News

‘Getting out of our comfort zone’: Women, Peace & Security post-2015

“To make UNSCR 1325 a reality we need to get out of our comfort zone” – the frank assessment of Marriët Schuurman, NATO Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) at the start of a UNU conference on inclusive peace and the future of WPS. Her words reflected a shared sense of urgency:...
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Beyond UN 70: Sustaining Momentum for Peacekeeping & Peacebuilding Reform

The seventieth anniversary of the United Nations made 2015 a watershed year for international efforts to renew and strengthen two of the world body’s most high profile sets of activities: peacekeeping and peacebuilding....
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Tweeting with UNICEF: Dr. Keetie Roelen

Ahead of a recent UNICEF 'Tweetchat' on child social protection, Dr. Mindel van de Laar caught up with alumna Dr. Keetie Roelen, who now works for the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex in the UK. Here's what they had to say about the past, present and future of our g...
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Mygration Story: Latina Transatlantica

I was born in a country of immigrants. During the first half of the 20th century, when Europe was suffering from wars, dictatorships and economic crises, Argentina was welcoming migrants and giving them residence permits upon arrival at the port of Buenos Aires. Easy as that!...
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Mexico & Migration: Ambassador Dialogues

A conversation between Eduardo Ibarrola-Nicolín (EI), Ambassador of Mexico to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Dr. Melissa Siegel (MS), Head of the UNU-MERIT Migration Group. This interview was recorded after a public lecture on 'Migration from the Mexican State Perspective', delivered on 12 April...
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Is Hybrid Peacekeeping a Model of Success? The Case of UNAMID

The UN’s relationships with regional organisations are quickly becoming a key aspect of peacekeeping missions. These bodies are playing more assertive roles both politically and militarily, and the most prominent recent example is the United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). In 200...
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NATO Research Visit on Afghan Migration

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), the Brussels-based research arm of the North Atlantic Alliance, visited UNU-MERIT in April 2016 to speak about migratory movements from Afghanistan — specifically the regional security environment and the impacts on mobility. As migratory ...
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UNU Jargon Buster App 2.0: Unscrambling More UN Jargon

Do you know the difference between a migrant, a refugee, and an internally displaced person (IDP)? Between a special political mission and a peacekeeping operation? Between Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on Gender Equality and SDG 10 on Reduced Inequalities? The UNU Jargon Buster is a glossary...
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Peacekeeping in Cities: Is the UN Prepared?

We live in an era of dramatic urban growth. Over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and in the next 50 years this figure will increase to two thirds. Within the next 15 years, the majority of countries currently hosting peacekeeping missions will be largely urban....
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UNU Jargon Buster App 2.0: Download from 15 April 2016

‘UN peace operations need less jargon and more direction’ ran a headline in early April – just as we were testing a new version of our app, and just as we were posting a new blog in our peacekeeping series. It was virtual serendipity. The article asks if a new UN mission in Colombia should be design...
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The Role of Civil Society in Peacekeeping Missions

Conflicts are not only national or transnational, but above all local. This means that simply considering the international or national perspective in mission mandates will never be enough; policies have to be translated into concrete workable programmes at community level. So how can peacekeeping m...
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The view from Damascus with WFP

Fatai Adegboye is one of our many part-time PhD fellows who also works for another UN body — in this case the World Food Programme (WFP) in Damascus, Syria. He came to Maastricht for our unique PhD Dual Career Training Programme in Governance and Policy Analysis (GPAC²). The questions are pose...
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Women in the Syrian peace process: More than a seat at the table?

At the outset of the 2011 Syrian revolution, Syrian women played an active role in protests and grassroots mobilisation. They played leadership roles in local committees. They organised and participated in demonstrations and sit-ins. However, with the militarisation of the uprising, women have been ...
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Challenges to Peacekeeping in the 21st Century: New Series

Predicting the future is a minefield, but undoubtedly one of the toughest challenges for the new UN Secretary-General will be how to steer the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). Not only because it is one of the most expensive activities of the system, but also because it needs to reconci...
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Mygration Story: The Girl from Hiroshima

When people ask me where I come from, my thoughts inevitably take me way back in time to the early 1930s and to a place on the other side of the globe, the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This is where my story starts. During those years of economic crisis, tens of thousands of Japanese people, includin...
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Competition for Talent in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine

A recent news article focused on the UNU-MERIT Master’s thesis ‘Competition for Talent: Retaining Graduates in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine’ by Julia Reinold.  The article looked at the advantages and disadvantages of living in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR): the tri-national crossroads ...
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5 Years Since Fukushima: Bearing the Brunt of Foreign Nuclear Risk

Five years on from the Great East Japan tsunami and the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, we revisit an article by Prof. Luc Soete, our founding director. Does Europe face similar nuclear risks? Recent developments in Belgium do not bode well. ••• On 11 March 2011, I was attending a conference in Bruss...
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Students ‘Solving’ Climate Change: NASPAA Simulation 2016

Climate change is one of the most pressing global challenges for the international community. Linked to a growing list of natural disasters – from droughts and desertification to floods and melting ice caps – climate change poses an existential threat to all of humanity. Against this backdrop, a coo...
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The endless road to equality? International Women’s Day 2016

Every March 8th the international community honours women for their many and various achievements in the struggle for gender equality. For centuries women’s movements have fought for the rights and freedoms of women and girls – but not in a zero-sum game. Already in 1792 British author and activist ...
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Mygration Story: ‘Dumb Polack’ to a PhD

As a migration researcher as well as a first-generation migrant descended of migrants, mobility has been a major feature of my adult life. I find it difficult to separate my own migration story from that of my ancestors because it is precisely their decisions and trajectories that enabled my own....
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