Death in Baghdad and the UN role in Iraq
By Pierre Schori (22/05/2008)
With "Chasing the Flame – Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World" (Penguin Press, 2008) Samantha Power, Anna Lindh Professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, has written a fascinating portrait of the kind of compassionate cosmopolitan figure of which there are far too few in this world. The book is also a remarkably well-researched handbook on the UN, and it contains new and important material for a much-needed discussion, namely: under which circumstances should the UN be engaged in Iraq?
Lebannon: facing another wave of destruction?
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (13/05/2008)
The latest wave of violence in Lebanon shows the limitations of organising the state along confessional lines, and the weight of other countries, from the United States and France to Syria and Iran, along with Israel, in the country’s destiny. Mariano Aguirre analyses the roots of the confrontations and the dangers they represent for the region.
Europe, Israel and Palestine: endgame?
By George Joffe (28/04/2008)
The Annapolis initiative last November is already doomed to failure as the Palestinians and Israel fail to engage and Hamas is deliberately isolated by Europe and America. Could Europe intervene instead? George Joffe argues that, having betrayed its own principles of normative power and constructive engagement, the European Union now has no viable alternative to offer.
No Middle East peace without tough love
By Henry Siegman (14/04/2008)
Instead of new European initiatives for “peace conferences” on the Israelí-Palestinian conflict, it is necessary to stop the violence from both sides –Hamas attacks and Israeli´s occupation– in order to recover some level of dialogue that must be based on the UN Resolutions and the 1967 Green Line.
Bring in Hamas
By Henry Siegman (10/03/2008)
Last October, a bipartisan group of eminent former senior government officials urged President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to entertain the fantasy that an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord could be negotiated with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, without the participation of Hamas. You cannot make peace with half of a country’s population and remain at war with the other half.
Photo by Getty Images
In this Comment article Henry Siegman calls on the US leadership to adopt a more realistic approach to achieving a lasting peace between the belligerent parties.
Pakistan: farewell to Musharaff and a warning to the radicals
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (20/02/2008)
The elections scheduled for February 18 in Pakistan should bring, albeit with difficulty, some stability to the country, but they will also make clear the people’s will on two key issues. Firstly, they will put an end to the political career of General Pervez Musharraf, and secondly, they will show the radical Islamists that the population prefers the risks of secularism to living according to the orthodox letter of religious law.
Liu Jin / AFP / Getty Images
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
Democracy perspectives in Pakistan
By Christian Wagner (14/02/2008)
Nine years alter the 1999 coup that brought President Musharraf to power, the security situation in Pakistan is as bad that it has reached only a few times in the 60-year history. Hopes are currently being placed on the parliamentary elections scheduled for February 16, which will have to provide the new government wider legitimacy. This FRIDE Comment analyses the correlation between internal and external faces in 2008, a year which promises to be a trying one for Pakistan.
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
NATO struggles with an opium-funded war in Afghanistan
By Robert Matthews (23/01/2008)
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| Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images |
The reality of developments in Afghanistan since 2005 has mocked US assertions of success and the scales have finally fallen from the eyes of both the media and some government officials. In this Comment article, Robert Matthews explores the failures of US and NATO policy in Afghanistan, and asks what should be done to bring a long-awaited stability to the war-ravaged country.
Publishing groups: Afghanistan and Pakistan: a region in crisis
Iraq and after: setting the scene for rethinking Europe's role in the Middle East
By John Sloboda (09/01/2008)
Europe is in danger of becoming complacent in the Middle East. The fact that European soldiers, in contrast to their American counterparts, are not dying in large numbers in Iraq can lead both politicians and the general public to let the region slip down their list of priorities. In this Comment article one of the UK’s leading political analysts examines the challenges the EU must face if it is to take a more proactive role and thereby contribute to a more secure future for the region.
Annapolis: the good, the bad and the ugly
By Henry Siegman (17/12/2007)
In this Comment article the author asks whether the latest round of negotiations between Israel and Palestine has the potential to bring a long-awaited peace to the troubled region. He also examines the internal divisions within both Palestinian and Israeli society, and analyses how these factors will affect any attempt to put an end to the hostilities. Siegman finds that Israel's repeated failure to keep its commitments, along with the international community's apparent lack of understanding of the predicament faced by the Palestinian people, does not bode well for the future.
See also: Annapolis: three lame ducks in search of peace; Annapolis' road to nowhere; Annapolis: The cost of failure; Europe: A New Role in the Middle East?
Annapolis: three lame ducks in search of peace
By George Emile Irani (03/12/2007)
See also: Annapolis' road to nowhere; Annapolis: The cost of failure; Europe: A New Role in the Middle East?
Challenging future after Annapolis
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (29/11/2007)
The talks in Annapolis have produced one surprise and several predictable results. The surprise is in the final declaration which sets a timeframe for negotiations and indicates that all of the issues related to the conflict will be dealt with. The more predictable facet of the declaration is the fact that it does not mention any of these issues specifically.
Getty Images/AFP
Annapolis' road to nowhere
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (26/11/2007)
There is little hope that the meeting in Annapolis between the governments of Israel and the Palestinian Authority will bring anything more than a vague declaration in favour of continuing the talks.
Is Europe adrift in the Middle East?
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst, Mark Taylor (26/11/2007)
Participants in a Madrid roundtable organised by FAFO (Norway) and FRIDE in October were highly skeptical about the future political events in the Middle East and particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Annapolis: the cost of failure
By Henry Siegman (22/11/2007)
One of the first on-line responses to the publication of the letter to President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a simple, straightforward question: "What is in it for Israel?" The "it" referred to guidelines the letter proposed for an agreement that would end Israel's occupation of the territories the IDF overran forty years ago.
Irregular Warfare and Non-State Combatants: Israel and Hezbollah
By George Emile Irani (26/10/2007)
Mercenaries, "Premodern" Soldiers
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (10/10/2007)
The scandal surrounding the Blackwater private security firm in Iraq shows that the delegation of state powers to profit-making non-state actors has many dangers. First, international and national law is undermined, as is the case of the US occupation of Iraq. On the other hand, the basic principle of state authority, that of a monopoly on the use of force, is threatened.
Blackwater: Mercenaries and International Law
By Joana Abrisketa (27/09/2007)
The role of mercenaries in modern conflict has once again come under the spotlight after an incident in Baghdad left 17 people dead. Amidst growing concerns over the “privatisation of war” and accusations of a “trigger-happy” culture among security contractors, the author asks what legislation already exists to control such firms and what can be done to improve it.
Misguided wars: Comparing the lost French cause in Algeria with the US debacle in Iraq
By Robert Matthews (12/09/2007)
At first glance, France’s battle to keep control of its north African colony half a century ago might seem very different to the unrest currently challenging US military capabilities in Iraq, but there are some interesting parallels between the two conflicts.
The continuation of a lost war
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (12/09/2007)
In recent weeks several official reports have indicated that the US and the Government in Bagdad have not succeeded in meeting the 18 objectives set by Congress to guide its decision on whether to maintain the increase of funds for the occupation of Iraq.
Bush and Blair, lost in Palestine and Israel
By Mariano Aguirre Ernst (24/07/2007)
President Bush's proposal to relaunch the negotiation process between Israel and Palestine has all it takes to get to nowhere.
¿En brazos de Al Qaeda?
By Henry Siegman (29/06/2007)
With very few exceptions, the Israeli Government and media - as those of a majority of countries - reacted to the recent events in Gaza either with ingenuity or with incredible hypocrisy.
Iraqi Constitution Entrenches Grim Status Quo
By Chris Toensing (13/09/2005)
Iraq: the day after
By Shlomo Ben-Ami, Diego Hidalgo, Jon Shifrin (12/05/2003)
As part of its mandate to promote international understanding through dialogue and discussion, the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), along with the Fundación José Ortega y Gasset , convoked the Conference Iraq: the day after (May 12, 2003), to examine the implications of the recently concluded war. The conference brought together an array of political leaders, experts, and academics to Toledo, Spain, a city famed for its history of tolerance and pluralism. This newsletter contains a summary of the three roundtable discussions that comprised the day’s events, an article from former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who participated in the Conference, and a complete list of the gathering’s atendees.
