Viewpoint by Aurora Weiss The possibility of the Serbian president Vučić starting to play the role of the Balkan Vladimir Putin with an eventual invasion of Kosovo seems never to have been more serious. VIENNA (IDN) — Escalation: it’s like lighting a match. Two separate components, Phosphorus and Match, can spark several times before the […]
Pelosi’s Pivot as Cold War and Colonialism Rebound
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO (IDN) — All bets were off as Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and second in line to the United States Presidency, pivoted to Asia on August 1. As Ms Pelosi tottered off a US Air Force plane at Singapore’s Changi Airport in her signature stilettos, Southeast Asia tripped into […]
As Wars Threaten to Continue, No More Major Wars?
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Will historians a hundred years hence look at the end of the twenty-first century much as we now look at the end of the nineteenth and twentieth and say, “unfortunately, the peace and prosperity of that moment was but an interlude before the bloodiest century in mankind’s […]
January 6 Attack on the Capitol: The Most Damning Hearing Yet
Viewpoint by Dr Alon Ben-Meir The writer is a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies for over 20 years. NEW YORK (IDN) — Last Thursday’s (July 21) hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the January […]
Calling for No First Use of Nuclear Weapons
Statement by Daisaku Ikeda, President, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) to 2022 NPT Review Conference TOKYO — Seventy-seven years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not only is there a lack of any concrete progress toward nuclear weapons abolition but the risk that nuclear weapons will actually be used has risen to […]
Caring about Nuclear Sharing: A Setback for Nuclear Arms Control
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN (IDN) — Russia’s repeated references to nuclear weapons since it started the war in Ukraine have put nuclear weapons back at centre stage of the strategic discussions. This has raised anxieties about a possible […]
For Erdogan the Failed Coup was A “Gift from God”
Viewpoint by Alon Ben-Meir Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies for over 20 years. NEW YORK (IDN) — Perhaps nothing has changed Turkey’s domestic and international trajectory since the establishment […]
The Elephant in the Room: Geopolitics and the ‘Great Reset’ in Sri Lanka
Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* “But to watch cricket, there has to be a country left for us to watch it in, no?” A fan at the Galle Test Match that ended with an innings victory for Sri Lanka. July 11, 2022. COLOMBO (IDN) — Spirits were high on July 11 when the Sri Lankan cricket […]
Sri Lanka Faces Uncertain Future Amid Unmitigated ‘People Power’
Viewpoint by Alan Keenan Alan Keenan is Senior Consultant, Sri Lanka, at the International Crisis Group. LONDON (IDN) — In a stunning display of “people power”, massive crowds overcame large deployments of police and soldiers and other obstacles to storm the official residence and offices of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil […]
Keynesianism Might Help Tackle the Gathering Economic Crisis
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power The writer is the author of “Development Economics” (Pearson Longmans). For 17 years he was a foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune. See his website for more information: jonathanpowerjournalist.com LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The most peculiar aspect of the gathering economic crisis so far is that no one has […]