Any militant force fighting against NATO forces in Afghanistan has to abide by the Taliban war codes which compel outsiders to fight under only one banner, that of Emarat-i-Islami. Hitherto, this strategy has damaged but also benefited the allied forces by keeping the lethal Al Qaida and other ant
Talk of a pact with criminals is beyond the pale in Mexico’s presidential election campaign. But the tentative success of a deal with gang leaders in one of Central America’s most violent countries suggests the time may have come to explore a new style of negotiations aimed at reducing appalling l
A policy of non-cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) will leave the victims of 2007/8 post-election violence without a legal remedy, and may prompt new violence in upcoming elections. It will also present a devastating blow to international justice if left unopposed.
As Afghanistan looks to a future beyond international intervention, regional support will become ever more important.
Ten years on from the Gujurat riots, the survivors still do not have justice and the bureaucracies that made them possible remain unchanged. This is not a one-off but a trend, which it will take hard questions and an insistence on answers to reverse.
On April 28 French journalist Romeo Langlois was captured by the FARC. The leftist guerrillas demanded a debate on freedom of information as a condition of his release. Instead, this case raises the need for a debate on this never-ending conflict, and on the role of national and international medi
The creation of a Ministry for Homeland Security further entrenches a militarized vision of security centred on the state. This is an internal version of 'peacekeeping', not the 'peacebuilding' the country needs.
Amidst the deep hurt of civil war, many think it impossible to speak with, let alone work with, people from across divisions of conflict. A diverse group of young British Sri Lankans have directly experienced this. Here they examine reconciliation as not only a possibility, but a present undertaki
The NPT PrepCom Review in Vienna closed by underlining the majority view that “any use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would be inconsistent with fundamental rules of international humanitarian law". In her final report from the NPT Rebecca Johnson says that the next few years may see some fun
A powerful new political movement bringing rural and urban Colombian civil society onto a common platform poses the real possibility for sustainable peacebuilding in Colombia. The reaction of the government to its emergence will be a path-setting moment.
Amid signs that Armenia and Azerbaijan may once more be edging towards armed conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Wayne Merry argues that the West needs to act fast, rather than allow an old and fruitless mediation process to meander on.
