By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 9 August 2026 (IDN) — The men who could replace Netanyahu know the truth and refuse to say it. A Palestinian state is not an existential threat to Israel; the endless denial of one is. By reciting the old lie for votes, Israel’s opposition is not offering a new […]
Governments Must Act Now to Stop the Tobacco Industry Recruiting the Next Generation of Customers
By Gene Gesite Jr., Juan Herrera, Sama Ghozlan, Sarah Rauzana and Winnie Olwal BANGKOK | 8 August 2026 (IDN) — On International Youth Day (12 August), youth advocates around the world are calling on governments to take stronger action to protect young people from nicotine addiction. In Asia, proposals in the Philippines to raise the […]
Forestalling Future Viruses Must Be Done — And It Can Be Done Inexpensively
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 5 August 2026 (IDN) — Almost forgotten in the story about the Coronavirus is the story of AIDS. The drive to deal with it, the search to find medicine to cure it, and the self-discipline by homosexuals only began in 1981, when the disease was discovered and its causes understood. […]
Rebuilding Before Peace
How Ukraine Is Reshaping Europe and the International Order By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 4 August 2026 (IDN) — The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has now gone well beyond being just a conflict in a particular region; it has changed Europe’s strategic position, brought deterrence back to […]
The Challenges Facing African Candidates for the Top Job at the United Nations
By Rev. Gabriel Odima The writer is President & Director of Political Affairs, Africa Centre for Peace & Democracy. MINNESOTA, USA | 31 July 2026 (IDN) — President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda’s decision to nominate Ambassador Olara Otunnu for the top job at the United Nations is, in my view, a mockery of the international […]
Who Will Lead the United Nations?
Leadership, Legitimacy and the Future of Multilateralism By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ BERLIN | 27 July 2026 (IDN) — The election of the next United Nations Secretary-General is about far more than choosing the Organisation’s ninth leader. It will test whether the international community still believes dialogue, cooperation and shared […]
Genocides Are No Bargaining Chips
By Benoit Lannoo* ANTWERP, Belgium | 25 July 2026 (IDN) — The relations of the State of Israel with Türkiye and Azerbaijan have been under great tension since the Israeli government submitted a bill recognising the Armenian Genocide to the parliament, the Knesset, at the end of June. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu did not […]
War-War and Jaw-Jaw
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 22 July 2026 (IDN) –Donald Trump will find out the hard way in Iran that, as Winston Churchill famously observed, “Jaw-Jaw is better than War-War.” If war can be avoided through a warm, lengthy, private conversation—without advisers, accompanied by generous gestures and promises of international recognition when his opponent, […]
Recognition, Right, and the Stateless: A Fichtean Critique of the Plight of the Rohingya
By Sam Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 21 July 2026 (IDN) — In a world that proclaims human rights as universal, what does it mean that entire peoples are rendered legally nonexistent—human beings for whom, as Hannah Arendt put it, “no law exists”? This essay turns to Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s philosophy of recognition to argue that the […]
The New UN Resident Coordinator System Still Needs to Prove Itself
A Rushed Restructuring May Make Things Worse By Mohammed Chiraz Baly The writer is a staff representative and former General Secretary of the CCISUA staff union federation. He is also a data analyst at UNCTAD focusing on investment financing in developing countries. GENEVA, Switzerland | 20 July 2026 (IDN) — Resident coordinators represent the UN […]