, Amérique du Sud - 2017/05

For United States citizens, policy developments in the Americas were always tied to the belief that the United States saw the region as their own geographical backyard. The ascent of the United States as a world power following the Spanish-American Wars and their relative economic stability compared to Europe following the First and Second World Wars turned them into a powerful hegemony in the Americas.

Balancing the hegemony of the United States through Soviet ties was done on a few occasions during the greater Cold War era. The trend of Left wing dictatorships, often based around narcotics or energy expropriation followed in the post 2000 era. The last decade and a half enshrined these divides and saw them diminish internally as US policy remained as paper projects never implemented. Foreign actors entered the region during this more recent and somewhat lost period of US policy towards Latin America. While a lack of US influence in the region has had its positive and negative results, the current policy approach doubles down on mediocrity as regional crises are challenged by local hegemons in Latin America.

The recent Summit of the Americas was hosted by the United States who clearly had other regions on its mind in 2022. While health policy was a focus of the Summit, the real challenges faced by one of the hardest hit regions by Covid will have little impact as Covid numbers wain. Like for all of us, inflation and employment is dominating their focus as economic chaos and recovery create new challenges and harm citizens in the US, Canada and Latin America simultaneously.

While these more serious issues were not the main target of policy approaches during the Summit of the Americas, they already are having a grand effect on the region itself. Countries excluded during the Summit have already taken to increase ties with Russia as a buffer against the US. Venezuela has been upgrading its military with some of the most advanced Russian jets and missile systems for a generation at this point and has close ties with Iran and China. Venezuelan refugees in Latin America make up one of the largest displaced populations in the world, and while they did give some funding for those issues at the Summit, there was little focus on the cause of the Venezuelan refugee crisis and Human Rights crisis taking place within ballistic missile striking distance of the United States.

The Summit did little to change the policy of restricting North American energy while a displacement of Russian energy is a key tool to ending the War in Ukraine. Openly dropping human rights based restrictions on OPEC members like Venezuela and Iran in order to displace Russian oil is simply fuelling more abuses against Venezuelan refugees, human rights activists in Iran and those in their regions being affected by funding further conflict. Without North American oil and gas displacing Russia’s funding source for weapons of war, they are just displacing conflict. Adding conflict in Latin America and other regions with the intent to help Ukraine will simply result in more atrocities and acts of war in other parts of the world. There is no point in holding a Summit of the Americas if the two biggest economies, the USA and Canada, do not intend to enact policies to reduce conflict in the region and abroad.

China’s economic investment in Latin America has been taking place for over a decade and a half at this point, tying even US allies like Colombia, Brazil and Argentina to Chinese infrastructure projects and natural resource dependency. While diversifying their economies away from the United States is a logical and beneficial decision, linking to only one other producer will likely have a similar effect as in the past where agro-economies rise and fall with the international price of their natural resource goods. The focus of industrialisation in one form or another was the strategy they used to ensure a flexible and diverse economic base in many Latin American countries for generations. It seems like the stability of long term policies have waned, diversifying customers as opposed to creating more economic opportunities for citizens in Latin America. This has not been as much of an issue in IT hubs in Brazil and manufacturing in Mexico, but the economic situation in those countries can change rapidly with the US Administration challenging Brazil’s leadership and Mexico’s President declaring himself absent from the Summit of the Americas altogether.

In 2022, the United States should focus on re-balancing their role in the region with that of China and take serious steps to reduce added conflict in Latin America. While agreements fade and alliances break apart, at the bare minimum the United States should act as an engine for economic diversity and a cap on added international conflict in Latin America. At this point at the end of the Summit, they have barely achieved any of those essential goals.