Preventing an Iranian Bomb
Magazine article — June 2012
“Preventing an Iranian Bomb” by David Cortright, Sojourners Magazine, June 2012.
“Preventing an Iranian Bomb” by David Cortright, Sojourners Magazine, June 2012.
This report provides concrete suggestions for strengthening international counterterrorism efforts over the next decade, including three specific, costed options for a single UN counterterrorism coordinator. The report details 22 recommendations aimed at helping the United Nations to better exploit its comparative advantages in countering terrorism and to enhance the productivity of its partnerships with other counterterrorism actors, including states, regional intergovernmental bodies, nongovernment experts, and civil society.
“Failed Sanctions on Iran,” by David Cortright, Foreign Policy in Focus, 2 February 2012.
This brief, published by the Stanley Foundation, finds that input from technical experts is essential to keep those who set the agenda from putting all the attention on a narrow set of current hot spots and missing opportunities to prevent future hubs of terrorism from emerging.
This study examines the challenges of integrating Security Council sanctions with other forms of international policymaking. It proposes options for the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council, and the Secretariat to enhance implementation and coordination capabilities. It proposes the creation of a UN Sanctions Implementation Task Force, greater staff support for sanctions coordination within the Secretariat, improved guidance for cooperation between panels of experts and UN missions in the field, and greater information sharing and dissemination across all UN agencies and offices.
To help inform the UN General Assembly’s review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the Security Council’s comprehensive consideration of the mandate of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), this report details an independent strategic assessment of UN counterterrorism efforts over the two years since the Strategy and CTED were last reviewed.
This report makes the case for West African states and partners to develop counterterrorism capacities and cooperation in the subregion, using the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy as their point of departure and working closely with and through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The report is based on recommendations that emerged from a large stakeholder meeting cohosted with the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja and a series of smaller consultations in Brussels and New York.
This report provides an overview of the evolving terrorism threat in North Africa and analyzes how states in the subregion working with external partners, including the United Nations, European Union, and United States, can improve subregional counterterrorism-related cooperation. In particular, the report argues that because of its universal membership and distance from the politics of the region, the United Nations can play a unique role in catalyzing this cooperation.
“Stalemate: A Short History of Sanctions Against Iran” by Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf, Peace Policy, 26 January 2010.
Legal scholar Erika de Wet and sanctions expert David Cortright team up to analyze the core principles of international human rights law in relation to the procedures for the imposition of targeted sanctions by the UN Security Council and the European Union. They conclude that while UN and EU listing and delisting procedures have improved in recent years, they still fall short of guaranteeing fundamental legal rights.
