On Saturday 12th October, the African Union held an extraordinary session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to consider Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court. The outcome of that debate was a request from the African Union to the Security Council to defer the cases of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto
Read More »Genocide, Intervention and Defending our Indefensible Institutions
There’s an odd, and slightly twisted argument doing the rounds at the moment. It goes: it’s perfectly ok to let genocide happen, yes, even on your doorstep. Let’s just restrict the discussion to that. Not regime change, not geopolitical advantage, simply the prevention of genocide. It’s ok.
Read More »2014 Election Proves Critical for Indonesia’s Developing Democracy
The big watchword for the upcoming Indonesian legislative and presidential elections in 2014 is golput. Golput, which has its history in the New Order regime, is perhaps best understood as a form of protest vote against the current political establishment. It tends to take the form of low voter turnout or intentional non-marking of the ballot to invalidate it.
Read More »Kenya Votes to Withdraw from ICC: A Victory for Impunity?
On the 6th of September, the Kenyan Parliament passed a motion to withdraw from the ICC. Kenya is the first country ever to make moves to withdraw from the court and this could have wide reaching implications, not least for Kenya.
Read More »There is More to the Arab World’s Malaise than Dictators
The ongoing 'Arab Winter' is showing that there was always more than dictatorships to blame forthe Arab world's malaise. Popular protests across the Arab world in early 2011, which led to the overthrow of deeply entrenched authoritarian dictatorships, were warmly welcomed around the world.
Read More »After the Arab Spring: Algeria’s Standing in a New World
Algeria has the potential to emerge from the Arab Spring as a regional power. This may be good news for western states, but it's bad new for Arab revolutionaries. In the context of the Arab Spring, or Arab Winter, much attention has been paid to those states seen to be exerting influence from behind the scenes
Read More »Russia: Janus-faced Middle East Policy
Since the end of the Cold War, Russia’s influence in the Middle East has been greatly undermined and its policy has changed in emphasis and intensity. While during the clash between the two superpowers – the US and the Soviet Union – the Middle East was part of its ideological battlefield
Read More »The Flame of Prometheus – or Why Humanitarian Interventions Are Here to Stay
Humanitarian interventions are not a passing fad, but a genie that is now well and truly out of its bottle for good, to the horror of the remaining dictators in the world. There are many reasons why humanitarian interventions aren’t going away any time soon.
Read More »Sovereignty, Syria and Slicing Through the Double Think
Human rights are universal, but they are yet to be universalised. Transparent sovereignty is the answer. Whilst being a legalistic term that tends to evoke groans, apprehensive of impending, inevitable boredom, the word ‘sovereignty’ is central to any debate on whether humanitarian intervention in the internal affairs of a State is appropriate or justifiable.
Read More »How to Get Involved in Ending Gendercide – An Interview with Evan Davis
I had the opportunity to meet Evan Davis, director of “It’s a Girl,” a documentary about the global atrocity of female genocide. We had both attended the same conference and began talking during the ‘meet and greet’ time
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