SYNDICATION

Photo: President Donald Trump with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, on March 14, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. Credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

U.S. Congress Should Prevent Saudis from Going Nuclear

By Kingston Reif, Daryl G. Kimball and Kelsey Davenport

Kingston Reif is Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy and Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Kelsey Davenport is the Association's Director for Nonproliferation Policy. This article appeared as Issue Brief on April 5, 2018 with the caption 'The Risks of Nuclear Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the Role of Congress'. It is being reproduced with permission from the Association. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and the technologies to make them has long been and remains strongly in the U.S. national security interest, especially in the troubled Middle East.

: Daryl G. Kimball; OPINION; 07 April 2018

No Easy Answer To The Knife That Killed Arnaud Beltrame

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Personally I'm a coward. I'm unlikely ever to be a hero. (I have rescued on different occasions three young children from drowning, but I didn't risk my life.) I certainly would never have done what Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the French policeman, did.

He asked the terrorist who had taken over a supermarket if he could substitute himself for the female hostage he held. The terrorist agreed and then murdered him. Beltrame was given a state funeral on March 28. The Moroccan terrorist who appears to be a supporter of ISIS is in jail, awaiting trial.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 April 2018

Photo: Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed visits a rehabilitation centre for disabled children in Belarus. © Egor Dubrovsky/UN Photo

Realising the SDGs Will Require Action in Five Key Areas

By Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations

This article first appeared in Sustainable Development Goals: Delivering Change, UNA-UK publication providing analysis and recommendations in achieving Sustainable Development Goals on 19 March 2018. – The Editor

LONDON (IDN-INPS) – In this third year of global efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, there are encouraging signs of momentum. The hope that accompanied the Agenda’s adoption in 2015 is still with us. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have captured the imagination of leaders and general public alike. Member States are showing strong ownership – including through personal engagement by heads of state and government – and are aligning their plans and strategies accordingly.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 31 March 2018

Photo: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, ex president of Argentina, with Pope Francis. CC BY-SA 2.0

How Francis Could Become to be Seen as One of the Greatest of all Popes

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – This present pope – Francis – is probably the most powerful man in the world, in the round.

Stalin once asked when confronted with the argument about the Pope’s reach and influence, replied, “How many divisions has the pope got?” He missed the point. The pope does not work these days in the world of hard power. He is a peddler of soft power.

Francis has much more power, maybe because of the strength of his convictions, than any of his predecessors, with the exception of the Polish pope, John Paul II, who played a front-line role in triggering the events that brought down communism.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 27 March 2018

Social activities with NGOs - GBSH Consult - Johannesburg (South Africa)

The Role of NGOs in Africa: Are They a Force for Good?

By Sally Matthews

Dr. Sally Matthews is Senior Lecturer in Politics, Rhodes University, South Africa. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Non-governmental organisations have become key actors in responding to poverty and related suffering. In Africa, NGOs play a leading role in providing health care and education.

The non-profit sector continues to grow rapidly in Africa and around the world. In South Africa alone, there are more than 100,000 registered non-profit organisations and in Kenya the number of NGOs grew by over 400% between 1997 and 2006. And for most observers, they seem to be well-intentioned actors who do a lot of good on the continent.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 March 2018

Trump Plans a Treaty with North Korea, Abandon One with Iran

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Like it not we find that we’re having to get used to the paradoxes, contradictions and confusions of the Trump era.

None is more apparent than his attack on the landmark Iran de-nuclearisation agreement, fashioned by the Obama Administration and the Iranian government. President Donald Trump wants to unwind it, even though it has the 100 percent support of the UN Security Council which in an unanimous vote enshrined the agreement in international law.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 March 2018

Photo: Vladimir Putin delivering Presidential address to the Federal Assembly on 1 March 2018 at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow. Credit: Presidential website en.kremlin.ru

Why Putin Will Win Re-election As Russia's President

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The seemingly eternal president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has an iron grip on his nation and a foreign policy to match. A large majority of Russians give him their support. He will win re-election.

Is it his early economic success? Or is it because of a new stability? Or the nation’s growing self-respect after the ignominious years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union? Or is it a sense of besieged defensiveness because of the advantage the West took of Russia afterwards.

The answer is a bit of all these.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 March 2018

Photo: The Conference Row in the Joint Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, looking into South Korea from North Korea. It shows guards on both sides and a group of tourists in the South. Created: 26 July 2012. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Mixed Reactions To Inter-Korean Accord

By Yonhap News Agency

This report was carried by the South Korean news agency on March 6 (local time: 23.38) and is being reproduced to give a glimpse into how the current development on the Korean peninsula is viewed in the Republic of Korea. – The Editor

SEOUL (IDN-INPS) – South Korean political parties on March 6 demonstrated mixed reactions to the results of the high-stakes visit to North Korea by President Moon Jae-in's special envoys, which included an agreement to hold a cross-border summit next month.

Shortly after returning from his two-day visit to Pyongyang, Chung Eui-yong, Moon's chief security advisor and head of the South's 10-member delegation, announced a set of agreements with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 March 2018

Photo: Umbrellas on the Piazza of the Prophet´s Holy Mosque in Medina. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

What the Prophet Implied and What Sustains Fundamentalists

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – What do we in the West know about Islam? Perhaps more than we did before 9/11 but not much.

When Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom he was photographed walking along holding the Koran. President George W. Bush said repeatedly that Islam was a religion of peace.

Even though at that time one of the most influential American political writers, Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University, had written that it wasn’t fundamentalism that was the problem, it was Islam itself.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 March 2018

Photo: Belgian activist Dyab Abou Jahjah. Credit: A.D. McKenzie.

Scholars Explore Violence in ‘Postcolonial, Neocolonial World’

By A.D. McKenzie

LIEGE (IDN | SWAN) – While scholars discussed “Violence in the Postcolonial and Neocolonial World” at a conference in this eastern Belgian city, news of various acts of violence filled the airwaves, underlining the extent to which people have to deal with the issue on a constant basis.

The Liège meeting, February 15-16, focused on both systemic violence (resulting from colonialism and oppression) and individual acts, with discussions highlighting the consequences for society, including ethnic divisions and paranoia.