Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and editor of Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War, leads a discussion on Just Peace theory, as part of CFR's Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call series.
A potential Taliban office in Qatar has raised hopes for a negotiated end to the Afghan war. But numerous challenges remain even as a new controversy over U.S. troop behavior threatens to derail talks.
Recent data on organized violence shows that conflicts between a state and one or more nonstate armed groups vastly outnumber interstate conflicts. As a result, argues former international affairs fellow Payton L. Knopf in a new CFR Working Paper, the State Department needs clear guidelines as to why, when, and how its diplomats should conduct outreach to these groups.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs released this statement on October 2, 2011. It was the country's first official response to the September 2011 statement made by the Quartet urging direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Quartet —U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union Catherine Ashton— met in New York on 23rd September 2011. They were joined by Quartet Representative Tony Blair.
The assassination of Afghan government negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani signals the challenges in any reconciliation talks with the Taliban and could exacerbate ethnic divisions, pushing the country into a civil war.
Steven Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses the prospects and implications of the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of statehood. Cook cautions that "an American veto or American opposition to this declaration of statehood is likely to roil already intense and uncertain and unstable political environments throughout the region."
James Dobbins and James J. Shinn, coauthors of Afghan Peace Talks: A Primer, discuss the relationships between al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well as the obstacles and possible outcomes of peace negotiations.
This detailed New York Times editorial on Afghanistan spells out five strategic issues that must be addressed before the conflict can reach a "minimally successful end."
Authors: Micah Zenko and Rebecca R. Friedman International Peacekeeping
Micah Zenko and Rebecca R. Friedman argue that rather than create a comprehensive early warning system for preventing conflict, the UN can focus on other reforms to improve its ability to analyze and absorb existing early warning information.
Speakers: Daniel Deng Bul Yak, Daniel Adwok Kur, John Ashworth, Ramadan Chan and Samuel Kobia
Religious leaders from Sudan discuss the upcoming referendum, as well as ways that the international community can strengthen human rights in Southern Sudan.
Despite a spiral of violence in Afghanistan, the United States must reorient its security-first strategy and consider immediate talks with Taliban and other militant fighters, says independent analyst Matt Waldman.
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
The author assesses the causes and consequences of the violence faced by several Central American countries and examines the national, regional, and international efforts intended to curb its worst effects.
