The view that the Truman administration took in the lead up to, and during, the critical year of 1946 consequently affected the government’s actions when dealing with the Soviet Union.
Botswana is an exceptional example of a Southern African country which appears to have successfully negotiated the pitfalls inherent in the perilous journey to democratic, majority rule.
The unilateral projection of peace could become a potent political lever and a game changer in international relations, yet ‘peacefare’ and a ‘peace arsenal’, including confidence-building measures and a conflict-quelling capability, have seldom been looked into.
The systematic inclusion of children in the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission process was unprecedented in the history of truth and reconciliation initiatives. Given the country’s history of child involvement in the war as both victims and perpetrators, it was especially important to include children in the post-conflict peacebuilding processes.
It would be a mistake to deny that technological progress has been, and still is, a characteristic of our history. Men have gone from fighting with their gladios in ancient Rome to using gunpowder in cannons and rifles, and from deploying machine guns to applying the threat of nuclear war.
We may all agree that there is a moral imperative to halt mass atrocities. The problem is the reconciliation of such an obligation and our entrenched system of anarchy at the international level. Those states that are part of the United Nations should have a responsibility to respect the adoption of R2P principles, notably the moral imperative to halt mass atrocities and punish the perpetrators through the ICC.
Despite the euphoria that accompanied the toppling of Felix Dzerzhinsky’s statue in Lubyanka Square in August 1991, the power of the KGB, now the FSB and the SVR, has not declined. True reform of Russia’s security services, despite some early intent, has not happened.
Britain was certainly not innocent. Although it was not an overt aggressor in the run up to conflict, its policy of manipulation and inaction was very damaging. Britain may have not started the war but at the very least it did little to avoid it.
The Civil War in Somalia has gripped the country for 20 years, causing widespread displacement of citizens, and has turned Somalia into a training ground for Islamic terrorists in Africa. Since 2006 the civil war has taken a much larger religious dimension.
Throughout the war what Stalin wanted most from the Western Powers was their commitment to a second front, economic aid and their agreement to the restoration of Russia’s 1941 borders. Although his methods evolved, these objectives did not change.
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