Speaker Events - Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Richard N. Haass: When Should the US Go to War?
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the book War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, outlined at an IPI evening reception when and how the US should or should not go to war and when it might be a necessity.
Read full transcript
Haass, a senior member of both the administrations of President George H. W. Bush at the time of the first Persian Gulf War and President George W. Bush during the second Gulf war, also spoke about how poorly foreign policy was executed during the second Bush administration, and how commendably it was conducted during the first one.
At the conclusion of the talk, Haass took questions from the audience, including one about the authority of the UN Security Council in such decisions.
"Kosovo was a war of choice that was done in the explicit absence of the Security Council’s support," Haass answered, "and I think it was right. I don’t believe the Security Council is the only repository of legitimacy. Sorry, I know it’s probably sacrilege to say it so close, but I simply don’t. Legitimacy could come from other sources, including the content and purpose of the action."
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.