Democratic Republic of Congo

Are ‘forever wars’ forever?

/ Dan Smith / 1 Comment

A new concept has emerged to haunt us – the forever war.

It’s just one aspect of the bleak global picture today: more armed conflicts than at any time since the second World War; higher military spending than at any time ever; a new nuclear arms race getting under way; ecological crisis on a scale never experienced before in human history.

And the further problem is the apparent incapacity of our international institutions to address these challenges properly, combined with the melange of ambition and dunder-headedness of key political leaders that actively make things worse. 

But is ‘forever war’ the right term?

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The worries of a peace researcher

/ Dan Smith / 1 Comment

“How easy is it to talk about peace and disarmament today when the world is busy rearming?”

That’s the question that Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s biggest selling daily paper, asked itself, its readers and me in a recent article. About me, it said, “SIPRI’s director says he is a born optimist, but when DN meets him, he describes the world in black and dark grey.”

And yet at the end, the reporter, Ewa Stenberg, managed to find some light amid the dark.

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Peace agreement on DR Congo

/ Dan Smith / Leave a comment

Today, Sunday 24 February, the heads of state of eleven countries have signed a peace and security agreement addressing the conflicts in and around eastern Congo. It’s a potentially important step – but it’s the start of a long process, not the end of it.

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