Peace & Justice

Photo: Debris of Afghan civil war: A boy runs past a destroyed Soviet-made armoured tank on a Kabul street, Afghanistan. (File photo)

Viewing Post-American Afghanistan Through Looking Glass

Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar

The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was first published in the Indian Punchline.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Ex-CIA officer Bruce Riedel at Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, whose familiarity with Afghanistan is never in doubt, has held a looking glass to figure out the future course of events even as the US troop withdrawal commences.

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Riedel sees in the haziness old familiar shapes appearing—the erstwhile Northern Alliance warlords. And he invokes the fate of the communist regime led by Dr Najibullah after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 29 April 2021

Photo: Many Pacific nations are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Image: In the Eye of the Storm.

New Zealand’s Climate Aid in the Pacific Comes With Strings Attached

By Matthew Scott*

A special feature moved in association with the Asia Pacific Report.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (IDN) — The beach is vanishing, one day at a time. The sea approaches the coastal village. It will not be negotiated with. With seawater flooding the water table, crops that have fed the islanders for centuries are losing viability. The problem is invisible, under the people’s feet. But it demands change.

Each year, the cyclones have seemed to get more volatile and less predictable. What used to be a cycle of weathering the storm and rebuilding has become a frenetic game of wits with the elements.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 29 April 2021

Photo: Terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. Credit: Sri Lanka government.

A Counterpoint to 'Geopolitics of the 2019 Easter Sunday Crime in Sri Lanka and Cover-Up by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake'

Viewpoint by Muttukrishna Sarvananthan PhD*

POINT PEDRO, Sri Lanka (IDN) — I have read with great interest Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake’s well-crafted conspiracy theory on the Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka in a two-part viewpoint dated November 2020 and April 18, 2021. There are a few factual inaccuracies or deliberate hyperbole to insinuate that the United States of America (USA) was directly or indirectly responsible for the carnage.

: South Asia Bureau; OPINION; 24 April 2021

Photo: Capt. Matthew Dixon, who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, receives a combat patch during his deployment to Afghanistan during the spring of 2020. U.S. ARMY

The US to End its War In Afghanistan, “The Graveyard of Empires”

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden of the United States announced that its war in Afghanistan, the US’s longest war ever, will end on September 11, 2021.

A glimpse of Afghanistan’s history—dubbed as “the country where Empires go to die” will help us understand why many empires failed in that country.

Afghanistan, rightfully called a “graveyard of empires”, is a mountainous landlocked country located along the ancient Silk Road between Asia and Europe, and surrounded by powerful nations such as India, Pakistan, and Russia.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 23 April 2021

Photo: The talks in the Joint Commission of the JCOPA in the Austrian capital on bridging what the US calls “tremendous and profound differences” over how to salvage the nuclear agreement. Source: Eureporter.

Optimism Over Progress in Vienna Talks on Iran Nuclear Deal

By Kelsey Davenport, Julia Masterson and Sang-Min Kim

While Kelsey Davenport is Director for Nonproliferation Policy and Julia Masterson, Research Associate at the Arms Control Association, Sang-Min Kim is Scoville Fellow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — The United States, Iran, and the other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal expressed varying degrees of optimism over the progress made during recent talks in Vienna on the necessary steps to restore full implementation of the accord.

: Arms Control Association; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 April 2021

Photo: Counter-attack by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces supported by T-34 tanks near Playa Giron during the Bay of Pigs invasion, 19 April 1961, by CIA-led Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. CC BY 3.0.

Lessons of the Bay of Pigs Invasion Followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is well remembered, even by those not yet born when it happened. The word has been passed down the generations and probably always will be. It was the first and only time, say many historians and political scientists, that the world faced the likelihood of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the USA.

For my part, I find it impossible to forget.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 April 2021

Photo: The assembly of Vietnamese officials, foreign diplomats and the UN family led by Resident Coordinator Kamal Malhotra welcoming on April 1, the day Viet Nam assumed the presidency of the Security Council, its first shipment of 811,200 COVID-19 vaccine doses shipped via the COVAX Facility at its National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. Source: UNAI.

Walking History Through Viet Nam's Security Council Presidency

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd was first published in #WhyWeCare on April 15.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) — If, as Suzanne Nossel writes, “the United Nations remains the closest thing to a system of global governance that the world has ever known and may ever achieve,” much is owed to its unique convening capacity in bringing together erstwhile adversaries, even combatants, to a shared sense of participatory purpose which, at its finest, is reflected in the unanimity of resolutions consciously conceived in common cause.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 20 April 2021

Photo: Rwanda Genocide suspect Munyenyezi faces seven counts in Rwanda Source: Africa CGTN

Genocide Suspect Back in Rwanda After Losing Appeal to Remain in the U.S.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — After two unsuccessful appeals in the U.S., a Rwandan woman is back in Kigali where she stands to face prosecution for her active role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

In an application for political asylum, Beatrice Munyenyezi denied that she had been involved in the killing of Tutsis in Rwanda. But witnesses were found and told a court how Munyenyezi had inspected identity cards at a notorious roadblock where ethnic Tutsis were singled out for slaughter.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 19 April 2021

Photo: Catholics, Buddhists and Muslims hold silent protest to demand the truth about the Easter Sunday massacre. Credit: SL Time, Colombo Page News Desk.

Two Years On: Geopolitics of The 2019 Easter Sunday Crime in Sri Lanka and Cover-Up

The Weaponization of Religion Amid Hybrid Cold War in The Indian Ocean Region

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The writer is a cultural and medical anthropologist with research expertise in international political economy, peace, and development studies in South and South-East Asia. Her research spans issues in gender and women’s empowerment, migration and multiculturalism, ethno-religious identity politics, new and old Diasporas and global religion, particularly, transnational Theravada Buddhist networks in the Asia-Pacific region. Darini was a Senior Lecturer at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Her Bachelor’s degree is from Brandeis University and her MA and PhD are from Princeton University.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 18 April 2021

The Global South Is Swamped in Debt Pandemic

Viewpoint by Daniel Munevar *

Covid-19 is not the only pandemic ravaging across the Global South. A debt pandemic threatens to prevent developing countries' recovery, writes Daniel Munevar, an eminent debt justice advisor. This article was originally published in the Journal of International Politics and Society issued by the German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation's Brussels office.

BRUSSELS (IDN) — Without a doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic represents the most severe developmental setback in recent history. But while the virus is still ravaging across the Global South, it's not the only pandemic currently engulfing developing countries. In fact, a debt pandemic threatens to prevent them from achieving a meaningful—let alone sustainable—recovery.