By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA | 10 November 2025 (IDN) — On 26 September 1996, on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly, at the signing ceremony for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), then-US President William J. Clinton declared the treaty as “the longest-sought, hardest fought prize in arms control history.” He exaggerated; in […]
Festering conflict between Church and government in Armenia
By Benoit Lannoo* Antwerp | 5 November 2025 (IDN) – While President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan is ramping up his claim to the neighbouring country again, the conflict in Armenia between the government of Nikol Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church continues to fester. In recent weeks, Garegin II celebrated the 26th anniversary of his […]
East Timor Joins ASEAN — and Now Comes the Hard Part
Challenges and hopes for prosperity and stability. By Ramesh Jaura This article first appeared on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 3 November 2025 (IDN) — It took half a century, two foreign occupations, a UN peacekeeping mission, and one of the most extraordinary independence struggles of the modern era. But on 26 October 2025, East Timor — […]
From A Beacon of Democracy to Authoritarian Rule
There is a growing consensus among many notable political scientists and historians that America is at a perilous crossroads; Trump has chosen the road that leads to disastrous authoritarianism. The question is what it would take to stop Trump from destroying our democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship. By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | […]
The World Confronts the Genocide Washington Is Trying to Bury
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies NEW YORK | 27 October 2025 (IDN) — On 4 October 2025, in an interview with Axios, President Trump stressed that one of the main goals behind his Gaza plan was to restore Israel’s international standing. “Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in […]
From Illusion to Real Peace: Trump’s Test in Gaza and Ukraine
By Jeffrey D. Sachs & Sybil Fares This article was originally published on Al Jazeera and is being reproduced with the authors’ permission. NEW YORK | 24 October 2025 (IDN) — United States President Donald Trump styles himself as a peacemaker. In his rhetoric, he claims credit for his efforts to end the wars in […]
They Make a Desert and Call it Peace
By James E. Jennings* ATLANTA, USA | 10 October 2025 (IDN) — While the world celebrates Peace in Gaza, people in Tel Aviv and Gaza are rubbing their eyes as if waking from a dream. Relief is palpable among the Palestinians because their daily haunting fear of dying at any minute over the past 24 […]
Urgent Next Steps for Palestine at the UN
By Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 9 October 2025 (IDN) — As US President Donald Trump surely intended, his “20-point Gaza plan” succeeded in upstaging calls by many other world leaders at the UN General Assembly for concrete, coordinated UN-led measures to force Israel to end its criminal genocide in Gaza and the […]
A Rare Alignment: The World Stands Ready, Are the Palestinians?
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 2 October 2025 (IDN) — The international community has rallied behind the Palestinians in support of their aspiration for statehood. The question is, will the Palestinians seize this rare opportunity and adopt a new strategy critical to realizing their national goal? I do not recall a period since the […]
A Serious Proposal: Russia and China Call for Global Strategic Stability
By Alice Slater* NEW YORK | 1 October 2025 (IDN) — It’s ironic that the arms control community is protesting the idea of resuming nuclear test detonations. The nuclear test detonations have never stopped. Although Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, he swiftly funded the “Stockpile Stewardship” program at the […]