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Photo: US President Joe Biden. Credit: The White House

US President Biden’s Disappointing Nuclear Posture Review

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following text was published in the organization’s monthly journal, Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Since the end of the Cold War, every U.S. president has conducted an in-depth review of the nation's nuclear strategy. Each study, including President Joe Biden’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), has produced disappointing results. That is because they all maintain a dangerous reliance on the threat to use nuclear weapons to deter and, if necessary, respond to hostile attacks, including non-nuclear attacks, “that have a strategic effect against the United States or its allies and partners.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 December 2022

Photo: India's Prime Minister Modi. Source: Hindustan Times

India Pledges “One Earth, One Family, One Future”

Viewpoint by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India

The Indian Express issued this article, and it is being republished because it announces India’s agenda during its G20 Presidency, which commenced on December 1.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — The previous 17 Presidencies of the G20 delivered significant results—for ensuring macro-economic stability, rationalising international taxation, relieving debt-burden on countries, among many other outcomes. We will benefit from these achievements, and build further upon them.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 01 December 2022

Photo: Trump as 25th US President (cropped). Source: White House.

The Outcome of US Midterm Elections Will Not Halt Trump

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — Former US President Donald Trump didn’t just happen to the United States. He hit the world like the climax of a horror movie. Scene after scene, act after act, left the thoughtful in bewilderment, the reserved in shame, and even the incorrigible in doubt. Only the fantasts and ultra-right-wing extremists were impressed by Trump’s macabre dance.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 01 December 2022

Photo: India's Agni-V ballistic missile at Republic Day parade in January 2013. Source: Ministry of Defence, Government of India.

India Urged to Join the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW DELHI (IDN) — India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is confronted with an increasing demand to join the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was adopted in January 2021 by 122 members of the UN General Assembly—a clear majority. The Treaty entered into force after ratification by 50 member-States of the UN. The number of signatories has since risen to 91. The TPNW bans the use, possession, testing, and transfer of nuclear weapons under international law.

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 01 December 2022

Photo: British and German soldiers playing soccer in No-Man’s Land during the Christmas Truce in 1914. Credit: Universal History Archive.

Now is a Good Time for a Ukraine Ceasefire and Peace Talks

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — As the war in Ukraine has dragged on for nine months and a cold winter is setting in, people all over the world are calling for a Christmas truce, harkening back to the inspirational Christmas Truce of 1914. In the midst of World War I, warring soldiers put down their guns and celebrated the holiday together in the no-man’s land between their trenches. This spontaneous reconciliation and fraternization has been, over the years, a symbol of hope and courage.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 30 November 2022

Photo: Ambassador Palitha Kohona with Chinese TV film crew at his office in Beijing.

China–Sri Lanka: Two Millennia of Mutually Enriching Relations

Viewpoint by Ambassador Palitha Kohona*

BEIJING (IDN) — Sitting in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka occupies an enviable strategic position. A blessing that it has successfully leveraged to advantage in the past and a curse that will continue to attract the rapacious attention of global and regional powers seeking to dominate the Indian Ocean region strategically, economically and culturally.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 November 2022

Photo: Some urban Zimbabweans have resorted to growing vegetables in their backyards to supplement their food amidst rising inflation in the country. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/ IDN.

Urban Dwellers in Southern Africa Turn to Backyard Farming

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — At unoccupied swathes of land behind houses in Bloomingdale, a medium-income suburb in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, numerous maize fields and vegetable gardens have emerged as urban dwellers enduring economic hardships switch to backyard farming.

Zambia, despite emerging from an economic crisis during former President Edgar Lungu’s reign that ended last year, has dozens of urban dwellers taking up agriculture to supplement their earnings.

: Jeffrey Moyo; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 30 November 2022

A Workshop Helps Fill the Basket of Knowledge on the Pacific

Climate Change, Human Mobility and Peacebuilding Draw the Focus

Viewpoint by Volker Boege

Toda Peace Institute issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission.

BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — While UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening speech at this year’s COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh on November 7 stated that humanity is “on the highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator”, a workshop held in Wellington, New Zealand, just a few days before, explored the consequences of this hellish trip for the security and peace of communities and countries in the Pacific region.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 29 November 2022

Slim Possibility of Asia-Pacific Getting on Track to Net-Zero

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) — The recent climate talks in Egypt have left us with a sobering reality: The window for maintaining global warming to 1.5 degrees is closing fast and what is on the table currently is insufficient to avert some of the worst potential effects of climate change.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 28 November 2022

Photo: Recent floods in Pakistan covered a third of the country, with devastating consequences for families and the economy. Credit: UNDP Pakistan floods

Finding The Right Money for Vulnerable Countries

The Importance of Loss and Damage Fund (LDF)

Viewpoint by Inge Kaul

The author is a fellow at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany. Comments are welcome and can be addressed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BERLIN (IDN) — For decades, there have been non-conclusive deliberations regarding how the international community can support poor and vulnerable countries in their efforts to cope with and recover from the havoc wreaked on their territory by the ill-effects of global warming, such as severe droughts, floods, storms, or rising sea levels.