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About Dan Smith

Dan Smith has been the Secretary General of International Alert since 2003. He was previously Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo from 1993 to 2001, and Chair of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

His many books include successive editions of The Atlas of War and Peace. He advises governments and international organisations on peacebuilding, including through his membership of the Advisory Group for the UN Peacebuilding Fund which he currently chairs. He was awarded an OBE in 2002.

Articles by Dan Smith

Wednesday 1st February

The far horizons of peacebuilding – and the near

Dan Smith, 1 February 2012
Peacebuilding and development can no longer be thought of in terms of what was always an over-simplified polarisation between the powerful stability of the giver and the weak turbulence of the beneficiary. It was always wrong to see the world that way; now it’s impossible.
Tuesday 13th December

A scorecard from Busan: did the High Level Forum contribute to aid effectiveness in conflict-affected countries?

Dan Smith and Phil Vernon, 13 December 2011
The high ambition of getting global agreement tends to lead to an unambitious convergence on the least demanding positions and commitments. How did Busan fare?
Tuesday 8th November

What will success at Busan look like for conflict-affected countries?

Dan Smith and Phil Vernon, 8 November 2011
The wording of the Outcomes Document from the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid is largely agreed, and reflects much of the new thinking on aid: statebuilding and peacebuilding; human security; transparency and results. But it fails to reflect the huge challenge of promoting and supporting development in conflict-affected countries in a changing world. To do this, Busan must rise to four more challenges.
Thursday 7th July

Libya: the (next) moment of decision is approaching

Dan Smith, 7 July 2011
We have been round the block too many times to believe that human costs will be the decisive factor in continuing outside intervention. The political costs for Cameron, Obama and Sarkozy – personally, for the governments they lead, for the influence of their states in the coming decade – are simply too high to back down.
Tuesday 12th April

Libya and the fog of intervention

Dan Smith, 12 April 2011
Now the war has started, which side are you on? Should the intervention stop because the war will be long and bloody? Which means that instead the war will be short, Qaddafi will be victorious, and the aftermath will be bloody – probably as bloody as the war.
Thursday 10th March

Intervention in Libya? A case of shooting from the hip, slowly

Dan Smith, 10 March 2011
Politicians and public need to address the moral argument around the use of force, encompassing the humanitarian and democratic arguments deployed in favour of intervention balanced against risk aversion and moral objections.
Thursday 25th November

Rescue the EU’s External Action Service from the European Commission

Dan Smith, 25 November 2010
The air in Brussels is thick with a storm over the European External Action Service, basically caused by the European Commission trying to break its word on peace-building.
Wednesday 8th September

The EU's new External Action Service: what would success look like?

Dan Smith, 8 September 2010
Plans for the EEAS seem to include innovative units for conflict prevention, security and stability. It is worth considering what kind of agenda we would like to see implemented by a thoughtful new global actor oriented in this direction
Monday 24th May

The new UK coalition and international development policy

Dan Smith, 24 May 2010
The dust has settled, the first peacetime coalition in seven decades is in office and the work begins. What about UK international development policy under the new blue and yellow colours?
Sunday 14th March

Chaff, noise and fog in the climate debate

Dan Smith, 14 March 2010
The UEA emails affair, together with the religiosity of some people’s approach on either side of the argument, has quite a lot to tell us about the way forward
Monday 25th January

Beyond Haiti: preparing for the next disaster

Dan Smith, 25 January 2010
As the relief effort finally gets under way, it is necessary to go beyond the immediacy of the tragedy and think a bit more deeply about what kind of assistance is most necessary for the future. A group convened by the World Economic Forum has been discussing the need for a new model for organising humanitarian action

Obama in power: is the war in Afghanistan a Just War?

Dan Smith, 17 December 2009
The Just War tradition is not meant to be deployed as a tick-box approach to war, not least because answers to the questions it poses are often not clear and even when they are, they may be contradictory. That said, does Obama win his case?
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