Peace & Security
In 2005, we organized 45 meetings of the NGO Working Group on the Security Council, bringing NGO leaders into contact with ambassadors on the Council as well as UN officials. We followed the crises and events on (and off) the Security Council agenda, including Sudan, Haiti, the Ivory Coast, Syria-Lebanon, and Israel-Palestine, providing important information to the GPF website. We continued our work on natural resources in conflict about how the deadly nexus of earth, blood and cash that can undermine and enflame even long-peaceful lands. Finally, we wrote and published a paper on Security Council reform advocating a more democratic Security Council through a regionally-based system of representation.

Iraq
To counter the silence and self-censorship on Iraq among media, politicians and international organizations, we began work, (together with a few partner NGOs and researchers), on a summary paper analyzing the war and occupation. We expect this document to be a powerful tool in addressing the UN Security Council as well as informing the general public. Our paper, to be released in 2006, will consider the human rights abuses, violations of international humanitarian law, destruction of cultural institutions and heritage, corruption, and Iraqi civilian casualties. GPF maintains one of the most comprehensive websites dealing with Iraq. Every day we post critical news and analysis on the occupation, the role of the United Nations, corruption affecting the Development Fund for Iraq, resistance against the occupation, the ever-decreasing "coalition of the willing," and much more. In November, we published the report "Crude Designs" together with London-based Platform and several other organizations. That report, which attracted a lot of media attention, discusses the plans of US and UK oil companies to take control of Iraqi oil fields through implementation of new "production sharing agreements," resulting in huge revenue losses to the Iraqi government.

UN Reform and the UN Millennium+5 Summit
As the topic of UN reform returned to the central UN agenda, we strengthened our efforts to follow negotiations and to provide important analysis and information on the website. With over 1000 documents, GPF's UN Reform site is the most comprehensive on the Internet, covering reform of the UN organs, the UN's financial crisis, and the role of new actors, such as NGOs and business, at the UN. We closely monitored the developments at the UN Millennium+5 Summit held in New York in September. And, we published various papers and other information arguing that any real reform must solve the UN's financial woes, US unilateralism, disproportional power of the permanent members of the Security Council, the absence of real disarmament, and the shaky and unjust global economic order.

Social & Economic Policy/Globalization
Our work on global social and economic policy focused on hunger and poverty, inequality, the role of the international financial institutions, international trade, international aid, financing for development, global taxes, and corporate accountability. We published a paper titled "Stingy Samaritans" on how development aid fails to help the poor, as rich countries give far too little and use development assistance to pursue their geopolitical and economic goals. In December, we published a paper analyzing the recent "Progress on Global Taxes." We researched emergency hunger aid, highlighting the critical shortfalls for hunger crises in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and generating pressure on governments to pledge sufficient funds. We advocated international regulation of corporations to promote corporate accountability based on human rights, labor and environmental standards. And, we critically analyzed globalization of politics, culture, law and the economy, working for better alternatives to neoliberal and corporate globalization.

Empire?
Throughout history, empires have risen and fallen. The United States emerged as a world power in the later 19th century and today it constitutes the most powerful country in the world - militarily, politically and economically. We see empire today as the despotic counter model to multilateralism and a democratic world order. Factors of concern include the US military presence in over 100 countries, enormous US economic influence, and strong opposition from Washington to multilateral institutions like the UN. In 2005, we expanded our website coverage to include sections on torture and prison abuse, and US threats of intervention in Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea. We researched and published information on US military and clandestine interventions in foreign countries since 1776 – 189 cases in total. And finally, we compiled a list of ancient, pre-modern and modern empires, to illustrate how empires have existed throughout history and in every world region.

United Nations Finance
We analyzed the UN's financial crisis and provided tables and charts for the website illustrating member states' dues to the UN budgets. We argued that UN finance is of central importance to the debate on UN reform. The UN is constantly under-funded because some member states fail to pay their dues on time and in full. This seriously undermines the UN and its capacity to do its job efficiently. GPF lobbies for the full and timely payment of dues to the UN. We also advocate for alternative financing for the UN, such as global taxes that would make the UN less dependent on powerful member states. In 2005, the UN budget totaled $1.8 billion, a small sum compared to global annual spending on agricultural subsidies ($300 billion) and the military ($1000 billion).

NGOs & Global Governance
We continued our active research and advocacy on the worldwide NGO movement, pushing in particular for greater NGO access at the UN. We examined government and corporate funding of NGOs and how these relationships shape NGO policy stances and priorities. We also monitored the growing problems of humanitarian NGOs' field operations in crisis areas and war zones. As military forces increasingly distribute humanitarian assistance to civilians in countries they occupy, they blur the traditional military/humanitarian distinction and making civilian humanitarian workers targets for resistance fighters.

Media
In 2005, we gave 226 interviews to media outlets all over the world including the BBC World Service, C-Span, El Mercurio (Chile), Dutch Television, CNBC, Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), La Repubblica (Italy), The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, Canadian Television, "Democracy Now," and South Africa Broadcasting. The topics of the interviews included Iraq, UN reform, the UN Security Council, energy and oil, globalization, and emergency humanitarian assistance.

Website/Newsletter
GPF hosts the world's largest NGO site on the UN and global policy. During 2005, the site attracted more than 51 million hits from almost six million visitors. We posted new documents and continued to refine the design of the site for greater user-friendliness. Our electronic newsletter distribution grew rapidly, reaching subscribers in more than 130 countries. In November, we launched our GPF Europe section of the website with information on publications, events and other activities of the Bonn office.

Policy Papers & Essays
We published a paper on offshore financial centers, showing how they assist criminal activities, pose serious problems of international financial stability and undermine long-established tax and social welfare systems. Our paper on the command responsibility doctrine argued that a commander is liable when he or she "should have known" about subordinates' criminal actions. In the social and economic policy field, we published papers on agricultural subsidies, international aid and global taxes. Further, we published a series of briefing papers, dealing with the issues related to the UN Millennium+5 Summit. These papers looked at UN reform, the Millennium Development Goals, and alternative funding for development, including a piece critically analyzing the International Finance Facility (IFF) proposal. As member countries began discussions on Security Council reform at the General Assembly, we released 21 "Theses Towards a Democratic Reform of the UN Security Council." Finally, in the late fall GPF co-published "Crude Designs: the Rip-off of Iraq's Oil Wealth," a report on US and UK companies' interest in Iraq's giant untapped oilfields.

Conferences, Lectures and Meeting Participation
Together with partner organizations, including the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Institute for Development and Peace, the Association of German development non-governmental organizations (VENRO), World Economy, Ecology and Development (WEED) and others, we organized several events in Berlin in 2005. These events included a panel discussion on the report by the UN High Level Panel on "Threats, Challenges and Change," a workshop on the International Finance Facility "Double Aid to Halve Poverty," a meeting on how to strengthen the UN, and a conference on corporate accountability. In June we organized (together with a group of NGOs) a critical dialogue on "Alternative Perspectives for Democratic UN Reform," held in New York. We also gave several lectures to students and other groups on the United Nations and the international role of the US, globalization, NGOs and the Security Council, and the role of NGOs at the UN. We also took part in more than a dozen meetings, conferences and other events at the UN and its environs.

New Office Space
In January, we moved the GPF headquarters into a new office, located in the same building, across the street from the UN Secretariat in New York. The new office provides us with considerably much more space for work stations and meetings and gives us capacity to better monitor policy making at the UN and promote international peace and justice.

Internships
In 2005 we hosted twelve interns in our New York office, from ten different countries. We gave them training in web posting, internet research and GPF program priorities. We wrote numerous recommendation letters and gave career support to current and former interns. We organized 20 intern luncheons, putting interns in touch with members of the UN community – NGOs, diplomats, Secretariat officials and other UN staff. Our Bonn office hosted two full-time and two part-time interns.

Budget & Fundraising
Thanks to strong support from funders, GPF's budget grew to $350,000 in 2005. The New York office received more than half its annual revenue from individual donors. The remainder of the budget came from foundations, partner organizations, fees and other sources. GPF Europe, in its startup phase, had a budget in 2005 of 88,000 Euro. Most of its funding came from partner organizations and foundations, with some additional funds from members and individual donors.

Global Policy Forum is supported primarily by contributions from generous individuals who join as members. GPF also receives grants from foundations and partner institutions. GPF is incorporated in the State of New York, registered as a charitable organization and recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the revenue code.