US and Israel push to end UN peacekeeping mandate in south Lebanon risks regional chaos
UN peacekeeping opposite the occupied Shebaa Farms, 2025. Credit: Shutterstock
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) is seen by many as an essential peacekeeping buffer between Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah. But Israeli pressure, US doubts over Unifil’s cost-effectiveness and the fragile state of Lebanon’s politics means there is a risk that instead of being renewed on August 31 the mission could be ended. The stakes are high: an abrupt withdrawal could create a dangerous security vacuum along the Israeli-Lebanese border and this could have broader implications for stability in the Middle East. The US is keen to reduce its financial commitments to UN peacekeeping, with Washington arguing that expensive and longstanding missions should be downsized or wound down to cut costs. This makes it more receptive to Israeli insistence that the mission has been ineffective in addressing the existential threat posed by Hezbollah.
Read the full article on the website of our partner, The Conversation.
Imaginary Anthropology and Militia Regime during the Western Intervention in Afghanistan
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Nuclear memories for the future, 80 years after Hiroshima & Nagasaki
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Professor Benoît Pélopidas, founder of the Nuclear Knowledges programme is one of the keynote speakers of the Nobel Peace Conference 2025, to take place on 6 August in Oslo, Norway.
The Nobel Peace Conference 2025 celebrates Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nihon Hidankyo’s work for a world free of nuclear weapons. The same day, the world marks 80 years since the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With the testimonies of the survivors as a backdrop, and in a time of international tension, we discuss today’s nuclear threat and look at solutions which strengthen the work to ensure that these weapons are never used again.
Visit the conference programme and list of speakers.
This conference is the occasion to announce the recent publication of the Open Access article, "Nuclear memories for the future: Gaps and forgetting in European publics’ understandings of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki", by Sterre van Buuren, Benoît Pélopidas and Alexander Sorg.
On the issue on luck and nuclear weapons, we invite you to view the video presentation by Prof. Benoît Pélopidas
The full ERC final conference "Nuclear Weapons Choices - Governing Vulnerabilities between Past and Present" is also available online.
Cover image: A post-war model of 'Little Boy', the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945
Understanding our Times
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