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 […]
Germany and The EU Embrace Military Keynesianism
By Matthew Read* BERLIN, Germany | 28 March 2025 (IDN) — Just days before its dissolution, Germany’s outgoing parliament rushed through a revision of the constitution and a massive spending package to facilitate unlimited borrowing for militarization. Half a trillion euros have been earmarked for the vague category of “infrastructure and climate neutrality”, while increased […]
Australia: How Nuclear Is Already Costing Us
By Ken Baldwin* CANBERRA, Australia | 24 March 2025 (IDN) — Taxpayers have already paid a price for the political division over Australia’s energy future — and now the Coalition’s nuclear policy is effectively hitting their hip pocket even before voters get their say on whether it’s part of the nation’s energy transition. All Australians […]