The Race to Keep War Under Human Control By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ BERLIN | 18 August 2026 (IDN) — As artificial intelligence moves from supporting military operations to becoming a weapon that can choose and launch attacks, governments must now decide, without further delay, whether machines should ever be […]
The Oppenheimer and Odyssey Films, the Nuclear Bombing of Japan and the Lies Told
By Jonathan Power Editor’s Note: This commentary was first published three years ago. It is being republished because British-American filmmaker Christopher Nolan has recently released The Odyssey to widespread acclaim, while also attracting criticism over its historical inaccuracies. In this essay, Jonathan Power revisits what he believes Nolan missed—or chose to avoid—in his Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer, which chronicles […]
UN Report Warns Organised Crime Networks Biggest Threat to Asia And Beyond
By Kalinga Seneviratne BANGKOK, Thailand | 28 July 2026 (IDN) — Speaking at the launch of the report ‘Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment for South-East Asia’ by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Bangkok on Wednesday (22 July), New Zealand’s ambassador to Thailand, Raylene Liufalani noted that these criminal networks are […]
Germany, Japan and the Return of Military Power (Part III)
Rearmament Without Militarism? By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ Editor’s Note: This article is the third and final instalment in a three-part series examining how Germany and Japan—the two former Axis powers that embraced constitutional restraint after World War II—are responding to a rapidly changing global security environment. Part I, From […]
The New Documentary “An Ordinary Insanity”
Only when such sanity becomes ordinary will we have a chance of surviving the nuclear era. By Robert Ellsberg* NEW YORK | 13 JUNE 2026 (IDN) —This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book, The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by ICBMS, with their […]
From Bani Walid to Zwolle: The Smugglers Are Now in the Dock
By Cedric Stephany and Mirjam van Reisen | BRUSSELS, Belgium | 12 June 2026 (IDN) — A pro forma hearing against the alleged human trafficker called Kidane, took place last month in Zwolle in The Netherlands, marking another step in what has become one of the most significant human trafficking prosecutions in European legal history. […]
Post-war Business of Eritrean Refugees in Post-War Tigray: Emergence of new Human Trafficking Routes
By Daniel Tesfa, Shim Masha, Bereket Tsegay, Kristína Melicherová, Makeda Saba, Filmon Gebremikael and Mirjam van Reisen | MEKELLE, Ethiopia | 11 June 2026 (IDN) — New routes evolving human trafficking for ransom are emerging following the signing of the cease-fire agreement between Tigray and the national government of Ethiopia, involving refugees fleeing Eritrea. Mekelle, […]
The Bomb Wins Again: How the 2026 NPT Review Conference Became a Monument to Nuclear Complacency
By Tariq Rauf A Special Report on the collapse of the Eleventh NPT Review Conference, New York, 27 April– 22 May 2026.[i] NEW YORK | 25 May 2026 (IDN) — On the evening of Friday, 22 May 2026, Ambassador Do Hung Viet, the President of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) solemnly took […]
A World of Surging Military Spending and Concentrated Starvation
Choosing Bullets or Bread? This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ BERLIN | 16 May 2026 (IDN) — In 2025, the global order revealed a sharp paradox. Armed conflicts, geopolitical rivalry, and military preparedness drove world military spending to an unprecedented $2.887 trillion. Meanwhile, hunger tightened its grip on the most at-risk populations. Two-thirds of all […]
A World Edging Back Toward the Nuclear Brink
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 29 April 2026 (IDN) — Not long ago, U.S. Strategic Command—the branch responsible for nuclear weapons—issued a stark warning: conflict conditions could “very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option.” That sober assessment captures a growing unease. President Joe Biden’s decision to send […]