U.S. Special Envoy Andrew Natsios says there is a risk of new large-scale bloodletting in Darfur unless peace talks intensify and peacekeepers are deployed.

Ban Ki-moon travels to the African Union summit in the hopes of convincing Sudan to accept an AU-UN force in Darfur.

The new secretary-general of the United Nations should make genocide prevention a centerpiece of his reform agenda, concludes a new Council Special Report. "Ban Ki-moon should take the General Assembly's endorsement of the responsibility to protect as a mandate and mission statement for the UN and build a reform program that is designed to implement it."

This report argues that the new UN secretary-general should take the General Assembly's endorsement of responsibility to protect as a mandate and as a mission statement. And the United States and others must take steps to bolster UN action and be available when the UN is not.

Why should the United States care about rogue regimes or failed states? Simply put, unstable regimes are a threat to U.S. interests. Terror groups and criminal networks find haven in weak or failed states. They exploit porous borders to move people, money, weapons, and drugs. Human security is affected when government institutions are unable to meet basic needs or provide essential services. Poverty, disease, and humanitarian emergencies have transnational implications. Not only are conflict prevention and nation-building investments in U.S. security, they are also consistent with American ideals.

John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group and Erin Mazursky, executive director of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, discuss the escalating crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

CFR Senior Fellow Michael Gerson speaks with reporters about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

The United Nations Department of Public Information has issued a release describing ten stories the world should hear more about.

An impotent UN Security Council and an ineffective African Union peacekeeping force have failed to alleviate the misery in Sudan's western Darfur region, where over a hundred thousand have been killed and millions of refugees are threatening security across the region.

Panelists discussed whether there is a link between aid and economic growth and tried to highlight what aid strategies, if any, can facilitate economic growth.

Marathon negotiations driven by British and American diplomats have produced a tentative agreement between the Sudanese government and the leading rebel faction, though leaders signed the document "with reservations."

Millions of Sudanese continue to live in fear of violence because of the unsettled conflict in western Darfur. Also, a one-year-old peace deal ending a long civil war between Sudan’s mainly Muslim north and the animist and Christian south has still not produced a national unity government as planned. The International Crisis Group’s John Prendergast tells cfr.org international pressure is needed for real change in Sudan.

The three-year conflict in Darfur continues as the United Nations prepares to send a peacekeeping mission to replace the ineffectual African Union (AU) presence in Sudan. Human rights advocates say the Darfur situation highlights the international community's inability to protect civilians when their governments are unable or unwilling to help.

The context in which humanitarians are operating has seen many changes in recent decades, especially with the challenges of complex emergencies, man-made humanitarian disasters and new security threats. One of the more notable—but least understood—developments has been the emergence of hired military services, better known as the 'privatised military industry'.