USA and Canada

Photo: U.S. vessels launch missiles in support of the Libyan Civil War. U.S. Navy photo.

U.S. Invested Trillions in Wars, China in Development

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - The French ambassador to the U.S. from 1902 to 1924, Jean-Jules Jusserand, observed that distant powers could not easily threaten the U.S. because “On the north, she has a weak neighbour; on the south, another weak neighbour; on the east fish and on the west, fish”.

The coming of the submarine-based nuclear missile has not changed that. Apart from the fact that no enemy would dare use them for fear of retaliation, and that there is no country in the world that feels that hostile to America (accept North Korea), the fact is America is too big and too far away to be invaded and dominated. There could not be a blitzkrieg by a foreign army across the mid-west or a Vichy America.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 September 2016

Photo: 'Stop Fast Track' rally in Washington D.C. in April 2015. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

TPPA May Fall Victim to U.S. Political Dynamics

Analysis by Martin Khor *

GENEVA (IDN | SouthViews) - The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement has become a political football in the U.S. Presidential elections and with the public mood so against trade agreements, the TPPA faces the real possibility of being discarded.

No country was more active in pushing for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). In the five years of negotiations, the United States cajoled, persuaded and pressurised its trade partners to take on board its issues and positions.

Finally, when the TPP was signed in February 2016 by 12 countries, it was widely expected that the agreement will come into force within two years, after each country ratifies it.

: Martin Khor; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 25 August 2016

Photo: President Obama and President Vladimir Putin of Russia speak to the press after a bilateral meeting in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, 17 June 2013. Credit: White House.

Strategic Dialogue Needed to Avert New Cold War

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Nearly everyone I talk politics to says the world is in a mess. But I live in a student town and most of them have nothing to measure their opinions against. They know not much about the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, Watergate or the great famines in Africa and India.

In many ways most of us live in the best of times, on better incomes than our parents, with longevity increasing all over the world, not least in the poorer countries and helped by inventions that our parents never dreamt were possible.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 09 August 2016

Photo: Panoramic view of the monument marking the hypocenter, or ground zero, of the atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Nuclear War a Potentially Deadly Issue in US Elections

By Rodney Reynolds

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the U.S. presidential elections gather political momentum, one of the key issues that has triggered a provocative debate revolves round the very survival of humanity: the looming threat of an intended or unintended nuclear war.

Come November 8, the U.S. will be making a choice between two contenders: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a candidate of the Democratic Party; and Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed billionaire businessman from New York, a candidate of the Republican Party.

: Rodney Reynolds; ARMAMENTS; 08 August 2016

Photo: Mandela Washington Fellow Chipo Chikomo visits the Iowa City Famers' Market. Photo courtesy of Helaina Thompson.

Young African Leaders Trained at State Department Programme

WASHINGTON (IDN | GIN) – With media attention glued to the salacious details of the U.S. election, a signature program of President Obama is flying under the radar, preparing young African leaders with advanced leadership skills to bring home to their countries.

Participants in the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders are enrolled in an intensive, six-week program on academic excellence and leadership focused on business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, public management, and renewable energy at U.S. colleges and universities.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 02 August 2016

Photo: A view of Saint Catherine Street in Downtown Montreal. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Montreal World Social Forum to Focus on Nuclear Disarmament

By J C Suresh

TORONO (IDN) - The World Social Forum (WSF), the largest civil society gathering to find solutions to the problems of our time, will convene for the first time in a northern country – in Canada – from August 9 to 14.

Montreal will host the 12th World Social Forum that was launched in 2001 in Porto Alegre, the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. One of the key issues in focus will be: “Once a nuclear war starts, there’s no way to limit it.”

Radio Canada International (RCI) quoted Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) saying, the “world is teetering back towards the cold war syndrome and towards an escalation of the nuclear threat”.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 28 July 2016

Photo: Donald Trump is greeted by President Ronald Reagan at 1987 White House reception. Source: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Does Trump Really Want to Win in November?

Viewpoint by Donald A. Collins

WASHINGTON - After a week of the Republican National Convention, the widely reported comments of the nominee the morning of 7/22 about Ted Cruz and his family must be quite confusing to Trump’s supporters as it is to many other undecided voters who are thinking about voting for him.

And clearly things in America are not as dire as Trump’s acceptance speech postulated.

Terrorism has long been with us as Columbine (e.g., the Genesis of the current terrorist surge?) proved, but this onslaught of religiously or otherwise motivated kooks does not mean we should give up our civil liberties, which could well happen if we go down the road of enforcement suggested by Trump’s remarks.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 27 July 2016

Photo: More than 10,000 people crowding a square near Prague Castle cheer the President and First Lady Michelle Obama on April 5, 2009. Credit: Tomáš Krist, Lidové noviny | U.S. Embassy in Prague.

Support for ‘Obama Nuclear Doctrine’ by Executive Order

Analysis by Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) - Despite protests by Republican congressional leaders and the heads of Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, President Barack Obama is garnering wide support for his reported plan to implement at least a part of his cherished nuclear agenda through a series of executive actions during the next months before leaving the White House.

None of the executive options Obama is considering require formal congressional approval. In fact, all of those actions would “fall under his executive authority as commander-in-chief”, says David Krieger, president of the U.S.-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF).

Krieger is one of the nuclear disarmament pundits whose views IDN solicited in the aftermath of a report in the Washington Post on July 10, which said that executive options Obama is considering, include declaring a “no first use” policy for the United States nuclear arsenal and a UN Security Council resolution affirming a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons as envisaged by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; 22 July 2016

Photo: Hillary Clinton, then U.S. Secretary of State, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa (left) on July 20, 2011 in Chennai. Credit: PTI

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Hillary Clinton and Sri Lanka

By Palitha Kohona *

COLOMBO (IDN) - During the 25-year war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lanka’s traditional arms suppliers imposed restrictions. The government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) had to look elsewhere – and China was willing to help.

Following the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, the former Mahinda Rajapaksa regime chose to focus on rapid economic revival and development of infrastructure. The U.S. reneged on its commitment to provide $500 million from the Millennium Development Account for road development.

The recently-released e-mails reveal that then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to block an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to GOSL and that the IMF did not like it.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 10 July 2016

Photo: Riot police personnel in armored vehicles in downtown Cairo using birdshot guns on the fourth anniversary of the January 2011 revolution. Copyright: Daily News Egypt

U.S.-Egypt: From Idealism to Political Cynicism

Viewpoint by Rana Allam and Sanam Naraghi Anderlini

Rana Allam is WASL Senior Editor and Former Editor of Daily News Egypt. Sanam Naraghi Anderlini is Co-Founder, ICAN.

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - On July 4 as Americans celebrated independence from a King that “obstructed the Administration of Justice…sent hither swarms of Officers to harass people… kept among [the people], in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of legislatures…and render[ed] the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power”, Egyptians commemorated the rise of just such a king in their midst in 2013, and they wonder why the U.S. continues to support such a repressive ruler in Egypt today, when the same was intolerable for Americans 200 years ago.

With news of daily bombings and crises across the Middle East, it is no surprise that Egypt is absent from the news headlines, but the events that have been unfolding there since 2013 are warning signs of a much greater looming crisis, if attention isn’t paid soon.