GLOBAL ISSUES – Page 217 – IDN-InDepthNews

ECONOMY2013-10-032023-07-10

Rising Migrant Remittances Highly Significant

By J C Suresh | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TORONTO (IDN) – A new report has highlighted the importance of funds remitted home by migrants, which are now nearly three times the size of official development assistance given by rich developed nations and larger than private debt and portfolio equity flows to developing countries. They exceed the foreign exchange reserves in at least 15 developing countries, and are equivalent to least half of the level of reserves in over 50 developing countries, says the latest issue of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief.

USA and Canada2013-10-022023-07-12

Latin America: Anti-US Rhetoric Does Not Overshadow Trade

By Luisa Parraguez, Francisco Garcia Gonzalez, Joskua Tadeo*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

MEXICO CITY (IDN | Yale Global) – The Latin American blogosphere held its breath when Bolivian president Evo Morales’s plane was forced to land in Vienna in July. As European authorities searched for former U.S. National Security Agency contract worker Edward Snowden on board, Twitter accounts of South American presidents exploded with resentment.

The continent denounced the United States for extending its hemispheric supremacy to Europe, sputtered words like “colonialism” and “imperialism,” and claimed that the incident violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner called the incident “not only humiliating to a sister nation, but also for the whole South American continent.”

ARMAMENTS2013-09-302023-07-10

UN Presses Forward on Global Ban on Nuke Tests

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Seventeen years after the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signature, the United Nations has launched a new initiative to expedite its entry into force “at the earliest possible date”.

Foreign ministers and high-level representatives from the 183 Member States of the Treaty have urged the eight remaining States – China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States – to sign and ratify the CTBT, “thus ridding the world once and for all of nuclear test explosions”. Ratification by these eight countries is indispensable for the Treaty coming into force.

GLOBAL ISSUES2013-09-292023-07-10

US-Iran: Inching Towards Détente

By Mahmoud Reza Golshanpazhooh* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TEHRAN (IDN | Iran Review) -The pace of developments in Iran’s foreign policy has been very high during the last week of September 2013. Iran’s effort to take the best advantage of the general atmosphere at the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly led the new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to put his power and the power of his foreign policy team in the area of bilateral and multilateral relations, especially public diplomacy, to the first test. Many domestic and foreign analysts believe that he has successfully passed that test.

GLOBAL ISSUES2013-09-252023-07-10

The Poor Need More Than A ‘Data Revolution’

By Andrea Rigon* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

LONDON (IDN) – Everyone seems to agree that one of the problematic issues with the MDGs is the poor data available and the shortcomings of measuring progress largely through national averages. The UN Secretary-General’s post-2015 High Level Panel’s call for a data revolution has therefore been widely welcomed by both civil society and influential governments. The demand for disaggregated data according to different social groups, reinforcing the powerful idea that in a post-2015 framework goals cannot be considered met unless achieved for everyone, are certainly important steps towards ‘leaving no one behind’.

GLOBAL ISSUES2013-09-232023-07-10

Dialogue To Avert Clash of Civilizations

By Gholamali Khoshroo* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

TEHRAN (IDN | Iran Review) – Today, political and cultural trends and processes in the Middle East region and the world clearly show that the dialogue among civilizations is not merely a moral recommendation, but a vital necessity. Sectarian strife in addition to ethnic and tribal massacres, on the one hand, and the continued hostility toward the Islamic world by the West and even the East (as witnessed quite recently by the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar), on the other hand, further highlight the urgency of this necessary idea.

Any kind of constructive and meaningful dialogue would hinge on respectful interaction as well as two-way communication. In no form of dialogue, the negotiating parties make humiliation, threat and subduing the other party their main goals. “Dialogue” is tantamount to the use of wisdom and foresight to understand the meaning, discover the realities, and gain a different understanding through language, logic and empathy.

ECONOMY2013-09-232023-07-10

Effective Financial Regulations Still Missing

Five years have passed since the Lehman Brothers collapse triggered U.S. and global financial crisis with grave consequences. But effective financial regulations are not yet in sight in developed countries. At the same time, the developing countries are confronted with huge new challenges.

By Martin Khor* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

GENEVA (IDN) – Lehman was the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface were many contributory elements. They include financial deregulation, the conversion of finance from serving the real economy to a beast that thrived on speculation, creaming layers off the productive sectors and unsuspecting consumers through new manipulative instruments.

ECONOMY2013-09-212023-07-10

U.S. Economy Makes The World Go Round Or Rot

By J C Suresh | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

TORONTO (IDN) – Though the world is increasingly intertwined, the U.S. plays a unique role in the global economy, accounting for 11 percent of global trade and 20 percent of global manufacturing. The country’s global financial ties also run deep. Foreign banks hold about $5.5 trillion of U.S. assets, and U.S. banks hold $3 trillion of foreign assets.

While these interconnections have great benefits for the United States, they are not without risks, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has warned, referring to the collapse of Lehman Brothers five years ago that ushered in “a harsh new reality” across sectors, countries, and the world.

GLOBAL ISSUES2013-08-252023-07-10

Of Spooks and Whistleblowers

By Jayantha Dhanapala* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – Suddenly, a cascade of leaks has been affecting the sole superpower in the world. First there was Pfc. Bradley Manning, the American who leaked 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange, an Australian and the founder of WikiLeaks. Then in May, Edward Snowden, at the time a United States intelligence analyst, fled with his cache of surveillance program secrets first to Hong Kong and on to Moscow.

Manning has been exonerated of the most serious charge of “aiding the enemy” but has been convicted on other charges and was recently sentenced to 35 years in prison. Assange languishes in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London while being a candidate in Australian Senate elections. The cumulative damage that all three have caused the security of the United States is incalculable, quite apart from exposing to American friends and allies that they have been the subject of cybersnooping or, to put it bluntly, espionage.

Climate Change2013-08-242023-07-10

Poland Braces For UN Climate Conference

By Anna Rutkowski | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WARSAW (IDN) – “We need to be prepared for nine billion people on this planet, as we all deserve a decent and secure life. By being creative, the world can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while creating jobs, promoting economic growth and ensuring better living standards. Where there is a will, there is a way!” says Marcin Korolec, the Polish Minister of the Environment, who will chair a landmark UN climate change conference from November 11 to 22, 2013 in Warsaw.

A lawyer, career civil servant and negotiator, Korolec wants the global conference to agree on a balance between the needs of the environment and the economy, “in order to seamlessly unite environmental protection and economic growth”. Environmental protection, he says, is an interdisciplinary field that directly influences many other policy areas and is strongly influenced by international arrangements and standards.