By Christopher Michael Faulkner* WASHINGTON, D.C. | 11 August 2024 (IDN) — While Russia’s army is bogged down in Ukraine, its mercenaries are faring no better in Africa. In late July 2024, mercenaries from the the Wagner Group, a Moscow-aligned private military company, accompanied the Malian army in what the Malian regime called a “stabilization […]
Nepal: Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Maintain Symbiotic Bonds with Forests
By Devinder Kumar NEW DELHI | 10 August 2024 (IDN) — Nepal is richly endowed with forest resources, with a coverage of about 6.4 million hectares. Between 1992 and 2016, the country nearly doubled its forest cover, moving from 26 percent to 45 percent of its land area. The progress in forest regeneration and improvement […]
A Ukrainian Gamble For Peace Negotiations?
By Stephen Bryen* This article was issued by Weapons and Strategy and is being republished with their permission. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 9 August 2024 (IDN) — The Russians got caught with their pants own in Kursk. The Ukrainians pulled off a large-scale invasion using new tactics. They advanced far into Russian territory, mostly unopposed, or […]
Why NATO Expansion Was the Principal Cause of the Ukraine War
By John J. Mearsheimer* This is part two if excerpts from the article issued by The Transnational, which republished it from Mearsheimer’s Substack page on 5 August 2024. Read part one: Who Caused the Ukraine War? The Conventional Wisdom vs. Incontrovertible Facts — The Editor CHICAGO, USA | 7 August 2024 (IDN) — Let me […]
Who Caused the Ukraine War? The Conventional Wisdom vs. Incontrovertible Facts
By John J. Mearsheimer* The following are extensive excerpts from the article issued by The Transnational, which republished it from Mearsheimer’s Substack page on 5 August 2024. CHICAGO, USA | 7 August 2024 (IDN) — The question of who is responsible for causing the Ukraine war has been a deeply contentious issue since Russia invaded […]
Literary-Prize Politics, Cold War, and the Disinformation Game
Decolonizing History and Fiction in a Neo Colony Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* “Fair is foul and foul is fair”— William Shakespeare’s Macbeth COLOMBO | 7 August 2024 (IDN) — Why are there no Booker Prize-winning novels about mundane multicultural families that inter-married for generations, shared religion/s, language/s, histories, and co-existed for centuries, while living in relative […]
America Can be a Great Nation If It Wants
By Chaitanya Davé* CALIFORNIA, USA | 7 August 2024 (IDN) — One wonders why America goes to war every few years with other nations. In its history of 248 years, it has been at peace only for 20 years or only 8% of its independent history! Rest of the years, America has been fighting wars […]
Nuclear Exercises of Russia – Stark Reminder to Dutch F-16s in Ukraine
By Drago Bosnic The writer is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. OSLO | 5 August 2024 (IDN) — On the very last day of July, the Russian military announced it started “the third and ‘final’ phase of drills to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons”. The Kremlin’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) also initiated […]
Manila and Tokyo Ally with Washington but Keen to Strengthen Their Own Defences
By Richard Heydarian* This article is republished courtesy of Internatinal Politics and Society. Read original MANILA | 4 August 2024 (IDN) — Following years of intensive negotiations, the Philippines and Japan have consolidated their military cooperation with a new defence pact. Under the recently signed Reciprocal Access Agreement, the two Asian countries will define procedural […]
Seven-Nation Prisoner Swap Shows How Diplomacy, Not Law, Governs Exchanges
By William E. Butler* This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read original. PENNSYLVANIA | 3 August 2024 (IDN) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans were freed from Russia in a prisoner exchange on Aug. 1, 2024. In total, 24 prisoners, including 12 German nationals […]