Since the creation of the Ken and Darcy Bacon Center for the Study of Climate Displacement, I’ve thought about how displacement caused by climate change fits with the long-term focus of Refugees International -- to advocate for solutions to displacement crises caused by conflicts. 

Refugees International was back on Capitol Hill yesterday, as Peacekeeping Advocate Erin Weir testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the challenges currently facing peacekeeping and possible improvements to the operations, said committee chairman Rep. Howard Berman. A distinguished group of witnesses gathered for the hearing, including Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr.

Las Vegas doesn’t seem a likely place for an event focused on the atrocities in a remote region of Sudan. And yet, the Ante Up for Africa tournament held yesterday in Las Vegas brought out hundreds of people -- celebrities, poker players, media and spectators – with the sole purpose of raising awareness and funding to end the crisis in Darfur and other conflicts in Africa.

When my colleague Erin Weir and I visited refugee camps in eastern Chad this past May, we heard repeated concerns of child recruitment by armed groups, including both rebel groups and the Chadian National forces.  This was a particular issue in the Oure Cassoni camp near Bahai.

Oure Cassoni lies very close to the border with Sudan, a fact that has long worried many of the organizations that work there, since it has led to problems within the camp related to the presence of armed groups – in particular, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). 

Two years ago I tried to visit Darfur to conduct an assessment mission with Refugees International, but was blocked from traveling there by the government of Sudan.  Now, on the other side of the border in eastern Chad, I’m finally getting a chance to speak with people from Darfur, forced to flee their homes because of the conflict in the western part of Sudan.

I am writing from Bahai, a village in eastern Chad right on the border with Darfur. Camilla Olson and I have trekked all the way out here, to what may be the most remote place I have ever visited, to understand the dynamics that make humanitarian assistance so hard to deliver. 

In the midst of the Obama administration's policy review on Afghanistan a new word was born: Afpak, meaning Afghanistan and Pakistan. Strategists want to encourage the executors of strategy and policy to think of Afghanistan and Pakistan as a unified theater of operations. The border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan demands a unified approach if NATO and the U.S. are to defeat the Taliban.  So, Afpak it is.