WRITTEN BY Nicola Filizola
Interview with Lech Walesa
Freedom From Fear met the leader of Solidarnosc, a few days from the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, marking the end of the Cold War, during his visit in Italy to Torino Spiritualità to talk about 1989: the year that changed the world.
Today, Lech Walesa is 65. From his onerous past he still drags behind him an entourage of assistants and press officers. He is very punctual to our meeting in the hall of his hotel; he wears a shirtsleeve with his Solidarnosc badge pinned to his lapel, as to emphasize his proud belongings.
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WRITTEN BY Asha-Rose Migiro
Helping States Substitute Right for Might
Promoting the rule of law at national and international level is at the very heart of the global mission of the United Nations. The rule of law is fundamental to achieving a durable peace in the aftermath of conflict, to the protection of human rights, and to economic progress and development. The basic concept that drives our work is the principle that everyone – from the ordinary citizen to the State and its leaders – is accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. As a lawyer and a former professor of law, I retain a deep personal interest in this area of UN engagement.
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WRITTEN BY Daniel Theleskaf
The financing of terrorism is often difficult to detect because it follows only few fixed patterns. For instance, an investigation into the financial transactions of some high profile terrorists and hijackers showed that most of the individual transactions were not that unusual. The account holders appeared to be foreign students receiving money to fund their studies; in such a way, the transactions then would not be flagged as suspicious transactions needing a special scrutiny by the financial institutions involved. Terrorist funding may therefore originate from legitimate sources, criminal sources or a combination of the two.
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WRITTEN BY Paul W. Zagorski, Stephen A. Harmon
Though hardly a new phenomenon, terrorism has assumed greater political saliency since the events of 9/11. Unfortunately, this greater saliency has not resulted in more effective strategies to counter the terrorist threat, the nature of which is often poorly understood. This essay describes terrorism as a method, then develops a model of what terrorist organizations look like and how they function, focusing on their evolution from hierarchical insurgent groups of the pre 9/11 era to network-like structures of today, such as al-Qaeda.
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WRITTEN BY Andrew Prosser and Sergio Bonin
Past, Present and Future
In recent years world leaders, news media and experts have warned of the global security threat from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) material and weapons. Last December, a bipartisan U.S. commission cautioned that “unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.”
1 In parallel with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is interesting to highlight the Cold War origins of many modern-day CBRN challenges. At the same time, this article explores how newer developments have been infusing additional complexity into the global CBRN threat landscape.
2
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