OPINION

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.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 10 December 2022

“How The Rich and Powerful in Thailand Escape the Law"

Viewpoint by Jan Servaes*

BRUSSELS (IDN) — A crashed Ferrari, a dead police officer and a fugitive heir to a multibillion-dollar fortune—ten years later, Thailand is no closer to solving one of its most infamous hit-and-run crimes. Red Bull's story, according to the Indian news channel WION (World Is On News), is again "a reminder of how the rich and powerful in Thailand escape the law".

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 09 December 2022

Strategic Dilemma: Germany in Search of an Effective China Strategy

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf

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

BONN (IDN) — German-Chinese relations are currently being reassessed in Germany. This is the result of a longer development that also took place in the EU. The shock of Germany's dependence on Russian gas, coal and oil supplies has made relations with China particularly sensitive.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 December 2022

Photo: Defense Ministers from 14 NATO Allies and Finland came together in Brussels on Thursday (13 October 2022) to sign a Letter of Intent for the development of a “European Sky Shield Initiative”. Source: NATO

Sky Shield & the Spiraling U.S.-NATO Arms Race

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson

The writer is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security and Co-Convener of the Peace & Planet International Network.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Biden Administration’s recent National Security Strategy announced that the post-Cold War order is now history, and that the yet to be named new era is defined by military, economic, and technological competition to shape the new order. NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S./NATO response, as well as the trade war with China are all major elements in these debilitating, and at times murderous, struggles for hegemony—regional and global.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 December 2022

Photo: US President Joe Biden. Source: The White House.

President Biden Wants to Prevent a Strong Primary Challenge

But He Shouldn’t Get Away with It

Viewpoint by Norman Solomon*

SAN FRANCISCO (IDN) — Joe Biden has directed the Democratic National Committee to reduce the danger that progressives might effectively challenge him in the 2024 presidential primaries. That’s a key goal of his instructions to the DNC on December 2, when Biden insisted on dislodging New Hampshire—the longtime first-in-the-nation primary state where he received just 8 per cent of the vote and finished fifth in the 2020 Democratic primary.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 December 2022

Photo: A woman passing by a painting on a wall of the former US embassy in Tehran in 2004 showing the US as a Satan. Credit: Behrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse

Washington Should Offer Iran a Nuclear Deal It Cannot Decline

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The policies of Iran’s government are not set in stone, as critics interminably suggest. Only three days ago (on December 4), Iran’s prosecutor-general was reported as saying that the morality police were being disbanded. Clearly, two months of demonstrations, led mainly by women, and now with open support from Iran’s football World Cup team competing in Qatar, have made the government have a big think about its long-term policies.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 December 2022

Photo: Russian imports have dropped sharply, reflecting the decision of multinational companies to sever ties with Russia. Courtesy: The New York Times.

Sanctions Hit Russia as Moscow Attempts to Overcome Them

Viewpoint by John P. Ruehl

This article was produced by Globetrotter. John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S., the UK, and the EU placed major sanctions on Russia to constrict its economy and restrain its war effort. Having been updated several times since, these sanctions have compounded the effects of the previous sanctions placed on Russia in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 December 2022

Nuclear Risks and Technological Proliferation

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is a former High Representative of the United Nations for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — 60 years after the Cuban missile crisis, the spectre of the imminent use of nuclear weapons once again haunts humankind. On that occasion, however, the crisis lasted for just 13 days until John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, in direct contact, arrived at the agreement that made possible the withdrawal of the Soviet weapons from the Caribbean Island in exchange for the non-stationing of American nuclear arms in Turkey.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 05 December 2022

Photo: From ‘Democrat’ to Autocrat: Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe Credit: Asian Affairs London.

Sri Lanka’s Economic Recovery? False Positive

By Neville de Silva*

This article was issued by Asian Affairs (London).

LONDON (IDN) — The sense of economic optimism expressed by Sri Lanka’s increasingly despotic president is not shared by the country’s long-suffering people.

Presenting his first budget since assuming office as president after his predecessor fled the country, Ranil Wickremesinghe seemed to see a new dawn on the horizon. Speaking in parliament in mid-November, he saw ‘a glimmer of hope on emerging from the economic abyss’, adding that it was ‘currently visible’.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 04 December 2022

Putting Anti-racism & Anti-discrimination High on the International Agenda

Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti*

KATHMANDU (IDN) — A recent UNESCO Forum provided some impetus to the fight against racism and discrimination, but the level of the problems involved required a much bigger commitment.

It is unfortunate that the second edition of the Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination, organized by UNESCO in Mexico City on November 28-29, did not get the attention and visibility it should have commanded.