The InterDependent

At least 250,000 people die each year in armed conflicts – mostly related to intrastate violence, even as the number of civil wars has decreased since the mid-1990s. A story exists behind every one of the battles and those who suffer and are killed in them.

The Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Governance Monitor free online tool (www.cfr.org) has added the thorny subject of militarized conflicts to its roster of international problems, offering a one-stop venue for concise information on the major conflicts themselves and how the United Nations and other international organizations are addressing these threats to peace.

Micah Zenko, the council’s fellow for conflict prevention, said that the topic was chosen because violence is still used as a means to reach political goals. Cote d'Ivoire and Libya are recent examples of intrastate parties' reliance on use of weapons to gain the upper hand.

Armed conflict joins the monitor’s five others: climate change, oceans, public health, nuclear proliferation and finance. A grant from the Robina Foundation in Minnesota paid for the monitor program, which started in 2009 with the topic of nuclear proliferation. The audience for the tool includes foreign-policy experts, the media and foreign governments, said Stewart Patrick, the director of the council’s International Institutions and Global Governance program, which produces the monitor.

As with all the monitor’s issues, the newest material is explored through an interactive map, which details violent conflicts and the agencies working to lessen the hostility; a video on the obstacles to achieving peace; a 200-year interactive timeline on initiatives to mitigate violence; briefs on the status of conflict prevention and international responses; a matrix cataloging relevant international agreements; and a resource list. The texts are written by council staff and updated every three weeks or when breaking news occurs.

Joe Penney

The United Nations and other international organizations helped Guinea run its first democratic presidential election in 52 years last fall, amid sporadic violence. Here, Guinean soldiers during the election period.

The seven-minute video, produced with MediaStorm, a Brooklyn, N.Y., studio, provides a clear narrative and vivid photos on the physical and economic effects of intrastate wars, the importance of deterring them, United Nations peacekeepers’ roles and struggles, failed efforts to avoid genocide and how conflicts undermine a region’s stability. Clips of speeches by such leaders as U.S. President Barack Obama, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Óscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and a Nobel Prize winner for peace, enhance the presentation.

The four-part timeline starts with a segment from 1814-1945 on preventing interstate wars; it then moves to shaping the UN, the world’s foremost postwar institution on ensuring peace; the end of the cold war; and wars in the 21st century.

A color-coded atlas marks UN peacekeeping operations by the Top 10 military and police contributing countries and the Top 10 providers to the UN peacekeeping budget.

The issue brief addresses the scope of the challenges in preventing conflicts, as well as U.S. and international policy matters, recent developments and policy recommendations. The matrix catalogs UN and other core documents (Security Council resolutions, for example), international organizations, UN missions and conflict-prevention initiatives. Resources offer a list of Council on Foreign Relations experts, books and other recommended reading.

The council, which began in 1921, is a nonpartisan organization of about 4,500 elected members, including government officials, academics, business leaders and journalists.