SYNDICATION

Photo: Syrian refugees in Iraq. Credit: EU

Getting the Priorities on Human Rights Right in Syria

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The long war is almost over in Syria. Tyranny has won. Violence has won. Most have suffered, many unspeakably. For too long all sides were stalemated by each other’s brutality. Now the government of Bashar Al-Assad has come out on top, aided by Russia and Iran

What to do next? On March 12, 2019 the EU member states start their three-day third annual Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, co-chaired by the UN. It’s time for some radical re-thinking. Well-wishing for good things like the persecution of war crimes is whistling in the wind, at least for now.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 12 March 2019

Photo: Statute of Theodor Herzl, the convenor of the first Zionist Conference, in Dimona. He was not obsessed by a return to Palestine. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Criticism of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 the Jews were thrust into the outer world – many into Arab countries, later to become Muslim, where they were extended protection, and later into the Roman and then Christian world where they were accepted for many centuries. There were no pogroms until the Middle Ages and then they were centuries apart.

Over two millennia many big tribal groups have been dispersed – the Slavs, the Moguls, the Bantu, the Tamils, the Celts – the list is a long one, but only the Jews have had an idée fixe about where they want to go back to.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 05 March 2019

Photo: A bird's-eye view of Sochi. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Towards the First Russia-Africa Summit

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*, Eurasia Review

China has offered $60 billion, Japan $32 billion, and India $25 billion, while large investment funds have also come from the United States and European Union, all towards realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa. Russia has not pledged any funds. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to establish a committee that will be in charge of preparing for and holding the Russia-Africa Summit in October 2019 in Sochi on the Black Sea. This is the first in a series of articles on Russia’s decision to join the new “Scramble for Africa” nearly 28 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. – The Editor

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 March 2019

Photo: The first Xi–Modi meeting of 2018 at Wuhan, China in April was a rare one-on-one informal summit. Source: NDTV

Soft- and Hard-Power Challenges in China-India Diplomacy

Viewpoint by P S Suryanarayan

The writer is a Visiting Senior Fellow with the South Asia Programme, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and the author of 'Smart Diplomacy: Exploring China-India Synergy' (2016). The author’s views are his own and do not represent the position of any institution. A version of this article originally appeared here on RSIS.

SINGAPORE (IDN-INPS) – Buoyed by four summit meetings and the formation of a new people-to-people mechanism in quick succession, China-India engagement appears to be on an upward trajectory. Though challenges remain, it is an opportune moment for the two countries to press ahead towards total rapprochement.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 28 February 2019

Photo: U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (right) stands with Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne before an office call at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2017. (DOD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Amber I. Smith)

Australia Increasingly Silent on U.S. Leadership in Asia

Viewpoint by Hugh White

The writer is Emeritus Professor in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, The Australian National University. EastAsiaForum carried this article on 18 February 2019. A version of this analysis was first published in The Straits Times.

CANBERRA (IDN-INPS) – Sometimes what is left out of a major policy speech is as important as what is said. This was certainly true late January 2019 when Australia’s Defence Minister Christopher Pyne spoke about regional security in a keynote address to a prestigious audience in Singapore.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 27 February 2019

Photo: Kim and Trump shaking hands at the red carpet during the DPRK-USA Singapore Summit on June 12, 2018. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Beyond the Second Trump-Kim Nuclear Weapons Summit

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Kim Jong-un, paramount leader of the North Korean dictatorship, arrived in Vietnam by train and limousine ready to meet President Donald Trump. The two leaders met in June 2018 in Singapore, applauded themselves and each other and made some sort of a deal even if it wasn’t the one Trump boasted about – the total elimination of the North’s nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, the North has stopped nuclear testing. The U.S. only stopped in 1992 and France in 1996, so this is a very important step forward. It should not be minimized as the American “Blob” is doing. (The “Blob”, a creation of the White House of President Barack Obama, is the highly influential industrial/military/legislative/media complex, a majority of whom are hard line on foreign affairs.)

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 26 February 2019

Photo: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the first Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1985.

A Nuclear Arms Race Will Produce No Winners

Despite everything, it is still in our power to avoid nuclear confrontation.

Viewpoint by Mikhail Gorbachev*

MOSCOW (IDN-INPS) – The fate of the INF treaty has politicians and ordinary people worried on every continent. I am also concerned, and not only because I signed that treaty with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Dec. 1987. These events are yet another manifestation of the dangerous and destructive trends in world politics facing us today.

The main idea guiding us on the path to signing the original treaty was expressed in a joint statement with the United States, adopted at our first meeting in Geneva: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 February 2019

Photo: A political Advocacy Road show for reelection of Buhari, led by Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, a foremost Buhari loyalist, who is also a member of the Presidential Campaign Council and the National Women Leader of the Presidential Support Committee. Credit: Vanguard.

Buhari, If Re-elected, Could Put Nigeria Back on Track

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Nigeria is a veritable factory of sophisticated novelists. It was no surprise that Ben Okri won the British Booker Prize that goes annually to the best novelist of the year.

Considering that high-class novel writing in English only began in Nigeria in 1958 with Chinua Achebe’s famous work, “Things Fall Apart”, now a classic, it has come a long way in a short time. Will Nigeria move at a similar speed with its economy and banish poverty as it once promised to?

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 February 2019

Why Venezuela's Oil Money Could Keep Undermining Its Economy And Democracy

By Scott Morgenstern and John Polga-Hecimovich*

LONDON (IDN-INPS) – As political and economic crises threaten to topple Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, political scientists like us are not surprised that he has run into trouble.

Instead, we see Venezuela as another example of what scholars call the “resource curse.” That’s the unfortunate correlation first described by the British economic geographer Richard M. Auty between nations with vast wealth from oil or other natural resources and political instability.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 10 February 2019

Photo: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the White House had "ordered and planned" a "coup". Credit: cancilleria.gob.ec

Venezuela Crisis Drives A Wedge Between Europeans

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – It’s a topsy-turvy world. President Emmanuel Macron’s France can recognise Juan Guaido, who is leading the protests in distant Venezuela, as “Interim President” of that country. But Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio cannot meet “Yellow Vest” protestors demonstrating on the streets of Paris.

Why is recognition of protests acceptable in the case of Venezuela but not when it comes to France?

Because the West led by the United States and its camp followers in Europe say so. This is the so-called “international community” known for its duplicitous standards.