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Photo: Ships both old and new displayed their combat power and military might. Credit: Kremlin.ru

Blue Water Navy Plays an Important Role in Russian Diplomacy

By Mark Thomas-Patterson*

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – July 28 marked Russia’s Naval Day, one of the series of military holidays celebrated in the country. The highlight of this year’s festivities was the first national fleet review in seven years, with President Vladimir Putin present at the main parade in St. Petersburg while Prime Minister Dmytry Medvedev was in Sevastopol. The parade also served as a time to display hardware, such as a new Admiral Gorshkov class frigate and Lada-Class submarine, two critical components of the modernized Russian navy.

: Europe Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 10 August 2019

Photo: Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov with Burkina Faso President Marc Kabore in Ouagadougou in July 2019. Credit: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

Russia Prepares for Africa Summit to Elevate Economic Profile

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – As Russia prepares to strengthen its overall corporate economic profile during the African leaders' summit in Sochi in October, policy experts are questioning agreements that were signed – many of them largely unfulfilled and forgotten – at least in the past decade with African countries.

Experts, such as Professors Vladimir Shubin and Alexandra Arkhangelskaya from the Institute for African Studies in Moscow, have argued that Russia needs to be more strategic in aligning its interests, and be more proactive with instruments and mechanisms in promoting economic cooperation in order to reap the benefits of a fully-fledged partnership.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 09 August 2019

Collage: A glimpse of Choldala in Southern Kazakhstan. Photos by Kalinga Seneviratne, IDN-INPS

Costly City Housing Threatens Farming in Southern Kazakhstan

By Milena Melnikova*

CHOLDALA, Southern Kazakhstan (IDN) – "I work six days a week, like my wife. I can sometimes take extra hours, and she takes work home. We don’t have time to grow something or raise cattle," says Andrei Pan, who has been living in Choldala about 580 miles (or 933 km) south of the country's capital town Nur-Sultan for the past six years. He and his family moved from the nearby city Of Taraz in 2013 after numerous attempts to find affordable housing there.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; CENTRAL ASIA; 09 August 2019

Photo: Interpol protecting Gendama land border.

ACP Group and INTERPOL Plan to Strengthen Cooperation

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States have expressed interest in strengthening the cooperation between the two organizations.

This was underlined by the INTERPOL special representative to the European Union Pierre St. Hilaire’s meeting with the ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick Gomes and the ACP Committee of Ambassadors on July 18, 2019 at ACP House in Brussels.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 09 August 2019

Photo: Begun 30 years ago, the Kubuqi desert greening project has succeeded in not only reining in the relentless growth of the seventh-largest desert in China, roughly the size of Kuwait, it has also turned about 6,000 square kilometers of the desert－one-third of it－green. Source: UNCCD

No Excuse to Further Defer Action on Climate Change and Land

Viewpoint by Ibrahim Thiaw

Following is the text of the response of Ibrahim Thiaw, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), to Special Report on Climate Change and Land by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in Geneva on August 8.

BONN IDN) – We have known for over 25 years that poor land use and management are major drivers of climate change, but have never mustered the political will to act. With the release of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) – special report on climate change and land, which makes the consequences of inaction crystal clear, we have no excuse for further delay.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 August 2019

Photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the swearing-in ceremony of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as Jammu&Kashmir Chief Minister, at Jammu University, in Jammu and Kashmir on March 1, 2015. The J&K Governor N.N. Vohra is also seen. Credit: India Prime Minister's Office.

Hindu Nationalists Succeed in Depriving Jammu & Kashmir of ‘Special Status’

By Pieter J. Friedrich*

GREENWOOD, Canada (IDN-INPS) – Terror grips the most militarized zone in the world after India’s Central Government terminated Jammu and Kashmir’s 70-year-old "special status" as the first step towards stripping the disputed region of statehood entirely.

Internationally infamous as the world’s hottest potential nuclear flashpoint, J&K originally acceded to India in 1947 only on the condition that the newly-formed country be restricted from interfering in the domestic affairs of the mountainous northern region.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 08 August 2019

Image source: OpEd in The Hindu – For a malnutrition-free India

Stunting a Hurdle to Sustainable Development in India

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE (IDN) – India’s needs to redouble its efforts to reduce stunting among its children not only because this would improve their mental and physical development, learning capacity and life chances but also, to meet the 2022 deadline set by its National Nutrition Mission and enable the world to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

According to India’s National Family Health Service-3 and 4 (NFHS-3 and 4) figures, the proportion of its children under five years of age that are stunted declined from 48% in 2006 to 38% in 2016. While the decadal decline is significant, the reduction per year was just 1%.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 August 2019

Image: The Dragonbear (Source: David Parkins)

Troubled Prospects for Gulf Security Architecture

Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey

James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Russia, backed by China, hoping to exploit mounting doubts in the Gulf about the reliability of the United States as the region’s sole security guarantor, is proposing a radical overhaul of the security architecture in an area that is home to massive oil and gas reserves and some of the world’s most strategic waterways.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 August 2019

Europeans Should Refuse to Go MAD Again

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – If MAD was Mad then the decision of President Donald Trump to renounce the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is MADDER.

MAD is Mutually Assured Destruction, a concept which underlay the nuclear deterrence of the Cold War. Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan began the hard work of dismantling MAD with the INF, a treaty affecting the land-based missiles of Europe. It abolished missiles with a range of 500 to 2000 kilometres.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 August 2019

Photo: Joan Nyanyuki, feminist critic of President Musevini. Credit: Amnesty International

Uganda Detains Feminist for ‘Cyberharassment’ of President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A prominent university lecturer, poet and gender rights activist has been ordered to serve nine more months in prison for the 'crime' of criticizing President Yoweri Museveni on Facebook.

The sentence outraged rights activists. Joan Nyanyuki, director for East Africa at Amnesty International said: “This verdict flies in the face of Uganda’s obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression. It demonstrates the depths of the government’s intolerance of criticism.”