Author Archives: FFP Interns

Security Sector Reform and the Private Sector: Bringing New Voices and Skills into the VPs

BY KRISTA HENDRY The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) were developed to address the issue of oil, gas and mining companies’ association with human rights abuses in relation to the provision of security. This was – and continues to be – particularly true when these companies are operating in remote, less governed […]

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Conflict Bulletin: Rivers State – August 2013

BY NATE HAKEN* Rivers, among the largest of the oil-producing Nigerian states, had been at the heart of the Niger Delta militancy until 2009. Now it is beset with a different array of issues as former combatants have turned to criminality, and uneven economic development continues to pose a challenge to sustainable peace and human […]

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The Year of Red-Line Diplomacy

BY PATRICIA TAFT The top several tiers of the annual Failed States Index (FSI) are often occupied not only by weak and fractured states at risk for conflict, but also states that have, over the years, been the proverbial thorns in the side of the international community. Each year these chart toppers, often impervious by […]

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Failed States Index 2013: The Troubled Ten

BY J.J. MESSNER AND KENDALL LAWRENCE Though it is called the Failed States Index, that is not to say that every country on the FSI is a failed state — after all, Finland is ranked on the FSI. That is also not to say that any country on the FSI is necessarily failed — though […]

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Most Worsened Country for 2013: Mali

BY SEBASTIAN PAVLOU 2012 saw Mali’s embroilment in a series of compounding political, security and humanitarian crises. An armed conflict has broken out in northern Mali since January 16, 2012 involving several insurgent groups rebelling against the Malian government for the independence of the northern region of Azawad. Further complications arose when Malian soldiers, dissatisfied […]

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