Conferences - Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Africa Group Retreat, New York, September 1-2, 2010
On September 1-2, 2010, IPI’s Africa Program in collaboration with the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union (AU) to the United Nations (UN) in New York convened a retreat of African Permanent Representatives in New York to discuss ways in which to strengthen the voice of the Africa Group at the UN. The Africa Group, made up of the fifty-three African countries is the largest regional group at the UN. This important meeting, the first since 2003, was attended by forty-eight Ambassadors of African missions and African experts of the six UN Committees.
The first session, which was open to UN officials and partners, was attended by the Permanent Representatives of the Africa Group; Ambassador Tete Antonio, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the UN; H.E. Mr. Vijay Nambiar, UN Chef de Cabinet, who welcomed the retreat of the Africa Group; Cheikh Diarra, Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA); Dr. Edward C. Luck, IPI Senior Vice President for Research and Programs who drew attention to IPI’s longstanding work on Africa; and Francesco Mancini, IPI Senior Fellow and Director of Research, who shared a visual presentation on Coping with Crisis, Conflict and Change: Global Perspectives. IPI’s Africa Program major supporters, the Permanent Representatives of Germany, Finland and Netherlands also attended the opening session.
The main retreat discussions of the Africa Group were held behind closed doors.
IPI’s support of the retreat underscores its cooperation with the AU to facilitate the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture, under a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the AU and IPI signed in May 2010.
The Global Observatory
Interview with John Prendergast, Co-Founder, Enough Project
Mr. Prendergast discusses the international justice system and the new ground forged by Invisible Children's Kony2012 campaign.
Key Global Events to Watch in May
A list of key upcoming meetings and events with implications for global affairs.
The Global Observatory is a new website by IPI, providing timely analysis on peace and security issues, interviews with leading policymakers, interactive maps, and more.
Recent Events
May 10, 2012
Arbour: What the Rule of Law Means
“In my understanding of the rule of law, fundamentally, what the rule of law means is that it embraces the principle of equality before the law,” Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told an IPI audience on May 10, 2012. Ms. Arbour outlined that this means that no one is above the law and everyone has both equal protection and equal benefit of the law. 
May 03, 2012
Shachtman: Cyber Threats Akin to South Bronx, Not Pearl Harbor
“There’s not a danger of a cyber Pearl Harbor… it’s more like the South Bronx circa 1999, where there’s a danger that it becomes such a tough neighborhood that no one wants to set up shop there and people move out,” Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room blog at Wired magazine and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told an IPI audience at a panel on cyber security on May 3, 2011.
April 27, 2012
Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems
An April 27th roundtable discussion at IPI titled “Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems” examined the progress, prospects and challenges of regional and international early warning and response mechanisms to monitor, anticipate, and mitigate potential conflict situations in Africa.