Global

Letter published in The Guardian on 27 January 2010

Mid January to mid February 2010

As part of our partnership with radio station Passion for the Planet this month you can listen to the following interviews:

What impact does conflict have on our climate and what impact does climate change have on conflict?

Does overseas interference in conflict areas bring positive change or leave a lasting negative legacy?

And which countries are most vulnerable to conflict in the future?

Mid February to mid March 2010

As part of our partnership with radio station Passion for the Planet this month you can listen to the following interviews:

Just what is it that causes war and why have we had over 120 of them worldwide since the end of the Cold War in 1989?

What needs to happen for there to be a lasting peace after a conflict?

Can business influence peace? And should local businesses be included in a peace process?

The battle lines are starting to be drawn over how development assistance and peacebuilding do or don’t support each other, or can or can’t be made to work together, and about whether bad governance and insecurity are the right targets for international development policy and assistance. 

Listen, on demand, to interviews with International Alert

Last year we teamed up with the UK’s leading ethical radio station Passion for the Planet and recorded a series of interviews focused on peacebuilding.

These interviews, which were broadcast on Passion for the Planet, are now being made available to listen to on demand.

Mid April to mid May 2010

As part of our partnership with radio station Passion for the Planet this month you can listen to the following interviews:

Will oil in Uganda be a blessing or a curse for the country?

Is female empowerment the route to more peaceful societies?

Why is war so much easier than peace?

Mid May to mid June 2010

As part of our partnership with radio station Passion for the Planet this month you can listen to the following interviews:

Will water be the new oil when it comes to conflict?

Will climate change lead to war?

Can a radio station build bridges after the fighting has stopped?

Last year International Alert’s Secretary-General Dan Smith was selected to review the UK Department for International Development’s policy on state-building and peacebuilding, an issue which is a bit of a hot topic in many of the countries where Alert works. Smith challenged some of the UK Government’s key assumptions and provided new ways of thinking about the interlinkages between state-building and peacebuilding.

This article is an abstract from Dan Smith’s contribution to the new Foreign Policy Centre pamphlet Tackling the world water crisis: Reshaping the future of foreign policy.

Water is a basic condition for life. We depend upon it for daily use, agriculture and industry. Both declining availability and quality as well as an excess of water undermines welfare, impairs human security and generates risk of conflict.

Letter published in The Guardian on 5 June 2010

Andrew Mitchell, the new secretary of state for international development, has announced a new regime of transparency and accountability in how Britain's aid is spent. Welcome as that is, questions remain about what to measure, which means discussing the aims, and how to do it without distorting those aims.

Who?
Trevor Maisiri

Background

International Alert recently launched a new publication series, part of the project ‘Strengthening the Economic Dimensions of Peacebuilding’.

Who?
My name is Hannah Simon. I am from Switzerland and I am currently in the process of completing my second masters degree in the UK.

Background

Only one in forty signatories to peace agreements over the last twenty-five years were women, reveals a new report by Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), a UK research and advocacy group of which International Alert is a member.

The Global Monitoring Checklist on Women, Peace and Security, a vital report on the political, legal, and socioeconomic progress of women in five conflict-affected regions, was recently launched in Parliament to an audience of parliamentarians, civil servants, journalists and members of civil society.

Initiative for Peacebuilding (IfP), a consortium supported by the European Union and led by International Alert, recently launched six synthesis papers which summarise lessons learnt, conclusions and recommendations drawn from evidence-based research conducted in the last year and a half by Alert and its partners.