FPC publication launch - 'Tackling the world water crisis: Reshaping the future of foreign policy'
Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith will be speaking at the launch of the new Foreign Policy Centre's publication The world water crisis: Reshaping the future of foreign policy.
London, 3 June 2010

PAX: How mobiles and satellites can help prevent wars
Hosted by Google, this meeting will be chaired by Edward Mortimer, former Director of Communications at the UN. Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith will be speaking as a panellist.
London, 24 May 2010

The European Union’s external action service: ensuring strategic coherence and effective delivery
Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith will be speaking at this Wilton Park Conference, organised in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
- London, 17-19 May 2010

Are you taking the Peace?
Join comedians including Stewart Lee, Rufus Hound (‘Argumental’), Adam Buxton (BBC6 Music), Al Barrie and Tim Key (‘We Need Answers’) at The Bloomsbury Theatre for a night of laughter in aid of our peacebuilding work. More acts to be announced.
Buy online or call the booking office on 020 7388 8822 today to avoid disappointment!
London, 6 May 2010

Human Rigths Watch Film Festival 2010
In association with the Human Rigths Watch Film Festival (London 17th-26th March 2010), International Alert is pleased to present the European Premiere of the extraordinary documentary War Don Don.
London, 23 and 25 March 2010

Pray The Devil Back to Hell
International Alert invites you to the a screening of PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL, a documentary film that chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.
London, 2 December 2009

'Not In Our Name’: exclusive benefit concert by Barb Jungr
Barb Jungr brings her unique vocal vision to some of the greatest songs about conflict and the desire for peace in this one-off charity benefit at All Hallows Church in aid of International Alert and the Helen Bamber Foundation.
London, 1 December 2009

Climate change, conflict and fragility: understanding the linkages, shaping effective responses
A reception to launch International Alert's groundbreaking new report, which examines the growing risk of armed conflict as a result of climate change now being experienced by some of the most fragile regions of the world. In partnership with Chatham House
London, 30 November 2009

Environment, Climate Change and Security - Facing the Challenges
A Conference on climate change and security held in Stockholm during the Swedish EU Presidency. Alert’s Secretary General Dan Smith will speak on ‘Conflict and Climate Change’.
Stockholm, 14-15 October 2009

Doing business in conflict affected environments: from building the peace to building the private sector
How can policy makers maximize the impact of private sector for both peace and development? An event organised by the Overseas Development Institute.
On the panel: Alert’s Project Manager Diana Klein; Andrew Bone, Head of International Relations at De Beers; Lisa Curtis, Adviser at ManoCap.
London, 14 July 2009

Rotary World Peace Symposium: Challenges to Peacebuilding
Keynote speaker: Alert’ Secretary General Dan Smith
Birmingham, 18–19 June 2009

‘Making the difference: Strengthening capacities to respond to crises and security threats’
A conference organised by the European Commission. Alert’ Secretary General Dan Smith will speak on ‘Climate change and security: reducing risks and preventing crises’.
Brussels, 03 – 04 June 2009

Are You Taking The Peace?
UK top comedians take a stand against war. A comedy night in aid of International Alert.
London, 7 May 2009

‘Women, Peace and Security: Increasing dialogue and collaboration between the UN and regional organisations to enhance the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1325’
A roundtable discussion organised by the Initiative for Peacebuilding (IfP), a consortium led by International Alert and supported by the European Commission.
New York, United Nations, ECOSOC Chamber, 27 February 2009

The Ismaili Centre Lecture Series 2009 Enabling the Environment
‘A climate of Conflict’, a roundtable discussion chaired by Alert’ Secretary General Dan Smith.
London, 18 February 2009

Coming soon

International Alert Secretary General Dan Smith blogs on international politics at www.dansmithsblog.com

Some of his most recent posts:

The big beasts of development… – and peace - 5th July 2010
Under new leadership, the UK Department for International Development is emphasising results and accountability. And as part of that, the big multilateral beasts of development – to which the UK gives £3 billion a year – are coming under the efficiency microscope. It will be good to assess them not just for efficiency but for impact, and especially their impact on peace and conflict because it is the thing they have trouble taking into account. MORE>>

UK development aid: first major government speech - 5th June 2010
The UK Secretary of State for International development, Andrew Mitchell, gave his first major, setpiece speech in government on Thursday. The debate starts up again. MORE>>

Water, conflict and peace - 3rd June 2010
Water is a basic condition of life. We depend upon it for daily use, for agriculture, for industry and infrastructure. A shortage, an excess and deficient quality can all undermine welfare, impair human security, hold back economic development and in some circumstances generate conflict. The London-based Foreign Policy Centre has published Tackling the World Water Crisis, an edited collection of articles in which mine looks at the peace and security issues around water. MORE>>

After the UK election (2): Three questions on international development - 20th May 2010
What does the advent of the new government mean for UK policy on international development? MORE>>

After the UK election: international development and foreign policy - 16th May 2010
So the dust has settled, the first peacetime coalition in seven decades is in office and the work begins. What about UK international development policy under the new blue and yellow colours? MORE>>

Ashed up: reflections in Baku - 20th April 2010
Well, like millions of others, the volcano has stranded me. Here in Baku for what was meant to be a flying visit, weighing the odds of waiting for Frankfurt to open (en route to London) or hoping there might be a place on a train and boat from Madrid (reachable via Istanbul), and just hoping for a fresh wind to blow (which is sort of ironic since Baku is the City of Winds), I am taking the opportunity to look around and glean some impressions. MORE>>

EU’s External Action Service: options remain open - 28th March 2010
This past week the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton presented “her” proposal for the new European External Action Service (quotation marks on “her” because, of course, it is not hers alone – even in draft it is already a compromise). So far she has not won all her battles but nor has she lost them. In fact, those battles are not over. All options are open still and those of us who want a genuine Action service need to keep our sleeves rolled up and engage in the arguments ahead.MORE>>

Chaff, noise and fog in the climate debate. - 12th March 2010
This is a critical time on climate. Scientific conclusions that had seemed largely settled and backed by professional consensus are today challenged with increasing confidence. Three months after Copenhagen, the policy pathway is still hard to discern. Opinion polls show growing numbers of people think the globe is not warming, or not because of human action, or, variously, that not much can, need or should be done about it. MORE>>

“Militarising aid” vs. “Running away from conflict” - 27th January 2010
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. MORE>>

Haiti and beyond: preparing for the next disaster - 22nd January 2010
One part of the tragedy in Haiti is how unprepared the country was to deal with the earthquake on 12 January. Yet the risk is well established. And Haiti is equally vulnerable to the equally visible risk of hurricanes. Haiti is not alone in this lack of readiness and the problems about getting help to the survivors make an urgent case for a new humanitarian business model that emphasises preparation instead of depending entirely on emergency aid flown in after the disaster hits. MORE>>

In memoriam: Jean Charles de Menezes, 1978-2005 – and the insidious nature of conflict" - 7th January 2010
This morning in sub-zero temperature, a permanent memorial for Jean Charles de Menezes was unveiled to a small crowd. Mis-identified as a terrorist suspect, he was killed by London police officers on 22 July 2005 at Stockwell tube station. That’s the local stop for where I work and I went along to the ceremony. MORE>>

Copenhagen: Recovering from the hangover - 1st January 2010
Copenhagen is a city where people like to party. Coming into December, the city was all dressed up for a climate party with posters of green exhortation everywhere and different official and unofficial events laid on. But in the end as everybody knows, the climate conference was no party. Yet there is this terrible sense of hangover around. Political leaders, delegates, activists and journalists have reeled away from the site and the recriminations have started about who just behaved badly and who actually threw up. MORE>>

Copenhagen: time to re-think? Or just keep thinking! - 6th December 2009
As thousands of negotiators, activists, diplomats, scientists, politicians and journalists start pouring into Copenhagen for the climate summit – formally said, the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – the question has been raised whether we should want them to succeed or fail. Which, of course, begs the next question: what is success at Copenhagen? MORE>>

Climate change and conflict: respecting complexity - 21st November 2009
The climate deal won’t happen at Copenhagen in December. The work will continue. And as more people become aware of and motivated by the links between climate change on the one hand and conflict, peace and security on the other, both the possibility and the necessity of clarity about those links increase. It is an area of discussion where making an extra effort of care and precision is justified. MORE>>

Tobin tax: is this the way to meet the climate change bill? - 16th November 2009
Tobin or not to bin? Gordon Brown’s apparently sudden conversion to supporting a tax on financial transactions – initially proposed by James Tobin – has, if nothing else, put new energy into the related debates about the banking sector, paying off the costs of the economic crunch, and financing basic social needs. But will it fly? And should it? There are several strong reasons why but there is a negative side that we also need to attend to. MORE>>

Adapting to failure in Copenhagen - 6th November 2009
It’s official. A new treaty on mitigating and adapting to climate change will not be agreed at the Copenhagen conference in December. So now we have to mitigate the impact of that failure and at the same time adapt to it. MORE>>

Climate change, security and development - 29th October 2009
The problem about the climate change issue – one problem among many – is that political leaders and ordinary citizens alike, as well as institutions large and small in all walks of life, have to act on it before we know everything there is to be known about it. So a lot of the argument comes down to risk. One of the key risks is increased insecurity and violent conflict. As we trace this risk, how should it shape the response we want on climate change from governments and ourselves? MORE>>

How much will UK development policy change under a Conservative government? - 24th October 2009
The Conservative Party is set fair to win next year’s UK general election. What will happen to development policy? The Conservatives published a Green Paper in the summer, shortly after the government put out its White Paper on development, to which I gave a warm review. In this rather long post I extend the same courtesy to the Conservatives. Overall judgement: much to welcome but some reservations because the document is conservative in the wrong way. MORE>>

Yemen, water and war - 21st September 2009
Today’s Times carries a vivid and timely article about water shortage and conflict in Yemen, depicting it as potentially the first nation to run out of water in 10 to 15 years’ time. I contributed some thoughts in a background analysis The Times also carries on larger conflict patterns, links to climate change and water shortages, and the imperative of international cooperation to address the problems, especially for a country such a Yemen. MORE>>

Climate agreement in Copenhagen? Prospects dimming rapidly - 6th October 2009
September’s UN Climate change summit convened by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appears not to have succeeded. It was a good try and could have worked if national leaders had stepped up to accept the challenge. But most of them haven’t. The regular conferencing to prepare the Copenhagen summit in December has resumed in Bangkok and the acrimony is at an unprecedented level. MORE>>

Reintegrating ex-fighters is about more than the ex-fighters - 10th September 2009
A few years back, the universally acknowledged truth in peacebuilding was that, for a country to move from a peace agreement on paper into a real and sustainable peace process, the fighters had to disarm, demobilise and re-integrate – DDR. It was high priority on the ground, backed by a deal of international activity to learn lessons and sort out best practice. Lately, the energy seems to have drained out of DDR. It is time to renew it. MORE>>

Economic recovery and successful peacemaking: two irritating footnotes on DFID’s white paper - 4th September 2009
DFID’s impressive White Paper came out in July; it marks a major step forward in thinking and policy-making on international development. But there are at least a couple of points that deserve a second, sceptical look. Without detracting from the achievement registered with the White Paper, but just to have it on record in a quiet way, DFID takes an unguardedly if necessarily optimistic view about recovery from the recession and over-states the success of peace agreements quite dramatically. MORE>>

Enormous costs of adaptation to climate change - 28th August 2009
However good the agreement that may be reached at Copenhagen in December is on reducing carbon emissions, the world is going to have to adapt to the consequences of climate change that are already feeding through the natural system. A new study will discomfort a lot of people by showing strong grounds to think the costs of adaptation will be several times higher than previously estimated. MORE>>

Development thinking develops – DFID’s white paper and what comes next - 21st August 2009
It can be safely predicted that ideas and the terms of discussion about international development will change fundamentally in the coming five years.  A major policy statement from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) marks an important milestone on this road, though it’s a long way from being the endpoint. In this very long post, I explore the white paper and a way of taking DFID’s logic forward. MORE>>

5 June 2010, The measure of coalition aid policy – The Guardian
Alert’s Secretary General responds to The Guardian's article 'The Conservatives and aid: tough love' (4 June).

28 March 2010, Experts to talk climate impacts in South Asia – The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
Article on the conference 'Security Implication of Climate Change in South Asia' organised in Dhaka by International Alert and partners.

27 January 2010, We must reduce insecurity without turning aid into a tool of war – The Guardian
Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith responds to The Guardian's article 'Britain's battle against global poverty risks being twisted into a tool of war' (25 January).

14 January 2010, Aid and conflict – The Times
Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith responds to The Times' article 'In development' (13 January).

8 December 2009, Copenhagen: Creating a Climate for Conflict? – ABC News
The billions in funding for developing countries could provoke armed conflict, by Alert's Dan Smith and Janani Vivekananda.

5 December 2009, Copenhagen climate conference: cash for climate change could encourage warfare – The Daily Telegraph
A plan to give billions of pounds to poor countries to help them adapt to climate change could fuel conflicts as rivals fight over the cash, International Alert's new report has warned.

2 December 2009, Conflict over adaptation funds may spur violence, report warns – Thomson Reuters
Article on Alert's new report Climate Change, Conflict and Fragility: understanding the linkages, shaping effective responses.

1 December 2009, How not to fight over scarce resources – IRIN News (UN)
Article on Alert's new report Climate Change, Conflict and Fragility: understanding the linkages, shaping effective responses.

22 November 2009, Climate change a conflict risk – Al Jazeera
Article on the conflict risk on climate change and Alert's new report, Climate change, conflict and fragility: understanding the linkages, shaping effective responses. Read the article and watch the video.

17 November 2009, How feasible is a financial tax to fund adaptation? – Thomson Reuters
How might the world raise the $100 billion or more per year that experts believe developing world countries will need to adapt to the effects of climate change? Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith quoted.

28 October 2009, Climate change a conflict risk – Al Jazeera
Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith speaks about one of the consequences of climate change: an increased risk of violent conflict in developing countries.

21 October 2009, Water wars show we should all work together – The Times
Analysis by Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith

26 June 2009, Climate adaptation funding proposed by Britain must be spent wisely – Thomson Reuters AlertNet
Alert's Secretary General Dan Smith comments on the climate adaptation funding proposed by PM Gordon Brown.

18th May 2009, “UN Security Council: Push for Civilian Protection During Congo Visit” – Thomson Reuters AlertNet
Article on the UN Security Council’s visit to the DRC and the Congo Advocacy Coalition’s call for urgent action to protect civilians. Alert mentioned as a member of the Congo Advocacy Coalition.

31st March 2009, “Blue Gold: Have the Next Resource Wars Begun?” – The Nation
Article on climate change and the risk of conflict, mentioning Alert's Climate of Conflict report.

24th March 2009, “Co-Chairmen of OSCE Minsk Group take part in Third Armenian-Azerbaijani Public Peace Forum” – Relief Web
Article on the third Armenian-Azerbaijani Public Peace Forum, organised by International Alert.

22nd March 2009, “Youthful Exchange” – The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)
Article on the regional conference on youth affairs organised in Colombo by International Alert in partnership with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Youth Affairs, Youth Business Sri Lanka (YBSL) at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) of the University of Colombo.

9th March 2009, "An agenda of reform: Trading for Peace - Achieving security and poverty reduction through trade in natural resources in the Great Lakes area" – Relief Web
Article on Trading for Peace, a programme aimed to understand and promote the role of trade in peacebuilding and poverty reduction in the Great Lakes area, of which International Alert is a partner.

18th February 2009," World Bank Institute Uses Radio, Cell Phones to Engage Youth in Post-conflict Burundi" – World Bank
Article on Radio Publique Africaine in Burundi, a project by the World Bank and International Alert.

22nd January 2009, "Fears of violence as world's water begins to run out" – The Times
Article on climate change and water shortages. Quote by Alert’s Secretary General Dan Smith.