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Blair Peterson

Seattle humanitarian heads to Syrian border despite danger - 0 views

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    This is an excellent example of how one individual has taken steps to help out those in a conflict.
gr323867

United Nations News Centre - There can be no military solution, Ban says as Israel laun... - 4 views

  • Ban Ki-moon today voiced his regret that Israel has launched a ground offensive against Gaza, despite calls for restraint, and stressed that there can be no military solution to the conflict which flared up over a week ago.
    • gr323867
       
      The UN is against Israel's actions because it believes that a military solution will not help and a peaceful solution is necessary.
  • escalated
    • gr323867
       
      He seems to believe that violence leads to more violence.
  • I urge Israel to do far more to stop civilian casualties. There can be no military solution to this conflict.
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  • Militants in Gaza have since stepped up rocket attacks against Israel, and Israeli airstrikes on the enclave intensified.
    • gr323867
       
      Each side increases its amount of violence in response to the other.
  • He voiced support for international efforts, led by Egypt, for a sustainable ceasefire, and expressed hope that today’s humanitarian pause can lead to a “more durable calm.”
    • gr323867
       
      He endorses peaceful negotiations. 
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    Ban Ki-moon Supports a Peaceful Solution
Blair Peterson

Night of the Living Wonks - 1 views

  • The specter of an uprising of reanimated corpses also poses a significant challenge to interpreters of international relations and the theories they use to understand the world. If the dead begin to rise from the grave and attack the living, what thinking would -- or should -- guide the human response?
  • For our purposes, a zombie is defined as a reanimated being occupying a human corpse, with a strong desire to eat human flesh
  • Because they can spread across borders and threaten states and civilizations, these zombies should command the attention of scholars and policymakers.
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  • If the dead begin to rise from the grave and attack the living, what thinking would -- or should -- guide the human response?
  • How would all those theories hold up under the pressure of a zombie assault? When should humans decide that hiding and hoarding is the right idea?
  • Zombie stories end in one of two ways -- the elimination/subjugation of all zombies, or the eradication of humanity from the face of the Earth.
  • If it is true that "popular culture makes world politics what it currently is," as a recent article in Politics argued, then the international relations community needs to think about armies of the undead in a more urgent manner.
  • There are many varieties of realism, but all realists start with a common assumption: that anarchy is the overarching constraint of world politics. Anarchy does not necessarily mean chaos or disorder, but rather the absence of a centralized, legitimate authority.
  • In a world of anarchy, the only currency that matters is power -- the material capability to ward off pressure or coercion, while being able to influence others.
  • How would the introduction of flesh-eating ghouls affect world politics? The realist answer is simple if surprising: International relations would be largely unaffected.
  • To paraphrase Thucydides, the realpolitik of zombies is that the strong will do what they can and the weak must suffer devouring by reanimated, ravenous corpses.
  • States could also exploit the threat from the living dead to acquire new territory, squelch irredentist movements, settle old scores, or subdue enduring rivals. The People's Republic of China could use the zombie threat to justify an occupation of Taiwan. Russia could use the same excuse to justify intervention in its near abroad. The United States would not be immune from the temptation to exploit the zombie threat as a strategic opportunity. How large would the army of the Cuban undead need to be to justify the deployment of the 82nd Airborne?
  • All liberals nevertheless share a belief that cooperation is still possible in a world of anarchy. Liberals look at world politics as a non-zero-sum game. Working together, whether on international trade, nuclear nonproliferation, or disease prevention, can yield global public goods on a massive scale.
  • The 2009 film Zombieland is about the articulation of and adherence to well-defined rules for surviving in a zombie-infested landscape.
  • 'The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.' I think we can all appreciate the relevance of that now."
  • Provided that the initial spread of zombies did not completely wipe out governments, the liberal expectation would be that an international counterzombie regime could make significant inroads into the problem. Given the considerable public-good benefits of wiping the undead from the face of the Earth, significant policy coordination seems a likely response.
  • Quasi-permanent humanitarian counterzombie missions, perhaps under United Nations auspices, would likely be necessary in failed states. Liberals would acknowledge that the permanent eradication of flesh-eating ghouls is unlikely.
  • Instead, neocons would recommend an aggressive and militarized response to ensure human hegemony. Rather than wait for the ghouls to come to them, they would pursue offensive policy options that take the fight to the undead. A pre-emptive strike against zombies would, surely, be a war against evil itself.
  • "An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead.… [A] zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilization, unless it is dealt with quickly."
  • They would inevitably lump reanimated corpses with other human threats as part of a bigger World War III against authoritarian despots and zombies -- an "Axis of Evil Dead." This would sabotage any attempt at broad-based coalition warfare, hindering military effectiveness in a Global War on Zombies (GWOZ).
  • Powerful states would be more likely to withstand an army of flesh-eating ghouls. The plague of the undead would join the roster of threats that disproportionately affect the poorest and weakest countries.
  • Realism predicts an eventual live-and-let-live arrangement between the undead and everyone else.
  • Liberals predict an imperfect but nevertheless useful counterzombie regime.
  • Neoconservatives see the defeat of the zombie threat after a long, existential struggle.
Blair Peterson

allAfrica.com: Liberia: Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group Formed to Fight Ebola - 4 views

  • s such our platform is comprised of the following: 1. To remain in the region and be apart of the nation’s long-term economic and social recovery and development. 2. To ensure employees, families and communities are aware of the disease and are taking the best precautions to avoid infection and stigma. 3. To share experiences and resources, including trained personnel and practices, to assist governments and partners to mobilize quickly to control the spread of the disease. 4. To offer loan or gift-appropriate assets and resources essential to the deployment of an integrated response by donors, militaries, host governments, NGOs and community-based organizations. 5. To make available information about needs of various organizations and first responders, so that they may be connected with corporate giving. 6. To commit to learning from this outbreak and working together to support a strong healthcare system in the affected counties. 7. To raise international awareness and advocate for a larger global coordinated effort to combat Ebola. 8. To advocate for open trade and humanitarian corridors by air, land and sea.
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