Alexander Brotman 
With the goal of helping young people better understand the challenges of shaping American foreign policy, the Council on Foreign Relations has begun a new program, called Model Diplomacy, geared to high school and college students who are interested in international relations and public policy. Through a series of case studies, including on climate change, … Read more
When Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution in July that called for an international tribunal to prosecute who is responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine a year ago, it was the latest in a long string of vetoes exercised by the country as a permanent council member. Earlier … Read more
Among the five veto-holding permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, some of the most militarized nations in the world — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — only China and Russia have increased their defense spending in the last year. Britain, France and the US have experienced stagnant military spending, despite … Read more
The small Central American nation of El Salvador has been playing an increasingly active role in United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world. From the UN mission in Haiti to the one in South Sudan, troops from El Salvador are assisting with surveillance and rapid response, including engineering, refueling and aircraft support operations on the … Read more
As Boko Haram’s raging insurgency in northeast Nigeria shows no signs of letup, Nigeria’s neighbors are taking the lead in fighting back against the Islamic terrorist group, which has killed nearly 10,000 people from 2013 to 2014 alone and displaced a million people in the region. The United Nations is now directly involved, too, providing … Read more
A new report on global nutrition levels has found that malnutrition affects every country in the world except two, and that countries are facing more complex, overlapping forms of malnutrition that require more attention. The two exceptional countries, China and South Korea, made the data cutoff rates for levels of anemia, obesity and stunting — … Read more
After an extraordinary effort from the United Nations, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and about a half dozen countries, including the United States and Russia, 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal has been destroyed, acting on a UN Security Council mandate. The remaining 4 percent of the arsenal consists of 12 … Read more
Far from the first point of entry into Europe for asylum seekers, Sweden has emerged as one of the most generous nations in the European Union, offering to take in high numbers of migrants when other nations have been reluctant to do so. Sweden, with a population of just under 10 million, received 54,300 asylum … Read more
An international mission of forensic experts and unarmed police led by the Netherlands, with Australian and Malaysian participation, has temporarily suspended its investigation and recovery work at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. The mission, which lasted just five days until it stopped on Aug. 6 because of the volatile … Read more
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, 2.9 million people have fled the country to refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and beyond. This has not only destabilized many Middle Eastern countries, but it has also caused continuous public debates inside nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations over what the proper … Read more
Although Syria has turned over all of its declared chemical weapons stockpile to international authorities, defying expectations that it would not meet a June 30 deadline, the next hurdle is securely destroying the material outside the country. Danish and Norwegian vessels have been tasked with removing the majority of the chemicals from the Syrian port … Read more
