By José Antonio Ocampo and Karla Daniela González, Columbia University This article was first published in the 2023/2024 UNDP Human Development Report – Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world –on 13 March 2024. NEW YORK | 14 March 2024 (IDN) — There is broad-based agreement among the United Nations and the Group […]
Are We Stumbling into World War III in Ukraine?
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 13 March 2024 (IDN) — President Biden began his State of the Union speech with an impassioned warning that failing to pass his 61 billion dollar weapons package for Ukraine “will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk, the free world at risk.” But […]
The First Europeans Reached Ukraine 1.4 Million Years Ago—New Research
By John Jansen, Czech Academy of Sciences* PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia | 11 March 2024 (IDN) — During warm periods in Earth’s history, known as interglacials, glaciers the size of continents pulled back to reveal new landscapes. These were new worlds for early humans to explore and exploit, and 1.4 million years ago this was Europe: a […]
Russia Must Withdraw Unconditionally from Ukraine
By Stavros Lambrinidis The author is Head of the European Union‘s Delegation to the United Nations, at the UN Security Council. Following are extensive excerpts from his Statement to the UN Security Council on 8 March 2024. NEW YORK | 10 March 2024 (IDN) — When the UN Secretary-General visited Kyiv in 2022, Russian missiles […]
Small Modular Reactors: Climate Benefits, Climate-Vulnerability
By Vitaly Fedchenko* The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published this article in ‘WritePeace Blog’. STOCKHOLM, Sweden | 9 March 2024 (IDN) — The nuclear power plants of the 20th century were, for the most part, enormous beasts. They cost many billions of dollars to build and needed a sizable and well-trained workforce to […]
Let Us Strive to Build a Gender Equal World
By Anwarul K. Chowdhury Ambassador Chowdhury is a former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN. NEW YORK | 9 March 2024 (IDN) — This year’s International Women’s Day is being observed as two major wars are making their vicious attacks on the aspirations of peaceful peoples of the world for a safer, saner and […]
Achieving the Two-State Solution in the Wake of the Gaza War
By Jeffrey D. Sachs & Sybil Fares* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 7 March 2024 (IDN) — Peace can come through the immediate implementation of the two-state solution, making the admission of Palestine to the United Nations the starting point, not the […]
UN’s Lagging Development Goals Need a Sense of Urgency
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal | 6 March 2024 (IDN)—The latest Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) was recently launched in Bangkok. As usual, it was a mix of official interventions by ministries from the whole region and a wide-ranging array of exciting side events organized mainly by civil society in partnership with United […]
The World’s Freedom: The Picture Is Not That Gloomy
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 5 March 2024 (IDN) — In 1991, the Cold War ended and the good times began—the big powers stopped using their veto in the UN Security Council, the number of wars fell dramatically, human rights improved all over the world including in Russia and China, and the number of […]
Boots on the Ground?
By Herbert Wulf* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN, Germany | 5 March 2024 (IDN) — During the last week of February, an international conference in support of Ukraine was held in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. The reason for […]