BRICS… More Hungry For Power Than Food?

... help feed them. Among the alliance Brazil is the only nation that can feed itself. Russia, China, India and South Africa have food trade deficits. Among non-BRICS, Japan remains dependent as the world’s largest food importer. For its part, the United States, while a leader in conservation agriculture, became an official net importer of food in 2005. For the BRICS, who represent 44 % of the world’s population and generate around 42% of global growth depending on what economist you like ...

Modern International Mechanisms of Sanctions

Sanctions’ Regime of the UN Security Council. Peculiarities of the EU and the U.S Sanctions Policy Sanctions are one of the most important instruments available to the United Nations Security Council for negotiating settlements to international problems. The Security Council ...

Does The UN Need A Charismatic Leader To Reform Or Revitalize?

Can A Charismatic Figure Reform The United Nations? Probably not. When one speaks of reform one is really speaking about a subset of change. Whether it’s structure, culture or mission, change means turning the conversation into action. A decade ago there was talk dans les couloirs ...

Kofi Annan: the UN Needs Reforming

Interview with ex-Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan On July 15 in the RIA Novosti Press Center, ex-Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan presented his book Interventions: A Life in War and Peace , while discussing the relevant issues with RIAC President Igor Ivanov....

UN Foundation Interview

'The Law of Politics' According to Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, just back from his first meeting with his new American counterpart, John Kerry, sat for a wide-ranging interview in March with Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Susan B. Glasser in Moscow, holding forth on everything from why Americans can no longer adopt Russian babies to how come Russia and China team up so ...

Arms Trade Treaty: Far from perfect, but better than nothing

Interview with Steven Haines, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Greenwich Interview Almost all international trade in goods is regulated, except for the international arms trade. The misuse of arms to foment genocide or war crimes, support terrorism and organized crime, or diversion of arms into illegal ...

United Nations through the eyes of Ban Ki-moon

Interview with Michèle Griffin, Director of Policy Planning Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General Interview In balancing the interests of 193 UN Member States with the principles of the UN Charter, the Secretary-General handles the most complex problems in the world, ones which have no easy solutions....

Humanitarian intervention in the geopolitical context

In the early 2000s, the international community has time and again used humanitarian pretexts to intervene in interethnic, inter-faith and other kinds of conflict in which civilans’ rights are threatened. What results has humanitarian intervention yielded? Does it have a future? Will it ...

Heidi Tworek: We would like to encourage interest in the history of the United Nations

Foreign opinion It usually takes a decent amount of time for an independent researcher to get access to any information contained in archives of various UN bodies. Not anymore! Harvard University’s new project solved this problem by collecting massive archival history and other materials related ...