• Research Briefing

    The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition

    US President Obama launched the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition at the May 2012 G8 summit at Camp David. It aims to address years of underinvestment in agriculture, and to meet the financing gap for global food security, in order to help pull 50 million people out of chronic poverty over 10 years. Critics of the New Alliance question whether it will help poor farmers. and charge that the New Alliance represents a “new form of colonialism”. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) supports the scheme and has committed £600 million to it.

  • Research Briefing

    A ‘democratic asteroid’: India’s elections

    As so often in the past, India’s electorate has sprung a surprise. The count on 16 May gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its presidential candidate, 62 year-old Narendra Modi, a convincing victory in the elections to India’s lower house, the Lok Sabha. On a 66.38% turnout, the BJP won a majority of the seats – the first party to do so since 1984. Author and academic Sunil Khilnani described the outcome as “a democratic asteroid.” For the Congress Party, the result is a disaster.

  • Research Briefing

    South Africa’s elections: no change?

    On 7 May 2014, South Africa held its fifth national and provincial elections since the end of Apartheid. The African National Congress (ANC) triumphed once again, winning 62.15% of the vote - down 3.75% on its tally in 2009. The Democratic Alliance came second with 22.13%. - up 7.57% on 2009. But while there was no big opposition breakthrough, the ruling party cannot rest on its laurels - not least in Gauteng Province, the country's economic power-house, where its vote fell by over 10% to 53.59%. Debate also continues about creating a labour party to the left of the ANC.

  • Research Briefing

    South Sudan: can the peace deal hold?

    Following five months of fierce fighting that has created a major humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, President Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan and his former Vice-President, Riek Machar, signed a peace deal on 9 May in Addis Ababa at talks brokered by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The deal involves an immediate ceasefire

  • Research Briefing

    The US-Japan Security Treaty and the East China Sea

    During a three day visit to Tokyo in late April 2014, US President Barack Obama confirmed that the islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China are covered by 1960 US-Japan Security Treaty, under which the US has pledged to come to Japan’s defence if its territory is attacked. Some observers have argued that Obama’s statements mark the first time a US president has clearly taken Japan’s side over islands. However, President Obama stressed that this was "not a new position". His remarks come at a time of growing Japanese nervousness about the state of its longstanding alliance with the US.

  • Research Briefing

    Combating Boko Haram in Nigeria: is the UK doing enough?

    Boko Haram (which means ‘Western education is forbidden’) has forced its way onto the UK news agenda over the last month – first through its bomb attack on a bus station in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, which claimed at least 71 lives, and then by abducting about 190 teenage girls from a school in Borno State

  • Research Briefing

    UK ratifies the Arms Trade Treaty

    The Foreign Office announced late yesterday that the UK has ratified the Arms Trade Treaty. The Treaty provides, for the first time, an international legal and regulatory framework for the arms trade which respects international humanitarian law and human rights. 17 other states also ratified the treaty on 2 April, which means that 31 states

  • Research Briefing

    Democratic Republic of Congo: a gathering momentum towards peace?

    The Special Representative of UN Secretary-General on Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Martin Kohler – who is also the head of the UN mission, MONUSCO – has claimed that there is a “new momentum” behind efforts to stabilise the country. This note briefly surveys the DRC's current trajectory.

  • Research Briefing

    The Central African Republic: a primer on the current crisis

    President Francois Bozize was overthrown in March 2013 by a rebel coalition called Seleka, which then installed its leader, Michael Djotodia, as the new president. However, the country remained in turmoil and ‘self-defence groups’ opposed to Seleka, called Anti-Balaka, took up arms. By late 2013, senior UN officials were warning the conflict had turned into one between the Muslim minority and the Christian majority. They said there was a real danger of genocide. While not disputing the seriousness of the crisis, many experts caution against over-simplified narratives of ‘Christian versus Muslim’ and question claims of possible genocide. Despite the arrival of French and African peacekeepers and the resignation of Michael Djotodia - recently replaced by an interim president, Catherine Samba-Panza, who heads an transitional government - violence continues in many parts of the country, with some now fearing de facto partition.

  • Research Briefing

    Burma: recent political and security developments

    Burma’s international rehabilitation continues. However, critics argue that the pace of this rehabilitation is too fast because the outcome of the current Constitutional review process is not yet clear; a durable peace deal with the country’s ethnic insurgencies has not been achieved; and inter-communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims persists. There has been criticism of the UK Government for providing some training for the Burmese military.

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