By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 26 May 2026 (IDN) — Turkey’s human rights record has crossed from troubling to indefensible. Behind the language of counterterrorism and national security lies a systematic campaign that has dismantled the rule of law, criminalised dissent, and stripped hundreds of thousands of their most basic rights. In the aftermath […]
The World Tilts into A New Great Power Struggle
The New Age of Power and Peril By Ramesh Jaura This article first appeared on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 21 May 2026 (IDN) — The world’s geopolitical centre of gravity is shifting once again, and the personal diplomacy of US President Donald Trump is increasingly part of the equation. His complex and often controversial relationships with […]
Does it Matter to Africa if Nigel Farage Comes to Number 10?
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 14 May 2026 (IDN) — The next British general election is in 2029, but you could already feel the tremor from the Council election of May 7. The surge of […]
A World Edging Back Toward the Nuclear Brink
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 29 April 2026 (IDN) — Not long ago, U.S. Strategic Command—the branch responsible for nuclear weapons—issued a stark warning: conflict conditions could “very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option.” That sober assessment captures a growing unease. President Joe Biden’s decision to send […]
Conflict-ridden Sahel at the Crossroads
The Impact of the Iran War on West African Power and Conflict By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 25 April 2026 (IDN) — The war involving Iran, Israel, and the United States is centred in the Middle East, but its effects are quickly changing geopolitical boundaries far beyond that […]
After Recognition: The UN’s Next Reckoning on Slavery
Will global powers act—or stall—on reparative justice? By Ramesh Jaura This article first appeared on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 2 April 2026 (IDN) — The United Nations’ declaration of the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” marked a moment of moral clarity on March 25, 2026. Yet, almost immediately, geopolitical tensions and diverging […]
Brute Force Prevails The Global Order
The UN is sidelined as U.S.-backed Israel strikes deep into Iran By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 25 March 2026 (IDN) — Wars no longer announce themselves with official proclamations. They creep forward, strike by strike, each retaliation erasing another line once thought uncrossable. In April 2024, Israel’s unprecedented […]
Europe Confronts a World Without Guarantees
The Merz Doctrine, and the Cost of Strategic Adulthood This article first appeared on https://rjaura.substack.com By Ramesh Jaura* BERLIN | 1 March 2026 (IDN) — For nearly eight decades, Europe thrived under the sturdy canopy of a security order that felt immovable. The United States was the bedrock of NATO, its power a shield against […]
Why Europe Conquered the World and What Next
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 25 February 2026 (IDN) — Eleven hundred years ago, Europe was a backwater. There were no grand cities, apart from Cordoba in Spain, which was Muslim. The Middle East was much further ahead, still absorbing the intellectual delights and challenges of Greek science, medicine, and architecture, while Europeans were […]
Africa Is Not a Chessboard
Those who recognize this will help shape the future By Ramesh Jaura This article first appeared on rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 24 February 2026 (IDN) — From a European vantage point, with transatlantic ties on shaky ground, the recent African Union Summit in Addis Ababa felt less like a formal gathering and more like a seismic […]