Tuesday 24 October SPLM (IO) announced that a person suspected of causing the death of its late spokesperson Lam Kuei Lam has been arrested by the Sudanese police. 200 Ethiopian peacekeepers arrived in South Sudan to help bolster the UNMISS mission. Wednesday 25 October President Salva Kiir will visit Khartoum and his Sudanese counterpart, President… Read more »
Month: October 2017
“No backsliding” on Women’s Inclusion in Peace Mediation
Last week, Norway made history with Ine Eriksen Søreide becoming the country’s first female foreign minister. Even in relatively gender-equal countries like Norway it is still rare to find women holding top positions in the so-called “hard issue” sectors of foreign affairs and peace and security. Barriers to the full involvement of women in work… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 42
Tuesday 17 October In his report to the UN Security Council, the UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, offered a dire appraisal of the situation in South Sudan, calling on the leaders to “bring the country back from the impending abyss.” Deutsche Welle, in-depth coverage of the hunger crisis “South Sudan: Starvation and violence” Wednesday 18 October… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 41
Wednesday 11 October According to a report by the campaigning and advocacy organization One, South Sudan is the toughest nation in the world for girls to receive an education, with nearly three-quarters failing to attend even primary school. Al Jazeera video report: “Oil-rich South Sudan faces fuel shortage crisis” While the organizers of South Sudan’s first… Read more »
Totalitarianism Closing in on China
The only drama in the “two sessions” jamboree in Beijing this spring is that there was no drama at all. Each year the Chinese political élite, 5000 men and a few women strong, congregate in the capital for a week of meetings of the legislature, the National People’s Congress, and its advisory body, the Chinese… Read more »
Can Peace be Tied up in Patriarchal Fantasies?
Is peace a gender-neutral term? Can peace be tied up in patriarchal fantasies? What is masculinity nostalgia and how does it shape ideals of post-war peace? Our recent article published in Security Dialogue answers these questions through a case study analysis of Palestinian peace activists. We asked peace activists to talk about how war and… Read more »
The transactional politics of border control in the Aegean
The images of migrants and refugees trying to reach the European mainland by boat are well known. Much less is known about how border surveillance at sea actually takes place. The research for our article ‘Surveillance at sea: The transactional politics of border control in the Aegean’ brought us to the Greek islands Chios and… Read more »
Nuclear Disarmament and The Nobel Peace Prize
Since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Linus Pauling in 1962, contributions to nuclear disarmament have recurrently been an explicit motivation for granting the Prize.1 According to the Nobel Peace Prize committee, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) received the Prize this year for creating new momentum in disarmament efforts by again… Read more »
A Daring Peace Prize
In selecting the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has made a daring move. This year’s laureate was the driving force behind the recently concluded Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As of last Friday, October 6, the date of the prize announcement,… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 40
Tuesday 3 October After clashes in Waat, the warring factions file contradicting reports as they both claimed victory, before more fighting ensued later in the week. Wednesday 4 October To boost bilateral trade and the South Sudanese economy, the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) is negotiating with the Government of Sudan to reopen river transportation… Read more »