Positive thinking

Emily Helms, University of Essex The United Nations General Assembly voted this summer to cut $US600m from its peacekeeping budget. This is the money which pays for more than 100,000 troops, police and civilians in 16 missions across the world. The reduction in funds was pushed for by the Trump administration , and immediately labelled a success by the White House. But there are fears that the spending cuts hailed by US Ambassador Nikki Haley could come at a huge price. Haley was widely criticised after she boasted of over half a billion dollars being slashed from the peacekeeping budget. “We’re only getting started,” she added enthusiastically. Peacekeeping consists of more than a military presence. As well maintaining ceasefires and agreements, it is intimately involved in the political aspects of the peace process. Work by civilians can drive political engagement and create environments conducive to lasting peace. Even a cursory read o...

Nicolas Tenzer, Sciences Po - USPC France’s election of centrist pro-Europe president has offered us all some respite, but, in many respects, the world still seems headed for dark times. There’s bloodshed in Syria with no end in sight, massacres in Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar and a recent resumption of intense fighting in Ukraine. It also hints at a deeper decline, a sign that freedom itself is being eroded. From the first months of the Trump presidency and the hatred exposed by the Brexit campaign to the rise of the extreme right in Europe – including in France where, after all, 10.6 million people did vote for Marine Le Pen – reason seems to be receding in the West. It has been replaced by alternative facts and apocalyptic rhetoric.  Even so many people still cling to the belief that the world’s troubles are distant and largely unthreatening. Protest, in this mindset, is either an activist’s sport or an endeavour led by groups whose freedom is directly th...