After Saying “Never Again,” Will the World Respond to Genocide in Darfur?
SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING – Afraid to show his face and wedged into an overstuffed refugee camp on Sudan’s border with Chad, a middle-aged man named […] More
United Nations
UN Peacekeepers on the way out as Terrorists gain ground in Mali
CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — As the Mali government grapples with political turmoil, a splinter faction of the militant group ISIS, known as ISIS-GS or ISIS in the […] More
Soviet Espionage Under the Cover of Diplomacy
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, the US government expelled 13 Russian diplomats working at the United Nations. It did […] More
Climate Change, Iran, Dominate Headlines at 2019 UN General Assembly
Bottom Line Up Front At the 2019 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which kicked off this week, topics including Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabia […] More
The Latest
Last Stand in Idlib?
Bottom Line Up Front The Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies are making moves to retake Idlib from the last remaining pocket of […] More
Libya Devolves Further Into Anarchy
Bottom Line Up Front A serious military escalation is underway in Libya as General Khalifa Haftar and his forces move to take Tripoli. The […] More
A Tenuous Peace Deal in the Central African Republic
Bottom Line Upfront Earlier this month, fourteen armed groups from Central African Republic agreed to a peace agreement following talks in Khartoum, Sudan. The […] More
The Challenge of Intensifying Climate Change
Bottom Line Up Front Even as President Trump occasionally mocks the science underpinning global warming, the trend lines show an undeniable and intensifying climate […] More
Special Operations Meets Human Trafficking
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says countries around the world are detecting and reporting more victims of human trafficking than ever before. […] More
A Dramatic Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine
Bottom Line Up Front After months of increasing restrictions, Russia recently blockaded the Sea of Azov at the Kerch Strait, denying Ukrainian ships the […] More
The Islamic State of Graves
Bottom Line Up Front On November 6, the United Nations stated it had found over 200 mass graves in Iraq in areas once held […] More
Iran Expert Quick Take
Leslie Ireland is the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Intelligence and Analysis. She joined Treasury in 2010 after 25 years at CIA where […] More
War Crimes in Yemen
The war in Yemen has been for some time one of the worst current man-made humanitarian disasters. Now, comes a report, from the United Nations Human […] More
Wielding Aid as a Cudgel May Backfire, When Most Already Vote with US
The Trump administration is hinting it will soon follow through with threats to curtail foreign aid to countries that don’t vote with Washington at the […] More
Trump’s Tough U.N. Rhetoric Reassures U.S. Allies
President Donald Trump delivered his address this week at the United Nations General Assembly with a focus on the importance of sovereignty and the threats […] More
Trump Lashes North Korea, Slams Iran Nuclear Deal in U.N. Speech
President Donald Trump used his debut address at the United Nations General Assembly to threaten that the United States would have “no choice but to […] More
Geopolitics Eclipses International law at the UN
No consensus report resulted from the yearlong negotiations of the 5th United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on the Developments in the Field of […] More
The Devil Was in the Details: The Failure of UN efforts in Cyberspace
Unsurprisingly, the fifth UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) ran into difficulties that proved fatal. Previous GGEs operated in a more favorable international climate. The […] More
Former Acting CIA Director: Don’t Overreact to North Korean Provocations
North Korea took a significant step forward in its missile program this week with a successful test launch of what is believed to be an […] More