Banning pernicious weapons
The global ban, from this August, on the pernicious cluster bombs that drop deadly explosives in their hundreds over vast areas inflicting indiscriminate death and devastation cannot conceal the utter contempt the big powers had for the post-World War II Geneva Conventions on humanitarian law (laws of war) that seek to protect civilian populations [...]
Science Monitor
After the hurtful credibility siege of recent months, the United Nations Environment Programme is now planning to institute a check on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and form an independent review committee of senior scientists to examine its workings. The IPCC, mandated to produce the final, authoritative reports on the [...]
New Think and Old Weapons
Every four years the White House issues a “nuclear posture review.” That may sound like an anachronism. It isn’t. In a world where the United States and Russia still have more than 20,000 nuclear weapons — and Iran, North Korea and others have seemingly unquenchable nuclear appetites — what the United States says about its arsenal [...]
Kai Eide: Time to talk of a political process
The largest military offensive since 2002 is now underway in the Helmand province in Afghanistan. At the same time, a consensus is emerging that ultimately, the conflict in this country cannot be solved by military means. I have consistently advocated preparing the ground for a political process, which could lead to a political settlement. [...]
Terrorism and Free Speech
Congress has made it illegal to provide “material support” to foreign terrorist groups — a sensible means of combating terrorism but one that carries the risk of being applied in ways that infringe on Americans’ freedom of expression. The Supreme Court has a chance to draw the line where it should be between banning aid to terrorists and [...]
Climate Change
Yvo de Boer’s resignation on Thursday after nearly four tumultuous years as chief steward of the United Nations’ climate change negotiations has deepened a sense of pessimism about whether the world can ever get its act together on global warming. Mr. de Boer was plainly exhausted by endless bickering among nations and frustrated by the [...]
The Revolution Has Gone Mobile
By mid-2010, there will be 6.8 billion humans on this planet. According to United Nations estimates, there also will be five billion cellphone subscriptions. These are astonishing numbers. What is still more astonishing, and hopeful, is the breadth of change this number reflects. The United Nations says that right now 80 percent of the [...]
Where is the law to protect our children from sexual abuse?
The government's decision to introduce a set of guidelines for service providers in the tourism sector in a move to prevent a repeat of incidents like the rape of a Russian girl in Goa recently is indeed a welcome step. The code of conduct envisages, among other things, training tour operators and hotel staff on identifying and reporting potential [...]
India’s flawed fight against Maoists
Mao Zedong's famous aphorism on guerrilla war is taught at counter-insurgency courses across the world: “the enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” It is unlikely the 24 police officers slaughtered by Maoist insurgents in West Bengal's Silda area earlier this week, or [...]
Swim Against This Tide
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day," goes the old Chinese proverb. "Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Nowadays, with massive trawlers dragging 60 km nets scooping up a dozen jumbo jets worth of fish in one go, that adage is looking rather shaky. Not only is overfishing the single greatest threat to the ecosystems [...]