Bruce D. Jones

The past year could have been a disastrous one for U.N. peacekeeping. Instead, peace operations demonstrated an unexpected degree of resilience. Yet these developments had surprisingly little impact on policy debates about the future of peacekeeping at the U.N. and other organizaitons in 2011. Rather than talking about the effects of operations, policymakers have developed one obsession: what operations cost. more

The Obama administration's National Security Strategy asserted that, "As influence extends to more countries and capitals, we will build new and deeper partnerships in every region, and strengthen international standards and institutions." Two years in, the administration has made good headway on the first part of that goal. The challenge now is to pick up the second part of the sentence. more

Diplomacy at the United Nations Security Council is a two-tier business, with the permanent members frequently fixing deals on issues like Iran behind closed doors. That may be a little harder for them to do in 2011, though. Next year's council will feature far more big powers as non-permanent members than in recent years, at a moment when the G-20's future as a global forum is very much in question. more

International officials like talking about conflict prevention, but they are uncomfortable talking about how conflicts actually work. Instead, they talk about how greed and natural resources fuel violence, reducing rapacious governments and marauding rebels to rational economic actors. Left unexamined are the questions of how and why politicians decide whether or not to stir up or harness popular angst. more