The Conference for Global Development Cooperation, convened by former President Jimmy Carter and United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was held at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia on December 4 and 5, 1992.
Topic:
Economics, Government, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, and Third World
The meeting in Alma Ata of the Commission on Radio and Television Policy marked a new and important stage in the collaboration between the United States and the former Soviet Union. I was proud to serve as co-chairman, together with Eduard Sagalaev. The Commission now has been enlarged to include the major television stations of newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union and the head of an organization of independent stations. It is a unique body.
Robert Pastor, Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Program at The Carter Center and Executive Secretary of the Council, opened the conference with a reference to Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz who once said, "A nation without free elections is a nation without a voice, without eyes, and without ears." Pastor noted that the right to free and fair elections is a universal right enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Charter of the Organization of American States. In the spirit of honoring that right, the Council was formed in 1986 to lend support and assistance to the democratization movement in the Americas.
Within a single year, two events unprecedented in the history of the United States shook the nation's confidence in itself as the moral leader of the Free World. In August 1974, the president resigned under a pall of scandal, and eight months later, the United States suffered the humiliation of military defeat as it watched the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam fold the American flag under his arm and flee his post by helicopter.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
United States, Vietnam, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America
In the two years that have elapsed since The Carter Center hosted "Investigating Abuses and Introducing Human Rights Safeguards in the Democratization Process," the issues we discussed then have become even more pivotal as our views of governance and the rights of individuals and of state sovereignty itself are being fundamentally transformed. It was our view that, although the Center did not previously publish the seminar proceedings, making them available at this time would serve to further inform those who are working in this field by providing insightful observations by many human rights activists, journalists, and academicians who were involved directly in political transitions in their own countries and by others who studied these events from the outside.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, Human Rights, and International Cooperation
For several years The Carter Center of Emory University's (CCEU) Conflict Resolution Program has been engaged in developing an International Negotiation Network (INN) to alleviate the tremendous suffering resulting from intranational conflicts. Our efforts have led to the convening of direct negotiation between warring parties engaged in prolonged conflicts. We have been involved in activities advancing free elections and elections monitoring where such efforts have helped to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power in previously conflict-burdened countries. We have been involved in quiet, back-channel linkages of disputing parties and resources available to them. Some of our efforts have received widespread media coverage. However, the vast majority of our work has not been widely known.
This report is a summary of the inaugural consultation of the International Negotiation Network (INN), held at The Carter Center of Emory University CCEU), in Atlanta, Georgia, January 14-17, 1992. The consultation brought together over 200 invited guests from 40 countries and more than 150 organizations or governments. It was made possible through the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and shaped in part by that foundation's president, David Hamburg, who has served as one of the INN's advisors.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and Sovereignty
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the U.S. Congress became very concerned about the increasing role played by the President in foreign affairs. On November 7, 1973, and as a mechanism to diminish the power achieved by the Chief Executive in international matters, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution (WPR) over Richard Nixon's veto. The basic aim of the law was to prevent the President from unilaterally introducing the armed forces abroad without congressional authorization. In so doing, Congress sought "to fulfill the intent of the framers of the American Constitution."
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Government
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
This paper examines the increase in the political salience of ethnicity in the postcommunist period in Czechoslovakia. as in several other postcommunist states, ethnic issues dominated the political agenda in the first two years after the collapse of the communist system and led to the negotiated breakup of the federation. Differences regarding reform led to a series of political crises in 1990 and 1992. Symbolic issues also contributed to the conflict. Political leaders played an important role in increasing the political salience of ethnicity during this period. Their ability to channel the dissatisfaction and uncertainty that accompanied the economic and political changes underway to mobilize support for ethnic aims reflect the fact that Czechs and Slovaks differ in their attitudes toward many important economic and political issues. These differences, in turn, reflect the influence of each people's history, levels of economic development, the legacy of the communist period, and the distinct ways in which the transition to the market affects each region.
Topic:
Politics, Economy, Ethnicity, Post-Soviet Space, and Post-Communism
The first meeting of the Commission on Television Policy culminated a project that began with basic research on the impact of television on the electoral process in many countries. From this research, a Working Group developed a document presenting a wide range of options and trade-offs in broadcast practice and rules worldwide. With this reference document, Commissioners from the United States and the independent states from the territory of the former Soviet Union began their discussions at The Carter Center on November 15 and 16, 1991.