Global Governance

Ask CFR Experts

What will be the effect of the UN Arms Trade Treaty on the Syrian conflict?

Asked by Gabriel

The UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was passed on March 28, 2013, and seeks to regulate and limit trade in arms in circumstances of human rights violations. Unfortunately, it will have minimal effect on the Syrian conflict. Syria's own vote against the treaty, along with Iran's and North Korea's, sounded the death knell for a universally applicable treaty to limit small arms, ammunition, and conventional weapons technology.

Read full answer

See more in Syria, Global Governance, International Law, International Organizations, UN

Ask CFR Experts

Should the United States push Israel to join the Non Proliferation Treaty?

Asked by Gaurav Moghe, from India

The United States tried to convince Israel to join the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) when the treaty was first introduced and before it was widely believed that Israel had nuclear weapons. The NPT's objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology and further the goal of universal disarmament.

Read full answer

See more in United States, Iran, Israel, Treaties, International Peace and Security, Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament

Audio

A Conversation with Helen Clark

Speaker: Helen Clark
Presider: George Rupp

Helen Clark discusses the 2013 Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. The report identifies more than forty developing countries that have done better than expected in human development in recent decades, with their progress accelerating markedly over the past ten years.

See more in UN

Video

A Conversation with Helen Clark

Speaker: Helen Clark
Presider: George Rupp

Helen Clark discusses the 2013 Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. The report identifies more than forty developing countries that have done better than expected in human development in recent decades, with their progress accelerating markedly over the past ten years.

See more in UN

Ask CFR Experts

How long will it take southern Europe to rebound from the eurozone crisis, and how will that affect the rest of Europe?

Asked by Jackson Ryan, from King HS

The debt crisis that has hammered southern Europe since 2010 will have long-lived economic effects, despite the moderation in Spanish and Italian government borrowing costs since the European Central Bank's "Outright Monetary Transactions" initiative last September.

Read full answer

See more in Western Europe, EU, Economics, Financial Crises, EU, IMF

Ask CFR Experts

Do you foresee UN Security Council reform in the near future, and if so, in what form?

Asked by Andrew K

The UNSC is unlikely to be altered any time soon. Any resolution to expand the UNSC would need to garner the support of two-thirds of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), or 129 votes, as well as endorsement by the five permanent members to succeed.

Read full answer

See more in Global Governance, International Organizations, UN, International Peace and Security, U.S. Strategy and Politics

Primary Sources

Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare

In 2009 the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence (NATO CCD COE) asked a panel of international law experts to "apply standards of international law to a virtual battlefield." The panel released this report on March 28, 2013, as "an expression of opinions of a group of independent experts acting solely in their personal capacity."

See more in Cybersecurity, Wars and Warfare, International Law