ANNUAL REPORT 1999

TNI

July 2005

The year 1999 marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of TNI, celebrated at the "At the Edge Festival of Ideas" held in Amsterdam in November. The Festival served both as a reunion and as a renewal of TNI, bringing together the generation that helped establish TNI in the 1970s and a new generation of activist-scholars on whose shoulders the future of the Institute will rest in the decades to come. Over 350 people from all continents of the world came together to reflect on some of the key international political questions of the day.

The year marked a turning point on so many fronts. On the global economic front, it was the year of the Millennial Summit of the World Trade Organisation, the unprecedented revolt by the Global South against domination by the world's most powerful economies, and the Siege of Seattle, when tens of thousands of people all over the world mobilised against corporate-led globalisation, thereby publicly launching a new international movement for global economic democracy and justice. On the peace and security front, it was the year of NATO's first war – in Yugoslavia over Kosovo, which overturned the hitherto internationally agreed principle of national sovereignty on the grounds of humanitarian intervention, while at the same time undermining the authority of the UN Security Council and thus threatening the post-World War II multilateral regime for securing world peace. At the same time, 1999 saw the biggest-ever international peace conference convened under the umbrella of the civil society-led Hague Appeal for Peace. On the international legal front, the case against Pinochet brought by Spain and other countries revolutionised the practice of applying international law and opened up new possibilities for upholding international human rights principles. Some of the fellows and other associates in the network were actively involved in organising the campaigns and events mentioned above. Others provided much needed analyses and forward-looking propositions in service of the movements that came together around these and other matters.

The above were just some of the issues the TNI community as a whole concerned itself with in 1999. Ongoing work of long-term projects included countering the War on Drugs, with a specific focus on the impact on peace, human rights and the environment in Colombia and the development of harm reduction policies to counter illicit drugs production; the exploration and promotion of new Nuclear Weapon Free Zones, as one incremental means of sustaining the nuclear disarmament momentum; and people-centred approaches to future Asia-Europe relations, with a particular emphasis on trade, development and human security issues.

New projects initiated in 1999 included a focus on climate justice issues, looking at North-South issues with regards to the direction of climate change negotiations and the energy and development nexus in the South; popular participatory democracy and new perspectives on the state, political party, civil society inter-relationships; regional integration and development as an alternative to globalisation; and prospects for international human rights law.

On the institutional front in 1999, TNI welcomed to its staff in Amsterdam, Ophelia Cowell, co-ordinator of the new Energy Project; Roberta Cowan, new Communications Officer; Henk Buursen, computer network manager; and said a sad farewell to office manager, Matt Schillings, who left for a career in industrial relations training. We also mourned the passing away of our beloved founding director and advisor, Eqbal Ahmad.

There were some minor changes to the fellowship in 1999, with Dan Smith, Saul Landau, Miguel Teubal being honoured in the new category of senior fellows, while we thanked Ferenc Miszlivetz for his contributions to the fellowship over the past five years. We also made some changes to our Board of Advisors, welcoming Fred Halliday, one of our longest serving fellows, alongside James Early, our new advisor on Cultural Democracy.

On behalf of TNI's fellows and staff, I thank all those who have contributed to a very production and exciting year for TNI – not least the army of volunteers who assisted with the 25th Anniversary Celebrations, and the generous funders, who make it all possible.