Panel Discussions - Thursday, January 17, 2008
Merchant Of Death: Viktor Bout And UN Arms Embargo-Busting
The International Peace Institute held a launch and discussion of a new book by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.
Merchant of Death provides a riveting account of the career of Viktor Bout, one of the world's most sophisticated illicit arms traffickers and the crucial role that the United Nations has played in curtailing his activities. For almost two decades, Bout's ability to supply weapons to armed groups in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and beyond has tested the efficacy of United Nations arms embargoes. But UN sanctions committees and experts have also played a crucial role in piecing together the information documenting his activities, and providing the basis for Member States to take restrictive measures against him. Merchant of Death provides a unique insight into how the efficacy of UN arms embargoes is tested by the ability of arms embargo-busters to organize transnationally and by the unwillingness and inability of Member States to enforce those embargoes.
Panelists
Speakers:
Mr Douglas Farah, IBI Consultants
Discussants:
Mr. James Cockayne, Associate, International Peace Institute
Mr. Colby Goodman, Program Manager, Child Soldiers and Arms Transfers, Amnesty International USA
Chair:
Dr. John Hirsch, Senior Advisor, International Peace Institute
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.