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 […]
Kazakh Initiated Forum Underlines Importance of NWFZs
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu has expressed her “gratitude” to the Kazakhstan for their continued partnership with the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), including through a series of Nuclear Discussion Forums (NDF), now in its eighth year. She was addressing a side event of […]
Full Potential of Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones Has Yet to be Recognised
Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu The following are extensive excerpts from a statement by Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at a side event on October 18, 2018, organized by the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations on Consolidating and Enhancing Cooperation among Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones. – The Editor NEW YORK […]
Lesotho and South Africa Among Winners of UN Awards
By Ronald Joshua GENEVA (IDN) – Bahrain, India, Lesotho and South Africa have won 2018 United Nations Investment Promotion Awards for excellence in boosting investment into sectors that will have social and economic benefits and help countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the […]