Rene Wadlow's blog

International Politics of the Persian Gulf is the most recent in important publications from the series Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East of Syracuse University Press.

David Atwood, former general secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) for nearly seven years, reflects on the challenges and opportunities of Quaker efforts at the United Nations in Geneva where he was responsible for disarmament and peace efforts from 1995 until 2011.

Mid-March 2011 in Syria, nonviolent protests and demands for limited reforms began and then were increasingly met by government violence. Discussions on what the United Nations could do to help the Syrian people and to speed up necessary reforms started quickly in both New York and Geneva. The appointment of the former U.N.

In a July 7, 2011 blog, “Prayers for Sudan,” at the time of the division of Sudan into two States, I had written “The creation of South Sudan is a cause of neither joy nor sorrow but needs to be accompanied by our prayers as the history of Sudan since its independence from England in 1956 has been one of violence and of missed opportunities for reconciliation and cooper

In a 9 February 2012 message to the Secretary of the League of Arab States, Ambassador Nabil el-Araby, the Association of World Citizens proposed a renewal of the Arab League Observer Mission with the inclusion of a greater number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) observers and a broadened mandate to go beyond fact finding and to play an active conflict-resolution role at the local level

Although Pan-Islamic and Pan-Arab movements have not been “federalist” in the sense that federalism is usually analysed, Pan-Islamic movements have been an effort to organize political community across State boundaries.

There is growing interest in the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within the United Nations system in the making and the implementation of policies at the international level. This interest is reflected in a number of path-making studies, such as: P.

He rejects the ritual and breaks the rules of the game. He discovers once more his suppressed identity and dignity. He gives his freedom a concrete significance. His revolt is an attempt to live within the truth.” (Vaclav Havel)

Vaclav Havel (1936-2011), the former president of the Czech Republic, who moved to another dimension on December 18th, had analyzed that:

I was recently in Vietnam to give a series of talks at the University of Hanoi on ecologically-sound development and poverty reduction, in light of the Earth Summit organized by the United Nations to be held June 2012 in Rio. The conference is popularly called “Rio plus 20” as it will be held 20 years after the first Rio conference on sustainable development.

Arnaud Desjardins (1925-2011) was a leading figure in introducing the broader French public to the philosophies and religious practices of Asia. His films devoted to Tibetan Buddhist leaders, Indian religious teachers, Japanese Zen philosophers, and Afghan Sufis were widely shown on French television in the 1960s and early 1970s, when such topics were largely unknown among non-specialists.