By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 20 May 2025 (IDN) — President Donald Trump’s antagonism towards China existed before the Coronavirus. Despite his bonhomie with President Jinping Xi whenever he meets him, he has gone all out with his trade war. He refuses to negotiate an extension of the nuclear weapons reduction agreement with Russia […]
UN Reform Is Not a Floorplan. It’s a Reckoning
By Stephanie Hodge* UNITED NATIONS | 20 May 2025 (IDN) — Last week’s leaked UN80 reform blueprint offers a sweeping architectural plan for a more “streamlined” UN. It proposes merging development-related entities, relocating operations to Nairobi, cutting senior posts, and centralizing administration through a new Executive Secretariat. It reads like a rebrand of the UN system […]
Heading For Nuclear War?
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 13 May 2025 (IDN) — Four years ago, US Strategic Command, the part of the military responsible for nuclear weaponry and its use, posted an official Tweet which read, “We must account for the possibility of a conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to […]
Peace and Disarmament Education: A Strategy to Prevent Dystopia
By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ BERLIN | 12 May 2025 (IDN) — Fancy people around the world singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” — of a world where there is “nothing to kill or die for” and “all the people living in peace…sharing all the world…as one”! Envision people beating their “swords into […]
India vs Pakistan, Two Nuclear Powers, in a Potentially Explosive Confrontation
By Thalif Deen* NEW YORK | 9 May 2025 (IDN) — Will the rising military tension between two of the world’s heavily-armed nuclear powers –India and Pakistan—lead to a full-scale war? The guessing game is on. The two South Asian countries have long remained locked in a bitter confrontation, mostly over the disputed territory of […]
Humanitarian Corridors: A Trojan Horse Threatening Bangladesh’s Sovereignty
By Tajul Islam* DHAKA, Bangladesh | 6 May 2025 (IDN) — In the ever-shifting terrain of global politics, ‘humanitarian corridors’ are increasingly wielded not as genuine lifelines for suffering populations but as instruments of foreign influence and domination. The recent decision to establish a United Nations-backed humanitarian corridor along the Chittagong–Rakhine route in Bangladesh is […]
Migration Trends: The Myth of Humane Integration Policies
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS | 28 April 2025 (IDN) — The debate on migration has calmed down a bit in the news media. However, this does not mean that the issue has been ‘solved’. Quite the opposite. In most discussions about migration, we tend to start with numbers. Understanding the scale changes, emerging trends and […]
The Sad Demise of the Painstakingly Constructed World Trading System
By Dr Palitha Kohona The writer was the Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to China and one-time Permanent Representative to the United Nations. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 28 April 2025 (IDN) — We may very well be witnessing the flickering embers of a painstakingly assembled global trading system being callously extinguished by President Trump with brutal […]
Trump’s First 100 Days an Assault on Rights
By Human Rights Watch WAHINGTON DC | 27 April 2025 (IDN) — The Trump administration’s first 100 days in office have been a relentless barrage of actions that violate, threaten, or undermine the human rights of people in the United States and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. To illustrate the breadth and depth of […]
Rising Global Debt Requires Countries to Put their Fiscal House in Order
By Era Dabla-Norris, Vitor Gaspar, Marcos Poplawski-Ribeiro WASHINGTON, D.C. | 26 April 2025 (IDN) — Major policy shifts underway have heightened global uncertainty. The series of recent tariff announcements by the United States, and countermeasures by other countries have increased financial market volatility, weakened growth prospects, and increased risks. They come in the context of […]