PAST EVENT
Monday, November 09, 2009
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Washington, DC
While developing countries struggle to improve their economic status in an environment of increased globalization and trade, the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement mechanism continues to disproportionately benefit wealthy nations. On November 9, Brookings held a discussion on recent efforts and suggested proposals to help developing countries overcome hurdles imposed by the WTO. Read More
PAST EVENT
Friday, October 30, 2009
12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Washington, DC
While most international institutions involve only governments in their formal governance structure, a number of innovative institutions have emerged in recent years that engage multi-stakeholders in their governance processes. On October 30, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings hosted a roundtable with experts and leaders from a number of these innovative institutions. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Walter Kälin, October 23, 2009, AU Special Summit on Refugees, Returnees and IDPs
Forced displacement is a devastating experience that often takes years or even decades to recover from. Africa hosts the worlds largest population of internally displaced persons and, as Walter Kälin points out, has taken the initiative to go beyond the existing state of law by creating the first binding international law on internally displaced persons. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Andrew Solomon, October 23, 2009, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement
Decades of armed conflict, natural disasters and climate change, have given rise to sizable populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout Africa. On October 23, African heads of state and government signed a legally binding convention on internal displacement, which as Andrew Solomon notes, demonstrates their commitment to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of IDPs, to facilitate durable solutions and to ensure that millions of people are no longer excluded from society as a whole. Read More
BOOK
Chad P. Bown, October 15, 2009
Self-Enforcing Trade examines the WTO's "extended litigation process," highlighting the tangle of international economics, law, and politics that participants must master. He identifies the costs that prevent developing countries from disentangling the
self-enforcement process and fully using the WTO system as part of their growth strategies. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Roberta Cohen, September 02, 2009, International Studies Review
The numbers are startling. There are close to 40 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world today, uprooted by conflict and human rights violations. The problems facing the refugees and IDPs are daunting. While reviewing two books, Cohen argues that the overall problem of forced migration goes beyond humanitarian and human rights solutions, requiring multilateral action aimed at preventing and resolving the crises at the heart of displacement. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Jeremy Shapiro, August 13, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Jeremy Shapiro argues pundits should focus more on what the elections in Afghanistan say about the international community than what they mean for the country. He cautions that actions by international actors are often seen from the inside as rigging elections to a pre-determined outcome and concludes that if these efforts to build a democracy fail it may help Afghanistan become a terrorist state once again. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Federiga Bindi, July 03, 2009, The Brookings Institution
Federiga Binda believes the recent G8 foreign ministers meeting in Trieste has set the stage for pragmatic and operative discussions at the upcoming G8 summit. Bindi examines key issues of the debate including Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation and the future role of the European Union in global governance. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bruce Jones, June 30, 2009, The Brookings Institution
As the G8 summit nears, Bruce Jones highlights the problems involved in holding international decision-making meetings with just a handful of countries in an increasingly interconnected world. Jones argues that it is time to get serious about new modes of cooperation that gives a stronger voice to rising powers such as India and China. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Walter Kälin, June 24, 2009, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Debate on Protracted Displacement in Europe
Over the last few years, the internal displacement situation in Europe has remained stagnant. Europe continues to have more than 2.5 million IDPs, over 99% of whom find themselves in situations of protracted displacement. In order to improve the situation of IDPs in Europe, Walter Kälin argues that both the adoption of the Draft Resolution before the Parliamentary Assembly as well as a national laws and policies "would radically change the fate of these forgotten people." Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Walter Kälin, June 24, 2009, Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe
An estimated 50-200 million people may move by the middle of the century as a result of the negative effects of climate change, either within their countries or across borders, on a permanent or temporary basis. While some of this movement may be voluntary, some of it will not. Walter Kälin points out that there are significant differences in both groups' situations and the responses to their migrations must also be different. Read More
PAST EVENT
Sunday, June 21, 2009
to
Monday, June 22, 2009
Rome, Italy
On June 21 and 22, the Italian Foreign Ministry held a conference in partnership with the Brookings Institution, Aspen Italia, Club de Madrid, Link Campus University – Sage, and Centro di Eccellenza Jean Monnet – Fondazione Economia Tor Vergata. The goal of the conference was two-fold: to generate ideas that transcend the tyranny of the urgent and could help inform preparations for the Italy-hosted G8 Summit in July 2009; and to generate debate and discussion on longer-term efforts to reform the international system. Read More
PAST EVENT
Thursday, June 18, 2009
to
Friday, June 19, 2009
Washington, DC
On June 18 and 19, 2009, the Foresight project held its second major regional symposium in Washington, D.C. Organized by the Alfred Herrhausen Society in partnership with Policy Network and the Brookings Institution, it provided a unique opportunity to advance the task of forging a new global consensus on the shape of the emerging world order and the role of the United States within it. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Carlos Pascual, June 12, 2009, Fort Leavenworth Command and General Staff College
Carlos Pascual delivered the commencement address at Fort Leavenworth Command and General Staff College. Pascual challenged graduates to make operational the perspectives of American leadership in a globalized world. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Roberta Cohen and Francis M. Deng, June 08, 2009, International Security, Armaments and Disarmament in 2008, SIPRI Yearbook 2009
Massive displacement of people within and across borders has become a defining feature of the post-cold war world. It is also a major feature of human insecurity in which genocide, terrorism, egregious human rights violations and appalling human degradation wreak havoc on civilians. Though there has been a critical shift in thinking at the international level with regards to forced displacement, Cohen and Deng argue that concepts of sovereignty as responsibility and the responsibility to protect remain far ahead of international willingness and capacity to enforce them. Read More