Viewpoint by Hobeth Martinez Carrillo* LONDON (IDN) – Four years after the UN-monitored peace agreement that was intended to end more than five decades of civil war in Colombia, the communities that suffered most during the armed conflict may finally be gaining places at the political table. The members of the UN Security Council welcomed […]
The World’s Response to COVID-19 Has Slashed CO2 Emissions
Viewpoint by Simone Abram* DURHAM, UK (IDN) – How do you respond to a crisis? It’s obvious that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dramatically different to anything provoked by repeated scientific warnings about climate change. The many organisations that declared climate emergencies throughout 2019 and 2020 have so far enacted nothing like […]
COVID-19: Resources Needed for Gender and Social Inclusion
Women Front and Centre Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director. NEW YORK (IDN) – One thing is clear about the COVID-19 pandemic, as stock markets tumble, schools and universities close, people stockpile supplies and home becomes a different and crowded space: this is not just a health issue. It is […]
How to Think Positively about Isolation during Coronavirus Lockdown
Viewpoint by Silvia Panizza* PIEDMONT, Italy (IDN) – “They say when trouble comes, close ranks.” So begins Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. When the new coronavirus started spreading in Europe, my first impulse was to travel home, to Italy, to be with my family. Lesson number one learned from the virus: you remember what […]
Bernie Sanders Pushes Democratic Party to the Left
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Is Bernie Sanders still in with a chance? It is a slim one, but in these primary elections one never knows. There have been a number of surprising upsets. Even if Joe Biden comes out on top and has to face Donald Trump for the presidency the […]
The Largest US-Led Military Exercise in Europe Continues Despite COVID-19
Viewpoint by Jan Oberg*, The Transnational Foundation, TFF. LUND, Sweden (IDN) -– Defender Europe 20 is a huge, basically US military exercise, on European soil between February and May this year. It has already started. In the midst of a closed-down coronavirus Europe. And it is war-preparing, not peace- or confidence-building. The diagram above from […]
International Cooperation Vital to Defying the Consequences of Coronavirus
Viewpoint by Beate Trankmann*, UNDP Resident Representative in China BEIJING (IDN) – Since its outbreak, the effects of the coronavirus have been felt in countries across the world. With around 110,000 confirmed cases of COVID19 and over 4,000 deaths as of March 10, this epidemic has put public health systems and emergency services under immense pressure. […]
Massive African Infrastructure Projects Often Hurt, Not Help, Local People
Viewpoint by Tom Goodfellow* SHEFFIELD (IDN) – Big infrastructure projects are always controversial. Yet in parts of the world associated with severely deficient infrastructure, the positive value of major infrastructure investments is often taken as a given. This assumption needs to be subjected to much greater scrutiny, as I argue in new research that explores […]
A COVID-19 Vaccine Quickly and Cheaply Is Possible
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery* The writer is a theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in quantum chemistry. COPENHAGEN (IDN) – Public health experts say that if the COVID-19 epidemic is not successfully contained, it could become a global pandemic, perhaps spreading to 80% of the world’s population. With a 1% mortality rate, this […]
Postpone the NPT Review Conference to 2021 and Convene in Vienna
Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf The writer has attended all nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) meetings since 1987 as a delegate, including as senior adviser to the chair of Main Committee I (nuclear disarmament) in 2015 and to the chair of the 2014 preparatory committee; as alternate head of the International Atomic Energy Agency delegation to the […]