Diplomacy & Crisis News

While Obama will be in Manila to attend APEC, what’s happening on the sidelines may steal the show.

The deteriorating situation in Burundi is a perfect storm of much that undermines stability in Africa today — presidents seeking impunity and power through dubious new terms, authoritarian regimes muzzling opposition and independent media, regional rivalries stalemating efforts to bring peace and outside powers unwilling or unable to act.

More than five years since the unrest in Syria began, senior United Nations officials today stressed to the Security Council that the status quo in the war-torn country cannot continue, highlighting the effects of the conflict on civilians, especially women and children.

The current El Niño, a weather pattern of devastating droughts and catastrophic floods that can affect tens of millions of people around the globe, is expected to strengthen further by year&#39s end, on track to be one of the three strongest in 65 years, according to the latest update from the United Nations weather agency.

Libya continues to be embroiled in political strife and deadly violence &#8211 with all parties committing possible war crimes amid multiple armed conflicts affecting several regions and contributing to a general breakdown of law and order, according to a new United Nations human rights report released today.

Tolerance is much more than passively accepting the &#8220other;&#8221 it brings obligations to act, and must be taught, nurtured and defended, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling on the world to recognize the mounting threat posed by those who strive to divide, and pledge to forge a path defined by dialogue and mutual understanding.

With record numbers of child refugees and migrants &#8211 700 a day seeking asylum in Europe &#8211the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) said it has identified five groups of vulnerable children and is mobilizing tailored actions to meet their needs.

With Ethiopia experiencing its worst drought in decades the United Nations is reporting deepening food insecurity and &#8220severe emaciation and unusual livestock deaths&#8221 as the Organization&#39s humanitarian wing has allocated $17 million in emergency funding to help the Government tackle climate challenges and ensure timely food relief.

While the G20 Summit opened today in the Turkish city Antalya, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he will stress to world leaders that the global response to terrorism needs to be robust, but always within the rule of law and with respect for human rights.

On the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is highlighting that despite improvements in road safety, the world still faces some shocking injury and fatality figures.

Consensus at the closing of the 10th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Brazil today underscored the contribution of Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) and the Internet to the achievement of the recently adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations announced.

Supporters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi brave the rain as they celebrate after hearing the first official results of the elections (AFP PHOTO / Nicolas ASFOURI).

Hello, FPA! This will be my first post here on the FPA blogs, and I am happy to make it on a topic of some importance: the elections in Myanmar. In what must stand out as one of the most astonishing political transformations of recent times, Myanmar has gone from being and isolated, semi-autarkic autocratic dictatorship to a rapidly democratizing society in less than five years. And Sunday’s elections, featuring former political prisoner and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, are the greatest testament yet to that transformation.

In this quick video, I take a look at some of the background, and the process of the election itself, within the context of the broader “Global Narratives” framework I apply to my ongoing global coverage.

I look forward to bringing more of my distinct brand of international analysis to the FPA! Comments and questions of course welcome!

NB – This video was shot and edited before the results of the election were formally announced. Another video soon will discuss the results.

If you are interested in more of my analysis, please check out my YouTube channel, Globalogues

Le 6 novembre dernier, le dossier sur l’Algérie paru dans le dernier numéro de Politique étrangère (3/2015) a fait l’objet de la chronique « Idées & Débats : la revue du jour » dans le journal Les Échos.

« LE PROPOS

Fascinante en même temps que désespérante. Pleine de ressources mais tragiquement immobile : dans son dernier numéro, la revue Politique étrangère consacre un excellent dossier à l’Algérie, incapable encore aujourd’hui de sortir de la double impasse que constituent « son pouvoir militaro-sécuritaire » et sa « rente pétro-gazière », dont elle se sert pour acheter la paix sociale au lieu d’investir dans le rayonnement économique et culturel auquel pourrait légitimement aspirer cette grande puissance africaine.

L’INTÉRÊT

Un régime politique bloqué, une société – notamment les plus jeunes – désabusée, une montée de l’intégrisme religieux depuis le reflux de l’islamisme politique de masse des années 1990 : tel est le tableau, bien sombre, que dressent les auteurs d’un pays comme figé avant les inévitables changements qu’il va devoir adopter pour se sortir de l’ornière. Parmi les drames qui étreignent ce pays, il y a ce paradoxe d’une richesse dont il ne sait que faire, ces 730 milliards de dollars de revenus extérieurs engrangés entre 2000 et 2014 « dont près des trois quarts ont été recyclés dans la dépense publique », calcule la revue. Une inertie due au clientélisme, « le » mal algérien dont le pays n’a su se défaire depuis toutes ces années. À quand le réveil de l’Algérie ? »

D. Fo.

Article publié dans Les Échos, 6-7 novembre 2015, p.11.

 

We, the undersigned organisations, urge a coordinated global response to the escalating human rights crisis in Burundi, before it is too late. With an increase in killings – many by the security forces –, inflammatory and threatening public statements by high level officials and provocative attacks on the security forces by armed opposition, the international community is being put to the test.

(Own report) - Techniques of anti-Soviet propaganda that had been developed by Nazi officers, could serve today as a model for western anti-Russia psychological warfare operations, according to a semi-official publication from the entourage of the Bundeswehr. The current conflict between Russia and NATO has a "highly pronounced ideological dimension," analogue to the Cold War, explains the author Uwe Hartmann, a colonel in the German armed forces. According to Hartmann, the Russian side is using the "freedoms of Western open societies" to "influence" public opinion with the aim of "relativizing the value of rights and freedoms," "sowing discord" and "insecurity within the population." To counter this strategy, attributed to Russia, Hartmann recommends reversion to the methods of the so-called 'internal leadership' concept elaborated by Wolf Graf von Baudissin, who had been on Hitler's General Staff. This concept calls for preparing the armed forces as well as the society at large for a "permanent civil war" and for the leadership elite to convince Germans of the "worthiness of defending their country," while immunizing them against all "ideological temptations" and "propaganda attacks."