Unfreezing the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict? Evaluating Peacemaking Efforts under the Obama Administration. Thomas Ambrosio, Ethnopolitics, March 2011, pp. 93-114. "Barack Obama came into office identifying a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a priority of his presidency. Since the mid-1990s, international mediation had not yielded any substantive progress on bringing Armenia and Azerbaijan closer to a deal. It was hoped that the new administration would change this dynamic. However, with the passage of 2 years, the pattern that has emerged is one of continuity with previous approaches. Despite the brief opening with the proposed rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia, American policy is unlikely to produce a breakthrough to 'unfreeze' this 'frozen' conflict." READ MORE

Ethnopolitical Conflict: When is it Right to Intervene? Gareth Evans, Ethnopolitics, March 2011, pp. 115-123. "Of all the internal conflicts and mass atrocity crimes of recent decades that have exercised the world's conscience, and generated intense debate about when it is right for others to intervene in them in some way or another, most have had an ethnopolitical character in whole or in part. Certainly not all such conflicts or crimes have their roots in grievance, fear or ambition based on ethnicity, race, nationality or religion—or whatever else can be broadly described as ethnopolitical factors. The Cambodian slaughter, for example, was ideology and class-based, inflicted by the Khmer Rouge on compatriots of exactly the same nationality, ethnicity, race and religion; but getting our response to these kinds of cases right is at the heart of the ongoing policy debate about intervention." READ MORE

Peacebuilding: Can it stabilize countries after the fighting stops? Jina Moore, CQ Global Researcher, June 21, 2011, pp. 291-314. "Peacebuilding is the international community's newest approach to ending cycles of conflict in hot spots around the world. It recognizes that even if conflict has officially ended, the risk of violence often remains ever-present. In fact, roughly 40 percent of post-conflict countries have faced renewed violence within a decade. Peacebuilding tries to improve the prospect for lasting peace by helping to stabilize societies, strengthen institutions and reinforce governments. Since 2005, the United Nations has spent $250 million on peacebuilding projects in 19 countries — most of them in Africa but also in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Haiti and Kyrgyzstan. But does this approach work, and can it be replicated in countries with drastically different histories and cultures? Is a democratic society a prerequisite for lasting peace? Critics of peacebuilding say it will take more than a new philosophy to fix the world's most fragile states. Proponents say it is the best attempt yet at dealing with the aftermath of conflict." READ MORE

On Humanitarianism. Michael Walzer, Foreign Affairs, July/August, var. pages. "Is international humanitarianism an act of charity or an act of duty? In fact, it is both -- a gift we have to give. Stateless Jews in the Diaspora developed a good conceptual framework for handling such two-in-one moral obligations, one that can be used to think clearly about humanitarianism in international society today." READ MORE

U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors. James Glanz and John Markoff, New York Times, April 13, 2011, var. pages. "The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy 'shadow' Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks. The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype 'Internet in a suitcase.'" READ MORE

Hillary Clinton: Chinese System Is Doomed, Leaders on a 'Fool's Errand.' Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic, May 10, 2011, var. pages.  In an exclusive interview, the secretary of state says Beijing's human rights record is "deplorable" and it is "trying to stop history" by opposing the advance of democracy. READ MORE

Human Rights and Mass Atrocities: Revisiting Transitional Justice. David P. Forsythe, International Studies Review, March 2011, pp. 85–95. "When gross violations of human rights occur in the form of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, if the United Nations era is really the age of human rights (Henkin 1996), the primary objective should be to stop them in the short run by (i) the diplomacy of conflict resolution and, if necessary, (ii) humanitarian intervention under the “the responsibility to protect.” These processes are covered in other essays in this volume. Here, I address what to do after the fact. The attempt to establish some kind principled justice after atrocities is usually known as transitional justice." READ MORE

Gay Rights: Has the Movement's success sparked a backlash? Reed Karaim, CQ Global Researcher, March 1, 2011, pp. 107-132. "By some measures, the last 10 years could be considered the “Gay Rights” decade, with countries around the world addressing concerns of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community. Beginning with the Netherlands in 2001, gay marriage metamorphosed almost overnight from a largely ridiculed notion to a legal reality in at least 10 countries. Sixteen other nations recognized same-sex civil unions. Nevertheless, homosexual acts remain illegal in most of Africa and the Muslim world, with severe penalties for anyone found guilty of the crime. If Uganda approves a proposal to criminalize repeated homosexual activity, it will join the five other countries (and parts of Somalia and Nigeria) where homosexual activity is punishable by death. In Russia and other Eastern European countries, gay and lesbian 'pride parades' have sometimes met with violent responses, leading some observers to believe a backlash against rapid gay and lesbian advances may be developing in parts of the world." READ MORE

Honor Killings: Can murders of women and girls be stopped? Robert Kiener, CQ Global Researcher, April 19, 2011, pp. 183-208. "Each week brings horrific new headlines stating that, somewhere around the world, a woman or girl has been killed by a male relative for allegedly bringing dishonor upon her family. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 'In the name of preserving family 'honor,' women and girls are shot, stoned, burned, buried alive, strangled, smothered and knifed to death with horrifying regularity.' Between 5,000 and 20,000 so-called honor killings are committed each year, based on long-held beliefs that any female who commits — or is suspected of committing — an “immoral” act should be killed to 'restore honor' to her family. Honor killings are deeply rooted in ancient patriarchal and fundamentalist traditions, which some judicial systems legitimize by pardoning offenders or handing out light sentences. Human-rights organizations are demanding that governments and the international community act more forcefully to stop honor killings, but officials in some countries are doing little to protect women and girls within their borders." READ MORE