Posts tagged as:

development

The New Threat Set: Humanity’s Race Against Time

May 30, 2011

From May 18-20th in Oslo, Norway, along with participants from some 40 countries and organizations around the world, I attended an “experts workshop” on Science, Technology and Innovation to Address Global Challenges. The meeting was organized jointly under OECD auspices by the Norwegian and German Ministries of Education and Research
The agenda included presentations and discussions [...]

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Defence Policy, International Security and the Military: Time to Talk

May 16, 2011

South of the border, there have in recent years been a growing number of voices expressing serious concern over the militarization of American life.
I certainly share that sentiment.
Is an F-16 fly over and trooping the colours  really appropriate for the opening of the Super Bowl?
The USA is apparently becoming the Praetorian pole in an increasingly  [...]

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Arms and the Man: What’s Next for Libya?

March 3, 2011

“Libya is engaged in a civil war. New protests have broken out in Oman, Bahrain and Yemen. The uprising in Tunisia, the pioneer state of the so-called “Arab Spring,” is entering a second phase. As usual, the amateurish Obama administration has no idea what to do about any of this.
…America has established that its [...]

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Cairo Burning: Implications for the Defence vs. Diplomacy Debate

February 4, 2011

The following commentary, based in part on my “Ferment in North Africa” entry, was posted by the University of Southern California’s Public Diplomacy Blog 02 February:
This is one of those rare, defining moments in world history. In Egypt – as well as Tunisia, Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere – change is unfolding at [...]

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A Role for Science Diplomacy? Soft Power and Global Challenges – Part II

November 29, 2010

Part I of this series examined the relationships – or lack thereof – between diplomacy, science and international policy, and noted the serious image problems which plague all three enterprises. These difficulties have hobbled the practice of science diplomacy, and are compounded by a host of substantial issues, which will be addressed presently. First, however, [...]

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A Role for Science Diplomacy? Soft Power and Global Challenges – Part I

November 15, 2010

Readers of Guerrilla Diplomacy will know that in that volume I argue that if development is the new security in the age of globalization, then diplomacy must displace defence at the centre of international policy.
Were policy-makers to accept this formulation, then diplomacy, and in particular public diplomacy (PD), would be placed front and centre in [...]

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Whither Development?

July 3, 2009

Or, should that be withered development…?
It was not that long ago that terms such as  “international development”,  “development cooperation”, “development assistance” and even “aid” were in heavy rotation in the discourse on international relations. This was true not only in places like the United Nations, but also in many capitals, great and small.
Today development, like [...]

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Diplomatic Surge? Part II – The things we carry

February 22, 2009

I would attribute the running down of diplomacy in recent years to a trio of developments related to the carry-over from the Cold War of certain habits of mind, or intellectual baggage, which have been hoisted into the globalization age from the preceding era. In a nutshell, in the face of the complex threats and [...]

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