Marie Lall: With Pakistan having entered its most violent chapter in its history as an independent state, it might already be too late to reverse Islamic militancy and terror. The West can only help with a cash injection in the economy, making sure that the money reaches ordinary Pakistanis rather than the military, government officials or Western consultants.
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Alessandra Radicati: Now that the civil war seems to be over, the current Sri Lankan government needs to avoid the mistakes of its predecessors and embrace the Tamil community, not alienate it further. How the Government implements post conflict policies will be vital in the country’s reunification.
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Joerg Wolf: Noting the high stakes for the continent and its limited capabilities, European analysts suggest that Europe should pursue different policies than the US or make support dependent on more involvement in the decision-making process.
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Joerg Wolf: We asked European policy experts for their opinions on proposed ways forward in Iraq. Respondents from ten different countries provided some surprising results.
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Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen: the only news from the White House and Petraeus findings is that any decision on American troop withdrawal is postponed: President Bush is betting it all on positive trends in Iraq. Should the situation improve, Germany too will have to do its part.
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Retired General James Jones: Positive trends on the ground could enable a shift in responsibility from Coalition forces to the Iraqi security forces.
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The Atlantic Community Editorial Team: presents a comparative analysis of the most promising plans from policy makers and think tanks across the US. See all the strategies here, or download and print out a PDF with the full matrix of options.
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After 8 years, Afghanistan is not independent or democratic, and women are as bad off as ever. ++ This will not improve until Western soldiers leave, as “history teaches that we always reject occupation and foreign domination.” ++ “It is not in your interest to [send] more young people to war, and to have more of your taxpayers’ money fund an occupation that keeps a gang of corrupt warlords and
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The world cannot ignore the renewed violence in Somalia, which is not a classic civil war but an external attempt to overthrow a legitimate, recognized government. ++ “While the world focuses elsewhere, groups of foreign extremists are trying to take control of a strategically placed country.” ++ The international community must support President Ahmed and punish the perpetrators with travel
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Congo’s civil war has rendered the eastern region of the nation a “humanitarian catastrophe.” ++ Over 250,000 people are displaced in a conflict that finds its roots in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. ++ Of the 17,000 UN peacekeepers in the country, only 5,400 are located in the east. ++ African leaders should step in to usher a power-sharing arrangement; that is unlikely given
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James Glanz and Stephen Farrell of the New York Times report that the military surge in Iraq coincides with a dramatic increase in the number of internally displaced Iraqis. Analyzing data from two different humanitarian organizations, Glanz and Farrell write that the number of IDPs has more than doubled to 1.1 million, up from 499,000 in February. Most notable is the sectarian division: Shiite
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After the first democratic elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in forty years, International Crisis Group writes that it is now up to President Kabila and the international community to lead reconstruction efforts in this transitional period of peacebuilding. The UN mission MONUC, together with the EU Mission’s “Governance Compact” and the World Bank, must tackle the problems at
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