Mid-Week Linkage

22 January 2014, 1601 EST

Syria
New evidence of mass atrocity in Syria sets a bitter tone as peace talks kick off in Geneva.
IRC’s David Miliband in WAPO on why humanitarian issues must be a priority at Geneva. Speaking to the NYT, HRW’s Kenneth Roth concurs.
Stephen Heydman in FP on whether justice could undermine peace at Geneva.

Human Security
Locals and expatriates in Kabul commemorate the loss of Kamal Hamade, whose iconic Kabul restaurant was destroyed by a suicide bomber last week.
AidDatablog: new and improved methods for adjudicating conflicting reports on the efficacy of development aid.
Nicholas Kristof: why climate change is a neglected issue.
Hamden Rice in the Daily Kos on why our popular narrative misunderstands the real legacy of Dr. King.

AcademiGeekotica
Dan Nexon on what scholars are doing when we write about science fiction.
Nichelle Nichols on how Martin Luther King convinced her to remain on Star Trek.
At Grand Blog Tarkin Jon Jekyll analyzes why the Jedi are a uniquely poor choice to run a military. Love the citations.

Charli Carpenter is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is the author of 'Innocent Women and Children': Gender, Norms and the Protection of Civilians (Ashgate, 2006), Forgetting Children Born of War: Setting the Human Rights
Agenda in Bosnia and Beyond (Columbia, 2010), and ‘Lost’ Causes: Agenda-Setting in Global Issue Networks and the Shaping of Human Security (Cornell, 2014). Her main research interests include national security ethics, the protection of civilians, the laws of war, global agenda-setting, gender and political violence, humanitarian affairs, the role of information technology in human security, and the gap between intentions and outcomes among advocates of human security.