By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO | 11 September 2024 (IDN) — Kamala Harris won the debate. People being bombed in Gaza did not. The banner headline across the top of the New York Times home page—“Harris Puts Trump on Defensive in Fierce Debate”— was accurate enough. But despite the good news for people understandably eager for […]
How US Foreign Policy Affected Relations with Russia
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 10 September 2024 (IDN) — Two mistakes, committed on President Barack Obama’s watch, were the triggers for the end of the long post-Cold War period of good relations with Russia. They were the attack on Libya by the US, France and the UK and the subsequent killing of its […]
Pursuing Transitional Justice in the Aftermath of Peace in Nepal
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 9 September 2024 (IDN) — Ending a civil conflict is always an incredibly daunting task but ensuring a permanent peace that would enable the peace dividend to trickle down can often prove to be even more challenging. The unbalanced power dynamics and the inequities at the foundation of the […]
Is the IAEA Board up to the job: Safeguards at Sea?
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA | 9 September 2024 (IDN) — The Board of Governors (Board) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is holding its third regular meeting of the year during the week of 9 to 13 September 2024. Increasingly, astute observers are wondering whether the IAEA Board is up to the job mandated […]
Kosovo: The Closure of Parallel Institutions and Its Ramifications
By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 8 September 2024 (IDN) — Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti’s consistent efforts to assert Kosovo’s sovereignty over the predominantly ethnic Serb municipalities do not bolster Kosovo’s independence. Instead, Kurti’s misplaced efforts only strain EU-Kosovo ties while exposing his lack of confidence in Kosovo’s sovereign resiliency Kurti’s decision to close […]
Ukraine War: A Global Diplomatic Vacuum
By Christos Katsioulis, Walter Kemp* This article was issued by IPS-Journal. VIENNA | 6 September 2024 (IDN) — The recent ‘peace missions’ undertaken by Viktor Orbán, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, caused much consternation within the European Union. In particular, the question of who speaks for the EU and whether and to what […]
How the Neocons Chose Hegemony Over Peace Beginning in the Early 1990s
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* The following text is from Racket News (plus online discussion) and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 5 September 2024 (IDN) — In 1989 I served as an advisor to the first post-communist government of Poland, and helped to devise a strategy of financial stabilization and economic […]
Who Wants to Kill and Die for the American Empire?
By Nicolas J. S Davies* NEW YORK | 5 September 2024 (IDN) — The Associated Press reports that many of the recruits drafted under Ukraine’s new conscription law lack the motivation and military indoctrination required to actually aim their weapons and fire at Russian soldiers. “Some people don’t want to shoot. They see the enemy in the […]
It Is Time We Embrace Politics to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
By Minh-Thu Pham, Co-founder and CEO, Project Starling This article was originally published as SDG BLOG in the September issue of UN DESA Voice. NEW YORK | 4 September 2024 (IDN) — Despite being an inherently political institution, the United Nations is not a place where we like to talk about politics—at least explicitly. And […]
Holding the Press and White House Accountable: An Afterword on the Gaza War
By Marcy Winograd* SANTA BARBARA, California | 4 September 2024 (IDN) — In Norman Solomon’s new Afterword in the paperback edition of his book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, the author excoriates the White House for arming a genocide with assistance from a negligent press. Solomon tracks […]