Policy Briefs
A Comprehensive Approach to Congo’s Conflict Minerals – Strategy Paper
Companies that produce electronics that could contain conflict minerals from eastern Congo have a responsibility to ensure that their business dealings are not inadvertently helping to fuel atrocities. This is not an easy task, but it is achievable ...
Obama, Africa, and Peace
The Obama administration has an opportunity to fundamentally remake U.S. relations with Africa during its tenure, and a cornerstone of that effort needs to be a much greater emphasis on the most cost-effective element of our foreign policy tools: peacemaking. An investment in ending some of the world’s deadliest, most destructive, and costliest wars would yield great results in those countries and the positive repercussions from such engagement would rebound across the continent ...
Blowback: How China torpedoes its investments
China’s support for despots in Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Burma is a bad investment. In the long-run, China’s own interests would better be served by standing up to states that abuse their own citizens ...
IRRESOLUTION: The U.N. Security Council on Darfur
Steps towards an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir provides an opportunity for the U.N. Security Council to demand real changes in Khartoum’s policies and behavior. Unfortunately, the historical record suggests that the Council will likely miss this opportunity as it has missed many others during the past five years. This report diagnoses the underlying obstacles to effective Security Council response, providing a practical guide on how activists can better engage their governments to stop—and ultimately prevent—genocide and crimes against humanity ...
Mugabe’s Revenge: Halting the Violence in Zimbabwe (Strategy Paper)
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has never been so close to losing power, and appears willing to use all means available to physically beat his opponents into submission. As the international community considers its response to the complex crisis in Zimbabwe, its first order of business must be to stop the violence ...
Abyei: Sudan’s “Kashmir” (Strategy Paper)
Perhaps no area is more volatile and carries more implications for Sudan’s future than the oil rich region of Abyei—Sudan’s “Kashmir”—astride the boundary between North and South. If the political crisis regarding Abyei is not addressed, there is little potential for peace in the entire country ...
Don’t Quit Now: Bringing the Darfur Genocide to an End
Significant progress has been made in finally getting the policies right toward Sudan, mostly because of pressure from activists and the U.S. Congress. If these policies are pursued with additional vigor, we have a real chance at ending the continuing cycles of violence in Sudan ...
A Strategy for Success in Sirte
The international community must devote significant resources, set clear objectives, and build the leverage necessary to achieve a peace agreement for Darfur and the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA. Another failed peace process for Darfur and an unraveling of the CPA could plunge the Sudan into unprecedented misery ...
An All-Sudan Solution: Linking Darfur and the South (Strategy Paper)
Failed implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement risks a return to widespread and destructive civil war throughout all of Sudan. The solution to the Darfur crisis and conflict in the South is the same: a democratic transformation of Sudan ...
How to Get the UN/AU Hybrid Force Deployed to Darfur (Strategy Paper)
Serious obstacles threaten to derail the rapid deployment of the joint United Nations African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, or UNAMID. Swift deployment is critical to providing protection for vulnerable civilians, bolstering the peace process, and countering obstructionism from Khartoum ...
