USA and Canada

Collage: Photos of Nixon and Trump from Internet. IDN-INPS.

Nixon and Trump: The Politics of Impeachment

By George Friedman* | Geopolitical Futures

NEW YORK (IDN) – The evolution of the American political system inevitably has an impact on the global system. If the United States shifts direction in even minor matters, there are regional consequences. Political events are difficult to predict, but the key variables of the process can be identified by comparing the current evolution to a roughly similar prior event. My intent is to benchmark the current impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump to the one that forced Richard Nixon to resign. It is an attempt to define what matters and what doesn’t within the impeachment process, rather than the potential global outcome triggered by hypothetical events.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 08 October 2019

Photo: Kim Song, Chair of Delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly’s General Debate. (30 September 2019) UN Photo/Cia Pak

DPRK Blames U.S. For ‘Little Progress’ in Achieving Peace on The Korean Peninsula

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Lack of progress in achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula is “entirely attributable” to the United States, a senior official from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the UN General Assembly on September 30.

Kim Song, head of the country’s delegation, observed that more than a year has passed since DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump issued a joint statement following a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 01 October 2019

Photo: Local residents in Kaliningrad at "Immortal regiment", carrying portraits of their ancestors who fought in World War II, on Victory Day in Kaliningrad, 9 May 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0

Military Confrontation with Russia in Kaliningrad Is Dangerous

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – “What idiocy”, exclaims Jack Matlock on Facebook. Matlock is one of my “Facebook Friends” because I judge his knowledge of Russia as second to none, having been under President Ronald Reagan the White House’s senior advisor on the Soviet Union and, later, his ambassador to Moscow.

The object of his ire is based on a Newsday article earlier this month. (The Russian, nation-wide, NTV channel carried the same story in a broadcast on September 23.)

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Russia; 24 September 2019

Photo: Protest in Reykjavik organised by peace, LGBTQ and women’s groups during U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on September 4, 2019. Credit: Lowana Veal | IDN-INPS.

Concerns About Military Build-up in Iceland

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – It was widely believed that the U.S. military left Iceland in 2006 when they abandoned the base adjoining Iceland’s international airport at Keflavik on the southwest tip of the island.

But recent developments, in particular the visit of U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence to Iceland in early September and perhaps a previous visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February 2019, reveal other motives.

: Lowana Veal; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 September 2019

Top Photo by Robert Mandel: Boris Johnson as one of the figures satirised on a float created by anti-Brexit protesters in Manchester. CC BY 4.0

Burning Down the House

Viewpoint by John Feffer

The author is the director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and this viewpoint is published with his kind permission. It was written prior to the latest events in the UK Parliament.

WASHINGTON (IDN) – Doesn’t idiocy ever take a vacation?

As August wound down, the populist troika of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Jair Bolsonaro proved once again that the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil would be better off with no leaders rather than the dubious characters that currently pretend to govern these countries.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 11 September 2019

Photo credit: U.S: National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Continuing Upsurge in Costs of U.S. Nuclear Warheads

Viewpoint by Kingston Reif

The writer is the Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy at the Arms Control Association. This article was first published in Arms Control Today (ACT).

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN | Arms Control Association) – The estimated cost of sustaining U.S. nuclear warheads and their supporting infrastructure continues to rise, according to the Energy Department’s latest annual report on the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 09 September 2019

Photo: USS Boxer seen here off the coast of Australia, was deployed to the Persian Gulf in June 2019 as a result of increased tensions between U.S. and Iran. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

'Collective Security Act' A Possible Way Out of the Iran Crisis

Viewpoint by René Wadlow*, TRANSCEND Media Service

GENEVA (IDN) – It has often been mentioned that the Chinese characters for “crisis” is a combination of the characters for “danger” and for “opportunity”. Thus it is today for the Iran Crisis. The dangers are evident and have been around for a while. The Persian Gulf region has long been one of the flashpoints for conflict in the Middle East. The strategic significance of the region has been magnified by the region’s oil resources.

: Rene Wadlow; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 08 September 2019

Photo: The U.S. Defense Department conducted a flight test of a conventionally configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California on August 18, 2019. Credit: Scott Howe | DVIDS – The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

Nuclear Arms Race Is Here

By Jessica Corbett *

MAINE, USA (IDN) – Nuclear experts and disarmament advocates are warning that the world is witnessing a new arms race after the Pentagon tested a new missile August 18 that would have violated a Cold War-era treaty the Trump administration ditched earlier this month.

After years of the U.S. government—under both the Obama and Trump administrations—and NATO accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed in 1987 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Washington formally withdrew from the deal, which banned ground-launched nuclear and conventional ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,000 kilometers, or about 310 to 3,400 miles.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 August 2019

The Unique Sights & Sounds of Sri Lanka Come Alive in America

By Nandasiri (Nandi) Jasentuliyana

The writer is Former Deputy Director General, United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV), Director, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and President Emeritus, International Institute of Space Law & Policy.

NEW YORK (IDN) – When the annual Sri Lanka Day was celebrated in the historic city of Pasadena, Sri Lanka took its rightful place among the ethnic festivals held in America. The featured event of the day was the 'Pageant of Lanka', a miniature Kandy Perahera. It took the breath away of the onlookers who filed along the historic route of the annual New Year's Day Rose Parade, the most prestigious parade in America.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 August 2019

Photo: Two aerial photos of atomic bomb mushroom clouds, over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 (left) and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 (right). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Hiroshima Unlearned: Time to Tell the Truth About US-Russia Relations and Finally Ban the Bomb

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

Author and nuclear disarmament advocate, Alice Slater is a member of the Board of World Beyond War, UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and a longtime member of CODEPINK.

NEW YORK (IDN) – August 6 and 9 mark 74 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where only one nuclear bomb dropped on each city caused the deaths of up to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki. Today, with the U.S. decision to walk away from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) negotiated with the Soviet Union, we are once again staring into the abyss of one of the most perilous nuclear challenges since the height of the Cold War.