Tag Archives: Thalif Deen

About The Book The United Nations, whose primary mandate is international peace and security, enjoyed some of its lighter moments when the “glass house by the east river” was occasionally rattled with loud laughter. Did Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bang his shoe on his desk to attract the General Assembly president’s attention during the October 1960 session? And, as rumor would have it, …

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2, 2012 (IPS) – The political heavy hitters were all there at a key Security Council meeting early this week to decide on the future of beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The lineup included U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Muhammad Al Thani, the Secretary-General of …

When Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin briefed reporters recently, he offered some biting criticisms of the growing political manipulation of the most powerful body at the United Nations: the 15-member Security Council. Implicitly targeting some of the Western nations – specifically the United States, UK and France – he said "words no longer mean what they used to be".  When Security …

   A group of political, diplomatic and military leaders from the Asia-Pacific region – representing an area with the largest number of nuclear weapons states – is launching a campaign to help abolish the world's most destructive weapons, beginning in their own backyard. The convenor of the group, former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, said Monday, "The quest to eliminate …

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9, 2011 (IPS) – The world's nuclear powers – both declared and undeclared – have come primarily from Asia: China, India, Pakistan and possibly North Korea. The Middle East was dominated by a single nuclear power – Israel, which has refused to publicly declare its status.  But that domination has been threatened by Iran, which the Western …