Reflections from Kenya’s high-level policy dialogue and civil society convening in Nairobi By Dr Margaret Lubaale and Lisa Mushega* Nairobi, Kenya | 30 September 2025 (IDN) — Behind every maternal death in Kenya is a family forever changed. Children lose their mothers, communities lose their leaders, and the country loses its potential. At a recent […]
Inertia on Nuclear Weapons
Between morality and strategy, the world drifts closer to annihilation By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 30 September 2025 (IDN) — We were standing in Hiroshima looking at a stone wall. All there was to see was a shadow of a man. It had been etched into the wall at the moment of his obliteration […]
Breathing Life into the Corpse of Palestine
By Dr. James E. Jennings ATLANTA, USA | 24 September 2025 (IDN) — The barely viable Two-State Solution appears to have made a brief comeback at the United Nations General Assembly. Emmanuel Macron of France and Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine—one young, one old—huffed and puffed in the attempt to put new life into a near-dead […]
Trump’s UN Meltdown: When Diplomacy Becomes Anti-Diplomacy
By Ian Williams The writer is the President of the Foreign Press Association in New York and a former President of the UN Correspondents’ Association. NEW YORK | 24 September 2025 (IDN) — If Donald Trump had worn a gaudy uniform like Gaddafi, he might have pipped the Libyan leader for the most memorable UN […]
Why Do Westerners Still Think There’s An Islamic Threat?
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 23 September 2025 (IDN) — The words still ring in policy-makers’ ears from Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington’s famous treatise, The Clash of Civilizations. This book, in many ways, triggered the paranoia that has infected politicians, the press, and public discourse. “The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic […]
Advocating Increased Taxation on Tobacco and Nicotine Products
Reducing Consumption Among Young People in Kenya By Whitney Atieno The writer is a Kamukunji Youth and Tobacco Control Advocate. NAIROBI | 23 September 2025 (IDN) — Tobacco consumption is a significant public health issue in Kenya, causing approximately 12,000 deaths annually and contributing to various cancers and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). According to the […]
Where Can the UN Really Make a Difference?
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 22 September 2025 (IDN) — The United Nations must change. This is imperative, if the institution created to promote universal rights, peace and development, wants to remain relevant. The ongoing global landscape with developed nations retrenching from their international development commitments is finally forcing the UN to do it. […]
Shades of Collective Self-Defence in the Context of Saudi-Pakistan Agreement
By A.L.A. Azeez* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 21 September 2025 (IDN) — What does it entail when two states enter into a mutual defence pact? What if one of them is a nuclear-armed state, not party to the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the other an NPT state, not possessing nuclear weapons? That’s exactly the scenario […]
Transforming Cross-Border Connectivity in Eastern South Asia
By Joseph George, Mikiko Tanaka and Rajan Ratna* Small steps of digitalization of trade and transport processes are shaping the foundations for seamless, cost-effective and collaborative cross-border connectivity in the subregion, promising big leaps in trade integration, efficiency and competitiveness. BANGKOK, Thailand | 20 September 2025 (IDN) — In Eastern South Asia (ESA)—comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, […]
Suspending US-Kosovo Dialogue — A Rude Awakening for Kurti
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 19 September 2025 (IDN) — Although Trump does not necessarily follow logical and practical foreign policy to frame US relations with other countries, his decision to suspend the US-Kosovo dialogue was not entirely misguided. Prime Minister Kurti has failed to demonstrate statesmanship in steering the country in the right […]