Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran * This article was issued by WION and DNA, and is being re-published with the writer’s permission. NEW DELHI (IDN) — India’s diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing this week was another balancing act of a piece with its position on Ukraine in the UN Security Council meeting last […]
West’s Double Standards on Human Rights Undermines UN Human Rights Council
Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira COLOMBO (IDN) — The United States, Britain, Canada and a few other Western so-called champions of human rights will press their unreasonable demand at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) next month to initiate an international probe into alleged human rights violations in the last phase of the separatist war […]
24 Experts Outline Plan for Defusing Russia-NATO Crisis
Arms Control Is Key to the Solution By Daryl G. Kimball and Oliver Meier Daryl G. Kimball is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Olivier Meier is a Senior Researcher at the Berlin office of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH). WASHINGTON, D.C. | HAMBURG […]
Understanding Russia
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery* COPENHAGEN (IDN) — Both Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin and its Foreign Secretary, Sergey Laverov, have repeatedly stated that Russia does not intend to invade Ukraine. Logic also tells us that if they had wished to do so, they would have done it long ago. The threat of a Russian invasion […]
Timor Leste: Oil Revenue Fails to Address Child Stunting
By Annamarie Reyes DILI, Timor Leste (IDN) — The world’s newest democracy of Timor Leste is currently confronting a surge of omicron cases after being one of the safest countries from Covid. But as it continues to manage the pandemic fairly well, the story is quite the opposite when it comes to the problem of […]
If You Want to Deter a Military Invasion, Should You Go Nuclear?
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, whose economy has been severely undermined by rigid sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the United States, in retaliation for its active nuclear weapons program, has long justified its growing military arsenal on sheer political and ideological grounds. The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and […]
Sri Lanka: Government’s Badly Planned Organic Farming Policy Upsets Rice Farmers
By R.M.Samanmalee Swarnalatha POLLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka (IDN) — Sri Lankan government’s badly planned organic farming policy that has banned the use of chemical fertilizer in farms has upset farmers in this rice-growing heartland and a political stronghold of the ruling coalition. The policy has also drawn criticism from agricultural experts, who warn that Sri Lanka’s […]
Sri Lanka: Government’s Badly Planned Organic Farming Policy Upsets Rice Farmers
By R.M.Samanmalee Swarnalatha POLLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka (IDN) — Sri Lankan government’s badly planned organic farming policy that has banned the use of chemical fertilizer in farms has upset farmers in this rice growing heartland and a political stronghold of the ruling coalition. The policy has also drawn criticism from agricultural experts, who warn that Sri […]
Diplomacy for Ukraine Is Spelled M-i-n-s-k
A Memo to Congress Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies NEW YORK (IDN) — While the Biden administration is sending more troops and weapons to inflame the Ukraine conflict and Congress is pouring more fuel on the fire, the American people are on a totally different track. A December 2021 poll found […]
The Sad Story of Western Wrongs to Russia
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Are the West’s chickens coming home to roost? If the Western powers had gambled 2% of NATO’s budget and met the Soviet Union’s economic needs in President Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost era there would have been a much less de-stabilising transition and today, there would have been a […]