Middle East
- Kacie Candela
- • July 28, 2017

Since the liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul in early July, United Nations officials and diplomats in New York have weighed in on the crucial stabilization process for the ruined city. Part of the voices included, of course,…
- Mark Shilen
- • June 27, 2017

MOSUL, Iraq — For two weeks in early April and again in June, I was embedded in Mosul with an emergency-response division of the Iraqi army, which is fighting to retake the city from ISIS. The nonprofit organization I…
- Categories: Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Terrorism, WORLDVIEWS
- Dulcie Leimbach
- • June 20, 2017

On International Refugee Day, António Guterres reiterated the plight of refugees and displaced people worldwide — a phenomenal 65.5 million people — in his first media briefing at United Nations headquarters in months. He let drop that he is…
- Categories: Africa, Geopolitics, Middle East, Refugees, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations
- Dulcie Leimbach
- • May 2, 2017

Moving away from strictly categorizing rape and other sexual abuse against women as a weapon of war, a new report from the United Nations addresses the increasing use of rape as a weapon of terrorism. The report also documents…
- Categories: Gender Violence, Human Trafficking, Libya, Middle East, Peace and Security, Women
- Yasuhiro Ueki
- • April 26, 2017

The images of civilians, particularly children, being asphyxiated by chemical substances and dying in Idlib Province of Syria on April 4 were a game changer. Judging that the chemical attack was carried out by the Syrian government, the United…
- Categories: Disarmament, Middle East, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS
- Irwin Arieff
- • March 7, 2017

The long-simmering dispute over the fate of Jerusalem stands at the center of the Middle East conflict. Israelis and Palestinians, divided on many points, become most emotional when discussing the future of the walled, ancient crossroads city that is…
- Irwin Arieff
- • March 7, 2017

Here is a brief political history of Jerusalem, in timeline format, dating from the earliest human settlement to the present. The chronology is selective, focusing primarily on the development of competing visions over the years of the ancient city’s…
- Categories: Geopolitics, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, US Foreign Relations
- Dulcie Leimbach
- • February 2, 2017

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Thousands of Yemeni-Americans in New York City turned out to peacefully — if not passionately — protest the White House ban on immigrants entering the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen. The protesters waved…
- Categories: Geopolitics, Libya, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, US Foreign Relations
- Barbara Crossette
- • January 31, 2017

The public furor and enormous protests by many thousands of Americans nationwide have led experts to try to explain where the decisions made by Donald Trump fall short of legality in both national and international law. From Hollywood to…
- Categories: Cities, Geopolitics, Human Rights, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, US Foreign Relations
- Irwin Arieff
- • January 28, 2017

More than 700 educators and students, meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York recently, called on the international community to protect refugees’ lives, encourage countries to take in “large numbers of refugees and migrants” and do more to…
- Categories: Education, Human Rights, Middle East, Migration, Refugees, US Foreign Relations
- Omar H. Rahman
- • January 25, 2017

As Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have returned this month to try to settle their 42-year conflict once and for all, a powerful new economic incentive — a significant natural gas discovery — could provide the decisive chance for…
- Categories: Asia, Geopolitics, Middle East
- Julie Vanderperre
- • January 18, 2017

A responsibility to promote worldwide cooperation toward peace and security is not the only role that the permanent-five veto-wielding powers in the United Nations Security Council have in common. Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are also…
- Categories: Disarmament, Geopolitics, Middle East
- Barbara Crossette
- • January 6, 2017

While Washington is caught up in the unfolding drama about the extent and motives of Russian hacking and possible attempted manipulation of the 2016 American presidential election, another story is playing out around threats to “punish” the United Nations….
- Dulcie Leimbach
- • December 23, 2016

In last-minute drama before the Christmas holiday, a vote by the United Nations Security Council on a resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements boiled down to one country’s tacit approval: the United States. In an intensely watched vote on…
- Irwin Arieff
- • December 21, 2016

The butterfly effect teaches us that seemingly insignificant actions can have enormous future consequences. A tiny pair of fluttering wings can disturb the air in a way that helps trigger a hurricane halfway around the world. Witness Syria, where…
- Categories: Middle East, Peace and Security, Security Council, US Foreign Relations, WORLDVIEWS