Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu Following are extensive excerpts from remarks by Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), at the Roundtable Discussion on the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) hosted by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations on 25 October 2018. […]
The INF Treaty Looks Likely to be a Dead Letter by April 2019
Viewpoint by Dan Smith The following article by Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), first appeared on October 23, 2018 on the Institute’s website. He has a long record of research and publication on a wide range of conflict and peace issues. Smith served four years in the UN Peacebuilding […]
Women, Peace and Security is Germany’s Priority in 2019-2020 Security Council Membership
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – When Germany joins the UN Security Council next January as a non-permanent member for 2019-2020, promoting the ‘Women, Peace and Security Agenda’ by ensuring a greater political participation of women and prevention of sexual violence in conflicts, will be one of its priorities. The Security Council has […]
Experts Underline the Gravity of a Potential Nuclear Conflict
By Claire Ochroch This report first appeared on October 25, 2018 in The Daily Pennsylvanian. NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Speakers from across the world stopped by Penn’s Perry World House on October 23 evening to discuss the importance of denuclearization. The event, called the Penn Peace Project, was hosted by the International Affairs Association. Speakers […]
Southern Africa Turns to Groundwater to Counter Climate Change
By Jeffrey Moyo CHIMOIO, Mozambique (IDN) – As the blazing heat of the sun beats down on her, 25-year-old Maria Sinorita from Chimoio, a Mozambican town lying approximately 100 km east of the country’s border with Zimbabwe, struggles to draw water from the well in her yard. For Sinorita, even the water she is drawing […]
Too Few Women Peacekeepers Contrary to Commitments
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres finds it “crippling to our credibility and protection capacity that women represent only four percent of our military peacekeepers and ten percent of police,” though “over the past year, we have seen positive examples of progress”. Briefing the Security Council’s annual high-level debate on […]
Participation in Landmark NATO Exercise Reveals Iceland’s Dilemma
By Lowana Veal REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Iceland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe, has no standing army. But it is a founding member of the 29-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and is therefore taking part in Trident Juncture 2018, the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War in December 1991. […]
UN Expert Reiterates Call for Investigation of Khashoggi’s Murder
NEW YORK (IDN) – David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has reiterated the call for an “independent investigative body” to examine the case of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was reportedly killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He stressed the need for a “credible […]
Land Deal with Russian Billionaire Causes a Stir in Namibia
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | WINDHOEK (IDN) – The Namibian government has leased four farms for 99 years to a company, Comsar Properties SA, owned by a Russian billionaire, Rashid Sardarov. Valued at USD$3 million and measuring a total 42,000 acres, the farms were registered as state property by the land […]
A New Book Proposes an Alternative U.S. Foreign Policy
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – At last a book that attacks the “Blob” and holes it below the water line. Whether it can sink it is another matter. I’m talking about ‘The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S Primacy’ by the Harvard professor of international […]