Category: OPINION

By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK, 1 June 2023 (IDN) — The 15th BRICS Summit is scheduled to take place in August this year in Durban, South Africa at a time of great upheaval—both political and economical—throughout the world. BRICS is an acronym for five regional economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The first […]

By Alon Ben-Meir* This article was originally published in CNN Arabic [https://arabic.cnn.com/middle-east/article/2023/05/29/saudi-peace-process-israel-palestinians-oped-alon-ben-meir] NEW YORK, 31 May 2023 (IDN) — Israel and the Palestinians will not find a solution to their conflict without third-party mediation. Such a party is no longer the traditional arbiter, the US, but Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have created a promising geostrategic […]

By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden, 30 May 2023 (IDN) — The war in Syria has dropped out of the news, like almost everything else, in a time when the Ukraine war seems to dominate all discourse and reporting. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to strangle its own country. Even last year the Russians […]

By Ramzy Baroud* WASHINGTON, 29 May 2023 (IDN) — It is unclear why 100-year-old Henry Kissinger has been elevated by Western intelligentsia to serve the role of the visionary in how the West should behave in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. But does the centenarian politician have the answers?

UNITED NATIONS, 28 May 2023 (IDN) — The sad demise of Sri Lanka’s veteran diplomat Dr Jayantha Dhanapala at the Kandy National Hospital, was announced on 27 May. Following are tributes by Nandasiri (Nandi) Jasentuliyana, former Deputy Director-General of the United Nations and Director UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOSA), and Ambassador A. L. […]

By Tomohiko Aishima* & Shahin Ashraf** TOKYO, 25 May 2023 (IDN) — When the leaders of powerful nations meet, finding ways to maintain peace is one of their most important responsibilities. But as the G7 meeting in Hiroshima has come to an end, some of the world’s most powerful leaders have let two opportunities to […]

Viewpoint by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury* DHAKA, Bangladesh, 23 May 2023 (IDN) — The Biden administration is aggressively pushing forward its ‘democratism’ policy with the ulterior motive of kowtowing targeted foreign nations through its so-called approach for a better democracy.

By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden, 23 May 2023 (IDN) — Do we, especially our politicians and media, focus more on threats than on opportunities, dwell on loses more than on gains, and learn more from past failures than from successes? When we are children, we are frightened of bogeymen. When we are adults, we often […]

By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK, 22 May 2023 (IDN) — In the year 2000, the U.S. government debt was $3.5 trillion, equal to 35% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2022, the debt was $24 trillion, equal to […]

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN, Germany, 21 May 2023 (IDN) — The G7 summit of foreign ministers in Japan in mid-April sought to emphasise the need for a unified China policy. However, the diplomatic pronouncements can only gloss over […]