THE HILL 08/09/12 By Michael Shank On the heels of the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin, the U.S. Department of Education is hosting its Third Annual Bullying Prevention Summit this week, which is fortuitously timed and desperately needed. Without question, the Sikh temple shooter, Wade Michael Page, a self-proclaimed skinhead, […]
THE HILL 06/22/12 By Michael Shank When it comes to making the world more peaceful, how do we know what we want or what we don’t want? Do we simply want less violence? Or are we working to build the attitudes, institutions and structures that lead to more peaceful societies? […]
LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE 06/20/12 On June 20, 2012, the Embassy of France hosted a conference organized by the French-American Global Forum (FAGF), the Maison Française and the Monde Diplomatique newspaper about the current state of the United Nations. The event was part of a series called “Le Monde Diplomatique Debates” […]
UNITED NATIONS 06/14/12 The cost of the economic impact of violence on the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the last years was $9 trillion dollars, Michael Shank, Vice-President of the Institute for Economics and Peace, told correspondents today at Headquarters. Mr. Shank, who was addressing a press conference […]
ALL AFRICA 06/12/12 By Stephen Kaufman Washington – Would political and economic leaders work harder for peace if they saw that it not only has economic benefits, but it also helps societies recover faster from a crisis?The international nonprofit organization Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which rates global levels […]
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 05/31/12 By Michael Shank and U.S. Representative Michael Honda (D-CA) With NATO’s meeting in Chicago two weekends ago building consensus on critical next steps vis-a-vis anticipated withdrawals and deadlines, discussion of the development agenda post-withdrawal in Afghanistan must not slip from our radar screen. The […]
THE NEW AMERICAN 05/30/12 By Joe Wolverton, II In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a serpent-like beast that possessed many heads. Perhaps the most frightening quality of this fearsome amphibian was the fact that for each head that was cut off two grew in its place and the breath from […]
ROLL CALL 05/23/12 By Michael Shank Recent Istanbul negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 and this week’s Baghdad negotiations have tempered, albeit temporarily, the cry for war. It was close under President George W. Bush, who rallied regime-changers to invade, but it is worse now. The Pentagon publicly prepares plans, […]
RUSSIA TODAY 05/22/12 Reauthorizing the indefinite detention of US citizens without charge might be the scariest provision in next year’s defense spending bill, but it certainly isn’t the only one worth worrying about. An amendment tagged on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 would allow for the […]
BUZZFEED 05/18/12 By Michael Hastings An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned. The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, […]