This presentation from the U.S. in the World Initiative discusses the basics of how to talk to Americans about foreign affairs.
Refugees International, a Washington-based humanitarian advocacy organization, is recruiting for the position of President. A full job announcement, including a position description and how to apply, may be found at the link above.
Bi-monthly newsletter that focuses on NATO policy and operations, drawing its clips from a wide range of subscriptions, feeds and alerts covering a substantial part of the major English language newspapers and other periodicals worldwide.
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Job Announcement
Manager of Security Programs
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) seeks an articulate, creative, and experienced professional to join PSR as the Manager of its Security Programs. The goal of the Security Program is to assert a strong medical voice for the prevention of nuclear war, against the development and use of nuclear weapons, and for a reduction in the role of armed force in US for...
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JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
Job Title:Â Field Director
Genocide Intervention Network (GI-NET) is changing the way the United States and the international community respond to the world's worst crimes by empowering individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. GI-NET's Field Department recruits, trains and mobilizes American constituents to be effective advocates, messengers, and fundraisers.
GI-NET believes that lead...
The two-decade-old conflict in Somalia has entered a new phase, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the United States. To best encourage peace in the devastated country, Washington needs a new strategy that takes into account hard-learned lessons from multiple failed U.S. interventions.
In a new study, author David Axe argues that Washington should err on the side of nonintervention, and recommends:
The Obama administration should work to build a r...
Organizations across the country joined together to send a letter to President Obama thanking him for his leadership on nuclear weapons issues and making recommendations for how the Nuclear Posture Review can best achieve the vision he laid out in his speech from Prague.
The Obama administration is working on its Nuclear Posture Review, which will set U.S. nuclear weapons policy for the next 5-10 years. This review is an opportunity to reject outdated Cold War thinking and create a tra...
The U.S. sustainability standard currently requires ethanol production to emit at least 20% less CO2 than the gasoline it is assumed to replace. In a new study, authors Harry de Gorter and David R. Just argue that sustainability standards for ethanol are, by definition, illogical and ineffective. Moreover, say de Gorter and Just, those standards divert attention from the contradictions and inefficiencies of ethanol import tariffs, tax credits, mandates, and subsidies, all of which...
Bi-monthly newsletter with NATO news and opinion clips
A letter to Mr. Stern from Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, President of the Connect U.S. Fund and former Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, which calls on the Obama Administration to break the deadlock and lead in international negotiations, in order to avoid failure in Copenhagen. The letter highlights this objective as a "financially responsible, moral, and
national security imperative for the United States." The details of the letter are informed by key memb...
The National Priority Project's comprehensive "Security Spending Primer: Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget" is now available online.
The Obama administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a major, official assessment that will set U.S. nuclear weapons policy for the next 5-10 years and could put us on a path toward eliminating nuclear weapons. However, there is strong opposition to a major shift in policy. According to an article on Secretary of Defense Gates' remarks at an Air Force Association conference recently:
"Gates previewed findings...
The International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP) is a global network established by civil society organizations to promote and implement the RtoP norm. The ICRtoP Secretariat is hosted by WFM - Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP).  For more information on the Coalition and WFM-IGP, please go our websites: www.responsibilitytoprotect.org and www.wfm-igp.org.Â...
This op-ed originally appeared on Huffington Post on September 28, 2009.
By Colin Thomas-Jensen
How do you defeat a dangerous insurgent group that has embedded itself within a civilian population? This vexing question is at the center of the ongoing debate over the counterinsurgency approach in Afghanistan--a conversation that plays itself out at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department, on Capital Hill, a...
This report from Oxfam stresses the importance of financing adaptation assistance to developing countries with "adequate, new, and additional funds," and through a streamlined international process.
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By Colin Thomas-Jensen, Noel Atama, and Olivia Caeymaex
September 28, 2009
The human cost of Operation Kimia II—the ongoing joint offensive by the Congolese army and United Nations peacekeepers against Rwandan rebels in eastern Congo—outweighs its benefits. Although Kimia II has led to gains in the fight against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, by forcing the rebels to abandon a number of the lucrative mining areas that help sustain thei...
Rare opportunity to lead fundraising at Ploughshares Fund, the leading international public grantmaking and operating foundation working to reduce and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons. Combining high-level advocacy, an enhanced grantmaking capacity and our own expertise, Ploughshares Fund is helping to fundamentally change nuclear weapons policy.
Ploughshares Fund is headquartered in San Francisco where the development department is based, with policy experts located in Washingto...
From Refugees International: From Refugees International: "Dwarfed by the Department of Defense in terms of budget, personnel and capacity, State and the Agency for International Development (USAID) have atrophied nearly to the point of irretrievability. This paper describes the causes and effects of the lack of human capital and capacity at State and USAID and offers suggestions on how to rebuild these capacities."
President Barack Obama delivered the attached remarks before the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Sept. 23.
In the fall issue of World Policy Journal, from inside the Iranian power elite, Kayhan Barzegar, a senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, offers the unique perspective of the determination of Iran's leadership to develop a "nuclea...
The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy has published this action paper by Dr. John Burroughs, describing steps the UN Security Council should take to promote disarmament.
The General Assembly debate on the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP or R2P) was a success for both advocates and victims working to prevent and halt genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Over a period of three days, governments demonstrated not only intense interest in the debate, but made a strong show of support for implementing their 2005 consensus commitment. In this report, we will provide context for the debate, areas of consensus and diversion among governm...
The State Department compiled this list of priority treaties that are currently pending on the calendar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation has launched an on-line resource guide for the 2009-10 national collegiate debate topic consisting of background materials, publications, and relevant organizations on both sides of the issues. (http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/nuclearweapons/arti...