Kofi Annan: the UN Needs Reforming

Interview with ex-Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan On July 15 in the RIA Novosti Press Center, ex-Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan presented his book Interventions: A Life in War and Peace , while discussing the relevant issues with RIAC President Igor Ivanov....

UN Foundation Interview

'The Law of Politics' According to Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, just back from his first meeting with his new American counterpart, John Kerry, sat for a wide-ranging interview in March with Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Susan B. Glasser in Moscow, holding forth on everything from why Americans can no longer adopt Russian babies to how come Russia and China team up so ...

Arms Trade Treaty: Far from perfect, but better than nothing

Interview with Steven Haines, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Greenwich Interview Almost all international trade in goods is regulated, except for the international arms trade. The misuse of arms to foment genocide or war crimes, support terrorism and organized crime, or diversion of arms into illegal ...

United Nations through the eyes of Ban Ki-moon

Interview with Michèle Griffin, Director of Policy Planning Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General Interview In balancing the interests of 193 UN Member States with the principles of the UN Charter, the Secretary-General handles the most complex problems in the world, ones which have no easy solutions....

Humanitarian intervention in the geopolitical context

In the early 2000s, the international community has time and again used humanitarian pretexts to intervene in interethnic, inter-faith and other kinds of conflict in which civilans’ rights are threatened. What results has humanitarian intervention yielded? Does it have a future? Will it ...

Heidi Tworek: We would like to encourage interest in the history of the United Nations

Foreign opinion It usually takes a decent amount of time for an independent researcher to get access to any information contained in archives of various UN bodies. Not anymore! Harvard University’s new project solved this problem by collecting massive archival history and other materials related ...

Dilemmas of humanitarian interventions

Foreign opinion In this special interview for the Russian International Affairs Council Professor Michael Doyle analyses the practical dilemmas of humanitarian interventions in the examples of NATO’s military intervention in Libya and the international response to the Syrian civil war. He discusses the circumstances under which ...

How would scales in Syria swing?

The war in the Middle East as a consequence of the crisis of confidence in the world In July the UN Security Council must decide what to do with the mission of international observers in Syria. Under the current mandate, which was established on April 21, 2012 Security Council resolution number 2043, their planned 90-day mandate expires on July 20th....

A Palestinian State – what is behind the facade?

The status and viability of Palestinian State In 2011, Palestine applied for a full membership in the United Nations. Broad international support for this move forced the USA to proclaim its determination to veto this move in the Security Council. Meanwhile, the impasse in the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue, and the still fragile peace between Fatah and ...