Muammar Gaddafi seized power through a bloodless military coup in 1969. Forty two years later, his life and reign ended violently as he was captured and killed when his convoy was attacked by NATO warplanes October 20, 2011. The "Arab Spring" wave, spreading from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond, has claimed the life of a
Kai Bird is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.J. Robert Oppenheimer was a man for all seasons. A brilliant scientist, this 20th century icon led the development of the atomic bomb and later denounced his creation. His life story resonates with Shakespearean themes. In this conversation, Kai Bird discusses his conflicted life.GuestKai BirdFormer Fellow;Director
In 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water.” In 1988 then-Egyptian Foreign Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who later became the United Nations’ Secretary-General, predicted that the next war in the Middle East would be fought over the waters of the Nile, not politics. Rather than
É impossível compreender as restrições de desenvolvimento de África sem ter uma noção do significado dos recursos hídricos, em especial a água subterrânea. A África Austral enfrenta potenciais graves faltas de água subterrânea, que não só colocam em perigo as vidas daqueles que dependem directamente dela, mas também o desenvolvimento continuado dos motores económicos da
This article seeks to systematize the study of environmental cooperation and to define its scope more clearly, by identifying the conditions under which environmental cooperation best facilitates conflict transformation and peacebuilding, and which forms of negotiation or stakeholder participation have been particularly successful. I reviewed and evaluated past experiences experiences to pinpoint the lessons learned
An upcoming ECSP publication—based on a conference held in September 2005 at the Wilson Center—will explore the rhetoric and reality of peace parks, including their goals and the factors that determine their success or failure. Drawing on future plans and successful projects in southern Africa, Kashmir, and South America, the authors debate whether peace parks
“In the post-Cold War period, the challenges of energy, environment, climate change, and water have become very much a part of our fundamental transatlantic relationship,” said CNA General Counsel Sherri Goodman, launching a new report on U.S.-EU security at the Wilson Center.The Energy and Climate Nexus: Challenges and Opportunities for Transatlantic Security, co-authored by CNA’s Director of Latin
The Economic Significance of the Nuclear Deal for IranBijan KhajehpourExperts agree that the signing of a comprehensive nuclear agreement and the consequent lifting of external sanctions will have a positive impact on the Iranian economy. However, the pace of sanctions relief as well as actual policies of the Iranian government will produce different results for
How can environmental cooperation be used to bolster regional peace? A large body of research suggests that environmental degradation may catalyze violent conflict. Environmental cooperation, in contrast, has gone almost unexplored as a means of peacemaking, even though it opens several effective channels: enhancing trust, establishing habits of cooperation, lengthening the time horizons of decisionmakers
Recent studies suggest that a large “youth bulge”—a youthful population age structure—can increase the risk of the onset of civil conflict and political violence (Urdal, 2006, Cincotta et al., 2003). These studies exclude states with a recent history of civil conflict, reasoning that they are already highly vulnerable to persistent and re-emerging violence (Collier et