STWR - Share The World's Resources

Social movements come and go, represent all manner of political beliefs, and aim to achieve their political objectives by influencing a particular target group’s opinion. Some groups reach out directly to just a few key decision makers or constituencies, while others act more indirectly by broadcasting their message to as wide an audience as possible.

The following is excerpted from an acceptance speech at the Outstanding Public Scholar Award Panel, International Studies Association, 49th Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, March 27, 2008. Bello was the second recipient of the award, the first being Dr. Susan George in 2007. 

What has happened to the movement against the war that exploded in 2003, mobilizing millions of people in the entire West, to the point that the New York Times called it "the second superpower"? The fact is that it never was, in the true and proper sense of the word, a movement -- only a day of paroxysm, a spontaneous and desperate attempt of citizens of all political persuasions to stop the war.

At the behest of its member governments, the United Nations keeps taking on new and increasingly complex peacekeeping challenges, including in conflict-ridden places like Darfur, Haiti, Lebanon, and East Timor. The projected budget for these efforts for the July 2007 to June 2008 period is running to $7 billion—the largest cost ever by far, and substantially higher than the record $5.6 billion spent in 2006–07. Yet U.N. peacekeeping operations remain a study in contradictions.

During its first session – from 4 October till late in the evening of 21 December 2007 - the Fifth Committee had the arduous task of reaching agreement on the UN’s programme budget for 2008/2009. There has been a clear understanding since 1986 among Member States, that the budget would be adopted by consensus. This time, however - at the request of the US - a recorded vote had to be taken on the budget by the General Assembly on Saturday 22 December.

The CEOs of three-quarters of the world's 100 largest companies have just completed an uncomfortable weekend at the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos, while their companies' share prices nosedived on global stock markets, amid concern that the U.S. economy was staggering towards recession.

Mahatma Gandhi is widely recognised as one of the most original and influential political thinkers and activists of the 20th century, yet he remains an elusive figure. He never wrote a comprehensive and systematic political or philosophical work in the mode of Thomas Hobbes or Hegel, and the pamphlets and books he did write are extremely diverse in topic: they include criticisms of modern civilisation, the place of religion in human life, the meaning of non-violence, social and economic programmes and even health issues.