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Keeping the far-right AfD out of key parliamentary posts has gotten harder after their surge in Germany's most recent election.

Japanese defence officials have been working to improve relations with their American counterparts as concerns mount in Tokyo over the US administration's dim view of its future fighter jet plans. Diplomats and air force representatives are relying on talking points [...]

China's Ministry of State Security (MSS, or Guoanbu) no longer regards as a strategic threat the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China [...]

To little fanfare in June 2023, Czech engineering group PBS Velká Bíteš signed a technical agreement with Ukraine's state-owned engine [...]

The little known New York City-based nonprofit Relief Resources Inc was quietly able to broker a meeting between Pennsylvania Senator [...]

On 12 November 2022, Manish Jha, a reporter for India's TV9 channel, took to Twitter to protest against his name [...]

What Washington can learn from CHIPS.

China is chipping away at America’s security guarantees to its allies.

ENTRETIEN EXCLUSIF - L’ancien premier ministre évoque  pour Le Figaro Magazine vingt-cinq ans de combats politiques avec Bruno Retailleau à ses côtés. Pour lui, le vainqueur de LR est l’homme qu’il faut pour 2027.

Lors d’un entretien entre les deux dirigeants dans le bureau Ovale, le président américain a présenté à son homologue sud-africain, sans détails ni contexte, des documents relatant des meurtres d’Afrikaners.

The U.S. solar industry has been "materially injured" by a flood of cheap panels and components from four Southeast Asian nations, a key trade body has ruled.

Like many Asian governments, Bangkok has announced a number of trade concessions while taking steps to reduce its overall reliance on the American market.

The BBC's Gary O'Donoghue analyses how the South African president reacted in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting.

Sector-specific considerations will be needed to successfully electrify industry, experts say, and Europe’s climate goals will be impossible without them.

Right-wing Afrikaners groups celebrated the ambush but others in the Rainbow Nation found it "uncomfortable" to watch.

Right-wing Afrikaners groups celebrated the ambush but others in the Rainbow Nation found it "uncomfortable" to watch.

Informal “minilateral” coalitions of the willing and interested have long been a feature of peacemaking. Groups of states identified as “friends” of the mediator or a particular peace process and contact groups bringing together interested powers date back to concert diplomacy traditions and proliferated at the end of the Cold War as conflict resolution activity surged. The incidence of such informal mechanisms grew exponentially between 1990 and 2009.

This report assesses how these mechanisms have evolved in the years since 2010 and investigates their place in parallel to the UN’s efforts to mediate internationalized internal conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Yemen; peace processes in the Philippines, Colombia, and Mozambique taking place in relatively benign regional settings, as well as the anomalous case of Venezuela, where efforts toward a peaceful resolution of the political crisis were mired in international divisions; the geopolitically contested contexts of Myanmar and Afghanistan; and the democratic transition and descent into war in Sudan.

The report concludes that groups have the potential to build internal coherence among their members, as well as to elevate public messaging and facilitate information sharing, but they can also become a forum for competition between their members. In this context, the report offers lessons to help those considering whether a group is appropriate. The “right” group structure will depend on the context, and the adage of “form follows function” is critically important. It is key to set realistic expectations and, in some cases, accept that the “right” structure will be no group at all. Successful groups and partnerships all point to the importance of skilled individual mediators committed to working with each other, whether within a group or without an established mechanism. Finally, some contexts may defy attempts to design or deliver a coherent international peace architecture. In these cases, more modest goals related to specific or localized gains and incremental support to conflict parties and other affected communities should be pursued.

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The post Minilateral Mechanisms for Peacemaking in a Multipolar World: Friends, Contact Groups, Troikas, Quads, and Quints appeared first on International Peace Institute.

Normally the insects are targeted with insecticide, but US researchers say anti-malaria drugs absorbed through their legs can stop them spreading disease.

Le Sénat va se prononcer jeudi 22 mai à Kinshasa sur la levée ou pas des immunités du président de la République honoraire et sénateur à vie, Joseph Kabila, poursuivi pour crime de guerre et complicité avec l’AFC/M23. 

The new rules will ensure that the EU will be able to secure the necessary supply of crisis-relevant products and technologies that are otherwise protected by patents.
Committee on Legal Affairs

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