The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change kicks off today in Doha, Qatar, for a last ditch effort to negotiate new emission reductions before the current ones expire at the end of the year. The Guardian has an article about what to expect. The BBC has an article about Mahmoud Abbas'...
Posting was light this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. We hope all our US readers had a very happy Thanksgiving holiday! Peter Spiro commented on the territorialist approach in Obama's speech on citizenship during this week's visit to Burma. Deborah Pearlstein posted about the ABA's recent journalists' guide on national security law, to which she contributed a chapter...
UN officials stress that there could be no speedy deployment of drones in DR Congo as MONUSCO would need equipment and training. But it would be a major first in UN peacekeeping operations. A previous plan to get drones into DR Congo was dropped because of the cost, But the price of the technology has come down with so many countries now using unmanned planes for battlefield reconnaissance and espionage. "The UN has approached a number of countries, including the United States and France, about providing drones which could clearly play a valuable role monitoring the frontier," a UN diplomat said, on condition of anonymity." Clearly there will be political considerations though," the diplomat added. The UN plan is only to have surveillance drones, but the spying capability of the unmanned aerial vehicles worries a lot of countries.France might be willing to do so, but it also has to consider other possible missions - such as a possible deployment of drones to support ECOWAS military action to oust Islamist insurgents who have seized territory in Mali. But of course, these are all surveillance missions - not weaponized drones. Perhaps drone use by the UN or France or other NATO allies will remain purely as surveillance - but perhaps not. In the hands of UN forces in DR Congo, maybe the drones will be surveillance UAVs only. But France has not ruled out weaponized drones in Mali, so far as I know, if some intervention takes place, and I would be surprised (really surprised) if it did rule them out. And there are good reasons to believe that if there were serious fighting by ground forces in Mali, the states supplying the troops fighting on the ground would demand that NATO countries supplying air assets use them in weaponized form to protect their ground troops. (Greg McNeal also comments at his Forbes column.)
The cease fire in Gaza appears to hold, in what is seen as a test for the new Egyptian government's ability to influence Hamas. More than 20 people have been killed in a suicide attack on a Shiite procession in Rawalpindi, in northern Pakistan. The Taliban has claimed responsibility. After successfully capturing Goma, the rebels in Eastern Congo are vowing to march...
Under India’s presidency, the UN Security Council debated the global phenomenon of maritime piracy on November 19. The outcome was a presidential statement, not a resolution. Although not binding, it highlights future trends in the Security Council's approach to piracy. Unlike prior Security Council actions that have been region specific, Monday’s debate reflects the global dimensions of the issue...
US Secretary of State Clinton has arrived in Israel to assist in the negotiation of a truce with Hamas. The UK has recognized the Syrian opposition coalition, but the US has adopted a wait-and-see approach. Polish authorities have arrested two men allegedly planning to bomb Parliament. Shortly before the fourth anniversary of the Mumbai attacks, India has executed the only militant surviving the...
Job posting here. This would be a fabulous opportunity for someone with an international law background. Michigan of course has one of the country's top international law faculties and led the way in requiring transnational law as part of its first-law curriculum....
Just a further quick note on the ICJ opinion yesterday (press release here) on the long-running Colombia/Nicaragua dispute over sovereignty and control over certain Caribbean islands. The ruling seems a mixed bag since it recognizes Colombia's sovereignty and rejects other Nicaragua submissions. But Nicaragua is declaring victory. At first glance, I get nervous when courts (any courts, whether domestic or international) start...
The ICJ has ruled against Nicaragua in the territorial and maritime dispute it had filed against Colombia, and rejected claims that Colombia violated international law. International pressure to reach a ceasefire after six days of conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza strip is building and there are signs that Israel is open to a diplomatic solution in which Egypt...
Just in time for the holidays, the American Bar Association and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism are releasing a volume of essays geared toward folks who work on or write about or teach national security and foreign policy, but need a primer on the relevant law. National Security Law in the News: A Guide for Journalists, Scholars, and Policymakers...
President Obama's visit to Burma/Mynamar has centered the status of the country's Muslim minority Rohingya community which has been denied Burmese citizenship notwithstanding their historical presence in the country. (The issue gets a lot more coverage in the Muslim world than in the West.) Obama's speech today welcomed recent steps by the Burmese government "to address the issues of injustice and...
