Sudan

The U.N. resolution, adopted in December, identifies young people as critical partners for peace. It aims to counter a frequent narrative that defines young men as perpetrators of violence and young women as victims. In this discussion, policymakers, civil society organizations, and youth leaders will explore solutions that support youth leadership in peace and security efforts.

The Horn of Africa has experienced both advances and setbacks in recent years. In South Sudan, the hope following independence has been tarnished by the outbreak of war and the troubled peace process. In Somalia, al-Shabab and rising malnutrition slows progress on state building. And Eritreans fleeing their country’s oppression accounted for the third-largest group of refugees entering Europe last year, after Syria and Afghanistan. Across the Horn of Africa, corruption, militarization and military patronage undermine regional stability and sustainable peace..

With a foreword by the Dalai Lama, the book collects interviews with 80 ordinary citizens – a taxi driver, a nun, a machinery worker, a mother -- from conflict zones all over the world. Their accounts illuminate the intensely personal experience of war, the uncertain transition to peace, and the aspirations that survive despite it all.

In Hong Kong and Malaysia, Ukraine and Egypt, Brazil, Venezuela and elsewhere, throngs of citizenry  have challenged their governments over corruption, political repression, discrimination, and other scourges.

Home to burgeoning economies and brutal civil conflicts – sometimes coexisting in the same country – Africa is increasingly prominent in the foreign policy agendas of world powers. In early August, President Obama will convene most of the heads of state of the 54 nations of Africa in Washington, D.C. for the first-ever summit between U.S. and African leaders. There will be no shortage of issues to discuss, from how to harness Africa's economic growth and lift large sections of its population out of poverty, to growing trade between the U.S.

Sudan faces a daunting mix of political, economic and security challenges, all of which are likely to intensify as elections -- scheduled for 2015 -- grow near and President Bashir’s term concludes. The potential shift creates opportunities for new political arrangements, possibly including drafting a new constitution. There's also an imperative to end the conflicts in Sudan's west and south.

Water is an undeniable, un-substitutable, and powerful factor in everyone’s life, from sustaining individual lives to defining both economic and social policies and practices. As populations and demand expand while supplies decline, access to water will become increasingly difficult, raising the prospects for conflict over this precious resource. By 2025, experts estimated that 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions of absolute water scarcity.