Merkel and Macron Ready to Talk Despite EU Refusal Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — That bar, the Red Star, on the far side of eastern Europe is closed. So why is the Black Star on this side of the street still open, and even extending its drinking hours? Once the Warsaw Pact […]
COVID Recovery Needs Universal Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja, Omar Abdi* BANGKOK (IDN) — With health systems at a breaking point, hospitals at capacity and desperate family members searching for oxygen for loved ones, the devastating second wave of COVID-19 that has swept across South Asia has felt unreal. Official figures have indicated record-breaking daily coronavirus cases and […]
The ‘Missing’ iPad and #TheOtherRoom Comments
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA (IDN) — Awkward moments are human, and hardly call attention when mere mortals are involved. But when the high and might trip, they make the headlines. Both experts and laypeople sometimes feel obliged to ask if such […]
Climate: The Collaboration Crisis
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl* This is the third in a series of four articles. Click here for the second in the series. QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — In their 2013 treatise, NY Times bestselling authors Ori Brafman and Judith Pollack observe: Information doesn’t change behavior. If it did, none of us would smoke and we’d all […]
Nuclear Risks: Reduction or Elimination?
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte Ambassador, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. NEW YORK (IDN) — “We escaped the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust by some combination of skill, luck and divine intervention—probably the latter in greatest proportion.”[1] — Gen. Lee Butler, former commander of U.S. nuclear […]
Little Sense of Proportion When It Comes to War, Conflict and Corona
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — “How sour sweet music is, When time is broke, and no proportion kept! So it is in the music of men’s lives” Shakespeare wrote this in his play Richard II in 1595. In the events of his day in high politics, there was little sense of proportion. In Europe […]
Climate: The Creativity Crisis
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl* This is the second in a series of four articles. Click here for the first in the series. QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — If Covid-19 has taught us one lesson, it is that the creativity within the scientific community led to effective vaccine development in a timeframe nobody anticipated. Frankly, humanity got […]
Climate: The Cognition, Collaboration and Creativity Crisis
Viewpoint by Bill Dahl* This is the first in a series of four articles. QUERETARO, Mexico (IDN) — The climate crisis is the most daunting challenge ever confronted by humankind. At the present time, mankind is losing the battle. This article explores the first of three dimensions of our inept response; cognition. As a point […]
China and Russia Build a Central Asian Exclusion Zone
Viewpoint by Emil Avdaliani* TBILISI, Georgia (IDN) — State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the China+Central Asia (C+C5) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the Chinese city of Xi’an on May 12. This is the second such meeting, which increasingly focuses (with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) on geopolitical issues. More broadly, it signals […]
A Seismic Event in US-Russia Relations
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) — The President of the United States Joseph Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met on June 16 in Geneva at a time when the two countries are engrossed in an antagonistic confrontation over many issues—historically, the worst ever relations between the two countries.