In The News

Small Burundi Could Ignite Big Conflict

Itziar Aguirre August 11, 2015
Burundi, landlocked, poor and one of Africa’s smallest nations, battles corruption and ethnic tensions. The re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza, in defiance of the nation’s constitutional limit of two terms, may compound the challenges. “Ethnic violence could spread, threatening foreign aid, foreign investment and the credibility of international peacekeeping in Africa and destabilizing...

Greece’s Russian Fantasy; Russia’s European Delusion

Pavel K. Baev July 10, 2015
Greeks, well informed about their status as borrowers in advance with bank closures and limits on withdrawals, rejected foreign creditors’ conditions for aid in a referendum. “Many Greeks see Russia as a state that upholds its sovereignty and defies the EU diktat,” writes Pavel K. Baev for Brookings. Russia, sanctioned for its military interventions in Ukraine, has its own economic struggles with...

Nepal Earthquake: Prelude to Bigger Disaster?

Alark Saxena June 2, 2015
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, killing 8,800, injuring thousands more and leaving many homeless. The quake and series of aftershocks also left property damage and devastated communities. International relief agencies rushed to the scene, but researchers warn that such disasters are inevitable for the entire Hindu Kush Himalayan region with the continuous sinking of the...

Nepal Steps Up Rescue Effort Amid Global Aid Rush

April 27, 2015
Foreign aid is streaming into Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that left thousands injured and dead and devastated property. Thousands more are without shelter. “The first nations to respond were Nepal's neighbours – India, China, and Pakistan, all of which have been jockeying for influence over the landlocked nation,” reports Al Jazeera. The political...

The German Road: Congo Project Shows Pitfalls of Development Aid

Samiha Shafy March 25, 2015
From 2002 to 2011, Welthungerhilfe, a major German relief organization, invested in road construction for the Democratic Republic of Congo, National Road N2 is “613-kilometers (381-miles) long, stretching all the way to Kisangani, a city on the shores of the country's namesake: the Congo River,” explains Samiha Shafy for Spiegel Online. The goal was that a road stretching into the jungle...

4 Years in to the Syria Conflict, How Are We Handling the Biggest Humanitarian Crisis of Our Time?

Justin Forsyth March 18, 2015
The civil war in Syria has left more than 210,000 dead and 10 million displaced. “Aid agencies are running refugee camps, clinics and education programmes that reach millions of people,” writes Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children for the New Statesman. “But the ability of the humanitarian system to reach everyone who needs assistance in Syria is in question. The war has exposed the cracks...

Shadow Aid to Syrian Refugees

Elizabeth Dickinson January 5, 2015
The challenges of delivering aid to war zones and makeshift refugee camps are immense. Elizabeth Dickinson describes an unofficial shadow aid system for Syrian refugees in Jordan for the Middle East Research and Information Project: “Across the Middle East, the United Nations is coordinating the largest operation in its history to help nearly 3 million Syrian refugees at a cost of $4.2 billion in...