By Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta Following are extensive extracts from the speech delivered by Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta, at the 17th session of the UNIDO General Conference ‘Partnering for Impact: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’ in Vienna on November 27, 2017. Li Yong was re-appointed for a second term (2017-2021) as […]
Climate Change Hopes Vanish into Thin Air
By Andrea Vento* ROME (IDN) – The great hopes for a historical understanding to contain global warming in the wake of the proclamations of world leaders prior to the recent UN climate change conference in Bonn have evaporated. The ‘climate’ of confidence surrounding the conference – held in Bonn from November 6 to 17, officially known as the 23rd […]
Military’s Role Crucial in Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe
Viewpoint by Alemayehu G. Mariam The writer is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, a constitutional lawyer and Senior Editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. The source of this article is Pambazuka News, which republished it on November 23. It first appeared in The Hill. The views in […]
Sri Lanka’s ‘Vision 2025’ Development Programme Gets Going
By Indrajit Coomaraswamy Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy is Governor of the Sri Lanka Central Bank. The following, a rather comprehensive view of the state of the Sri Lankan economy, is based on a statement made at the United Nations on 20 November 2017. – The Editor UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Sri Lanka has experienced a 27-year […]
The Threat of a Nuclear War is Very High Today
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist noted for his research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. Presently an Associate Professor in quantum chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, since the early 1990s, he has been an active World peace activist. During these years, he was […]
Religious Extremism Down The Memory Lane
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – What drives people to extremes? Why do the people behind Wahhabism, Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS) get so charged up and angry? Perhaps to understand we should go back to the 16th century in Europe and the furious debate about the “divine right of kings”. For […]
Kenya A beacon of Hope, says UNDP Representative Siddharth Chatterjee*
BERLIN | NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS | WION) – Major Siddharth Chatterjee (Retd), the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator and the UNDP Resident Representative in Kenya, a humanitarian and development professional, a feminist and a passionate advocate for youth empowerment who has served in many war-ravaged and fragile parts of the world spoke exclusively to WION about his passion […]
UN Treaty Offers a Way Out of the Nuclear Crisis
The author is Secretary General of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and Professor of Physics at the University of Milan, Italy. Pugwash was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Following are extensive excerpts from a paper Professor Cotta-Ramusino presented to the conference on ‘Perspectives for a world free from nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament’ at Vatican City on 10 November 2017. – The Editor
VATICAN CITY (IDN-INPS) – Nuclear weapons have been used only twice in war, but nevertheless, the build-up of nuclear arsenals has progressed relentlessly up until the 1980s. The number of US nuclear weapons reached a maximum of 32,000 in 1967 while Soviet nuclear weapons reached a maximum of 45,000 in 1986.
Unnoticed Changes of Equilibrium in the Middle East
Viewpoint by Pier Francesco Zarcone*
ROME (IDN) – The occurrence of events and related “media bombardment” very often distract attention from the most profound – or wider – meaning of what has happened and is happening … and the necessary help in understanding does not always come from professional commentators. This is particularly true of the Middle East, theatre of a centuries-old conflict between Sunni Islam and Shiite Islam.
Generally speaking, a defeat of significant proportions of the first of these two Islams, with the consequent opening up of significant areas for the Shiites, is overlooked. The Sunni countries have lost all three wars against Israel, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (more or less secular, but Sunni) has in turn lost as many – the war with Iran and the two against the United States. In addition to that regime, domination of the Sunni minority over the rest of the Iraqi people has disappeared.
No Sign Yet of a Sustained Direct U.S.-North Korean Dialogue
By Daryl G. Kimball
Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption ‘Trump Repeats Failing Formula on North Korean Threat’.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – In his high profile address to the South Korean National Assembly November 8, President Donald Trump missed a crucial opportunity to clarify and adjust his administration’s disjointed and, at times, reckless policy toward North Korea.
Although Trump indicated earlier […] in a press conference in Seoul that he is “open” to talks with North Korea, he has also said in recent days that now is not the time for such talks but instead it is time to apply “more pressure” on North Korea to bring North Korea to bargaining table and to agree to eliminate its nuclear program. While in Asia, Trump has also repeated, albeit in less bombastic terms than before, that he will resort to the use of military force if North Korea does not back down.