We Need to Talk About Children Born of War

Posted by & filed under Civilians in Conflict, Gender

Every day, children are born in war and armed conflict, in Ukraine, on the Gaza Strip, in South Sudan, in Myanmar and elsewhere.

Photo: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Some of these children might have parents who are enemies, that is, parents who are on opposite sides of the conflict. Some of these children might have been conceived through conflict related sexual violence. After the Bosnian war, and the genocide in Rwanda, in the 1990s we started talking about rape as a weapon of war and unprecedented political attention followed.
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An Untested Refugee Theory

Posted by & filed under Middle East

From late January 2025, the Israeli ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will come into effect. What does this mean for the rights of the Palestinian refugees, and who will then take responsibility for helping them?

A Palestinian sand sculptor commemorating World Refugee Day in Gaza City in June 2020. Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In October 2024, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) passed two laws targeting UNRWA. Both laws are due to take effect after 90 days.Read More

Escalation Management: Putin-style, Ukraine-challenged, and NATO-pursued

Posted by & filed under Security, Ukraine War

Russian missile strike on the sprawling industrial complex in Dnipro on November 21 produced far more strategic resonance than material damage – and has reopened hard questions about the constant mutation of the long Russia-Ukraine war and the methods of managing its escalation.

Kyiv in April 2024. Photo: STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Making Women Combatants Visible: Steps Towards Gender-Responsive Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration

Posted by and & filed under Gender, Peacebuilding

In October the Security Council met for its annual Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Open Debate under the theme of “Women Building Peace in a Changing Environment.”

A 32 years old female FARC guerrilla fighter inside a demobilization camp in Colombia in 2017. Photo: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images

Despite the WPS agenda’s goals for including women in all aspects of security and peace-making, their participation in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR), a crucial part of peace processes, has often been minimal or merely symbolic.Read More

Protection of Civilians in Crisis: Geneva Conventions at 75

Posted by & filed under Civilians in Conflict, Law and Ethics

With the devastating news from Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan among other wars, we witness a crisis of the international regime for protecting civilians in armed conflict. However, this is not a total collapse but a return to the troubling world that the legal protections for civilians in the 1949 Geneva Conventions were made for.

Photo: Majdi Fathi/Nur Photo via Getty Images

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Putin’s ‘Three Escalations’ Affect Prospect of Peace in Ukraine

Posted by & filed under Security, Ukraine War

Russia’s strategy in executing its aggressive war against Ukraine, passing the 1,000-day mark last week, puts the country’s economy, society, and armed forces under enormous pressure that Moscow’s militaristic propaganda cannot quite cover.

Vladimir Putin (R) and Kim Jong Un before Russian-North Korean talks in June 2024 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images

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Authorship and Involuntary Attribution: How and Why Should We Contest AI Manipulation?

Posted by & filed under Humanitarianism, Research Politics, Uncategorized

Technology is radically changing the work and role of scholars and the function of academic publishing. Fake and fabricated content (data, facts, arguments, claims, conclusions) undermines the foundations of knowledge in a democratic society.

Illustration: Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images

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Israel Has Escalated Its Shadow War Against UNRWA. What Happens Now?

Posted by and & filed under Humanitarianism, Middle East

On 4 November, the Israeli Foreign Ministry cancelled the agreement the country signed with UNRWA in 1967. A week earlier, the Knesset had passed legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Sacks of flour at a UNRWA distribution center in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, November 2024. Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Why is Israel doing this, and what could the consequences be?Read More

Perplexed Vladimir Putin Reckons With Outcome of US Elections

Posted by & filed under Middle East, Regions and Powers, Security

The Kremlin had confidently expected confusion and turmoil following the US presidential election.

Instead, a definite outcome and the commitment to a smooth transition of power are set to shape the US political environment for the next couple of months.

Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki in 2018. Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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Putin and Kim Look for Opportunities Amid US Elections Turmoil

Posted by & filed under Governance, Regions and Powers, Security, Ukraine War

The US presidential election, which has been dominating the global news, will come to its natural culmination on November 5, even if the outcome remains uncertain for many more days.

Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024. Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a two-day diplomatic visit. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images

Even in Russia, where war and inflation are major concerns, official sources report that more than 60 percent of adults are following the US elections. Independent polls show that only about 19 percent are following closely, however (TASS, October 31).Read More