By M. A. Hossain* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 7 December 2023 (IDN) — The political milieu in Bangladesh has been fraught with tension, climaxing in weeks of protests and violent clashes, casting a shadow of apprehension as the scheduled general election on 7 January 2024 approaches. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), reinvigorated as the main opposition […]
COP28’s Delinquent Emitter: The US Military-Industrial Complex
By Mirabai Venkatesh* OAKLAND, California | 7 December 2023 (IDN) — As the world watches COP28 in Dubai amidst an accelerating climate crisis, a critical blind spot in global climate agreements remains. Despite being the world’s largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases, the US military is completely exempt from international reporting obligations, significantly undermining global […]
The End of An Era?
The Case for a New UN General Assembly Special Session on Disarmament By Sergio Duarte The writer is an Ambassador, a former High Representative of the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs., and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil | 7 December 2023 (IDN) — Seventy-eight years ago, when […]
Does It Make Sense to Invest Efforts in Reviving OSCE?
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 6 December 2023 (IDN) — With 57 participating States from North America, Europe and Asia (from Vancouver to Vladivostok), the OSCE—the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian—is the world’s largest regional security organization. Soon, it will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act of […]
Artificial Intelligence Is a Threat to Society
By Don Byrd* Toda Peace Institute issued this article, which is being republished with their permission. FLORIDA, United States | 6 December 2023 (IDN) — I spent decades working on the fringes of and sometimes within the bounds of artificial intelligence. Currently, I co-chair a task force at Braver Angels, one of the most effective […]
How the US Has Darkened the Nuclear Cloud Over Humanity
By Norman Solomon* This article was originally published by The Nation. SAN FRANCISCO | 6 December 2023 (IDN) — Forty years ago, across a dozen pages of The Nation magazine, I was in a debate with the English historian E. P. Thompson about the US-Soviet nuclear arms race, the relative culpability of both governments and […]
Loss and Damage Fund Is Signed for Climate-Damaged Countries
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | 5 December 2023 (IDN) — Diplomats from nearly 200 countries celebrated with cheers and applause at the opening of the UN Climate Conference in Dubai, where a disaster fund to help vulnerable nations cope with the impact of drought, floods and rising seawater was announced. The […]
Nuclear Deterrence: An Unproven Gamble that Risks Humanity
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 3 December 2023 (IDN) — Is it justifiable for a country to go nuclear—on the grounds that it is doing so to protect itself from nuclear attacks? The argument is based on the concept of “nuclear deterrence”: a widely-challenged theory that nuclear weapons are intended to deter nuclear attacks prompting […]
Climate Crisis Fuels Child Marriages, FGM in East and Southern Africa
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania | 3 December 2023 (IDN) — At 15, Sarah* was entangled in an early marriage that would change her life forever. The drought spells in Kotulogh village in Kenya’s West Pokot country had pushed many pastoralist families to the brink of survival. Sarah’s mother, desperate for money to […]
Forty Years After ‘The Day After’
By Daryl G. Kimball The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following article appears as the Focus of the December 2023 issue of Arms Control Today. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 2 December 2023 (IDN) — On Sunday, Nov. 20, 1983, I left my college dorm to visit my parents’ home […]