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Welcome to the ISN, Oilprice.com!
New York. The 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is underway at the UN Headquarters. Hundreds of representatives from states, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations have come together on the banks of the East River to discuss the regime that governs the containment of nuclear weapons on the one hand and the promotion of civil nuclear energy on the other hand.
Zurich. The International Relations and Security Network (ISN) presents hundreds of news articles, policy briefs, scholarly publications, weblinks and primary resources on the NPT and related topics. A few highlights:
The global transport industry plays a crucial role in conflict economies. Ethical Cargo, a new information portal by one of our partners, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), sheds light on this role and helps donors to choose the right companies when giving out contracts.
An earlier study by SIPRI showed that 90 percent of air transport companies engaged in weapons, drugs or precious minerals trafficking have also received contracts to deliver humanitarian aid or peacekeeping equipment.
“Air transportation has played a key role in fuelling the war economies that have devastated much of Africa in recent decades,” Hugh Griffiths and Mark Bromley write in their paper. They urge the EU and its member states to “deny humanitarian aid, peace support, stability operations and defence logistics supply chain contracts to air transport companies engaged in destabilizing or illicit commodity flows, in particular the transfer of SALW [small arms and light weapons].”
To support this, Ethical Cargo was launched, namely to help the “humanitarian aid and peace-support communities implement effective conflict-sensitive logistics and ethical transportation policies.” The website offers an emergency 24-hour hotline, a database, model codes of conduct, best practices and contract negotiation techniques.
People working for organizations engaged in humanitarian aid or peace-support can register and use the services freely.
If you think librarians are old-fashioned people dressed in checkered shirts, I tell you: they’re not. At least not those attending the 11th InetBib Conference.
I entered an auditorium populated by people sitting with computers on their laps, listening, thinking and twittering about the future of libraries. Encouraged by an atmosphere of open discussion and criticism, participants would, from time to time, raise their voice and challenge the presenter’s views.
For the session I attended this morning, the organizers invited five people to give five-minute presentations on technological trends that might influence the future of libraries. “Let’s look into the crystal ball,” Patrick Danowski, the moderator, said. Fittingly, his introductory talk was entitled “Library Trend Watch”.
Dr. Rudolf Mumenthaler from ETH Library, talked about the future of e-readers. He argued that only multifunctional tablets such as iPad will become popular, with classic e-book readers remaining a niche product. It is the libraries’ job to provide their users with electronic content, on which they could cooperate with publishers.
Christian Hauschke from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hannover, talked about Linked Open Data. He called on libraries to open access to their bibliographical information and follow the four principles of linked data.
Andreas Kahl introduced us to Google Wave, an open-source collaboration tool currently under development. Wave would allow librarians to log themselves into the work process of students and make suggestions like: Have you considered this source? At the same time, Google Wave allows users to delegate certain processes to the machine, such as including biographical references.
“The chaos provides a unique opportunity for the superpower trio to cooperate” writes Dr John CK Daly in a commentary for ISN Security Watch, referring to China, Russia and the US, which all have their stakes in Kyrgyzstan. Domestically, the self-proclaimed interim government lead by Roza Otunbayeva and its successors are likely to face a revolution in 2015 again, unless they meet the people’s demands for justice and fiscal relief, predicts Dr Daly.
With the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) and the Social Research Center (SRC), the ISN has two partner organizations based in Bishkek that focus their research on Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. Further ISN partners covering the region include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and EurasiaNet.
The ISN also supports the Russian and Eurasian Security Network (RES), a global initiative by leading academic institutes, think tanks, NGOs and media organizations. RES provides the framework for studies of security-related developments in Russia and the states of the Eurasian region, including Kyrgyzstan.
Finally, our Digital Library offers hundreds of publications, news articles, weblinks and primary resources on the country. Now it’s up to you to get informed.