Social Science Research Council

In small, brightly lit room, with only one table in the centre and few chairs as its furniture, sat Neo in front of Agent Smith who was lecturing him on “the need to collaborate in bringing a known terrorist and criminal (Morpheus) to justice”, and in return, Neo’s criminal records as internet hacker will be [...]

The U.S. Sudan strategy is now published. After seven months of often public acrimony, the Administration has adopted its policy.
One of the major benefits of Monday’s step was that, for the first time for several years, the Sudanese parties have a clear idea of the U.S. position, including clarity who speaks for the government [...]

Bec Hamilton has run a series of posts on her blog based on her recent trip to Darfur with U.S. Special Envoy General Scott Gration. They provide an interesting, and much more nuanced, view on Gration’s efforts, than much media coverage, and also the response of the lobbies in Washington. Bec concludes that Stephanie McCrummen’s [...]

Are there any hopes for a Sudan peace brokered by the U.S? A focus on the historically hostile trio of Sudan: Susan Rice, Roger Winter, and John Prendergast gives us the answer for what will happen if their views prevail.
Reading the Washington Post interview with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N, Ms Susan Rice on Tuesday, [...]

It seems the White House and the Obama administration has made the African continent the focus of their P.R. campaign this summer. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will soon begin her seven-country tour of Africa. This comes on the heels of President Barack Obama’s speech in Ghana earlier this summer; the aim of both tours [...]

The Save Darfur Coalition, in one of its circular emails, has again given us an opportunity–in this case to urge U.S. senators to ask questions of Special Envoy Scott Gration. The draft letter is entitled “Ask tough questions of General Gration.” As Save Darfur helpfully gives us the opportunity to edit the letter, I have [...]

Peacemaking is an art—but increasingly we can apply sound measurements to rate a mediator’s efforts. In the run-up to the long-awaited announcement of the U.S. policy on Sudan, I will use a paper by Lakhdar Brahimi and Salman Ahmed, “In Pursuit of Sustainable Peace: The Seven Deadly Sins of Mediation,” to outline some of the [...]

Over the past twelve years, the U.S. has put forth a confusing array of legislation to impose economic sanctions on Sudan. Horrified initially by the Sudan government’s early support for international terrorism and, later, its behavior in Darfur, yet aiming to support the signed peace agreements, US policymakers have enacted a disconnected series of measures [...]

Today, The New Republic opens an online debate including Richard Just (the editor), Alan Wolfe, Eric Reeves, Elizabeth Rubin, and myself, on the question of what the new U.S. Administration’s policy should be on Darfur. The debate will last several days and can be accessed here.

As President-elect Barack Obama puts together his administration, he will be seeking to avoid many of the errors of his predecessor. But he should also learn the lessons of the 1990s, when the last Democratic Administration first began to focus on Sudan, at that time in the context of terrorism and the war between Khartoum [...]