GLOBAL ISSUES – Page 206 – IDN-InDepthNews

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT2012-12-212023-07-10

Daunting Development Challenges Ahead

By Richard Johnson | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

PARIS (IDN) – Despite development successes over the past 20 years and the progress of many emerging economies, inequality is increasing in all countries and 1.4 billion people still live in absolute poverty. This gloomy situation was acknowledged by development ministers from industrial and emerging economies, who met in London on December 4 and 5 for the High Level Meeting (HLM) of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which comprises 24 of the 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Migration2012-12-182023-07-10

The Coming Paradigm Shift in Migrant Labour

By Murray Hunter* | Geopoliticalmonitor.com IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

KANGAR, Malaysia (IDN) – Late last month, 171 Chinese national bus drivers who were employed by the Singapore Government-controlled bus and underground railway company (SMRT) took industrial action by staging a two day walkout. The bus drivers were protesting their relatively lower wages vis-à-vis other foreign workers doing the same job, as well as the poor sanitary state of their accommodations.

This was reportedly the first strike in Singapore since 1986.

GLOBAL ISSUES2012-12-162023-07-10

Afghanistan: Call for a Contingency Force

By Eva Weiler | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

AMSTERDAM (IDN) – “With all combat troops scheduled to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the negotiations taking place in Kabul on the presence and role of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond that point must include a plan for a Contingency Force as part of the troop drawdown,” according to experts.

“And the United States should take the lead in establishing this Contingency Force, either under the flag of NATO, or as a new coalition concerned with security and stability in Afghanistan in coming years,” say Norine MacDonald QC and Jorrit Kamminga in a paper titled ‘Preparing for the worst: A call for an Afghanistan Contingency Force’.

GLOBAL ISSUES2012-12-132023-07-10

Murky Politics in the South China Sea

By Melissa M. Cyrill*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW DELHI (IDN | IDSA) – The last two years have witnessed a heady interplay of inter-state disputes and constant strategic manoeuvring, if not intrigue, in the South China Sea (SCS). Beyond anything else, it gives the world a sure glimpse of the possibility of future energy wars over oil and gas resources in this energy-rich area, which is moreover emerging as a hotbed of global power politics.

Understanding the South China Sea dispute thus involves a series of complex and interwoven technical, legal, economic and geographic claims, the most critical of which involves issues of territory and sovereignty.

ARMAMENTS2012-12-112023-07-10

It Starts With Me, It Starts From Now – Video

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Climate Change2012-12-102023-07-10

The Tragic Paradox of the Doha Conference

By Martin Khor* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

GENEVA (IDN) – The annual UN climate conference concluded in Doha on December 8 with “low ambition” both in emission cuts by developed countries and funding for developing countries. Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted many decisions, including on the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period in which developed countries committed to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases.

USA and Canada2012-12-072023-07-12

The Obama Second Term: Business as Usual or a 21ST Century Lincoln?

By Jayantha Dhanapala*
IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – The US Presidential Inauguration ceremony will be held in Washington DC on Monday, January 21, 2013.The official theme for the 2013 inauguration is “Faith in America’s Future”. For many Americans, and indeed for many international observers, that faith is in desperate need of reaffirmation not only because of the domestic economic crisis, and the political paralysis in the US Congress over its solution, but also because of the decline of the US’s political power and influence internationally.

GLOBAL ISSUES2012-12-052023-07-10

The Evils of Bilateral Investment Treaties

By Julio Godoy | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN (IDN) – Between 1995 and 1998, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) prepared behind closed doors a so-called multilateral agreement on investments (MAI). The harmless sounding name concealed a Machiavelli-like treaty allegedly addressed at – as an OECD paper put it at the time – setting “clear, consistent, and transparent rules on liberalisation and investor protection, with dispute settlement, thereby underpinning the continued removal of barriers to market access and encouraging economic growth.”

USA and Canada2012-12-012023-07-12

US Power Grid Vulnerable to Terrorist Attacks

By Jen Alic of Oilprice.com*
IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – As Washington hunts ill-defined al-Qaeda groups in the Middle East and Africa, and concerns itself with Iran’s eventual nuclear potential, it has a much more pressing problem at home: Its energy grid is vulnerable to anyone with basic weapons and know-how.

ARMAMENTS2012-11-292023-07-10

Stable Nuke Zero is Feasible

By Ramesh Jaura
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – Before World War II broke out in 1939, German-born Nobel laureate Albert Einstein recommended President Franklin D. Roosevelt to begin research on a nuclear weapon since Germany under Adolf Hitler might be developing such a destructive tool. The result was the Manhattan Project, which culminated in the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Einstein deplored use of the new discovery of nuclear fission as a weapon, and signed with the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, highlighting the danger of nukes.