Articles • April 28, 2013
The above quote is from last week’s seminar on the Central African region with focus on military power, interventions and its limits. Tove Ivergard (international and local coordinator at Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, IKFF) stated”A person with a weapon is always a security threat. This is for arms in general, and not gender bound.” Many other important and at times uncomfortable thoughts were shared this Thursday afternoon…
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Articles • April 23, 2013
The Democratic Rebublic of Congo struggles with civil conflicts and rebellion. The country’s story has been called ”the most unreported story in the world” and for this there are divers explanations, yet non of them contributing with operational solutions.
When reading this, you’re probably holding a bit of Congo in your hand. Sounds weird? 80 % of all minerals……in cellphones and elctronics…..
It’s called conlict minerals. The minerals are to be found in almost every electronic device in our every day life. 80 % of theese minerals are obtained from the mines, in the middle of the ongoing conflicts in DRC. Resources as ”curses” instead of ”assets” are exemplified in DRC, being the most resource rich country in the world and at the same time the worlds dealiest conflict zone since the World War II.
To understand the complexity of the conflicts witihin DRC and with it’s neighboring countries, a local perspective is needed. In this case, a local prespective is more difficult than usual to recieve. With different rebellions gardening every corner, a local visit is perilous in several aspects. Regardless, Suroosh Alvi, the founder of Vice Media Inc (http://www.vice.com/en_se) went To DRC and made a documentary called ”Guide to Congo, the heart of bleakness”. Watch it here:
Here’s a shorter film on Congos history of conflicts, called ”This is Congo, bloody resource wars”:
However, questions of internvention remain. What is the best course of action, and who should be the main actor? On thursday we will discuss military power, interventions and its limits using Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic as examples. Read more about the seminar here.
Caroline Wrangsten
Blog editor, UF Stockholm
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Articles • April 15, 2013
Recently, The Stockholm Association of Internaitonal Affairs hosted a seminar on aid policy with the following participants: Magnus Walan, Margaret Gärding, Martin Ängeby and Mia Laurén. There was a lot to say on the subject and perhaps not enough time. Even so, many interesting thoughts and facts were presented from both the participants and the audience. On a whole, there were extra focus on realities such as; Multilateral versus bilateral aid, the support to civil societies organizations (NGO:s) and different possible ways to efficient aid. In the end the entire panel urged us students to get involved in development issues, and asked us not to simplify it. Here are some thoughts from the audience afterwords:
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Articles • April 10, 2013
How effective is aid for eradicating poverty? Some say that aid has done more harm than it has helped, expecially in regards to Sub-Saharan Africa. The Swedish aid policy has been richly discussed in recent years with questions about transparency, the number of receiver countries, the size of aid, and the actual efficiency of aid itself. Of course, the opinions vary. Several articles have been published on this issue:
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As you have probably noticed, The Stockholm Association of International Affairs blog, The Journal, has been inactive for quiet some time now. Of course, this is unacceptable. Previously, the blog has mostly been focusing on publishing academic articles and texts written by some of our highly esteemed volunteer writers. However from now on, the blog will adopt a different tone and a broader content: now you will have the ability to read everything from conclusions and interviews from UF-led seminars to reading and visiting tips concerning UF Stockholm’s organization as well as other on-going foreign affair activities in our vicinity.
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