Peace & Justice

Photo: In Warsaw Joe Biden warned Russia not to move on an "inch" of NATO territory. Credit: NDTV / afp

Biden’s Unhinged Call for Regime Change in Russia

Viewpoint by Norman Solomon

SAN FRANCISCO, USA (IDN) — Ever since Joe Biden ended his speech in Poland on Saturday (March 26) night by making one of the most dangerous statements ever uttered by a U.S. president in the nuclear age, efforts to clean up after him have been profuse.

Administration officials scurried to assert that Biden didn’t mean what he said. Yet no amount of trying to “walk back” his unhinged comment at the end of his speech in front of Warsaw’s Royal Castle can change the fact that Biden had called for regime change in Russia.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 March 2022

Triple Threat of Climate Crises, Conflict, and Gender Inequality Highlighted

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) — At a side event of the 66th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) that concluded on March 25, UN leaders, policy makers, and civil society activists highlighted the impacts of climate shocks and environmental hazards on women and girls in humanitarian settings.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 27 March 2022

Photo: Russia test-launches intercontinental ballistic missile RS-24. Credit: TASS

Avoidance of Nuclear Weapons in a Possible NATO-Russia War Should Be "Foremost" Responsibility

Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) — "We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," pledged the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, UK, and the United States—in a joint statement on January 3, adding that they "consider the avoidance of war" between them and "the reduction of strategic risks" as their "foremost responsibilities". The five nuclear-weapon states are also the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council, which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 26 March 2022

Photo: In Mongolia, women herders are stepping up participation in community-based monitoring of environmental and human rights challenges brought by mining, with support from the joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency-UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP-Mining). Photo: iStock.com/Hadynyah.

Time Has Come for Women & Girls in The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Viewpoint by Claudia Ituarte-Lima

Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is a public international lawyer and scholar. She is senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and is also affiliated to Stockholm University and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. Ituarte-Lima holds a PhD from the University College London and a MPhil from the University of Cambridge. Twitter: CItuarteLima.

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s resumed sessions of the twenty-fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24) is taking place in Geneva March 14-29.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 March 2022

What If Russia's Collective Security Treaty Partners Intervene in Ukraine?

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. Source: Globetrotter.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 March 2022

Photo: Disquiet in the Russian secret service could prove fatal for President Vladimir Putin. Source: Toronto Sun

Putin's War of Aggression: A Post-Soviet 'Irredentist' Pipedream in Ukraine

Viewpoint by Purnaka L. de Silva*

“Anyone who falls into the habit of thinking and expecting the best of his subordinates at all times is, for that reason alone, unsuited to command an army”—Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) in Vom Kriege (1832)

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Kremlin confirmed in September 2014 that Russia’s current President Vladimir Putin, told José Manuel Barroso the outgoing president of the European Commission that “Russian forces could conquer the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in two weeks if he so ordered”. For more details see the September 2, 2014 Guardian article by Ian Traynor: “Putin claims Russian forces ‘could conquer Ukraine capital in two weeks’”.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 24 March 2022

Photo: A damaged military vehicle sits in Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 16, 2022. Credit: Andrew Marienko, AP. Source: USA Today.

From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don’t Justify Each Other

Viewpoint by Norman Solomon*

SAN FRANCISCO, USA (IDN) — Russia’s war in Ukraine—like the USA’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—should be understood as barbaric mass slaughter. For all their mutual hostility, the Kremlin and the White House are willing to rely on similar precepts: Might makes right. International law is what you extol when you aren’t violating it. And at home, rev up the nationalism to go with the militarism.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 March 2022

Putin’s War in Ukraine: How To Get Out of the Catch-22 Situation?

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

BONN (IDN) — War is back in Europe. What a shock. At the beginning of the year we asked ourselves: Are we back in the Cold War? Now it’s a hot war. It’s not the first war in Europe: Northern Ireland, several Balkan wars, Georgia, Moldova. This time, it seems we are back in the old block confrontation. Western politicians and media call it the third historical turning point after the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 March 2022

Photo: German soldiers participate in Green Griffin 21, a NATO training exercise, in Lehnin, Germany, on Oct. 4, 2021. Credit: US Army photo by Michele Wiencek via DVIDS. I

Will Ukraine Crisis be Followed by Perpetual Peace?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Through the fog of war, it is difficult to see blue sky. So it is with Ukraine. Pessimists and poets who have long argued that we humans are unfit for purpose have more grist for their mill.

But let’s step back from the Ukrainian conflict.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 22 March 2022

Photo: People gather for a demonstration called by Yerewolo Ton movement at the Tour d'Afrique monument in the capital Bamako, Mali, 04 February 2022. Credit: EPA-EFE/Hadama Diakite.

African Leaders Crack Down on The Press

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Retaliating against media reports of civilian deaths at the hands of the Malian Armed Forces, authorities there have ordered French public broadcasters RFI and its sister TV station France 24 off the air.

News reports of military abuses were without merit, the ruling junta charged. They dismissed a report by RFI about summary executions and looting by Malian soldiers and the Russian security personnel now accompanying them on their operations against terrorists in Mali.