Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary. The Economist proclaimed recently that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the man who, as secretary of defense, presided over this horrifying episode (the final phase of Sri Lanka’s terrorist inspired internal conflict), has just […]
Urgent Need for Accelerating SDG Progress in Asia-Pacific
Viewpoint by Kaveh Zahedi* and Van Nguyen** BANGKOK (IDN) – “The 2030 Agenda is coming to life”, declared the Secretary-General at the opening of the first SDG Summit [September 24-25], a quadrennial event for the follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As leaders from Asia-Pacific took the floor, they highlighted […]
European Support for the US Has Backed Iran into a Corner
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The Europeans have not done well in countering President Donald Trump’s onslaught on Iran. When Trump unilaterally decided that the U.S. should withdraw from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, which committed Iran to winding down its nuclear research in return for the West, Russia and China (the […]
Germany Must Help Shape Faltering Multilateral World Order
Viewpoint by Jiang Feng Prof Dr Jiang Feng chairs the University Council of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) in China. This article first appeared on International Politics and Society Journal, published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Brussels office. SHANGHAI | BRUSSELS (IDN-INPS) – For German government representatives and top politicians visiting China, a quick trip to Shanghai […]
South-South Cooperation Offers Solutions to Urgent Climate Challenges
Viewpoint by Jorge Chediek The author is Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation. NEW YORK (IDN) – Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. At stake are recent gains in the fights against poverty, hunger and disease, and the […]
Climate Change – What is in Store for Sri Lanka?
Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary. COLOMBO (IDN) – The annual Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) began in Madrid on December 2, largely unnoticed in Sri Lanka which is just […]
From the ‘War Against Nature’ to ‘Peace with Nature’
Viewpoint by Inge Kaul* BERLIN (IDN) – In his opening address to COP25 UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that, in the field of climate change, we are fast approaching the point of no-return and that, therefore, “our war against nature must stop”. He added that “that is possible”. Only, what “is still lacking is political […]
Small States Become Major Players and Big Cities Outstrip Nation-States
Viewpoint by Branko Milanović* NEW YORK (IDN) – In a series of books, and especially in Antifragile, Nassim Taleb has introduced an important concept — that of being antifragile, referring to ‘things that gain from disorder’. ‘Fragile’ is, of course, the opposite: it connotes something that thrives under stable conditions but, being brittle, loses, and […]
What’s Left? What’s Right? Or When Left Is Right
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – It goes back to the French revolution of 1789. At the Revolutionary Convention the most radical of the insurgents decided to seat themselves on the left side. “Why not on the other side, the right side, the place of rectitude, where law and the higher rights resided, […]
Making COP25 an ‘Ambitious’ Climate Summit
Viewpoint by Cleo Verkuijl The author is a Research Fellow at Stockholm Research Institute (SEI) Oxford and her main expertise is on climate change law and policy. She joined the SEI Oxford office in March 2017, where she is concentrating on legal and political aspects of fossil fuel subsidies reform. This article first appeared on […]