In-Depth Archive

As the International Atomic Energy Agency held its Board of Governors meeting and annual General Conference over the past two weeks, the members of this often-overlooked United Nations body found themselves thrust again into the public limelight and burdened with a rapidly expanding agenda. Governments jousted over how to craft new approaches to deal with the aftermath of the nuclear accident at Fukushima, divvy up the agency’s budget and deal with controversial nuclear programs in the Middle East. The debates took place among a membership bitterly divided between those states with advanced nuclear capabilities and those that lack them, divisions […]

Nine years after its launch in July 2002, the International Criminal Court has made a promising though problematic start. Some of its difficulties are inherent in its mission and context. Others have been generated by states’ and officials’ behavior. Carrying out the court’s mandate to prosecute the perpetrators of humanity’s worst crimes would be difficult even in ideal circumstances. Circumstances are not ideal: The ICC is an international organization that many important states have not joined; it commands a limited budget; it is subject to the political and personal foibles common to international organizations; and finally, its independence is constrained […]

An archipelago of 17,000 islands stretching 3,000 miles from east to west, Indonesia sits astride some of the world’s most important sea lanes of communication. Its 240 million people make it the world’s fourth-most-populous state and third-largest democracy, and with 88 percent of its population Muslim, Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim community. Indonesians believe that their country’s size, strategic location and domestic achievements entitle it to a leadership role in global affairs, and that case is strengthened by the country’s experience with various transnational threats: Indonesia faces homegrown and transnational terrorism, is the world’s fourth-largest emitter of […]

In August 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad pledged to “complete the process of building institutions of the independent State of Palestine in order to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years.” The Palestinian Authority (PA), he said, would do this “despite the hostile occupation regime.” Indeed, Fayyad argued that by focusing on building institutions, Palestinians would “expedite the end of the occupation,” because their state would “emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored.” Fayyad’s two-year deadline expired in August 2011. Is Palestine ready, in institutional terms, for statehood? The question may appear hypothetical because […]

A United Nations vote on statehood for Palestine will not determine whether and how a Palestinian state is established and recognized. That will be determined predominantly by the political realities dividing and linking Israel and Palestine. However, regional and global factors may influence the timing and shape of the forthcoming Palestinian state, the extent to which its prospects for peace and prosperity are enhanced and the basis on which its relations with surrounding states are put in place. Since one important area in which exogenous factors may be as important as internal factors in Palestine and Israel is refugee return, […]

Later this month, the Palestine Liberation Organization is expected to call upon the United Nations to recognize Palestinian statehood based on the 1967 borders. The initiative is not based on any hope that the move will itself bring about a concrete change in conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories. Rather, it is intended to more firmly anchor the principle of a Palestinian state, at a time when Palestinian leaders fundamentally doubt Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution. The move is vehemently opposed by Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arguing that the effort seeks to circumvent the peace process. U.N. […]