As Nato leaders gather this week in Wales, how does the military alliance find ever new ways to justify its seemingly endless expansion? Looking at government websites about the forthcoming Nato leaders’ conference at the Celtic Manor golf club, one could be forgiven for assuming it was some sort of gourmet festival. The leaders of 60 […]
Posts Tagged ‘UN’
Why Western Sahara matters
Feb 19th, 2014 by Jeremy Corbyn.Last week I was part of a delegation from the all-parliamentary Western Sahara group to visit the Moroccan-occupied territory, with John Hillary of War on Want and John Gurr of the Western Sahara resources group. We held over 20 meetings with a wide range of groups of former prisoners, human rights campaigners, women’s organisations, disability […]
A US attack on Syria won’t stop chemical weapons: there’s a better way
Sep 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.An American military strike against Syria in the next few days is a virtual certainty, despite the fact that US public opinion seems as tepid about this action as in the UK. What may be driving the US is not so much an abhorrence against a resort to chemical weapons – the US said nothing […]
Syria: Ignore the UN at your peril
Aug 28th, 2013 by Mark Seddon.Unless we are all prepared to do something about it, history may be set to repeat itself, but this time with far more devastating consequences. Foreign Secretary, William Hague and the Prime Minister, David Cameron are pushing for early missile and air strikes against the Assad regime in Syria. Well informed reports point to a […]
Will we adapt to a multipolar world, or face endless war?
Feb 22nd, 2013 by Jenny Clegg.Ten years ago this week, 100,000 American troops were assembled in Kuwait as the US and UK were poised to strike, the neocons driving them on to “seize the unipolar moment”; the UN Security Council was split; and at London’s biggest demonstration ever, the crowds had heard Tony Benn’s call: “Another world is possible”. Ten […]
Israel/Palestine. Two states? Forget it, says Obama
Sep 18th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.Even President George Bush played lip service to the idea of a ‘two state’ solution for Israel/Palestine. That, after all, is the default position of the international community. It is also the position of the Obama administration, which has nonetheless allowed the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu to run rings around it. So if the […]
Libya: three reasons to curb the euphoria
Aug 24th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Despite the initial euphoria about the downfall of a brutal and erratic autocracy in Libya, three uncomfortable matters emerge from the wreckage – and not just the obvious question of whether the National Transitional Council can bring about the reconciliation for a secure, viable and democratic future for the country. One issue, which should not […]
A message to war criminals: “we shall find you”
May 27th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.The arrest of former Serbian military chief, Ratko Mladic, finally begins to draw a line underneath the unspeakable savagery that characterised the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Mladic was the remaining ‘big fish’ still unaccounted for, and his capture poses almost as many embarrassing questions for the Serb authorities as for the Pakistani authorities with […]
Côte d’Ivoire: another UN success
Apr 13th, 2011 by Mark Seddon.If anyone imagined that the act of intervention by itself is always enough for the United Nations to emerge unscathed, one only need to look at the chequered history of the various UN attempts to hold the line in post colonial Congo-Kinshasa, better known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo.