Regional Peacemaking in and era of International Justice
October 2009

On 5 October, Dr. A. Sarjoh Bah, Senior Fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation addressed the New York City Bar Association's African Affairs Committee on the issue of: Regional Peacemaking in an era of International Justice. In his presentation Dr. Bah argues that although the International Criminal Court's indictment of President Omar Bashir of Sudan constitutes a critical challenge for peacemaking efforts in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan, the move has also refocused attention on the unresolved dilemmas of dealing with impunity on the one hand and promoting peace on the other. He concludes by arguing that how the international community including the AU, responds to the challenges posed by this dilemma would lay the foundation for greater consensus around issues of transitional and international justice in post-conflict environments.

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Somalia, The Birthplace of Terrorism?
August 2009

  Dr. Sarjoh Bah, a Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the chaos in Somalia, Somali militants abroad and Hillary Clinton’s expected visit with the president of Somalia.

Video: Somalia emerges as birthplace of terrorism, piracy

The EU should do more to support UN peacekeeping in Africa
June 2009

Europeans should talk to the US about deploying more EU peacekeeping missions to support the UN in Africa if and when they pull back from Afghanistan, Richard Gowan writes for the Centre for European Reform . If the Afghan campaign has shown the limitations of Europe’s military clout, working with the UN could give the EU a chance to show that its talk of ‘effective multilateralism’ is backed up by muscle.

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Building More Effective UN Peace Operations
May 2009

Following a decade of unprecedented growth, UN peace operations are under increasing strain. The current level of overstretch, coupled with demands for new or expanded missions, presents a fundamental strategic challenge for the UN and its member states. As the Secretariat and the Security Council examine future peacekeeping challenges, it is important that the voices of all member states are heard.

In support of this objective, the Canadian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in cooperation with the Center on International Cooperation, will convene a series of panel discussions to explore critical issues confronting the future of UN peace operations. The series will draw on expertise from the practitioner, NGO, academic and UN communities.

The first event, on May 26, 2009, will survey the symptoms and causes of peacekeeping overstretch. Subsequent discussions will be organized over the following twelve month period to allow for more in-depth discussion of priority challenges.

Visit The Thematic Series Project Page

Read Peacekeeping Overstretch:Symptoms, Causes, and Consequences

Read a map of the the Thematic Series "Building More Effective UN Peace Operations"

The Future of Peacekeeping Operations: Fighting Political Fatigue and Overstretch
April 2009

Drawing from the insights of an international policy debate on peacekeeping overstretch co-organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Richard Gowan identifies major stresses of the UN and non-UN peacekeeping system. Analyzing the biggest UN (DR Congo) and NATO (Afghanistan) peace operations, he blames "risk transferral" and mistrust as key obstacles, driving political divergences and operational mismanagement. He proposes five policy options for greater transparency and trust, allowing better peacekeeping strategies, including a heads-of-government conference to foster strategic discussion.

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Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes
January 2009

Richard Gowan argues that the EU's failure to agree on a military mission in Congo comes at a time of deepening mistrust within Africa of Europeans' intentions.

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