By International Crisis Group | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint
BRUSSELS – The U.S.-Russian agreement to remove Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal has led many observers to hope for a political breakthrough. A more immediate and realistic objective, as well as a more reliable yardstick by which to measure various parties’ good-will, should be on the humanitarian front, where the situation is deteriorating rapidly and relentlessly.
By Athena Ballesteros of World Resources Institute
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued on October 29, 2013 a policy document ending Washington’s support for multilateral development bank (MDB) funding for new overseas coal projects except in narrowly defined circumstances. Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs Lael Brainard explained: “By encouraging the use of clean energy in multilateral development bank projects, we are furthering U.S. efforts to address the urgent challenges of climate change.” World Resources Institute’s Project Manager of International Financial Flows and Environment Project, Athena Ballesteros, analyses the significance of the initiative in a blog.
By J C Suresh | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
TORONTO (IDN) – Chile has received kudos for making significant economic progress in the previous three years but has been faulted for “some glaring inequalities”. A new study finds that – together with Mexico – Chile displays “the greatest inequality gap” in the 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The average income of the wealthiest 10 percent in Chile and Mexico is 27 times that of the poorest 10 percent, in other words, a ratio of 27 to 1. By contrast, the OECD average is around 10 to 1, informs the 2013 Economic Survey of Chile.
By Alireza Noori* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
TEHRAN (IDN | Iran Review) – Although the idea of possible re-establishment of Iran’s relations with the United States is still at the stage of early speculations and does not seem to be realized even in the medium term, the mere mention of this issue has been followed by different analysis about the possibility of an Iran-U.S. détente and its outcomes. Among all other issues, relations between Tehran and Moscow will be certainly affected by such a development.
By Martin Khor* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
GENEVA (IDN) – The world waited with bated breath as the deadline neared. And breathed a sigh of relief when at the last minute the United States avoided crossing its “debt ceiling” and a default on its debts.
The debt ceiling was raised, and the government shutdown also ended, after weeks of a high-profile standoff between U.S. President Barrack Obama and the Republicans in Congress. But this relief was mixed with incredulity and frustration.
Firstly, the respite is only temporary; the can is just kicked down the road. The deadlines for government shutdown and debt ceiling are shifted some weeks away to January and February 2014.
By Ramesh Jaura* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
BERLIN (IDN) – There is a lot of good news on the nuclear disarmament front but there are miles to go before the campaigners for banning the bomb can ‘lie down and sleep in peace’. Almost seventy years after the first use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, about 17,000 continue to threaten the very survival of humankind.
By Joan Erakit* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
NEW YORK (IDN) – Striving to promote the interest of future generations through policy making, The World Future Council gathers each year to review strategies that are progressive and change the way our global community functions.
The process begins with a serious question: what are the most important topics of our time and which countries are addressing them with such vigour, others take notice?
This is the task given to the World Future Council in partnership with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) – a trifecta with the goal of affecting positive change.
By Mirjam van Reisen* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
BRUSSELS (IDN) – In the early morning of October 3 a tourist was enjoying the beautiful quiet beach of the Italian Mediterranean Island when three swimmers appeared. Three African young men frantically asked for help. They had left their mothers behind in a ship on sea that was on fire.
By Julio Godoy | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
BARCELONA (IDN) – During the early 1980s, distinguished U.S. international affairs journalist Jonathan Kwitny started a journey throughout the world, to analyse his country’s foreign policy since the late 1940s. Kwitny, who had reported among other media for the Wall Street Journal, came to a disparaging conclusion: The U.S., which had emerged as the champion of the “free” world for its decisive intervention against Nazi Germany and Fascist Japan, and as such stood against the Soviet Union, did not care for democracy and human rights, but only for what its governments considered as “national interests”.
By Shim Jae Hoon* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
SEOUL (IDN | Yale Global) – The front-page picture in Korean newspapers told the story of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. South Korea’s President Park Geun Hye, looking frosty and gazing in the opposite direction, ignored Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe standing next to her at the October 7 APEC in Bali. The two leaders barely exchanged greetings, according to a Japanese news dispatch, and kept their contact to a minimum, “only for a few seconds”.
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