By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA, 30 June 2023 (IDN) — It doesn’t make sense to weigh tragedies on a scale. How do you measure them? Leo Tolstoy got it right in Anna Karenina when he said whereas all happy families are alike, every […]
Is Patriotism Confined to Killing and Being Killed?
By Norman Solomon* SAN FRANCISCO, USA, 29 June 2023 (IDN) — The Fourth of July—the ultimate patriotic holiday—is approaching again. Politicians orate, American Flags proliferate and, even more than usual, many windows on the world are tinted red, white and blue. But an important question remains unasked: Why are patriotism and war so intertwined in […]
A Viable Path for Moving Back to Nuclear Arms Control
By Daryl G. Kimball The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following text was published in the organization’s monthly journal, Arms Control Today. WASHINGTON, D.C., 28 June 2023 (IDN) — Deteriorating relations between the major nuclear powers have stymied progress on nuclear arms control and disarmament for more than […]
Climate Change, Disasters and Armed Conflict
By Tobias Ide* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. PERTH, Australia, 27 June 2023 (IDN) — Humanity will very likely not keep global warming to two degrees Celsius (relative to pre-industrial temperatures). This means that during the 21st century, humanity will cross an important planetary […]
We Still Have a Long Way to Reach a World Sans Violence
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden, 27 June 2023 (IDN) — The world over most of public opinion is ignorant of just how much violence has declined over the last 3,000 years. Judging by the historical record, the 21st century, thus far, is the least violent and safest century of all—despite Ukraine, despite ISIS, despite Iraq, […]
‘America Faces Its Greatest Peril Since the Civil War’
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK, 24 June 2023 (IDN) — Republican leaders who claim to put country before party must now rise up along with their Democratic colleagues and together save the country from extremist right-wing Republicans before it’s too late. Those Republicans surrendered their soul and conscience to Trump—a criminal and corrupt wannabe […]
US President Walks Back on Ukraine’s NATO Accession
By M.K. Bhadrakumar The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was published by Indian Punchline. NEW DELHI, 23 June 2023 (IDN) — If only the US President Joe Biden had a time machine as in the post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, he should have used that vehicle or device to […]
De-Risking, Not De-Coupling: Is It More Than A Smart Shift In Terminology?
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN, Germany, 22 June 2023 (IDN) — How to deal with China? The Western industrialised countries have been trying for some time to find a convincing China strategy. One result of the recent G7 summit […]
Global South Unites to End Western Ambitions for Hegemony
Viewpoint by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury* DHAKA, Bangladesh, 21 June 2023 (IDN) — When analysts ask, what does the Ukraine war have to do with Bangladesh or Brazil, most of the people may say, perhaps not much. But in reality, Western sanctions on Russia following the outbreak of the Ukraine war is causing tremendous suffering […]
The Madness of Missiles, An Ode to Daniel Ellsberg
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden, 20 June 2023 (IDN) — The nuclear weapon missile business is contradictory, full of missteps, highly dangerous and prepared in its madness (Mutually Assured Destruction, aka MAD, they used to call it in Cold War days) to plunge the world into a nuclear war that could reduce much if not […]