UN as a Terrorist Target
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The New York Times takes a peek at Lakdhar Brahimi's report on the security of UN personnel and property in the wake of last years bombing in Algiers.

United Nations personnel around the world are increasingly likely to be targets for attack because the organization is perceived by some as a tool of powerful members, rather than an unbiased advocate for all nations, Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat who headed a global study on the security of United Nations staff members, said Monday.

The study, conducted by a seven-member panel that was organized after 17 United Nations workers were killed in a bombing in Algiers last December, concluded that neither individual staff members nor the organization had fully grasped the change in perceptions, Mr. Brahimi said.

"All of us who work for the U.N., we continue to think of ourselves as good guys, and just because you have the flag, wherever you go you will be all right," he said. "We need to realize that our flag is not enough protection."

Meanwhile, the UN security chief David Veness has resigned in the wake of the report.

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December 1, 2008


What are the Root Causes of Conflict?
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Long before Susan Rice was Obama's pick for UN Ambassador, she contributed this piece to UN Dispatch. Originally published May 31, 2007.

by Susan Rice, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution

seemacrpf.jpgWhen Americans see televised images of bone-thin African or Asian kids with distended bellies, what do we think? We think of helping. For all the right reasons, our humanitarian instincts tend to take over. But when we look at UNICEF footage or a Save the Children solicitation, does it also occur to us that we are seeing a symptom of a threat that could destroy our way of life? Rarely. In fact, global poverty is far more than solely a humanitarian concern. In real ways, over the long term, it can threaten U.S. national security.

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