By Bashir Mobasher and Zakira Rasooli* Toda Peace Institute issued this article, which is being republished with their permission. INDIANA, USA | DOHAN, Qatar | 11 December 2023 (IDN) — In July 2023, Tobias Ellwood, a UK parliamentarian and former Government Minister in the Ministry of Defense, released a video of himself stating that “security […]
Africa: Instability Slows Down Progress in Sustainable Development
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE, Zimbabwe | 10 December 2023 (IDN) — For almost two years, Zimbabwe’s opposition politician, Job Sikhala, has remained jailed without conviction after he was arrested in 2021, facing charges of inciting public violence. Another opposition leader, Jacob Ngarivhume, was jailed in April this year for four years on similar charges as […]
Myanmar’s Civil War Blowing Up India’s Act East Policy
Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE | 9 December 2023 (IDN) — After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, India has accelerated its ‘Act East Policy’ (AEP) to link more closely with its Southeast Asian neighbours to consolidate its geo-political power through trade and infrastructure development that reflects China’s Belt and Road […]
US Vetoes UN Resolution as Gaza Faces a Catastrophic Situation
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 8 December 2023 (IDN) — As intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza and fighting with Palestinian armed groups continued to impede humanitarian aid operations, reports on the ground of children begging for water and people cutting down telephone poles for firewood indicated that “society is about to break down”, the […]
What Kind of World Do We Want to Live In?
By Michael von der Schulenburg* This article is based on a speech at the “Never Again War — lay down your arms” rally in front of Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate on 25 November 2023. BERLIN | 8 December 2023 (IDN) — Today, we live in a world that is increasingly caught in the stranglehold of […]
Political Upheaval Haunts Bangladesh Ahead of January Polls
By M. A. Hossain* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 7 December 2023 (IDN) — The political milieu in Bangladesh has been fraught with tension, climaxing in weeks of protests and violent clashes, casting a shadow of apprehension as the scheduled general election on 7 January 2024 approaches. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), reinvigorated as the main opposition […]
Israel-Hamas War: A Two-State Solution Is Indispensable
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 7 December 2023 (IDN) — Unless Israel establishes an endgame strategy that will lead to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war against Hamas will only be another brutal violent episode that will prepare the ground for the next conflagration engulfing the West Bank and potentially set […]
Does It Make Sense to Invest Efforts in Reviving OSCE?
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 6 December 2023 (IDN) — With 57 participating States from North America, Europe and Asia (from Vancouver to Vladivostok), the OSCE—the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian—is the world’s largest regional security organization. Soon, it will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act of […]
Faith-based Organizations Warn Nuclear Arms as Worst of all Evils
By Razeena Raheem UNITED NATIONS | 1 December 2023 (IDN) — As the weeklong Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons concluded on December 1, a joint statement by a coalition of 115 faith-based and civil society organizations warned of the double violence of climate catastrophe and rampant […]
Ukraine War: A Steppingstone to Something Worse and More All-embracing?
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 29 November 2023 (IDN) — Trotsky, the one-time close comrade of Lenin, reportedly said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you”. In a time when there is talk of using nuclear weapons, we should pause to think about this. This is how it […]