By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK. 25 August 2023 (IDN) — In his 1987 book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, historian Paul Kennedy reassured Americans that the decline the United States was facing after a century of international dominance was “relative and not absolute, and is therefore perfectly natural; […]
UN May Seek Accountability for Saudi Killings of Hundreds of Migrants
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS. 23 August 2023 (IDN) — The United Nations has expressed serious concern over the killings of hundreds of migrants, mostly Ethiopians, crossing war-ravaged Yemen trying to reach Saudi Arabia. “I think trying to stop migration using the barrel of a gun is intolerable,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on […]
International Criminal Court Is No Longer a Paper Tiger
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden. 23 August 2023 (IDN) — There can be no question that if President Bashar al-Assad of Syria falls the International Criminal Court (ICC) will want to put him on trial for war crimes. The long arm of international law will reach him wherever he flees to. The ICC has an […]
Polarisation as a Challenge to Democracy
By Wolfgang Merkel* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BERLIN. 22 August 2023 (IDN) — It is above all social conflicts that shape politics, its disputes and its effects on democracy. The effects can be positive or negative, depending on the degree of conflict and […]
UN Dilemma: Terrorists vs Freedom Fighters
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS. 21 August 2023 (IDN) — A former UN Ad Hoc Committee chairman to Eliminate International Terrorism once predicted the UN will never agree on a definition of terrorism because “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. As someone rightly remarked: to the Indians, it is the Muslims in Kashmir; […]
India’s Karnataka State Has a New Approach to Feed the Hungry
By Manjushree Naik MANIPAL, India. 21 August 2023 (IDN) — With India facing the prospect of a grain crisis, the state government of Karnataka in southern India has come up with a novel approach to keep to election promises by giving the poor money to buy the grains. The Karnataka Government’s most ambitious programme, Annabhagya […]
The UN Charter Must Remain the Heart and Soul of Any New Peace Architecture
By Michael von der Schulenburg* This article is a contribution to the German peace movement’s pamphlet on the occasion of this year’s Anti-War Day on September 1. On this day, 84 years ago, the German Reich marched into Poland and ignited the Second World War, bringing indescribable destruction, misery and suffering to Europe and the […]
Opinion: Joe Biden’s Disastrous Diplomatic Gamble
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury* DHAKA, Bangladesh. 20 August 2023 (IDN) — In a series of swift and ill-conceived diplomatic moves, US President Joe Biden has plunged into catastrophic decision-making, most notably concerning Afghanistan. Biden’s first significant move involved the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, a decision that has had dire repercussions. His statement […]
NATO Enlargement Enthusiasts Look to the Indo-Pacific
By Ramesh Thakur* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. CANBERRA, Australia. 16 August 2023 (IDN) — Lord Ismay, NATO’s first secretary-general (SG), famously said the purpose of NATO was to “keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down”. The end of the […]
UN Aims to Decolonize 17 Territories Still Dependent on Colonial Powers
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS. 14 August 2023 (IDN) — The military coups in three former French colonies in West Africa—Burkina Faso, Mali, and most recently Niger—have turned the spotlight to one of the UN’s lesser-known mandates: the decolonization of “non-self-governing territories” (NSGTs). Last May, a United Nations forum on decolonization, which took place in […]