By Thalif Deen* NEW YORK | 9 May 2025 (IDN) — Will the rising military tension between two of the world’s heavily-armed nuclear powers –India and Pakistan—lead to a full-scale war? The guessing game is on. The two South Asian countries have long remained locked in a bitter confrontation, mostly over the disputed territory of […]
Russia’s Victory Day A Profound Symbol of National Resilience
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 7 May 2025 (IDN) — Russia celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany and holds its annual Victory Day parade on Red Square on May 9. Praising Russia as a nation of winners, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that “the victory was a profound […]
Whither India’s Global Peace Making?
A New Cold War Weaponizes Religious Diasporas in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region By Darini Rajasingham Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 2 May 2025 (IDN) — Several geopolitical developments have occurred in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. These include United States Vice President J.D Vance’s visit with his Indian-origin wife, Usha […]
How to Avoid Trade Wars – and World War Three
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 29 April 2025 (IDN) — Not a day goes by without a new shock to Americans and our neighbors around the world from the Trump administration. On April 22nd, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its forecasts for global growth in 2025, from 3.3% […]
Peace Corps: The Third Rail of US Global Development Assistance
By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir* MARRAKECH, Morocco | 27 April 2025 (IDN) ― Whereas there has been broad consensus that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is in need of reform, there is also an even wider and more deeply held belief that the value of Peace Corps ― begun in 1961 ― is […]
Lesotho Gears Up to Face Highest U.S. Tariff Rate
By Pavan Kulkarni, Peoples Dispatch NEW DELHI | 14 April 2025 (IDN) —Slapped with the highest tariff rate imposed by the Trump administration on countries across the globe on April 2, the small southern African kingdom of Lesotho, with a population of just above 2 million, finds itself in dire straits. Fears abound that the 50% […]
SADC Announces DRC Withdrawal As M23 Captures More Territory
By Africa Defense Forum STUTTGART, Germany | 14 Aprill 2025 (IDN) — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on March 13 announced the termination and phased withdrawal of its military mission in the embattled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where M23 rebels have gained ground. The decision was foreshadowed by the late February repatriation […]
Africa Is at The Centre Of 21st-Century Challenges
By Vamo Soko and Bintu Zahara Sakor* The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) published this article as Blog. OSLO, Norway | 13 April 2025 (IDN) — Africa is not a homogeneous entity. Unlike the United States or China, it does not have a unified political power capable of defending a common interest. Its cultural, economic, […]
Russia’s Expanding Geopolitical Influence in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger
By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW | 4 April 2025 (IDN) — Growing impatience over the fragile security situation in the Sahel region and collective anxiety to uplift and strengthen their Confederation of Sahel States (AES), three Foreign Ministers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger embarked on a trip to Moscow. Meetings held on 3 April […]
The US, NATO, and Ukraine: The Politics of Strategic Flexibility
By Kartik Bommakanti* NEW DELHI | 30 March 2025 (IDN) — Washington’s decision to broker an end to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war has caused heartburn and backlash from its European allies and Kyiv. The desire for strategic flexibility, which is as much a function of power as it is of agency, explains in part why […]