Tom Hilde is a professor at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland. He attended the Copenhagen Summit as a delegate with the Heinrich Böll Foundation and covered the conference for the Center for American Progress and Climate Progress. UN Dispatch caught up with him in early January.
In this edition of UN Plaza, I speak with Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen. As I mentioned in the diavlog, the UN has been warning about a brewing humanitarian crisis in Yemen since last fall. When I first approached Gregory for the interview before Christmas this was to be the topic of the interview. Clearly, Yemen has been thrust into the international spotlight since since then for reasons other than its swelling numbers internally displaced people.
Folks may recall that prior to the new years I posted a PSA about an end of year campaign from our friends at Nothing But Nets. Via Adrianna Logalbo, good news!
Let’s begin 2010 with some exciting news: You helped to raise enough money to reach our goal of sending life-saving nets to more than one million refugees in Africa – congratulations! We are so proud to have supporters like you on the Nothing But Nets campaign.
The Heritage Foundation's Brett Schaefer is seemingly apoplectic that the Obama administration would agree to a 1.2 to 1.7 percent increase in its dues payments to UN Peacekeeping. According to Schaefer this adds and additional $100 million a year to American contributions to UN Peacekeeping and means President Obama is "letting down" the American taxpayer.
Over the past year, the United States has done much to reestablish its standing in the world. Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made another monumental stride forward by announcing our nation’s renewed commitment to ensuring that women worldwide have access to safe and effective reproductive health care.
The U.S. Interpol liaison office issued a statement last night explaining a recent executive order that grants Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, certain diplomatic privileges here in the United States.
The head of the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) briefed the Security Council yesterday. Neil MacFarquhar suggests that Eide may have been implicitely critical of the U.S. military surge in his remarks, which stressed the need for Afghan civilian capacity building. This is a snippet of what Eide told the Council. (Full remarks here.)
Senator Chris Dodd announced today that he will not be running for re-election as U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Dodd was first elected to the Senate in 1980, and in during his 30 year career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he emerged as one of the more thoughtful voices of constructive U.S.