By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW | 10 June 2025 (IDN) — With its Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan (2023-2026), approved as a working document by the Kremlin, Russia faces a long and winding road, especially in implementing several bilateral agreements signed with African countries. While manoeuvring around challenges and obstacles within Africa, Russia has still […]
Goodbye to the Iranian Nuclear Bomb?
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 4 June 2025 (IDN) — Is it agreement time in Iran? Is Iran going to bend to the will of the UN Security Council and engineer a compromise that will allow it to enrich uranium—but only to a small degree—in return for allowing the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency […]
An Era of Extreme Heat: Teleconnections of Glacial Risks from the Arctic to the Third Pole
By Elena Pronina, Consultant, ESCAP; Dr. Valentina Khan, Executive Director of North Eurasia Climate Centre, RosHydroMet; Dr Oksana Lipka, Deputy Director, Yu. A. Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology; Leila Salarpour Goodarzi, Associate Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP; Sanjay Srivastava, Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction, ESCAP BANGKOK, Thailand | 3 June 2025 (IDN) — As […]
Tariff Turmoil: Overreliance on Distribution Instead of Growth
By Jayasri Priyalal* SINGAPORE | 2 June 2025 (IDN) — The unilateral declaration of reciprocal tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump on trading partner countries has unfolded myriad uncertainties heightening the geopolitical and economic tensions. Immediate reactions were reflected in the global stock markets trading on negative levels. The full repercussions will be known in […]
The United Nations Confronts a Crisis Necessitating Thorough Reforms
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 30 May 2025 (IDN) — Is the UN salvageable, or is it doomed to irrelevance and perhaps even a complete collapse? The drastic cuts imposed by the United States on development cooperation following the closure of USAID, combined with a significantly weaker appetite among many traditional donors for international […]
Inside the Oval Office, Trump’s new Lair
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 | 27 May 2025 (IDN) — The world has never been short of demagogues and fools, but the remedies have often matched the supply. In 1990, during President Nelson Mandela’s […]
Can Trump Break the Iran Deadlock and Reshape the Middle East?
By Alon Ben-Meir NEW YORK | 23 May 2025 (IDN) — The Trump administration’s pursuit of a negotiated agreement over Iran’s nuclear program is the only sound policy that can prevent a regional conflagration. Beyond that, it offers a unique opportunity that can change the regional security trajectory and potentially usher in long-term peace and […]
Trump’s Hostility Towards China
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 20 May 2025 (IDN) — President Donald Trump’s antagonism towards China existed before the Coronavirus. Despite his bonhomie with President Jinping Xi whenever he meets him, he has gone all out with his trade war. He refuses to negotiate an extension of the nuclear weapons reduction agreement with Russia […]
UN Reform Is Not a Floorplan. It’s a Reckoning
By Stephanie Hodge* UNITED NATIONS | 20 May 2025 (IDN) — Last week’s leaked UN80 reform blueprint offers a sweeping architectural plan for a more “streamlined” UN. It proposes merging development-related entities, relocating operations to Nairobi, cutting senior posts, and centralizing administration through a new Executive Secretariat. It reads like a rebrand of the UN system […]
How to Crown an Impostor
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 14 May 2025 (IDN) — Burkinabe leader Ibrahim Traore is acting like a rock star. It’s not entirely his fault. He’s receiving a lot of help from dozens of social media […]