By Saber Azam* GENEVA, Mar 16 2020 (IPS) – The fourth and last presidential election in Afghanistan on 28 September 2019 was yet another setback to the democratic process. Not only did it take months for the Independent Election Commission… Continue Reading
By Sam Hill* – Newsweek On February 29 in Doha, Qatar, the U.S. signed a peace agreement with the Taliban. Each side gets what it wants most. The US gets to bring home the 12,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan,… Continue Reading
By Staffan de Mistura* I had the privilege of working under the leadership of Javier Perez de Cuellar when he was the Secretary General. He had some unique qualities which were not very visable during a long period because one… Continue Reading
By Farhana Haque Rahman* The world has lost a champion of human rights with the passing of Idriss Jazairy, a former Algerian diplomat and head of multi-lateral institutions who won praise for his work defending the under privileged and his commitment to international law. The Geneva Centre for… Continue Reading
By M.K. Bhadrakumar* – Independent Media Institute The chasm between illusion and reality in politics remains perennial. Wars seldom ended according to the script of peace agreements. The fall of Saigon in April 1975 ending the Vietnam War, with defeated Americans hastily… Continue Reading
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2020 (IPS) – The world’s young activists, numbering over 3.8 billion, are on the war path. The rising new socialist movements—which originated with “Black Lives Matter” and “Occupy Wall Street” (one protester’s slogan… Continue Reading
By Samira Sadeque UNITED NATIONS, Jan 2020 (IPS) – While the United States is busy with foreign operations such as killing Qasem Soleimani, a key figure in Middle East Politics, behind the scenes it is reportedly considering a change that… Continue Reading
By Vijay Prashad* – Independent Media Institute Noam Chomsky recently celebrated his 91st birthday. As an homage to Noam, I spent the day with one of his lesser-known books—The Backroom Boys (1973). The book is made up of two spectacular essays,… Continue Reading
By John Scales Avery* Loving care for our children We give our children loving care, but it makes no sense to do so unless we do everything in our power to give them a future world in which they can… Continue Reading
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29 2019 (IPS) – A Republican US Senator of a bygone era was once quoted as saying “a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” And, not surprisingly,… Continue Reading
Opinion, By Jan Lundius* STOCKHOLM / ROME, Oct 24 2019 (IPS) – On October 11, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee announced that this year´s Peace Prize is awarded to Ethiopia´s prime minister Abiy Ahmed: “For his efforts to achieve peace… Continue Reading
By Jason Burke and Jon Henley * – The Guardian Award recognises efforts for peace, in particular in resolving Eritrea border conflict The prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, who forged a peace deal with Eritrea last year, has won the… Continue Reading
Marc Schulman* – Newsweek On Thursday, the members of the 22nd Knesset took their oaths of office. With eight exceptions, the members of the freshly sworn-in Knesset are identical to those who had served in the 21st Knesset, which was… Continue Reading
By CNA – English language Asian news network DILI: East Timor on Friday (Aug 30) celebrated 20 years since a UN-backed vote ended a bloody, decades-long occupation by Indonesian forces and paved the way for it to become an independent nation.… Continue Reading
By Xander Snyder* – Geopolitical Futures Infighting among the Arab coalition in Yemen is starting to resemble a civil war within a civil war. Disagreements between Saudi Arabia, the coalition leader, and junior partner the United Arab Emirates in Yemen… Continue Reading
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* (CNN) — In every generation we depend on a few people of supreme decency and intelligence to hold the world together. In Jewish tradition, there are at all times 36 tzadikim, righteous people, without whom the… Continue Reading
By Michelle Goldberg* – The New York Times Trump torched America’s foreign policy infrastructure. The results are becoming clear Earlier this week, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, visited The New York Times editorial board, and I… Continue Reading
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS, Aug 2019 (IPS) – When Yassir Arafat was denied a US visa to visit New York to address the United Nations back in 1988, the General Assembly defied the United States by temporarily moving the… Continue Reading
By Paul R. Pillar* – LobeLog** Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been justly criticized for his creation of a Commission on Unalienable Rights, with the mission of redefining human rights. The move appears designed to base the redefinition on religious doctrine… Continue Reading
By Peter Adwok NYABA * It isn’t possible that people who’ve been struggling together against a common enemy for nearly six decades could turn in the end against themselves as if nothing strategic bounded them together. Many people in the… Continue Reading
