Social Science Research Council

I’m curious about the new film called Darfur Now, which features among others Don Cheadle, the star of the movie Hotel Rwanda. Has anyone seen it and if so, what will it do for the cause?

The last few weeks have seen the first significant armed hostilities between the Sudan government and rebel forces since October 2006. What is the significance of this?
The latest round of fighting began with a joint JEM/SLA-Unity military operation in Adila, south-east Darfur, which was followed by a rebel incursion into Kordofan and an army/airforce attack [...]

In the coming year, Kordofan is at serious risk of large scale violence—and any such violence could have disastrous ramifications for the whole of Sudan. Here’s why.
The central political issues in Sudan today are the 2009 general elections and the 2011 referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan. If either of these were to fail, the [...]

Today, Julie Flint and I had an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. Though it was headlined “In Darfur, From Genocide to Anarchy,” we would have preferred “Darfur: Simple, It Isn’t.” I’ve included the full text here and invite your comments.

The exchanges on this blog on the issue of mortality in Darfur have been refreshingly sober. Let me add some further observations, on culpability for famine deaths, what constitutes a “normal” death rate, and on staying objective amidst powerful moral considerations.
One: Famine Crimes
First, are all the deaths in Darfur the criminal responsibility of the Sudan [...]

Posted on behalf of Timur Goksel. Timur Goksel served first as the official spokesman and then as the senior advisor of UNIFIL between 1979-2003. He now consults on conflict and peacekeeping and teaches the same at American University of Beirut.

I am sure the hybrid UN-AU mission in Darfur created by Security Council Resolution 1769 [...]

For my fuller analysis of the challenges to the Darfur peace process after the Arusha meeting, see my analysis posted in the CSIS online Africa policy forum.

How many people have died in Darfur and what is the value of this information? The recent ruling by the British Advertising Standards Authority that Save Darfur was guilty of misrepresenting the figure of 400,000 deaths as "fact" rather than, in its view, as "opinion," has ignited a controversy that has long haunted advocacy around [...]

*Posted on behalf of an anonymous contributor.

How one chooses which "mistakes" or precursors to learn from reveals what one believes is necessary to know in order to change the current crisis. Searching for catharsis, too many analysts have chased the most dramatic examples available. The tragedy then becomes truly Hegelian, when the desire to ring the alarm bells and stem violence comes into conflict with a willingness to pay attention to what is actually happening.

(The following essay is posted on behalf of Selma Scheewe. The author based this essay on her Thesis titled “Sexual Violence and HIV/AIDS in Conflict-ridden Darfur”, at the University of Groningen.)
Introduction
Sexual violence is a prominent aspect of many recent conflicts. In the media and the reports of humanitarian agencies, this sexual violence is often linked [...]