Our Views

Out viewpoints / opinions on a specific top or news event.

Resilience: too accurate to be useful?

A blog by our Director of Programmes

Resilience is a wonderful metaphor. It somehow conveys in a single word the qualities of bending without breaking, of healing after an injury, of tensile rather than brittle strength. Oak and palm trees are resilient to the power of strong winds, before which they bend and then straighten again. Resilient people pick themselves up after being knocked down, draw on their reserves of ideas and strength to deal with difficult challenges, or hunker down until the gale has blown itself away.

Tue, 19/03/2013

Kenya elections: good for justice?

A blog by our Director of Programmes

To many disinterested observers last week's Kenya elections seem like a victory not only for President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta, for his Jubilee Alliance, and for the Kikuyu and Kalenjin tribes represented by Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto.

Wed, 13/03/2013

Value for money: a very simple idea

A blog by our Director of Programmes

There has been a great deal of noise, confusion, and at times sound and fury, over Value for Money (VfM) among overseas development NGOs based in the UK, of late. This is because so many of us depend on UK government funding from DFID, which has been taking VfM more seriously since the last election – and not surprising it has, given the degree of scepticism about overseas aid among UK taxpayers, some MPs, and journalists.

Wed, 27/02/2013

Heads of state sign DRC peace deal

Alert's response

 

Massimo Fusato
Sun, 24/02/2013

The state of the world’s states

A blog from our Secretary General

The state is the organising principle of national and international politics and states are the subject of abundant historical research, academic theory and contemporary analysis.  That perhaps makes it a little strange to say that both the state as a category and states in general tend to be taken for granted. But that’s how it is – and it’s a problem.

Fri, 22/02/2013

The emergence of political order: how can we foster it?

A blog by our Director of Programmes

I recently read volume one of Francis Fukuyama’s The Origins of Political Order (Profile Books, 2011) in which he explores how different models of governance have emerged and decayed “from prehuman history to the French Revolution”. Volume two is forthcoming, and will bring the story up to the present day. As someone who works in peacebuilding, which is largely about fostering good governance today, I have a keen interest in how different governance regimes have emerged and decayed in history, if they provide us with clues for the present.

Peacebuilding central to post-2015 development agenda

Alert responds to High Level Panel communique on post-2015 development agenda

Group photo of High-Level Panel on Post-2015 Development AgendaThe panel established by the Secretary General of the United Nations to determine a new global approach to international development has concluded that peacebuilding is a central part of that new vision for human progress.

Chris Underwood, Senior Policy Advisor
Mon, 04/02/2013

UK Parliament on post-2015: A missed opportunity

An opinion piece by our Senior Policy Advisor

The International Development Select Committee, which scrutinises the Department for International Development (DFID), has issued a long awaited report on the post-2015 agenda.

Tue, 22/01/2013

The world's state of war and peace

A blog post by our Secretary General

Most of the trends that The State of the World Atlas looks at are ones that are visible across the last two decades since the Cold War ended. During that period, peace is one of the big, under-reported (though not unqualified) good news stories.

Fri, 18/01/2013

The unequal state of the world

A blog post by our Secretary General

16% of global economic output is owned by 0.000016% of the global populationThe state of the world is not just one thing.

Mon, 14/01/2013

The state of the world

A blog post by our Secretary General

16% of global economic output is owned by 0.000016% of the global population

Thu, 10/01/2013

It's not really such a great aid mystery

A blog by our Director of Programmes

Copyright: Crown copyright 2010The latest edition of The Spectator carries an opinion piece by Jonathan Foreman entitled 'The great aid mystery'. In a diatribe laced with rather tired tropes, and whose style undermines the argument he makes, Foreman’s main points when stripped of rhetoric can be summarised quite simply as:

Thu, 03/01/2013

The anti-lexicon of peacebuilding: listening to Edward Saïd and George Orwell

A blog by our Director of Programmes

I think Edward Saïd wrote somewhere that the USA can never hope to contribute to sustainable peace in the Middle East until it is willing and able to describe the situation there objectively, comprehensively and accurately. Good advice for President Obama and his new Secretary of State as they embark on four challenging years in the region. And good advice meanwhile for anyone, be they doctor, secretary of state, international NGO staff member or anyone else, who takes on responsibility to help others fix their problems.

Sat, 29/12/2012

Van Rompuy strikes a good balance

A blog post by our Secretary General

Herman Van Rompuy's Nobel LectureThe Nobel Lecture when the EU received the 2012 Peace Prize was a speech in two chapters, the first delivered by Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the Council (pictured), and the second by Jose Barroso, President of the Commission. It was van Rompuy who addressed the issues I raised in yesterday’s post and he did it pretty well.

The Nobel Lecture

Tue, 11/12/2012
Syndicate content