General Announcements - August 15, 2011
African Junior Professionals Fellowship Program at IPI
The fourth annual African Junior Professionals Fellowship Program at IPI brought six African scholars to New York for a month-long (July 1-28) familiarization with the United Nations and the related think tank community.
Under the leadership of Professor Funmi Olonisakin at King's College London, the African Junior Professionals Program, begun in 2008, has the objective of training a new generation of African men and women to work in Africa’s leading security and economic organizations and universities for the continent’s social and economic improvement.
In conjunction with the Conflict, Security and Development Group, King’s College London, IPI has developed this annual training program to strengthen the capacity of young African professionals in addressing the continent’s major development, political and security challenges.
The six scholars–from Sudan, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria–brought rich experience as lawyers, artists, and academics to the program. After a year’s study at King’s College and/or the new African Leadership Center in Nairobi, the scholars will hold internships either at a United Nations regional office, a subregional organization such as ECOWAS or SADC, or in an African university.
As part of the IPI program, the scholars were briefed by representatives of the United Nations departments DPA, DPKO, UNDP and UN Women, related think tanks including the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (CPPF), the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Security Council Report (SCR), the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Throughout the month, they were mentored by the IPI staff.
IPI intends to develop an online network among the twenty scholars who have participated in the program to date. This will promote an exchange of ideas on addressing the continent’s major challenges and contribute to focusing IPI’s Africa Program and facilitating our interaction with the next generation of African leaders.
The Global Observatory
A Gulf Union? Not Yet
A union between Persian Gulf countries the along the lines of the European Union may be a long way from being achieved.
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.