Politico reports that Eighties muscle god Fabio thinks that President Obama is too European. Sure, that's not a new accusation. But Fabio has an insider's...
Richard Gowan
Richard Gowan coordinates the International Security Institutions program at the Center on International Cooperation, New York University. He is also the UN Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate of the Foreign Policy Center (London).
UN DAY SPECIAL: Ban Ki-moon is not a zombie!
It's UN day! I always forget it. Ban Ki-moon remembered and celebrated by giving a speech to a group of ninth-graders at a school in New York. He got off...
The Vatican’s plan to stabilize the global economy
At a time when many European governments insist in avoiding major economic reforms, the Vatican has bigger ideas: The Vatican called on Monday for the...
Take a risk on the rule of law in Kashmir
President Obama has announced that American troops will pull out of Iraq by the year's end. Why? The United States had earlier agreed to exit Iraq by the end...
Ban Ki-moon subjected to horrific art attack
What has he done to deserve this?
Ban Ki-moon nails the alphabet
At a meeting on Global Green Growth in Denmark yesterday, Ban Ki-moon went on an alphabetical rampage: The three Gs of Global Green Growth must respond to...
Will the Euro crisis kill peacekeeping?
A year ago, I was worrying about the implications of the Euro crisis for UN operations: Despite the financial crisis, the UN’s peacekeeping budget — running...
Hobbes in New Delhi
He's back! How does the world look to New Delhi's top policy-makers? Hobbesian, according to a speech this week by Indian National Security Adviser Shiv...
Syria: the Security Council paralyzed
It turns out that my last post on the Security Council and Syria was wrong. Exceptionally wrong, in fact. Rather than acquiesce to a resolution condemning the...
Syria: the Security Council in flux
It now looks like the Security Council will vote on a (still too weak) resolution demanding the end of the Syrian crackdown today or tomorrow. Russia is...
Europe and the post-Atlantic security order
It's obvious that the Asia-Pacific will dominate American strategic thought for the foreseeable future. Today an Obama administration official confirmed just...
Does the UN suck? And if so, how badly? An in-depth report…
Trying to navigate around the special security cordon for the UN General Assembly last week, I got stuck behind a fellow with closely-cropped hair, a massive...
Nigeria struck by plague of special advisers
When the current British government took office, it decreed a limit on the number of special advisers that each minister was allowed to appoint. Recent...
Security Council debate on preventive diplomacy gets undiplomatic
Yesterday, I posted a preview of Thursday's Security Council debate on preventive diplomacy, and predicted that it would be boring. The meeting certainly...
Kissinger finally has Europe’s phone number
EU President Herman Van Rompuy has managed to pull off a nice little joke by giving Henry Kissinger his phone number. Get it?
Is the Security Council serious about preventive diplomacy?
This afternoon, taking the briefest of breaks from arguing over Palestine, leaders are gathering in the Security Council to talk about preventive diplomacy. ...
The most boring peacekeeping debate ever?
Last Thursday, I published a grumpy post over on the blog of the Takshashila Institution, an excellent Indian think-tank. Why was I in a bad mood? On Friday,...
Dick Cheney has written my book of the year (and I haven’t even read it yet)
I am an exceptionally excited man. Next week brings the publishing event of 2011: the appearance of Dick Cheney's memoirs. The NYT has seen an advance copy,...
Want some illicit tin ore? Ask the UN!
While I am not a regular reader of Creamer Media's Mining Weekly, I know people who are. And they are not happy about this story from the Congo... Congolese...
The EU can’t even stop you drinking yourself to death
Readers of academic journal Addiction will have become rampant eurosceptics after perusing a recent article by Rebecca Gordon and Peter Anderson entitled...
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