Achieving and maintaining democracy—“government of the people, by the people, for the people”[i]–is an ongoing challenge.

Perhaps President Lincoln had no alternative to preserving the Union than to wage war, but the wounds of that deadly conflict can still be felt today.

Where are the models for better ways of resolving disputes, righting wrongs, and pursuing democratic institutions?

Our nomination, in honor of this year’s United Nations…

• The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released a new report discussing the threat of the terrorist group Lashkare-Taiba (LeT) in South Asia. The report suggests that the group is the second most dangerous terrorist group in the region, after al-Qaeda.
• The United States named…

• Two NATO soldiers were reportedly shot dead in southern Afghanistan by two Afghans, including a man believed to be a soldier on Thursday. On Friday, the country’s top religious council…

• US Secretary of State Clinton announced she had a “constructive discussion” of common concerns with her counterpart in Pakistan on Thursday; new details about American drone strikes were revealed by Reuters; Pakistani jets…

• President Karzai of Afghanistan confronted the Pakistani leadership on Thursday during a visit to Islamabad, accusing Pakistani officials of harbouring the Taliban; he also was quoted as saying there were secret contacts between the US, Afghan governments and the Taliban, and that the…

• A criminal court on the island nation of the Maldives issued an arrest warrant for the first democratically-elected President, Mohammed Nasheed, who awaited arrest in his home on Thursday, following last week’s alleged coup attempt. The ousted President…

• Officials in China clamed separatist plots to attack police and public buildings for clashes that recently led to Tibetan deaths on Wednesday; while residents of a small southern village held a symbolic election that…

• Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Myanmar/Burma and its army of continuing a “systematic repression” of citizens, including the use of anti-personnel landmines, child soldiers, forced labour, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and the use of human shields, despite the government’s promise of reform and ceasefire agreements with some ethnic armed…

In the Straits Times (Singapore) this week I co-authored an op-ed with Bridget Welsh on the release of political prisoners in Myanmar, http://www.scribd.com/doc/78503117/Myanmar-s-Road-to-Democracy

• Relatives of inmates on a hunger strike in Kyrgyzstanpicketed a pretrial detention centre on Wednesday to demand their relatives’ demands be met. The protesters are calling upon reviews for the inmates’ cases, who they claim have been sentenced for crimes they didn’t commit. On Tuesday, the Kyrgyz Parliament…

• A US citizen was jailed by authorities in Thailand for translating excerpts of a locally banned biography of the King and posting them online. On Friday, the former PM was being questioned by police in connection with a deadly military crackdown on the “Red Shirt” mass opposition protests that…

World

• Are women in war-torn countries faring any better today than they did a decade ago? The UNFPA's 2010 State of World Population report, released on Wednesday attempted to answer this question inconclusively. The report suggests taking a broader look at the relationships between women and conflict, paying special attention to the…

World

• The UN will be having its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit in New York city from the 20th to the 22nd of September. They are looking to accelerate the progress towards the MDGs by 2015, review successes, best practices and lessons learned, obstacles and gaps, challenges and opportunities to lead to more “concrete strategies of action”.
• A new…

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the qualities of deeds. ~Elie Wiesel

In starting up how-matters.org, I’ve entered into a new relationship. As in all new…

World

• The New Economics Foundation found that the earth is using up resources faster than ever. The study monitors nature’s capital and concluded that this year the earth was using up its own natural
  
  resources to support itself a full month earlier than in the previous
  
  year.
• August 19th was World Humanitarian Day. The…

This week in conflict...

World

• The world's twenty richest nations will be footing an $83 million (USD) bill for three new man-made "floating islands" in Seoul for the upcoming G20. The November meetings will be assisted by apparently
  
  more than 400,000 police.

Africa

• Rwanda's election process saw…

Human Rights Watch recently released their latest Human Rights Watch Report for 2010.

As I read through the list of countries profiled in the report, I found myself disappointed that Canada, the UK, Australia or any Western European countries had not made…