The Think TankA Thought Lab for International Affairs

Sudan and the Failure of Liberal Peacemaking

Last year, after 22 years of civil war, South Sudan became the world’s newest state.

In the wake of the generally problem-free January 2011 referendum on southern Sudan secession, and President Omar Bashir’s subsequent acceptance of the outcome, the international backers of the peace process congratulated themselves and assumed the way forward would be smooth sailing. But it doesn’t look that way now. South Sudan faces a number of seemingly insurmountable challenges: new wars in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile; a continuing war in Darfur, supported by the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) government in Juba, the capital of South Sudan; a stalemate over Abyei; rebellions in the states of Greater Upper Nile, supported by Khartoum; a northern-imposed economic blockade on the South; failure to resolve any of the 12 post-referendum issues; economic crises in both states; and a series of clashes along the border, among others.

Combined, these conflicts make clear the failure of the peace process. More …

A More Humanitarian Military

Where Canada was once a respected nation of peacekeepers, it has now become a nation of fighters who slash foreign-aid budgets. Can we maintain our role as fighters? Is it sustainable? Is it who we are?

I would suggest that Canada’s military needs to trend away from roles in active combat. Actually, I am not going to suggest it, I am going to say it straight out: We need to change course.

The combat role is not sustainable. We are not a big enough nation: We lack the resources, the personnel, the money, and the national soul required to survive the loss of soldiers’ lives. The new game of war is just too costly. The human toll is enormous. Those lucky enough to survive come back wounded, and the wounds you can see are the easiest ones to treat. More …

A Whole-of-Government Approach

Under the leadership of the foreign affairs minister, the Government of Canada has a solid track record in quickly and effectively responding to natural disasters abroad. Whether we are reacting to massive earthquakes or typhoons or floods, Canada ensures critical humanitarian needs are met.

History has taught us that we are at our best when we take a fully integrated whole-of-government approach to disaster response, drawing on a wide range of tools and assets. To that end, we have a number of tested standard operating procedures that clearly outline roles and responsibilities of government actors in the minutes, hours, and days that follow a catastrophic event. While the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s (DFAIT) Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force leads in co-ordinating the overall response, many departments and agencies play an essential role in this effort. For instance, in response to last year’s earthquake in Japan, some 14 departments and agencies were actively engaged. More …

A General Seeks Absolution

The amplifier crackles and squeals as the drummer – a dead ringer for Rick James – tests the microphone. A sleepy teenager lines up plastic white lawn chairs, while an elderly woman wearing her best lappa drags a wooden pulpit across the concrete floor of an open-air structure covered by sheets of corrugated iron. An old 4×4 pulls up, depositing five children and a man wearing a white suit. Built like a boxer, the man strides confidently to the front of the small crowd, shaking hands along the way. Soon, he leads the congregation in a rousing dance while speaking in tongues. It’s another Sunday morning in Chocolate City, a suburb of Monrovia, at the Soul Winning Evangelical Church.

A few minutes later, the man, now sweating slightly, motions for quiet as he embraces a visibly nervous boy of around 12. Calmed by the man’s gentle whispers, the boy’s nerves subside and he launches into a spine-chilling a capella rendition of the old hymn, “I Surrender All.” Clearly, the same leadership skills that made the man in the white suit a fearsome warlord, the commander of the infamous Butt Naked Brigade of child soldiers, serve him well in his current role as Soul Winning’s resident evangelist.

Today, Joshua Blahyi wears a suit to lead his flock into song and scripture. Not so long ago, as General Butt Naked, he led child soldiers into battle wearing nothing but a pair of shoes. Where once he sacrificed a child – one from his own brigade, or one kidnapped from a nearby village – before each battle, and shared in eating that child’s organs, he now begins Sunday service with prayer and worship. The change appears miraculous. But the once-naked man who now wears a white suit is still called the General, even by his devoted congregation, and many Liberians express doubt as to the veracity of Blayhi’s conversion. More …

Timor-Leste: So Much for Victor’s Justice?

Driving through Dili, the capital city of Timor-Leste, it is sometimes hard to imagine the atrocities committed in its recent past. During the occupation by Indonesia between 1975 and 1999, approximately 18,600 civilians were killed by Indonesian and resistance forces, and more than 80,000 died of starvation related to the conflict. Today, the security situation in the capital appears stable, at least superficially. The greatest dangers in most parts of the city are the cars and motorcycles weaving around potholes and pedestrians.

After the bloody end to occupation in 1999, both Timorese and international organizations pushed for justice and accountability. However, the case of Timor-Leste provides a cautionary tale of how hard it can be to achieve justice, even under the most favourable conditions. Even though the resistance won independence and the international community has lent its support, the search for accountability has been constrained by local political consolidation, prosecution fatigue, and the regional balance of power. More …

Gender Justice and the Charles Taylor Judgement

At 11 a.m. on Apr. 26, the long-awaited trial judgment in the case of Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, was announced at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Taylor faced an 11-count indictment with charges covering a wide variety of atrocities: murder, rape, sexual slavery, enslavement, and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity, and the war crimes of committing acts of terror, murder, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, pillage, and conscripting or using child soldiers. Taylor was convicted on all counts in a unanimous judgment.

The Taylor judgment made headlines all over the world. Taylor was the first former head of state to be convicted by an international criminal tribunal since the post-Second World War Nuremberg trials. As well, he was convicted for crimes committed in Sierra Leone from 1996-2002, despite not having set foot in the country during that time. The judges found that he had aided and abetted the infamous Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) rebels while across the border in Liberia. He was also convicted of planning attacks with rebel leader Sam Bockarie (who was also indicted by the Special Court, but died in unclear circumstances in Liberia in 2003). More …

Recommitting to R2P

Yesterday, the City of Toronto declared its first inaugural “Will to Intervene Day” to add its voice to the global struggle to end mass-atrocity crimes, including genocide. Given the proliferation of human-rights abuses during the Arab Spring, most recently in Syria, the topic of international intervention to protect civilians is particularly relevant this year. But where does Canada currently stand on international humanitarian intervention?   

Most Canadians will tell you that, as former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham said, “building international institutions has been one of the great pillars of our foreign policy.” From the Suez to Haiti, Canada has changed the world for the better and elevated its international standing by working through international organizations and pioneering norms to maintain global stability. More …

The Paradox of Lawfare

The International Criminal Court (ICC) precariously sits at the intersection of law, conflict, and politics. As such, the Court’s judicial intervention in ongoing conflicts and targeting of elite perpetrators of atrocities render it both an agent and a tool of what has been called “lawfare.” On the one hand, lawfare can refer to judicial interventions to curb atrocities through means that are coercive but morally preferable to military force. This form of lawfare is an ideal expression of liberal internationalism. On the other hand, the Court and global rule of law can be abused by states and political elites that seek to eliminate rivals and protect their own impunity. This is the paradox of the ICC – that it has so far been implicated in both legitimate and illegitimate uses of lawfare. More …

Louise Arbour on the ICC, Peace and Justice

Louise Arbour, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Supreme Court of Canada justice, recently sat down with UBC President Stephen Toope at the Frederic Wood Theatre in UBC. The subject of their conversation: speaking truth to power.

Stephen Toope: I read a biography of you that made the claim that having grown up in Quebec, being taught primarily by nuns, you had “no significant contact with people who did not share your religion, language, culture, and gender.” So how does one go from that experience to being a world figure thinking about issues that transcend gender, culture and language?

Louise Arbour: I knew you were going to ask me questions that would require a lot of introspection, which I’m not very good at. Actually, not only was I raised in that kind of now pretty ancient type of educational environment – in a girls convent Catholic school, essentially until I went to law school – but, as I’ve told the story many times since then, I wore a uniform until I went to law school in that convent. As a result of which, I swore that I would never wear a uniform ever again, which ruled out joining the army, amongst other things. But then of course, I joined the judiciary, and then I wore a uniform again for another 15 years. So, in some ways, you don’t escape your past. In other ways, I think in a very profound way, I have moved on from again, an education that was very homogenous. More …