April 2005 - Yugoslavia's dramatic dissolution provoked an outpouring of scholarly, journalistic and autobiographical commentary throughout the 1990s, and it was only with the end of major bloodshed and the departure of the primary villain(s) from the scene at the start of the new millennium that the Balkans receded from the center of the public eye. Yet now that the dust has settled, it is appropriate to ask whether or not we have learned anything from the events of that decade. In particular, what caused a once-functioning and respected state to disintegrate, and to disintegrate as violently as it did, and are there any inferences we can make about the management of sectarian strife in other multinational polities—including the entities that once made up pre-1990 Yugoslavia? more

The Mexican facilitator in the ELN peace talks, Ambassador Andrés Valencia, spoke at an off-the-record session at the Woodrow Wilson Center on June 21, 2005. The document that follows was authorized and cleared by Mexican authorities; it constitutes Ambassador Valencia's first-hand account of the attempt to arrange a meeting on Mexican soil between ELN military leaders and the Mexican facilitating team, an attempt that, after many months, ended in failure. more

Excerpts from recent official statements in which environmental issues are cited in the context of security institutions and national interests, and reviews by experts of new publications. more

Section 7 reflects on the prospect for environmental cooperation and peacemaking in this and other regions of conflict. more