After 20 years of trying and failing to become president, there is a fair amount of uncertainty as to the direction of Odinga’s political future.
After 20 years of trying and failing to become president, there is a fair amount of uncertainty as to the direction of Odinga’s political future.
The UN Security Council does not have the luxury of choosing between normative imperatives associated with preventing atrocities, protecting civilians, and countering terrorism in Mali, the Sahel, and elsewhere.
Despite the instability it faces, Guinea-Bissau—alongside countries like Madagascar, Chad, or the Central African Republic—has long been overlooked by donors. There is an urgent need to re-orientate the international community toward supporting and financing conflict prevention and early action.
There are a number of reasons why it is difficult for peacekeepers to protect civilians from sexual and gender-based violence, particularly those forms that fall outside of conflict-related sexual violence.
Without a corresponding political process, UN protection activities are an ineffective bandaid in situations of widespread violence.
As Finland and Sweden begin the process of applying for NATO membership, misleading narratives about the role of NATO’s so-called eastward expansion in “provoking” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to hold sway.
The sanctions imposed against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine mark a new page in global sanctions practice yet lessons from earlier cases could help increase efficacy and minimize costs.
The UN, in its implementation of A4P+, must address the heavily masculine, exclusionary, and militarized structures which often preclude women (and anyone outside of a very particular gendered profile) from deploying.
Facing its most difficult period since its inception in April 2013, MINUSMA, and the Security Council, now need to acknowledge that their biggest problems in Mali are political.
Amid mounting pressure to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council took the rare step of creating a humanitarian exception for the 1988 Taliban sanctions regime.
The complex, and not always coordinated, ecosystem of military operations across the Sahel has been aptly labeled a security traffic jam. Why are external forces in the Sahel? Can they help resolve any of the region’s crises? And, if so, what configuration of external forces makes the most sense?
The new sanctions were triggered by months of growing tensions between ECOWAS and the military-dominated transitional government over the timetable for Mali’s return to civilian rule after two successful coups d’état.
Neither local nor international politics are currently right for a UN peacekeeping deployment in Afghanistan.
The end of Operation Barkhane will leave MINUSMA with a heavier burden in countering terrorism and violent extremism in the Sahel.
Collective system leadership has enabled some countries to successfully manage the onslaught and debilitating consequences of COVID-19, an approach that could also be usefully applied to situations where attempts to build and sustain peace have failed.
Efforts to translate climate and environmental-related mandates into policies and practices are a work in progress, and can benefit from ongoing learning, monitoring, and adaptation.
The UN is strategically positioned to engage with non-state armed groups in many issues relevant to civilian protection.
We live in an age where challenges to peace and security come not only from agents intentionally trying to do us harm, but also from climate change and pandemics.
Afghanistan’s future is at stake and the vital importance of containing spoilers while encouraging a broad and productive debate on peace cannot be overstated.
There is an urgent need to rethink how to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations not only in Myanmar, but also in other countries.
The peace and security arrangement between federal and regional states has allowed special forces to instigate conflicts in unique ways.
The UN system and member states urgently need to prioritize their duty of care to troops, police officers, and civilians.
Modern slavery is more likely to be seen as a project management risk to be safeguarded against, rather than a target for strategic programming, lending, or policy advice.
The Global Observatory provides timely analysis on peace and security issues by experts, journalists, and policymakers. It is published by the International Peace Institute. The views expressed here represent those of the contributors and not IPI.
The International Peace Institute is an independent, international think tank located in New York and Manama, dedicated to the settlement and prevention of armed conflict.