OPINION

Photo: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Syria's Bashar Assad in Aleppo in February 2011. Source: DAILY SABAH

Russia Mediates Turkish-Syrian Reconciliation Process

Erdogan Avenges the American Betrayal

Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar*

This article was produced in partnership with Indian Punchline and Globetrotter.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — The curtain is coming down on the brutal 11-year-old Syrian conflict, which former US President and Nobel Laureate Barack Obama initiated as the Arab Spring swept through West Asia two decades ago. The United States has suffered yet another big setback in West Asia as the year 2022 draws to a close. The unfolding Turkish-Syrian reconciliation process under Russian mediation is to be seen as a saga of betrayal and vengeance.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 31 December 2022

Photo: A Ukrainian soldier firing a Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon. Credit: AP

The Ukraine War: Paving the Road to a World War with 'Peace Plans'?

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — On December 27, 2022, both Russia and Ukraine issued calls for ending the war in Ukraine, but only on non-negotiable terms that they each know the other side would reject.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba proposed a "peace summit" in February 2023 to be chaired by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, but with the precondition that Russia must first face prosecution for war crimes in an international court.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 December 2022

Photo: Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force introduce the B-21 Raider, the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft. Credit: Northrop Grumman

The Dismal State of Nuclear Disarmament

Viewpoint by Jacqueline Cabasso

The writer is the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation.

OAKLAND, California (IDN) — The year 2022 has been a nightmare for nuclear disarmament. The year started out with a mildly reassuring Joint Statement by the five original nuclear-armed states, issued on January 3, 2022, declaring:

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 December 2022

Photo: Migrant workers dig into a field in Doha, Qatar (© ILO).

Western Hypocrisy Overshadows the Epic Qatar Match

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — The shenanigans were always there, but until FIFA president Infantino Giovanni called them out in his down-to-earth press conference in Qatar, they remained the elephant in the room.

The hint of displeasure goes back 12 years ago when Qatar won the bid, defeating Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States. That outcome was unexpected.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 December 2022

Photo Credit: Colin Crowley/Save the Children – Flickr

The Age of Intersecting Crises?

Viewpoint by Tobias Ide*

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

PERTH, Australia (IDN) — When following the news over the past three years, one might get the impression that the world is living through a permanent state of crisis. While climate change is arguably the most important challenge of our time, headlines were frequently dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and more recently skyrocketing energy and food prices.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 21 December 2022

Photo: Community Health Workers in Kenya. Credit: Brian-Otieno

Advocating for Gender Equality in Universal Health Coverage

By Roopa Dhatt & Samiratou Ouedraogo

Roopa Dhatt is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health. Samiratou Ouedraogo is the Coordinator and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health, Francophone West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — If there was a Harvey Weinstein in health, we probably wouldn’t know about it. Not because sexual harassment in the health workforce isn’t widespread—we know that it is and not because women don’t want to report their experiences of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) at work—we know that they do; but because across much of the world’s health systems, there are simply no feasible reporting or legal mechanisms in place that women health workers can use with confidence.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 21 December 2022

Image: Women hold up half the sky, but men rule the party. Credit: Xinhua News Agency | Hu Peng. Source: Merics.

A Surplus of Men Leads to a Deficit of Peace

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Many of us who watched the parade of new politburo members walking onto the stage at the recent meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress were struck by the total absence of women. Unlike the previous 25 years, not even one.

Women can be found at the top of the arts, sports and in some parts of academia and the professions and occasionally in business but hardly at all in politics. It’s a man’s world.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 December 2022

Toward 2023: Preparing for Tectonic Shifts in the World Economy

Viewpoint by Dan Steinbock

The writer is the Founder of the Difference Group. The following are extensive excerpts from the article, originally published by China-US Focus on December 16, 2022.

NEW YORK (IDN) — In a recent Foreign Affairs commentary, Mohamed A. El-Erian warned that we are not facing just extraordinarily challenging business-cycle fluctuations but structural and secular long-term pressures. As a result, “the global economy may never be the same.”

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 December 2022

Image: How military spending affects the economy. Source: Investopedia

Why Not Use Money Power to Wind Back Military Spending?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The U.S. is not the only well-built actor on the Western stage. Some argue, quite understandably after the missed opportunities and mistaken steps of recent decades, that there is a lot to be said for trying to ignore the U.S. as much as possible or, at least, go round it.

Just let the U.S. pay as little or as much as it wants to the UN and its affiliate institutions and rely on the rest of the rich countries to make up the difference. This will clear the air in the UN, take its mind off the perennial struggle with Washington over arrears, and allow its energies to be better concentrated on how best to make use of the UN without waiting for Godot.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 December 2022

UNCTAD: This Time is Indifferent

Viewpoint by Alexander Kozul-Wright*

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) hosted its biennial debt management conference on December 5-7. The forum brought together governments, international organizations and academia to share views on the current debt landscape in developing countries.

LONDON (IDN) — Covid-19 shuddered the world economy to a halt, and the impact on developing countries was particularly severe. A combination of informal working conditions, underfunded healthcare systems and limited fiscal space constrained policy responses to the virus. By the end of 2020, sharp falls in export earnings and remittance inflows had pushed tens of low-income countries to the economic brink.