Situation in Sudan (per 23 February) The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed to have captured the city of Al-Tina near the Chad border this Saturday in a message posted on social media accompanied by video footage showing armed men celebrating. However, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Joint Force state they quickly recaptured the […]
Tribute to Dr. William Foege: A Giant of Global Public Health
By Kul Chandra Gautam The writer is a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. KATHMANDU, Nepal | 30 January 2026 (IDN) — This weekend, the world lost a true giant of global public health. Tributes are pouring in from public health scholars and leaders around the world, mourning the passing of […]
When the Centre No Longer Holds
The UN’s failure and the rise of the Board of Peace By Ramesh Jaura* This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/p/when-the-centre-no-longer-holds BERLIN | 29 January 2026 (IDN) — As the Canadian prime minister concluded his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 20 January 2026, the applause lingered, stretching just beyond the ordinary. […]
“If I Were Secretary-General…”
By Stephanie Hodge* NEW YORK | 2 December 2025 (IDN) — If I were the Secretary-General, I would stop pretending that the UN is a delicate Swiss clock that needs a light polishing. It’s not a clock. It’s an old mansion with leaky pipes, faulty wiring, and a family upstairs arguing about who forgot to […]
Trump, Deterrence, and the Erosion of Nuclear Restraint
By Ramesh Jaura* This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 16 November 2025 (IDN) — Ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on 30 October at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump declared he had ordered the resumption of U.S. nuclear testing. His statement shattered more […]
Is a Critical Pillar of the Global Nuclear Arms Control Architecture About to Crumble?
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 […]
UN80 Initiative – Between Renewal and Regression
By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury The following are extensive excerpts from the address by the former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, Ambassador Chowdhury — who founded the Global Movement for the Culture of Peace (GMCoP) — at the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) on the occasion of the […]
Wars on Women Escalate as Global Conflicts Surge
A landmark UN report sounds the alarm This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com BERLIN | 25 October 2025 (IDN) — When we think about war and peace, we often picture men in uniforms, generals in strategy rooms, and presidents at podiums. But around the world, it’s women who are bearing the brunt of war […]
Trump’s Assault on the UN is Self-Defeating
By Alon Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | October 22 2025 (IDN) — It is hard to imagine that there is not a single adult in Trump’s orbit to tell him that withdrawing from the many UN agencies that provide critical humanitarian services undermines rather than advances the United States’ national interest and global standing. There is […]
Trump’s CIA and Its Practices
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 21 October 2025 (IDN) — In Charles Dickens’s novel “A Tale of Two Cities”, set during the French revolution of 1789, he draws the character of Madame Defarge. She along with other members of the Tricoteuse, the knitting women, perch every day next to the guillotine, knitting into hats […]