Von Vesna Peric Zimonjic BELGRAD (IDN) – Die gewaltsame Aufspaltung des früheren Jugoslawien liegt mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte zurück. In den 1990ziger Jahren wurde der Frieden in der Region wiederhergestellt. Doch für diejenigen, die kaum etwas über die brutale Gewalt und humanitäre Katastrophe wissen, welche die politische Trennung begleitete, scheint sich wenig verändert zu haben. […]
A 70-year-old Plan Could Avert Another Nuclear Arms Race
Analysis by Bennett Ramberg*
LOS ANGELES (INPS-IDN | Yale Global) – Seventy years ago in June the United States placed on the global agenda a proposal that would have eliminated nuclear weapons for all time. Drawing on the US State Department’s Acheson-Lilienthal scientific advisory study, the Truman administration turned to the long-time confidant of presidents, Bernard Baruch, to craft a proposal for global action.
In June 1946, Baruch appeared before the newly constituted UN Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) to present the nuclear abolition plan that would come to bear his name. He called for establishment of an International Atomic Development Authority that would retain “managerial control or ownership of all atomic energy potentially dangerous to world security,” eliminate weapons manufacturing and dispose of all existing bombs while asserting “power to control, inspect, license all other atomic activities” coupled with assured enforcement.
Central Asia (Kazakhstan) Deserves Seat in Security Council
Viewpoint by Erlan Idrissov | Reproduced courtesy of The Hill
The author is Foreign Minister Kazakhstan. This article originally appeared with the headline High time for Central Asia and Kazakhstan to have a voice in UN Security Council.
ASTANA – No organisation has a greater global responsibility than the United Nations Security Council. The Council has the solemn task of maintaining international peace with the power to intervene if threats put it or the safety of civilian populations at risk. Its effectiveness has a huge impact on our world and the lives of millions of people.
The Council’s authority stems from the UN Charter and the support of the international community. But it is strengthened when its membership is as representative as possible. Its decisions, too, benefit when drawing on differing global perspectives. It is why from the beginning, the Council’s membership included not just the great powers but a rotating group of countries elected on a regional basis.
New UN Chief Will Need to Rebuild the Secretariat’s Integrity
Analysis by Franz Baumann *
NEW YORK – Three months before his tragic death, Dag Hammarskjöld gave a powerful lecture in Oxford, entitled The International Civil Servant in Law and in Fact. He positioned the Secretary-General’s role and that of the Secretariat in the architecture of the United Nations.
Hammarskjöld implicitly built on the conclusions formulated by the great U.S. political scientist Inis L. Claude in his classic 1956 study Swords Into Plowshares: The Problems and Progress of International Organization, namely that there are two United Nations: firstly the arena of member states, secondly the Secretariat.
ISIS is ‘Contained’ – At Least for the Time Being
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Within a matter of days a self-appointed Isis “lone wolf”, Omar Mateen, with no actual links to home office Isis has created mayhem in Orlando, Florida, with his killing of 49 people in a gay club, and the Iraq army has pushed Isis troops out of most of the important city of Fallujah.
Maybe it is an exaggeration to say that Isis is on the run in its bailiwicks of Iraq and Syria but it is certainly taking very bad hits. Two years after sweeping through northern Iraq and capturing the oil city of Mosul in 2014 they are now on the defensive.
Controversy About Plum Job for Angolan President’s Daughter
By GIN and INPS Africa Correspondent
NEW YORK | LUANDA (IDN) – President José Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled oil-rich Angola for the last 37 years, has found a new and lucrative job for his daughter, Isabel dos Santos, ranked Africa’s richest woman by Forbes magazine.
President dos Santos, 73, tapped his daughter this month (June 2016) to head Sonangol, a parastatal that oversees petroleum and natural gas production in Angola. Using a presidential decree, he sacked the company’s directors, in a move some have called unconstitutional.
Ghana Debates Social Media Shutdown in Upcoming Elections
By GIN and INPS Africa Correspondent
NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Ghanaians who use social media could find themselves staring at a blank screen instead of Facebook or Twitter under a plan now being considered by Ghana’s Police Service (GPS).
Superintendent Cephas Arthur, Public Affairs director of the GPS, said that blocking Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets during the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections would be in the best interests of the nation. Such a ban would not infringe on people’s rights, he said, but would promote peace and ensure a violence-free election, he claimed.
NEWSBRIEFS: Ban Commends India, USA for Backing Early Entry into Force of Paris Accord – Swede to Monitor India-Pakistan Ceasefire Line – UN Rights Experts Bash India
NEW YORK – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended a joint statement on climate change made by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Barack Obama announcing their support for early entry into force of the Paris Agreement, and encouraged all countries to accelerate their domestic processes to join or ratify it.
“The Secretary-General welcomes the domestic steps being undertaken by both countries to join the Paris Agreement as soon as possible, including in 2016, and their collaborative efforts to address climate change,” indicated a statement issued by Ban’s spokesperson on June 8.
UN Faults in Peacekeeping but Billions Allocated for 2016/17
Analysis by J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has been spending billions on assisting in navigating the difficult path from conflict to peace in different parts of the world. But with little or no success on the whole, as senior officials of the world body admit.
“Success is never guaranteed, because UN Peacekeeping almost by definition goes to the most physically and politically difficult environments. However, we have built up a demonstrable record of success over our 60 years of existence, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize,” says United Nations Peacekeeping.
Eritrea-Ethiopia: UN, AU, EU Can Avert War and Trigger Peace
Analysis by Reinhardt Jacobsen *
BRUSSELS (IDN) – While UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged both Ethiopia and Eritrea to exercise “maximum restraint and refrain from any act or statement that could exacerbate the situation”, reports gathered by IDN from several independent sources close to the border between the two countries and in Eritrea, underscore the grave risks the armed conflict between the two East African countries entails.
Diverse sources claim that border skirmishes are ongoing unabated and that “war logic” is gripping both sides – with Eritrean and Ethiopian leaders putting on their “war masks”.