Diplomacy & Crisis News

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that in light of the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, resulting in four deaths in the Republic of Korea, it will send a team to Seoul to conduct a joint mission to look into the situation and assess public health response efforts.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun distributing the first batches of 700,000 teaching and learning kits to thousands of schools across Liberia, where last year’s Ebola outbreak disrupted the education of over one million children.

Volunteers are playing a vital role in making governments worldwide more accountable and responsive to their citizens, but their potential is seriously under-valued, a new report from the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme finds.

Outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter (Photo: sbo9 via Flickr).

The Agency
The New York Times
By Adrien Chen

In this long read, an army of internet trolls based in St. Petersburg, Russia are blamed for overwhelming internet activity that wreaks havoc all around the world, with the results appearing in reality.

The inside story of how the Clintons built a $2 billion global empire
The Washington Post
By David A. Fahrenthold, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman

The Washington Post goes in-depth on the quick rise of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s philanthropic organization, The Clinton Foundation, and the shady foreign donors that have supported it.

Exclusive: Detainee alleges CIA sexual abuse, torture beyond Senate findings
Reuters
By David Rohde

The account Majid Khan, an al-Qaeda operative held at a CIA “black site” from 2003 to 2006, claims a wider array of sexual abuse, torture and other forms of “enhanced interrogation techniques” were used on him during his captivity.

Rand Paul’s Struggling Presidential Campaign
The Atlantic
By Molly Ball

Of the GOP presidential candidates, Rand Paul made it clear the earliest of his intentions for office. As the field is shaping out now, though, his campaign appears to be faltering as he fails to widen his support.

How a curmudgeonly old reporter expose the FIFA scandal that toppled Sepp Blatter
The Washington Post
By Michael E. Miller

Andrew Jennings wrote about FIFA’s corruption way before the May 27 raid in Zurich, Switzerland that arrested several of the organization’s top officials.

Blogs:
How to Make a Difference Abroad: A Review of Kate Otto’s “Everyday Ambassador” by Oren Litwin
100,000 Strong: The State Department’s Public-Private Partnerships by Jeremy Taylor
Taking on Troll Farms by Hannah Gais
No Shangri-La in South China Sea by Gary Sands
Geopolitical Showdown in the Horn by Abuka Arman

After years of kickbacks and backroom deals with drug traffickers, Mexicans are finally talking about corruption.

Why the current U.S. plan to win back Iraq only guarantees the Islamic State won’t be defeated.

A German press report alleges widespread corruption in securing the 2006 tournament.

The United Nations refugee agency today announced that it is seeking $13 million to help with the needs of new boat arrivals to countries in Southeast Asia, where thousands of refugees and migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been risking their lives by crossing the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

The tremendous human cost of the Ukraine conflict must be first addressed through mutual respect of the Minsk ceasefire agreement and the fulfilment of its political, economic, social and humanitarian provisions, the top United Nations political official affirmed today as he briefed the Security Council on the situation in the conflict-torn Eastern European country.

Nothing in Piera Zuccherin’s comfortable upbringing foretold her lifelong involvement as a volunteer. But today, she is one of the more than one billion people who volunteer globally.

The arbitrary and unlawful arrest and prosecution of journalists and activists in Iran weakens the protection of human rights of all in Iran, a United Nations expert said today.

The United Nations refugee agency today announced that it is stepping up its presence in the eastern Aegean islands of Greece where in recent weeks, sea arrivals have been averaging some 600 people a day from countries like Syria, Afghanistan Iraq and Turkey, severely straining local reception capacities.

They’re soldiers. And we should start showing them the respect they deserve.

The British called them the "Bladensburg Races,” the shattering of seven thousand American militiamen by three thousand British regulars and marines that opened the door to the burning of Washington. James Madison, President of the United States, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State were among the fleeing refugees that day in 1814. It was not America’s finest hour.

Army Brig. Gen. Sean Mulholland, who had commanded Special Operations in Central and South America (and where I think they had been very busy in counter-drug and counter-terror ops) was removed from his post in 2014, reports the Washington Post‘s Craig Whitlock, who had to pry the information out of the Army.

Memories of the twentieth century’s great conflicts, from 1930s pacifism to Cold War antagonism, are stirring again, motivating both Russia and the West in one of the gravest threats to global order and European stability in the past 25 years. Indeed, the ongoing crisis in Ukraine involves nuclear-armed powers whose collective military spending accounts for nearly two-thirds of the global total. Yet history need not repeat itself, so long as the West takes steps to avoid being trapped by any sudden escalation.

Our war dog of the week is an Army pup, seen here in maneuvers before World War II.

Si elle ne va pas de soi, l'idée que se fasse un peuple européen n'a rien non plus d'essentiellement absurde. Mais, comme les autres communautés politiques et nationales, un tel peuple devrait être rassemblé par un puissant affect commun. / Allemagne, Europe, Économie, Idées, Identité culturelle, (...) / Allemagne, Europe, Économie, Idées, Identité culturelle, Monnaie, Nationalisme, Politique, Solidarité - 2014/04

Iran, Syrie, Russie, Israël-Palestine : la diplomatie française semble s'être placée à la remorque des néoconservateurs américains. M. Dominique de Villepin, qui inspira l'opposition de la France à la guerre d'Irak, récuse cette orientation générale et suggère un autre cap. / Asie, États-Unis (affaires (...) / Asie, États-Unis (affaires extérieures), Europe, Europe de l'Est, France, Russie, Ukraine, État, Géopolitique, Idées, Relations internationales, Stratégie, Diplomatie - 2014/12

Afghanistan Afghan Taliban fighting ISIS for territory, recruits Militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State or ISIS in Afghanistan are becoming more than a nuisance to the country’s larger militant group, the Afghan Taliban, by claiming territory and attacking Taliban members, the New York Times reported on Thursday (NYT). Throughout the month, ISIS ...