Tomorrow, Friday the 23rd of September 2011, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas will go before the UN and set out his request for formal recognition of the state of
Palestine. There are many problems with this, and not just for the Palestinians...
[more inside]
posted by dougrayrankin
on Sep 22, 2011 -
99 comments
NationStates is a free political simulation game founded by author
Max Barry back in 2002 (
previously). Loosely based on his dystopian corporate thriller
Jennifer Government, the game
starts by asking players to provide some national trappings and answer a few civics questions, then generates a virtual country with a matching political outlook.
Periodic policy decisions like mining rights and compulsory voting allow players to further modify their country along
axes of social, political, and economic freedom, arriving at one of
twenty-seven colorful government types like Tyranny By Majority or Scandinavian Liberal Paradise. There's also a healthy roleplaying community -- players can discuss current events in the
General forum, practice wargaming in
International Incidents, form cooperative Regions to debate internal affairs (many of which form
their own communities), and elect Delegates to send to the
World Assembly (so renamed after
an amusing cease-and-desist from the real-world U.N.). Their collective history is thoroughly recorded in
the 35,000-article NSWiki, which provides a
detailed legislative record,
gameplay guide, and profiles on many of the
90,000 active nations,
8,000 player regions, and
countless characters that currently make up the game world.
posted by Rhaomi
on May 9, 2011 -
62 comments
"The United Nations-authorized intervention in Libya has pitched ethical issues of the highest importance, and has split progressives in unfortunate ways. I hope we can have a calm and civilized discussion of the rights and wrongs here." Professor
Juan Cole of the University of Michigan writes
An Open Letter to the Left on Libya.
posted by dvorak_beats_qwerty
on Mar 27, 2011 -
253 comments
In 2010,
Obama will have a miserable year,
NATO may lose in Afghanistan,
the UK gets a regime change,
China needs to chill,
India's factories will overtake its farms,
Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum,
the stimulus will need an exit strategy,
the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2",
African football will
unite Korea,
conflict over natural resources will grow,
Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled,
the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable),
technology will grow ever more ubiquitous,
we'll all charge our phones via USB,
MBAs will be uncool,
the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and
Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so
the Tens begin.
The Economist: The World in 2010.
[more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Nov 14, 2009 -
60 comments
The United Nations Refugee Agency has a
Flickr page with nearly 3000 photos neatly sorted into
over 150 sets, most often by country, though sometimes by other themes, such as
photos taken by refugee children,
life in a refugee camp and
mixed migration. There are also
news sets, sorted by month. Some of the countries featured are ones that many associate with humanitarian disasters,
Timor-Leste,
Iraq and
The Democratic Republic of Congo, but there are also photosets from countries that few associate with refugees,
Panama,
Hungary and
France.
posted by Kattullus
on Sep 17, 2009 -
9 comments
With all the dust
that's been*
riled up by Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor (
previously), everyone is suddenly taking an interest in
Puerto Rico. A basic question that may come up is
why we're there in the first place. Understanding that, we can see how the
complicated relationship has played out between Puerto Rico, the US, and, most recently, the United Nations. Although the UN has
urged the US to take steps towards establishing Puerto Rico's sovereignty, referendums held on the
island have overwhelmingly preferred the
status quo and the US has been indifferent at best. But independence activists, after a twenty-year decline, may be on
the rise. The island's current governor,
Luis Fortuño, is pro-statehood. But the whole issue has taken a back seat since plans have been made to
fire 30,000 government
workers,
privatize some public services, and
sell some the the government's US$3.2 billion debt.
[more inside]
posted by krikkit261
on Jun 10, 2009 -
26 comments
In 2001, the United Nations Security Council passed
Resolution 1325 on Women's Role on Peace-Building and Security, calling for increased participation by women in conflict resolution and peace negotiations.
Eight years later, "in terms of signing the peace documents and being at the peace table and involved in the peace-making operations, 1.3 percent of all the signatures in the world on these peacekeeping documents have been rendered by women."
(Stephen Lewis, former UN special envoy), and as of 2007, women constituted
only 1% of peacekeeping military personnel. Could increasing women's participation also help reduce
sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers?
posted by terranova
on Mar 3, 2009 -
5 comments
From A-lister to Aid worker: Does celebrity diplomacy really work? Rock stars," asked Homer Simpson, with his customary sagacity, "is there anything they don't know?" Only these days, of course, it's
not just rockers but movie stars and businessmen – and indeed
anyone with an above-average public profile – who, for one reason or another, are intent on telling the rest of us how the world should be changed for the better.
Or
at least, that's how it seems. So much so that a
conference of eminent professors of international relations assembled recently in The Hague
to explore the modern phenomenon of what they call "
celebrity diplomacy", amid fears that it has
reached the point where superstar lobbyists are damaging the traditional workings of international diplomacy and global politics.
posted by infini
on Jan 16, 2009 -
16 comments
Social Watch monitors the progress of efforts, articulated in numerous international agreements (
1 2 3), to end poverty and increase equality worldwide. By coordinating the reports of a
network of citizens' organizations, Social Watch aims to keep tabs on progress toward specific initiatives in each country, lobbying national governments as appropriate.
Search by country for a snapshot of social and economic progress.
Browse various measures of stability and meaningful development. Lots more, including meaty, well-documented reports and statistics, and holy crapola, nice graphics.
posted by Rykey
on Apr 5, 2008 -
6 comments
NYT Article The man who served as inspiration for the 2005 Nicolas Cage's 2005 flick "Lord of War," arms trafficer Victor Bout, has been arrested in Thailand.
[more inside]
posted by krautland
on Mar 6, 2008 -
28 comments
Bush and Aznar pre-Iraq Invasion-- Transcript of their private conversations in Crawford, Feb 22, 2003:
"Quedan dos semanas. En dos semanas estaremos militarmente listos. Estaremos en Bagdad a finales de marzo", le dijo a Aznar. ("2 weeks. In 2 weeks we will be ready militarily. We'll be in Baghdad by the end of March", he told Aznar.) Consider this historical documentation.
Full transcript here, and audio clips in first link.
[more inside]
posted by amberglow
on Sep 25, 2007 -
46 comments
The fight to
free Burma has been making noise lately.
Protests are picking up in
Burma, international activists are putting
pressure on the UN to step in, and
Jim Carrey has joined as
yet another celebrity to try to bring public attention to the effort. Burma is an amazing place and the Burmese people are some of the warmest, most hospitable, beautiful, and silliest people I have ever encountered. The people of Burma deserve a better world. Is the tide shifting? Will this be a turning point for Burma? I hope so.
posted by crawfishpopsicle
on Aug 29, 2007 -
29 comments
Estimated cocaine consumption based on waste-water analysis (expressed as cocaine lines* per day per 1000 Inhabitants, age 15-64)
*1 line was here assumed to be equivalent to 100 milligram of cocaine. --page 272
This, and much more, in the
UN 2007 World Drug Report (pdf).
HTML homepage.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Aug 1, 2007 -
49 comments
Releaed British navy commander: We were gathering intelligence on Iran (
Watch the interview)
Tony Blair: The sailors were on a legitimate UN mandate
The Observer: The MoD confirmed last night that the Iranians had made the claim that they had become interested in Cornwall's activities after learning about it on British television, but denied the decision to allow the ship's crew to be interviewed while on active duty had jeopardised the mission.
posted by hoder
on Apr 8, 2007 -
30 comments
You would think that with
4,000 women and 200 girls together, along with hundreds of NGOs and representatives of 45 governments the United Nations'
Commission on the Status of Women would be well covered by the media.
Sadly, it is not: this year
only 10 journalists demanded media accreditation to cover the international meeting, while pro-life groups are more than happy to
send delegates arguing that "governments should protect girls from the moment of conception."
The Commission however is no small event:
it provided a legal frame protecting the rights of women and girls worldwide (those rights were officially adopted in the early 90s [!]). It also provides standards to which participant countries must try live up to.
This blog takes us backstage, behind the CSW's scene.
posted by Sijeka
on Mar 6, 2007 -
21 comments
Clean water is a right: "The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its annual
report on human development. It denounces the world's complacent disregard for such unglamorous subjects as standpipes, latrines and the 1.8m children who die each year from diarrhoea because the authorities cannot keep their drinking water separate from their faeces.
The study is both coldly analytical and angry..."
posted by kliuless
on Nov 24, 2006 -
18 comments
Compassionate Slavery. A representative of the World Trade Organization proposes foreign corporate "stewardship" of workers in Africa from the moment they are hired until they die, describing it as "the best available solution to African poverty, and the inevitable result of free-market theory".
posted by Pastabagel
on Nov 14, 2006 -
24 comments
When you have a blog , and you're the Special Representative of the UN in
Darfur,
be careful about what you write.
Jan Pronk's blog gives you a good idea in what a high level UN diplomat actually does, and how difficult it is to get anything done in a country torn by war. Oh, and check
these photos out, if you just want the non-political goodness.
posted by Harry
on Oct 25, 2006 -
11 comments
