By Zain Hussain and Pieter Wezeman* STOCKHOLM | 20 March 2026 (IDN) — Imported arms have significantly shaped developments in the Middle East since Israel and the United States launched coordinated attacks on Iran last month. In this Q&A, Zain Hussain (ZH) and Pieter Wezeman (PW) of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme discuss what the […]
Trump’s Aura of Invincibility Is Disintegrating
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 18 March 2026 (IDN) — Republican lawmakers, courts, governors, and conservative media are increasingly challenging Trump’s authority as the Iran war and economic policies deepen divisions inside the GOP. The widening fissures inside the Republican Party over Trump’s broader unilateralism and chaotic foreign policy, and now the war of […]
An Indian Ocean Tragedy: Time to Close US-UK-France Military Bases, Decolonize and Stop War
By Darini Rajasingham Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 17 March 2026 (IDN) —The bodies of eighty-four Iranian sailors who died in a US torpedo attack in the seas of Sri Lanka were repatriated yesterday, 13 March 2026. Describing the scene of the rescue of some of the sailors who survived the dastardly attack, the Sri […]
ASEAN, Calling for a Rules-Based Order, Seeks to Promote International Law
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 16 March 2026 (IDN) — It is still too early to fully understand the consequences of the American adventurism in foreign policy. Amid the ongoing geopolitical chaos surrounding the second Trump administration, it is easy to forget ASEAN and its claimed centrality. The wider Middle East region is experiencing […]
Our Need to See the Future
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 11 March 2026 (IDN) — In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, which has guided economists and political thinkers ever since. It marks the start of the Industrial Revolution, which began in England and then spread throughout most of the world. That was 250 years ago. It […]
Erasing Palestinian Identity
Netanyahu’s strategy to prevent Palestinian statehood. By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 10 Mar 2026 (IDN) — Prime Minister Netanyahu does not seek a negotiated peace with the Palestinians; instead, he perpetuates constant hostilities as a means to incrementally seize ever more territory in the West Bank and Gaza—territory he knows he could never secure […]
From Anti-Russian McCarthyism to Pro-Russian Trumpism
By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 9 March 2026 (IDN) — Back in the 1950s in the United States, even a whisper of sympathy for Russia or the Soviet Union was unthinkable and seen as almost traitorous. The eventual rise of McCarthyism was all about rooting out what were presumed to be “un-American activities,” […]
Is Zionism an Existential Threat to Humanity?
By Seevali Abeysekera* LONDON | 6 March 2026 (IDN) — With the world witnessing yet another war in West Asia, one needs to ask what the objectives are of the endless wars deliberately launched to destabilise nation-states in the region. Why is West Asia the world’s single greatest region of perpetual conflict? West Asia has […]
Africa and the Deadly Dust from Iran
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 6 March 2026 (IDN) — These are sad times. Who could have believed that after the US and its allies destroyed Iraq in search of “weapons of mass destruction” and […]
A Gateway to Hell: How the War Against Iran Will Harm the West
By Michael von der Schulenburg* BRUSSELS | 5 March 2026 (IDN) — In the Western world today, there are an alarming number of politicians and media outlets that justify or even welcome military action by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Driven by the self-righteousness we are so familiar with, […]