By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 12 August 2024 (IDN) — Amid strong protests from a coalition of over 110 human rights groups and civil society organizations (CSOs), the UN Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime adopted—by consensus on August 8—a global cybercrime treaty. Described as “broad in scope” with insufficient human rights safeguards, the treaty […]
Nuclear-weapon States Urged to Promote Non-proliferation and Disarmament
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 11 August 2024 (IDN) — The United States deserves unequivocal accolades for joining Egypt and Qatar in exerting its diplomatic weight to avert a wider war in the Middle East. It is regretful, however, that such zeal was missing at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Eleventh […]
Kazakhstan Willing to Share Nuclear Disarmament Expertise with N. Korea
By Ji Da-gyum, The Korea Herald ASTANA, Kazakhstan | 11 August 2024 (IDN) — Kazakhstan is willing to share its nuclear disarmament expertise with North Korea, emphasizing its own journey of voluntarily relinquishing nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union and subsequently achieving substantial economic growth, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko said. “We want […]
Wagner Group Setback in Mali Challenges Russian Strategy in Africa
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 […]