Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu Following are extensive excerpts from a video briefing by Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), to the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on 7 February 2019. NEW YORK | GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – 2019 will be a weighty year for the Conference on Disarmament. As a […]
A Nuclear Arms Race Will Produce No Winners
Despite everything, it is still in our power to avoid nuclear confrontation. Viewpoint by Mikhail Gorbachev* MOSCOW (IDN-INPS) – The fate of the INF treaty has politicians and ordinary people worried on every continent. I am also concerned, and not only because I signed that treaty with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Dec. 1987. […]
Why Walls Make Little Sense
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It’s time overdue that the misleading myths on immigration are thrown into the trashcan. They are causing untold damage. The fact is that President Donald Trump’s own government research shows that Mexican migration has dropped sharply in recent years. In Britain, the Brexit debate which began with […]
Trump’s Emergency A Step Towards Presidential Dictatorship
Viewpoint by Patrick Martin* TORONTO (IDN | INPS) – President Trump’s proclamation of a state of national emergency on the southern U.S. border is a frontal assault on constitutional norms and democratic rights in America. It is the first time in American history that a president has sought to usurp the constitutional prerogative of Congress […]
India’s Hindu Nationalists Celebrate Gandhi Assassination
By Ram Puniyani* This article is the third in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. MUMBAI (IDN) – On January 30, 2019, when the whole country was observing the 71st martyrdom day of ‘Father of the Nation’, Mahatma Gandhi, the members of Hindu Mahasabha […]
Why I Became A CTBTO Youth Group Member
By Ilya Kursenko MOSCOW (IDN) – It all began with a question to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2016 during the plenary session of the 20th anniversary of CTBTO, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. I asked him back then: “What can the youth do to change the world?” Right after […]
Why Venezuela’s Oil Money Could Keep Undermining Its Economy And Democracy
By Scott Morgenstern and John Polga-Hecimovich* LONDON (IDN-INPS) – As political and economic crises threaten to topple Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, political scientists like us are not surprised that he has run into trouble. Instead, we see Venezuela as another example of what scholars call the “resource curse.” That’s the unfortunate correlation first described by […]
Venezuela Crisis Drives A Wedge Between Europeans
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) – It’s a topsy-turvy world. President Emmanuel Macron’s France can recognise Juan Guaido, who is leading the protests in distant Venezuela, as “Interim President” of that country. But Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio cannot meet “Yellow Vest” protestors demonstrating on the streets of Paris. Why is […]
Writing From A Sinking Vessel
Viewpoint by Federico Mayor Zaragoza* BARCELONA (IDN) – “Suddenly,” said Leonardo Da Vinci, “there are no poor and rich, no young and old, no white and black on board … only a bunch of passengers toiling, working together to survive, to avoid a shipwreck.” This is the advice we should convey today through all media […]
Mercenaries Undermine Rule Of Law, Perpetuate Impunity
Viewpoint by António Guterres The following is the text of UN Secretary-General’s remarks to a high-level debate of the Security Council on ‘Mercenary activities as a source of insecurity and destabilization in Africa’ with the Central African sub-region as a focus, under the presidency of Equatorial Guinea for the month of February. Equatorial Guinea President […]