Category: OPINION

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign policies – an integral part of any national strategy – command the highest priority of all nations.

Since World War II, several foreign policies of super powers did not yield expected results even though all policies and concomitant interventions came with guarantees of peace, prosperity and democracy that never materialized. 

As we know, the policies in the Far East led to devastation of Vietnam, North Korea and Laos, the policy of containment of communism, and the 45-year Cold War Policy ended the East European bloc and dismantled the Soviet Union, and the policies of pre-emptive strikes and of regime change destroyed the lives of millions of people in the Middle East. 

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

“I am proud to be a feminist … all of us need to be. That is how we make our planet a better place to live for all,” writes Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations. He is an internationally recognized initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000. He is the Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), a civil society entity promoting the UN Declaration and Programme Action on Culture of Peace.

By Bradnee Chambers

Dr. Bradnee Chambers is Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) an environmental treaty under the aegis of UN Environment. Below are excerpts from his keynote address at the side event on 17 May in the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn. – The Editor

BONN (IDN-INPS) – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are ground-breaking and highly synergistic agreements. Together they provide a vision and an agenda for shared prosperity and peace on a healthy planet.

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – China hosted a high-level forum on international cooperation within the “One Belt, One Road” strategy on May 14-15.

The forum held in Beijing was attended by leaders of 29 countries, over 1,500 delegates from 130 nations, and representatives from over 70 international organizations including the heads of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Opening the forum, China’s President Xi Jinping highlighted that peace and cooperation, openness and mutual benefit must be the basis of the New Silk Road initiative.

Interview with Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Dr. Daisaku Ikeda

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN-INPS) – Why is it important to highlight the role of young people in ushering in a New Era of Hope? Will the landmark UN Conference to negotiate “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination” succeed? How can UN Secretary-General António Guterres ensure sufficient support from the international community for implementing the SDGs and the Paris Climate Change Agreement?

Ramesh Jaura, Editor-in-Chief and International Correspondent of IDN, flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate group, asked SGI President Dr. Daisaku Ikeda these and related questions in an e-mail interview. Read the Q&A in full:

Viewpoint by LI Hong

LI Hong is Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand.

BANGKOK (IDN) – The Silk Road, which is a route linking several major world civilizations 2000 years ago, is invigorated by the Initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (BRI) proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013.

The Initiative represents a long-term transcontinental vision for enhanced global economic cooperation and integration. It seeks to underpin future growth, prosperity and sustainable development by promoting policy dialogue and coordination, seamless connectivity, trade facilitation, industry development and people-to-people communication.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Does anyone, however well-informed, know what President Donald Trump thinks about President Vladimir Putin? I hazard a guess that he is still more pro than anti, only he doesn’t quite know where to begin.

It’s time overdue that they met and hammered out on the anvil what their mutual interests are.

Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have left a legacy that makes it hard for Trump to manoeuvre. They have trampled not so much on Putin but on Russia’s core interests. When Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, and later Putin himself were lobbying for what the last Soviet leader, Mikhael Gorbachev, had called a “common European house” they were taking heed of a Russian mood to drive through a new entente.

By Seamus Jeffreson

Following is a slightly abridged text of the presentation by Seamus Jeffreson, Director of Brussels-based CONCORD, at the high-level Conference – titled ‘Sixty Years and Beyond: Contributing to Development Cooperation’ – in Rome on 27 April 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. CONCORD is the European Association of NGOs for relief and development, advocating sustainable development based on human rights, justice and gender equality.

ROME (IDN-INPS) – Before looking to the future, it is instructive to recall the origins of EU cooperation – enshrined unexpectedly and at the last minute in the Treaty of Rome.

Reading the memoires of Dieter Frisch – one of the doyens of EU cooperation over the years – it is striking how the concept of working together characterized the relationship between the African Caribbean and Pacific partners and the European Community from the beginning.

By Dr Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

Following are extensive excerpts from a statement by the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) at the high-level Conference – titled ‘Sixty Years and Beyond: Contributing to Development Cooperation’ – in Rome on 27 April 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. – The Editor

BRUSSELS (IDN-INPS) – The Treaties of Rome provided the historic foundations that enabled the fatal conflicts of war to be overcome by the spirit of peace and solidarity for the common good of all Europeans. Among the most undeniable success of the Treaties of Rome is the European Integration Project with its four freedoms – of goods, capital, services and people. We can together rightly celebrate one of the greatest landmarks of the post World War II era.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Last May a court in Senegal convicted and sentenced to life-imprisonment Hissène Habré, the former ruler of Chad, for the crime of torture and crimes against humanity. On April 27, 2017 an appeal court upheld the sentence and now Habré, who ran from Chad after a coup in a military transport that airlifted him, his entourage and a Mercedes to what he hoped would be a luxurious exile in Senegal, is languishing in an ordinary prison cell.

Habré’s government killed more than 40,000 people during his presidency from 1982 to 1990, when he was deposed. The American government made a last minute effort to save but failed. He had long been an important, if secret, ally. He was, according to Michael Bronner, writing in the respected Foreign Policy magazine in January 2014, “The centrepiece of the Reagan Administration’s attempt to undermine Muammar Gadaffi who had become an increasing threat and embarrassment to the US with his support of international terrorism”.