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WritePeace blog
Sunlight disinfects—but beware of the shade
Leopoldo Fergusson and Juan Fernando VargasFree media is no guarantee of political accountability and, without a sufficiently strong institutional environment, can even lead to unintended negative consequecnces.
More pain but not gain: productive and unproductive sanctions
Dr Michael BrzoskaThe recent additional sanctions against North Korea and Iran are unlikley to change these regimes' policies and could hav enegative effects if they hurt citizens rather than the powerful elite.
Focal points and fuzzy borders
Jurgen BrauerWe don't need to create or maintain borders against all reason; keeping borders 'fuzzy' can help make and keep peace.
Combating Blackbeard: how to reduce maritime piracy in Somalia
Olaf de GrootPiracy is a response to the incentives provided to pirates and ridding piracy will require creating incentives to disengage from piracy activities.
Can UN troops influence economic development? The case of South Sudan
Raul Caruso and Roberto RicciutiThe deployment of UN peacekeepers in South Sudan is associated with higher cereal production between 2008–11, suggesting peacekeeping missions can help to secure food security.
Microbial resistance
Min Hyun MaengThe threat of antibotics-resistant ’superbugs’ is growing, but antibiotic development in the drug industry is not keeping up.
AIDS and Migration
Min Hyun MaengThere have been great advances in curative and preventive interventions for people living with HIV/AIDS, but discrimination and stigmatization are still a problem, particularly for refugees and internally displaced persons.
World Diabetes Day – Diabetes in conflict areas
Min Hyun MaengNon-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, increasingly contribute to morbidity and mortality in conflict settings, and the burden of those diseases has become prominent especially in middle-income settings.
Climate change, food security and conflict
Min Hyun MaengAlthough climate change is defined using environmental terms, it should be understood in a comprehensive framework taking into account conflict, food security and health. The official definition, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is 'a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods'. Yet this masks the wider set of issues within the climate debate – the ways in which climate change endangers livelihoods and threatens peace through climate-induced resource conflicts.
Transnational Organized Crime and Public Health in West Africa
Kyle Benjamin SchnepsIn July 2012 the New York Times reported that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is expanding its war on drugs to various countries in the regions of East and West Africa. However, such efforts may prove to be too little too late if the West wishes to enact a meaningful intervention in a part of the world that is perhaps the most fertile ground for transnational organized crime.