Between War & Peace: Do We Need New Tools For Messy Transitions?
The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction issued its final lessons learned report earlier this year. Among the recommendations was a call for establishing a new U.S. Office for Contingency Operations, for planning and implementing the diverse activities required in post-conflict deployments, not necessarily of the scale or purpose of the Iraq […]
Community Self-Protection Strategies: How Peacekeepers Can Help or Harm
In the face of deliberate violence against civilians, communities often have no one to rely on for protection but themselves. These communities may pursue a wide variety of activities to counter, mitigate, deter or avoid threats. A diverse range of actors has recognized the importance of considering a community’s self-protection strategies before intervening. These actors […]
Michael Krepon and Julia Thompson publish Op-Ed in Dawn
On February 21, Dawn newspaper published an Op-Ed by Michael Krepon and Julia Thompson on Pakistani civilian deaths from internal violence. To read the full Op-Ed, click here.
Striking while the Iron’s Hot: The Case for Humanitarian Engagement with M23 after Goma
Many people were taken aback when the rebel group M23 managed to capture the strategically vital city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 20 November. They were even more surprised a week later when, despite its apparent capacity to maintain control of the city, M23 agreed to withdraw. During the takeover, […]
To Combat Sexual Violence in Liberia: A Need for Sharper Focus on Traditional Justice
The UN’s peacekeeping mission in Liberia has been working to reduce that country’s high rate of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), a legacy of its devastating 14-year civil war. Until recently, however, the mission failed to engage the one institution that most Liberians use most of the time to redress grievances, namely, customary justice. The […]
Measuring Success in the Sudans
By Alison Giffen – Today marks the one-year anniversary of South Sudan’s independence from Sudan. To measure what has been achieved, the baseline for progress should reach at least as far back as January 9, 2005, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between what were then the northern and southern regions of a […]
Saving Port-Au-Prince: United Nations Efforts To Protect Civilians In Haiti In 2006–2007
Policy makers, practitioners, and experts alike have increasingly identified the protection of civilians as a priority for United Nations peacekeeping operations and as key to mission success. A 2009 independent study commissioned by the United Nations’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) concluded that a failure to […]
Saving Port-au-Prince: United Nations Efforts to Protect Civilians in Haiti in 2006
Policy makers, practitioners, and experts alike have increasingly identified the protection of civilians as a priority for United Nations peacekeeping operations and as key to mission success. A 2009 independent study commissioned by the United Nations’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) concluded that a failure to […]