By Jamshed Baruah NEW YORK (IDN) – American philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky has criticized Washington’s policies on Iran and referred to polls from prestigious centres, which show that America is the biggest threat to world peace. According to Iran Press/America, he told a New York school on January 4 that the former Republican […]
Fear, Greed and Hate as We Enter the 2020s
Viewpoint by Roberto Savio* ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – In a world in which the institutions that govern us are rapidly losing their moral compass, it is difficult not to realise that in 2020 we are now entering – or have already entered – a new low point in the history of humankind. Today, for […]
Turbulent Start to a New Decade for Central Europe
Viewpoint by Wojciech Przybylski In 2020, Central Europe will observe plenty of electoral races and will be exposed to a few important economic and security impulses, writes Wojciech Przybylski, Chairman of the Res Publica Foundation and Editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight where this article was first publisehd. WARSAW (IDN-INPS) – In February parliamentary elections will be […]
Trump Fighting the Wrong Battle in A Tit-For-Tat Confrontation with China
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, Sherlock Holmes lectures Watson on the unlikely subject of free trade. Holmes: “Capital article this on free trade. Permit me to read you an extract from The Times: ‘You may be cajoled into imagining that your own […]
Iran Turns to China and India In the Face of US Sanctions
Viewpoint by Mohammad Soltaninejad Mohammad Soltaninejad is Assistant Professor of Middle East studies at the University of Tehran. This article appeared in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Economics and security’, Vol. 11 No. 4. TEHRAN (IDN-INPS) – In the face of the United States withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and […]
From 1928 On War Is Deemed Illegal
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – When it comes to war the world does move on for the better. Right now there are no interstate wars. The longest running civil war of our era, in the Sudan, is over. The second longest, in Afghanistan and Syria, are winding down. Only one country in […]
India’s Citizenship Amendment Act Is ‘Pro-minorities and Not Anti-Muslim’
Viewpoint by Jainendra Karn* NEW DELHI (IDN) – India is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention which defines a refugee yet the Government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kept the promise that Mahatma Gandhi had made to persecuted people living deplorable lives in India’s neighbourhood through the Citizenship Amendment […]
Build A More Equitable Response to Refugee
Viewpoint by António Guterres The following are extensive excerpts from the UN Secretary-General’s opening remarks at the first Global Refugee Forum (17-18 December 2019). It came at the end of a tumultuous decade in which the number of refugees has risen to over 25 million people worldwide. Guided by the Global Compact on Refugees, the […]
The Putrid Mess of Israeli Politics
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Israeli politics gets messier and messier. Now there is to be yet another election, hard on the heels of the last one which, in turn, was hard on the heels of the one before. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have two major aims in life. The […]
NPT Review Conference Should Not Repeat the ‘Sad Experience’ of 2015
Viewpoint by Sergey Lavrov The following are extensive excerpts from Russiaan Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference on “Foreign Policy Priorities of the Russian Federation in Arms Control and Nonproliferation in the Context of Changes in the Global Security Architecture” Moscow, 8 November 2019.