It is the 70th Anniversary of UN Peacekeeping. Here’s How Peacekeeping Has Evolved Mark Leon Goldberg May 30, 2018Peacekeeping is not in the Charter of the United Nations. When negotiators hammered out the details of the San Francisco Treaty in 1945, they created a new model for international political cooperation. But that model excluded, at the time, a platform for the ...
An historic first for the International Criminal Court Kimberly Curtis August 23, 2016Yesterday saw the trial of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi at the International Criminal Court for the intentional destruction of world heritage shrines in Timbuktu during the 2012 occupation of the city by the Islamic rebel group Ansar Dine. The trial marks two import...
In Mali, peacekeepers have become the target of an insurgency. This is unprecedented Mark Leon Goldberg June 1, 2016In Mali, it is UN peacekeepers -- and not the civilians they are meant to protect -- who have become the primary targets of a growing insurgency.Since the mission deployed in 2013, there have been 86 fatalities, making it the deadliest peacekeeping mission...
A Landmark Moment for the ICC: The War Crime of Cultural Destruction Mark Leon Goldberg March 3, 2016On March 1 a man named Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi made an appearance at the International Criminal court in the Hague, and in so doing earned the dubious distinction of being the first person to ever appear at the ICC for the crime of destroying cultural heri...
Mali Attacks–What We Know So Far Mark Leon Goldberg November 20, 2015Gunmen stormed an upscale hotel in Bamako, Mali today, apparently killing several people and taking hostages. The situation is still fluid, but here is what we know. The Target The Radisson Blu hotel is the kind of upscale hotel that is familiar in many Afri...
Is Mali’s Peace Deal Dead? Penelope Chester August 28, 2015Mali's peace agreement, signed with great fanfare a couple of months ago, is being tested. Will it survive?
UNESCO Rebuilt These Ancient Mausoleums in Timbuktu that Were Destroyed By Religious Extremists Luke Allen July 24, 2015A recent surge in violence in northern Mali that saw an attack on a MINUSMA convoy kill six Burkinabe peacekeepers and forced hundreds of Malians to seek refuge in neighboring Mauritania has served as a disquieting reminder that much work remains in the strugg...
In Breakthrough for Peace, Malian Rebels Sign Accord Penelope Chester June 23, 2015A comprehensive peace agreement sets the stage for reconciliation in Mali.
Prospect of Peace Recedes in Mali Penelope Chester May 28, 2015"Rebels, drop your weapons. Let's make peace." "Peace in the north, the south, everywhere." Such were some of the slogans written on placards carried by peaceful protesters in Bamako, the capital of Mali, earlier this week, where thousands of people took to th...
