An Urban Century: Which Direction Should Cities Take?

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The Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador this week is the most important meeting on cities and development in decades. It will shape the urban agenda of the 21st century.

New York is one of the cities threatened by climate change induced sea level rise. Photo: Pixabay

It is now well-known that the world is more urban than rural, with the challenges of 21st century urbanisation firmly on the agenda. In Quito, Ecuador’s capital, the contrasting opportunities and challenges of cities are fully on display – vibrant and exciting culture, choking pollution, snarling traffic, and prosperity and insecurity varying dramatically between neighborhoods. And it is in Quito this week that these and other challenges will be taken up by the international community at The United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, better known as Habitat III.

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 41

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Monday 10 October China’s defence ministry rejected allegations by The Center For Civilians in Conflict that Chinese peacekeepers had in July this year abandoned their posts in Juba instead of protecting civilians. A top SPLA General, Lt. Gen. Bapiny Mantuil Wichjang, resigned from the Government of South Sudan (GOSS), accusing President Kiir and his inner… Read more »

No One can Fill King Bhumibol’s Shoes

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX). Wikimedia Commons

For 70 years, the beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) ruled Thailand, and to date he has represented the country’s only stable political reference point.

Since the introduction of the constitutional kingdom in 1932, the country has been through 19 different constitutions and 12 military coups – the latest just two years ago. The King’s demise has long stood as a national trauma. Now the divided country is at a crossroads.

The improbable monarch

There was little indication that Bhumibol would become king. Bhumibol was born in the United States, in Massachusetts, in 1927. His father, Prince Mahidol, the 69th of King Chulalongkorn’s (Rama V) 77 children, was sixth in line to the throne and married a woman without a hint of blue blood. His wife, Sangwal, came from a poor family of Chinese ancestry and, since she was seven years old, worked as a maid for Mahidol’s mother, Quween Sawang. Mahidol died early and Sangwal and their three children settled in Switzerland. The small family had little to do with their home country.

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Give Us Your Phone and We May Grant You Asylum

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Images of refugees using smartphones have now become common in the Western media landscape, and everybody seems to have learned that refugees and migrants, too, use smartphones.

Indicative of this awareness, European governments are now looking into how to make use of these assets in their identity checks and in the processing of asylum seekers’ demands.

As such, smartphones are not just a key tool for surviving long and dangerous journeys, but also an asset that makes anyone using it more vulnerable to digital surveillance. In this blog post, we discuss how smartphones are becoming the new best and worst friend of refugees and migrants.

Refugees arriving at the Köln-Bonn Airport train station on Sep 27, 2015. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

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Beyond Recognition to One, Ethical Reassurance to Many

Posted by & filed under Peacebuilding

An award can be backward or forward looking; this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is both. By awarding this prize in a moment of crisis for the Colombian peace process, it not only serves as a recognition of past efforts made by individuals, but also rescues an agonizing process and truly encourages further collective efforts for peace in Colombia. Beyond that, the Nobel Peace Prize serves as reassurance of an oft-discarded perspective on political conflicts transformation: non-violence.

 

Supporters of a peace agreement marching in Bogotá. The sign reads: “Uribe does not make the decision about peace, I do.” PHOTO: Gabriel Rojas.

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An Impossible Peace

Posted by & filed under Civilians in Conflict, Peacebuilding

The FARC and the Colombian government deserved to share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, however, the prize was awarded to only one party. In general we are idiots if we let political correctness govern our views about how the world works. We confuse facts with latent sympathies – a widespread form of intellectual dishonesty, disguised as good manners. Political correctness also influences our thinking about the current and past state of the conflict in Colombia – and about who deserves to share the Nobel prize.

President Juan Manuel Santos and Timoleón Jiménez, leader of the FARC. PHOTO: Flickr/Luis Ruiz Tito

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 40

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Monday 3 October At least 12 Dinka Bor cattle keepers were killed in the outskirts of Juba over the weekend. African Affairs: “Briefing: Prospects for Peace and the UN Regional Protection Force in South Sudan” The Economist Explains: “Why South Sudan is still at war” Tuesday 4 October Nestle’s Nespresso is temporarily suspending imports from… Read more »

Moscow Gambles on Raising the Stakes – in Syria and Across the Board

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov (the only one in the Russian Navy) is preparing to deploy to the Mediterranean in the mid-October.

The crisis in relations with Russia, and in particular Russia’s behavior in the Syrian war, has become an unusually prominent theme in the U.S. election campaign. That means that a new administration could start with a set of tough pledges, rather than with a clean slate. Campaign trail rhetoric is worth only so much, but a new president would still have to demonstrate both readiness to contain Russia’s experiments in power projection and commitment to rebuild Syria in the wake of the catastrophe it has experienced.

Moscow can try to act as a spoiler in Syria, but it is already over-stretched, and the limits of its capacity for sustaining the Assad regime will be soon exposed. The United States, already taking the lead on defeating ISIS, will also have to lead a broad coalition to rehabilitate the devastated Syrian war zone after the conflict ends. Russia cannot be a part of this, and rather must be treated as part of the problem. There will be no more illusions about Mr. Putin’s character, and his attempts to test the will of his fourth U.S. counterpart need to be answered convincingly—in Syria and elsewhere.

A Bold Choice for the Nobel Peace Prize

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The award of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a bold choice. It rewards President Santos of Colombia for his great political courage, and for his ability to think in a strategic, long-term and principled manner about what is needed to bring peace to his country. Santos is also a “classic” choice for the prize. In his will, Alfred Nobel stated that the prize was for “champions of peace”, and many of the prize awards that we remember best have been awards to statesmen, rebel leaders or peace negotiators who have contributed to the ending of wars.

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Most Importantly a Nobel for the Colombian People and the Victims of the Civil War

Posted by & filed under Civilians in Conflict, Humanitarianism, Peacebuilding

The Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasizes that the award of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize to the Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos is not only a prize given in recognition of his own personal efforts to end the more than 50 year old civil war in the country, but that this award is also given to the Colombian people and to all the parties contributing to the peace process.

Colombians marching for the freedom of the people kidnapped by the FARC and the ELN. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

While not explicitly mentioned, this also includes the FARC, and could be read as an appreciation of FARC’s willingness to contribute to the struggle for peace, post-referendum. The prize is also a nod to the discrete roles played by Cuba, Norway and others in facilitating the peace negotiations.

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