Peace & Justice

Photo: Biden at his presidential kickoff rally in Philadelphia, May 2019. CC BY 2.0

President Joe Biden Marks the Start of a New Era in the US

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – President Joe Biden is more peacenik than war-monger. Compared with all recent previous presidents, apart from Jimmy Carter, he has been a dove. But be warned. When Barack Obama became president he forswore “more dumb wars” yet he got involved in more than any of them did. We had mistakenly believed him because of his vote in the Senate against the Second Iraq War.

Nevertheless, Obama, with Biden’s support, did resist a big push by Congress, the military and most of the media to send troops into Syria and he did try hard to get troops pulled out of Iraq. Biden supported Obama in his decision to negotiate with Iran a deal to put into cold storage its plan to enrich uranium to the point where it could be used to make a nuclear bomb.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo: The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world’s nations. Credit: Smithsonian Magazine

Insurrection and the Racist Underpinnings of US Exceptionalism

Viewpoint by Ravi Arvind Palat

The writer is a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton

NEW YORK (IDN) – Several commentators have underlined the sharp contrast between law enforcement responses to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by mobs unleashed by President Trump on January 6, 2021, and to the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer. Despite two months of warnings that the president was mobilizing his supporters to reverse his election loss, the police and National Guard appeared to be caught off-guard, unlike the massive mobilization of law enforcement agencies against those calling for racial justice.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 January 2021

Photo: The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion (Maryam Ts'iyon Church) in Aksum. Credit: Britannica.

Things Bode Increasingly Ill for the Horn

Compiled by EEPA

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Asena TV shows images of four to six explosions outside the municipality offices in the centre of Addis Ababa, which were followed with a few shots.

New Eritrean troops have entered Mekelle, roaming the city along with many intelligence agents.

Tigray news reports that Al Shebaab fighters are entering western regions of Ethiopia and may even be controlling parts of the Somali region of Ethiopia.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 15 January 2021

Image credit: Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor

Watchdog Indicates Barriers to UN Ban on Nuclear Weapons

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – Most of the world’s states can become a party to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and comply with the Treaty without making any changes to their existing policies and practices, says Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor (NWBM). But 42 states around the world currently engage in conduct that is not compatible with the new ban on nuclear weapons. In fact, Europe stands out as the region with the most states that act in conflict with the UN Treaty.

: Jamshed Baruah; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 13 January 2021

Photo: Protesters in Algiers on 1 March 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0

Corruption Trials in Algeria – No More Facebook for Museveni – Nobel Laureate Denounces Rise of Armed Groups

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – While corruption trials continue for Algerian officials ousted in nation’s ‘Arab Spring’ 2010-2012, on the eve of elections, social media leader Facebook has barred Ugandan President Museveni, and the Nigerian Nobel Laureate has decried the rise of armed groups as a threat to sovereignty.

Responding to the recent rise in student kidnappings and massacres, Wole Soyinka said in an interview, Nigeria’s sovereignty has been taken over by armed groups. He asked President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to stop terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 11 January 2021

Photo: Donald Trump holds a political rally in front of The White House on The Ellipse on January 6, 2021. Uploaded to YouTube for archival purposes by Factba.se

The Assault on the Citadel of US Democracy

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – On January 6, Americans and the world watched in disbelief, horror and disgust as President Donald Trump’s fiercest supporters, stoked by the commander in chief himself, stormed, smashed windows, and desecrated the Capitol building that hasn't been breached since the War of 1812, when British soldiers burned Washington.

It was indeed a shocking day in American history. Invoking the famous words spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt following the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that this day “will live forever in infamy and will be a stain on our democracy”.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 11 January 2021

A New UN Report Calls for Living in Balance with The Planet

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly pointed out, humanity is faced with a "defining moment", a warning that is highlighted in the 30th-anniversary edition of the Human Development Report (HDR), The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene. Though humankind has achieved incredible progress, we have taken the Earth for granted, destabilizing the very systems upon which we rely for survival.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 10 January 2021

Photo: The UN Secretary-General will convene this Summit to launch bold new actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food, delivering progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Credit: Food Systems Summit.

Why We Care

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the UNAI Weekly Newsletter – January 8.

NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – Graffiti is terse but truthful and even if I failed in identifying the specific trigger for a carefully executed scrawl on a boulder by the water in New York, that read “Beware of Locals,” it resonated with lessons the last 75 years of the United Nations, and the very last one in particular, have offered, that there is no purely “local” any longer and that those who see themselves as insulated from or immune to the world beyond are eminently bewareable.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 January 2021

Image: A collage of SDG3 and SDG16 logos from the UN Website.

UN Chief Points to Fragility and Conflict as Major Obstacles to Sustainable Development Goals

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – “Challenges of Maintaining Peace and Security in Fragile Contexts” were the focus of Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks at the Security Council virtual open debate on January 6. The debate was organized by Mr Kais Saied, the Security Council's Presidency for the month of January.

He called for a Global Ceasefire, which he said, goes hand-in-hand with a flagship initiative of the African Union. The United Nations also remains committed to supporting the African Union’s ambitious Agenda 2063.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 08 January 2021

Photo: A test of a U.S. thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) at Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands, November 1, 1952. U.S. Air Force

The Nuclear Weapon States Urged to Advance Disarmament

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN (IDN) – The upcoming Review Conference (postponed to August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is expected to be characterised by deep divisions among the nuclear-weapon states (NWS), and between them and the non-nuclear-weapon states (NNWS), which are deeply disappointed with the lack of progress towards nuclear disarmament despite commitments laid down in the NPT and made at past NPT review conferences.