OPINION

Photo: Defense Ministers from 14 NATO Allies and Finland came together in Brussels on Thursday (13 October 2022) to sign a Letter of Intent for the development of a “European Sky Shield Initiative”. Source: NATO

Sky Shield & the Spiraling U.S.-NATO Arms Race

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson

The writer is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security and Co-Convener of the Peace & Planet International Network.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Biden Administration’s recent National Security Strategy announced that the post-Cold War order is now history, and that the yet to be named new era is defined by military, economic, and technological competition to shape the new order. NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S./NATO response, as well as the trade war with China are all major elements in these debilitating, and at times murderous, struggles for hegemony—regional and global.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 December 2022

Photo: US President Joe Biden. Source: The White House.

President Biden Wants to Prevent a Strong Primary Challenge

But He Shouldn’t Get Away with It

Viewpoint by Norman Solomon*

SAN FRANCISCO (IDN) — Joe Biden has directed the Democratic National Committee to reduce the danger that progressives might effectively challenge him in the 2024 presidential primaries. That’s a key goal of his instructions to the DNC on December 2, when Biden insisted on dislodging New Hampshire—the longtime first-in-the-nation primary state where he received just 8 per cent of the vote and finished fifth in the 2020 Democratic primary.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 December 2022

Photo: A woman passing by a painting on a wall of the former US embassy in Tehran in 2004 showing the US as a Satan. Credit: Behrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse

Washington Should Offer Iran a Nuclear Deal It Cannot Decline

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The policies of Iran’s government are not set in stone, as critics interminably suggest. Only three days ago (on December 4), Iran’s prosecutor-general was reported as saying that the morality police were being disbanded. Clearly, two months of demonstrations, led mainly by women, and now with open support from Iran’s football World Cup team competing in Qatar, have made the government have a big think about its long-term policies.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 December 2022

Photo: Russian imports have dropped sharply, reflecting the decision of multinational companies to sever ties with Russia. Courtesy: The New York Times.

Sanctions Hit Russia as Moscow Attempts to Overcome Them

Viewpoint by John P. Ruehl

This article was produced by Globetrotter. John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S., the UK, and the EU placed major sanctions on Russia to constrict its economy and restrain its war effort. Having been updated several times since, these sanctions have compounded the effects of the previous sanctions placed on Russia in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 December 2022

Nuclear Risks and Technological Proliferation

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is a former High Representative of the United Nations for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — 60 years after the Cuban missile crisis, the spectre of the imminent use of nuclear weapons once again haunts humankind. On that occasion, however, the crisis lasted for just 13 days until John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, in direct contact, arrived at the agreement that made possible the withdrawal of the Soviet weapons from the Caribbean Island in exchange for the non-stationing of American nuclear arms in Turkey.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 05 December 2022

Photo: From ‘Democrat’ to Autocrat: Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe Credit: Asian Affairs London.

Sri Lanka’s Economic Recovery? False Positive

By Neville de Silva*

This article was issued by Asian Affairs (London).

LONDON (IDN) — The sense of economic optimism expressed by Sri Lanka’s increasingly despotic president is not shared by the country’s long-suffering people.

Presenting his first budget since assuming office as president after his predecessor fled the country, Ranil Wickremesinghe seemed to see a new dawn on the horizon. Speaking in parliament in mid-November, he saw ‘a glimmer of hope on emerging from the economic abyss’, adding that it was ‘currently visible’.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 04 December 2022

Putting Anti-racism & Anti-discrimination High on the International Agenda

Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti*

KATHMANDU (IDN) — A recent UNESCO Forum provided some impetus to the fight against racism and discrimination, but the level of the problems involved required a much bigger commitment.

It is unfortunate that the second edition of the Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination, organized by UNESCO in Mexico City on November 28-29, did not get the attention and visibility it should have commanded.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 03 December 2022

Photo: US President Joe Biden. Credit: The White House

US President Biden’s Disappointing Nuclear Posture Review

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following text was published in the organization’s monthly journal, Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Since the end of the Cold War, every U.S. president has conducted an in-depth review of the nation's nuclear strategy. Each study, including President Joe Biden’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), has produced disappointing results. That is because they all maintain a dangerous reliance on the threat to use nuclear weapons to deter and, if necessary, respond to hostile attacks, including non-nuclear attacks, “that have a strategic effect against the United States or its allies and partners.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 December 2022

Photo: India's Prime Minister Modi. Source: Hindustan Times

India Pledges “One Earth, One Family, One Future”

Viewpoint by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India

The Indian Express issued this article, and it is being republished because it announces India’s agenda during its G20 Presidency, which commenced on December 1.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — The previous 17 Presidencies of the G20 delivered significant results—for ensuring macro-economic stability, rationalising international taxation, relieving debt-burden on countries, among many other outcomes. We will benefit from these achievements, and build further upon them.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 01 December 2022

Photo: Trump as 25th US President (cropped). Source: White House.

The Outcome of US Midterm Elections Will Not Halt Trump

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — Former US President Donald Trump didn’t just happen to the United States. He hit the world like the climax of a horror movie. Scene after scene, act after act, left the thoughtful in bewilderment, the reserved in shame, and even the incorrigible in doubt. Only the fantasts and ultra-right-wing extremists were impressed by Trump’s macabre dance.