The InterDependent

When UN historians look back at 2011, they may well remember it as the year of R2P—diplomatic parlance for the “Responsibility to Protect.” All states, the decade-old doctrine argues, are obligated to protect their citizens. Should they fail—whether out of inability or by design—the international community must step in.

In April, New Scientist magazine asked a provocative question: “There were supposed to be 50 million climate refugees by 2010, so where are they?”

The environmentalist who made that prediction in 1995, Norman Myers, responded by saying, “It may be very difficult to demonstrate that there are 50 million climate refugees, but it is even harder to demonstrate that there are not.”

After nearly 20 years of state failure and conflict, the Democratic Republic of Congo has become a difficult place in which to be healthy. Life expectancy is only in the early 40s for both men and women; 1 in 13 women dies in childbirth; and 1 in 5 children does not survive to its fifth birthday.

In recent legislation, two U.S. House of Representative committees have mounted an intense campaign against American aid for family planning internationally. Valerie DeFillipo has been on the front lines of this battle for more than three decades and in July she was named president of Americans for UNFPA, a nongovernmental citizens’ support group for the United Nations Population Fund.