The Foreign Service Journal, October 2009

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9 improve resource allocations and strengthen future requests to Congress. She also expects the QDDR to high- light a comprehensive plan for devel- opment — not just foreign assistance — in an effort to further integrate USAID into State. Although the department intends to publish the results of the QDDR by 2010, the specifics of the undertaking —namely its scope, funding and com- pletion date— remain hazy. Given the cost in staff and contractors that the Defense Department incurs in its QDR, this is not an inconsequential matter. Moreover, some observers, such as Jim Thomas, vice president for studies at the Center for Strategic and Budg- etary Assessments, have voiced con- cerns that such an exercise may not, in any case, be appropriate for State be- cause the department tends to operate in a more daily, crisis-management mode than the Pentagon ( www.gov exec.com/dailyfed/0709/071509l1. htm ). To follow the QDDR process as it takes shape, watch the State Depart- ment’s blog (at http://blogs.state. gov/ ) and press releases ( www.state. gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/index.htm ). Meanwhile, at this writing there are still no candidates to lead the nation’s premier development agency. And whether USAID will be further sub- merged into the State Department, threatening the end of its development mission altogether, or become a new, more powerful institution in its own right, remains to be seen. Hope from The Hague Two cases coming out of interna- tional dispute resolution institutions based in The Hague are helping re- store faith in the conciliatory powers of world bodies. The first decision, handed down on July 13 by the United Nations Interna- tional Court of Justice, settles a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica over the San Juan River ( http://arti cle.wn.com/view/2009/07/14/UN_ International_Court_of_Justice_Af firms_Nicaraguan_Soverei/ ). The case, brought before the court in 2005 by Costa Rica, concerned issues of maritime regulation dating back to an 1858 treaty. Though the court sided in favor of Nicaraguan claims, San Jose has given every indication it accepts that decision, so the 150-year-old con- flict may finally be laid to rest. Similarly, a ruling on July 22 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the administrative organization for inter- national dispute resolution that is housed with the ICJ in The Hague’s Peace Palace, has settled a dispute over the oil-rich Sudanese region of Abyei. The issue arose in negotiating the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement be- tween northern and southern Sudanese forces ( http://news.xinhuanet.com/ C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: www.usip.org In tandem with the construction of its new headquarters, the United States In- stitute of Peace, a nonpartisan institute founded and funded by Congress for the management and resolution of conflicts and continuation of stability thereafter, has been reconstructing its Web site ( www.usip.org ) . Chief among the alterations is the addition of several impressive resources, among them an amazing aggregation called “On the Issues” ( http://origin.usip.org/ on_the_issues/ ). For instance, all of the resources and research on major hot spots collected by USIP during its 20 years of existence are now available in a subsection titled “Conflict Resources.” “On the Issues” also offers a set of transcripts discussing the background and stakes for the United States of recent developments in conflict zones. These “Ex- pert Interviews” contain some of the most succinct, reliable and informative ac- counts of recent events in Iran, Lebanon and North Korea. Currently, the coverage of issues and conflicts extends only as far back as 2007, but the project continues to expand. Given the rapid escalation of nearly all the topics covered in these expert inter- views, one might expect them to become obsolete eventually. Instead, USIP has re- acted to the pace of events by conducting interactive discussions with its experts on the institute’s Facebook pages ( www.facebook.com/pages/United-States- Institute-of-Peace/75608370019 ). It has thereby succeeded in creating one of the most consistent and informative databases on these highly contentious, fluid is- sues available anywhere on the Net. “On the Issues” is just one of the many new resources on the site. Others in- clude records of congressional testimony, peace agreements from around the world, and briefings on events and field work, as well as collections of oral histories ( www. usip.org/resources-tools/types ) . Using these links, one can quickly gain a sound general knowledge of the background and impact of any prominent issue and go into depth on it easily.