Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf Just as the senators of Rome fiddled away while the city burned, today’s diplomats seem helpless in averting the total collapse of nuclear arms control thus paving the way for a dangerous new nuclear arms race with increased risks of accidental or deliberate use of nuclear weapons. Tariq Rauf was Alternate […]
China’s Three-Child Policy Is Unlikely to Better the Demographic Situation
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) — China’s announcement of May 31 to allow couples to have three children, instead of two as is the rule now, has not captured the attention it deserves for its ramifications because the country is so much in the news for the wrong reasons such as its military […]
In Quest of a More Equal World
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Maybe, after all, there is an argument for saying that the world needs more violence not less if we are to make its societies more equal. This is one conclusion one can derive from Walter Scheidel’s new book, The Great Leveler. He starts from what we all […]
Deep Sea Marine Science Is Key to Unlocking the Potential of Our Oceans
Viewpoint by Michael W. Lodge and Vladimir Ryabinin The following is a joint op-ed by Michael W. Lodge, Secretary-General of International Seabed Authority, and Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of IOC-UNESCO. KINGSTON, Jamaica (IDN) – There has never been a time of greater promise or greater challenge for the future of our oceans. This is the […]
Malaysian Diplomat Shows Courage on Way to Landmark NPT Review Conference
Viewpoint by Ray Acheson This article first appeared as Editorial in NPT News in Review, Vol. 16, No. 7 on May 10, 2019. The writer is the Director of Reaching Critical Will – the disarmament programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). She represents WILPF on several coalition steering groups, including […]
Move Fast on Cameroon Before a Window of Opportunity Closes
Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens GENEVA (IDN) – On May 8, 2019, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, after a three-day mission to the Cameroon, welcomed the Cameroon government’s willingness to cooperate over finding workable solutions to what she called “major human rights and humanitarian crises” caused […]
Beware of Negativity Bias Running Riot
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Do we, especially our politicians and media, focus more on threats than on opportunities, dwell on loses more than on gains, and learn more from past failures than from successes? When we are children we are frightened of bogeymen. When we are adults we often inflate dangers. […]
Burqa Ban Does Not Absolve Sri Lanka Govt. of Responsibility for Carnage
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK (IDN) – One week after the heinous bomb blasts that shattered the calm of an Easter Sunday, the Sri Lankan Sunday Times carried an editorial titled ‘Let’s resurrect ourselves from this catastrophe’. This was a timely advice since only crude opportunists would attempt to hijack “the dastardly attacks by […]
Hate Speech: Tech Companies and World Leaders Opt for Band-Aid Solutions
Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN. SINGAPORE (IDN) […]
Saudi Gas Ambitions Likely to Have Geopolitical Impact
Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN. SINGAPORE (IDN) […]