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.
UN Security Council resolution 1999 was adopted without vote on July 13, 2011. In the resolution, the Council recommended to the General Assembly that South Sudan be admitted to the UN.
The process that led to South Sudan's independence offers lessons for avoiding a new, devastating conflict in the region and underscores the importance of sustained and vigorous U.S. diplomacy, writes CFR's Payton Knopf from the new country's capital.
The independence of South Sudan is a call for celebration but many difficult issues remain unresolved, says John Campbell, Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council of Foreign Relations. The outstanding delineation of 20 percent of the Sudan-South Sudan border and questions regarding divisions of oil revenues between the two countries must now be addressed.
John Campbell states, "Rather than resolving the generations-long Sudan crisis, Juba's independence on July 9 merely opens a new chapter in a familiar, complicated story."
South Sudan's independence July 9 could encourage secession efforts elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, but elites in those countries will likely stymie those attempts at challenging colonial borders, at least for now.
Hostilities in Sudan might be relieved by a deal hammered out by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, but ethnic and religious divides, resource battles, and looming southern independence remain contentious issues, says CFR's John Campbell.
Escalating fighting in Sudan's disputed border region of Abyei "has the potential, the threat, of growing into something much larger that could in fact endanger the peace agreements between the North and the South," says John Campbell, Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Campbell argues that a possible solution may be for both sides to remove their troops from Abyei, and increase UN presence in the area.
USAID's Katherine Almquist and CFR's Payton L. Knopf discuss the political implications of Southern Sudan's nearly unanimous vote to secede from the North, as part of the CFR's Academic Conference Call series.
Princeton N. Lyman, U.S. senior adviser for North-South negotiations at the U.S. Department of State, discusses Southern Sudan's unanimous vote to secede from the North, as part of CFR's Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call series.
The Sudan referendum now underway will likely result in the south's independence, but unresolved disputes and population shifts require the Obama administration's continued intense diplomatic and humanitarian engagement, says CFR's John Campbell.
The January 9 referendum on southern Sudan's secession is expected to go smoothly, but some experts caution that disputes over oil and land, and the south's volatility, could mean a violent transition.
Depending on how locals and outsiders react to events in Sudan, the secession referendum scheduled for January could trigger either the country's partition or a new explosion of violence.
Speakers: Daniel Adwok Kur, Daniel Deng Bul Yak, John Ashworth, Ramadan Chan and Samuel Kobia Presider: Linda E. Watt
Religious leaders from Sudan discuss the upcoming referendum, as well as ways that the international community can strengthen human rights in Southern Sudan, as part of CFR's Religion and Foreign Policy series.
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.
Speakers: George Clooney and John Prendergast Presider: Ann Curry
Upon their return from Sudan, please join George Clooney and John Prendergast to assess the in-country situation in advance of southern Sudan's independence referendum this January
Speakers: George Clooney and John Prendergast Presider: Tamela Hultman
Upon their return from Sudan, George Clooney and John Prendergast assess the in-country situation in advance of southern Sudan's independence referendum this January.
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.
Gause posits that, though the Arab Awakening has caused tensions in Saudi-American relations, the two countries do not face a crisis and still have significant mutual interests that should be prioritized.
The authors assess the strengths and weaknesses of international institutions and provide a set of practical recommendations for how the United States can strengthen the global architecture for preventive action by partnering with those organizations.
A leading Middle East scholar pens this "good introduction to the Saudi paradox of social change and political stability and an invaluable guide to the challenges the country faces." More
