OPINION

Photo: Prime Minister Modi addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on June 24 in Tashkent. Credit: www.narendramodi.in

New Global Power Equations Emerging Slowly But Surely

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran *

BEIJING (IDN) - Tashkent and Seoul were both in the news in the last week of June, for events which may have set in motion changes with far-reaching consequences for power equations in Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Hence, the two cities may well be remembered as the trigger-point of developments on which Sino-Russian strategic partnership may have an impact.

Seoul was the venue for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) plenary, which frustrated India's attempts to gain entry. Around the same time, although Tashkent was witness to more momentous events, the bilateral meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping stole the thunder. Only because the Modi-Xi meeting was about India's bid for NSG membership, widely publicized as enjoying unstinted U.S. support.

: Shastri Ramachandran; OPINION; 10 July 2016

Photo: Riot police personnel in armored vehicles in downtown Cairo using birdshot guns on the fourth anniversary of the January 2011 revolution. Copyright: Daily News Egypt

U.S.-Egypt: From Idealism to Political Cynicism

Viewpoint by Rana Allam and Sanam Naraghi Anderlini

Rana Allam is WASL Senior Editor and Former Editor of Daily News Egypt. Sanam Naraghi Anderlini is Co-Founder, ICAN.

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) - On July 4 as Americans celebrated independence from a King that “obstructed the Administration of Justice…sent hither swarms of Officers to harass people… kept among [the people], in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of legislatures…and render[ed] the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power”, Egyptians commemorated the rise of just such a king in their midst in 2013, and they wonder why the U.S. continues to support such a repressive ruler in Egypt today, when the same was intolerable for Americans 200 years ago.

With news of daily bombings and crises across the Middle East, it is no surprise that Egypt is absent from the news headlines, but the events that have been unfolding there since 2013 are warning signs of a much greater looming crisis, if attention isn’t paid soon.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 07 July 2016

Photo: Student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on Virginia Tech's campus in 2007. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Mass Murder Doesn’t Have to Succeed

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - After Hitler’s Final Solution – the elimination of the Jews – came Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge and the murder of two million of the country’s people. After that came Rwanda when at least a million of the Tutsi people were slaughtered en masse by the Hutus. More recently we have seen large-scale killing in Sudan and now in Syria. The latter two can’t be called “genocide” – the attempt to totally eliminate a people – but the first three certainly were.

However bad that sounds the evidence is, whether it be genocide or mass slaughter, there has been significantly less of it during the last 50 years, despite the fact that most of us recall the horrors – thanks to the TV news producers’ mantra “if it bleeds it leads” – not the steady lessening of its frequency.

: Jonathan Power; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 05 July 2016

Photo: Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. Credit: eritrea.be

Eritrea Under Pressure Because of a Landmark UN Report

Viewpoint by Mirjam van Reisen

BRUSSELS (IDN) - The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a ground-breaking resolution following the presentation of the report by the Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights in Eritrea. The Eritrean government has rejected the Commission’s findings.

The Council expresses deep concern at the Commission’s findings that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Crimes against Humanity have been committed in Eritrea since 1991.

The resolution requests the General Assembly “to submit the report and the oral updates of the commission of inquiry to all relevant organs of the UN for consideration and appropriate action”.

Though the resolution does not specifically mention the Security Council, its referral the United Nations' most powerful body, with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security" would open the way for the findings to be presented to the International Criminal Court.

: Mirjam van Reisen; UN INSIDER; 01 July 2016

Photo: NATO Summit in Washington 1999. | Credit: GMF

NATO Summit After Brexit an Opportunity for Unity

Viewpoint by Karen Donfried *

WASHINGTON (IDN | GMF) - The implications of the Brexit vote are stark, not only for the United Kingdom and for the European Union, but also for the United States. Since the end of World War II, successive U.S. administrations have strongly supported the project of European economic and political integration – initially, to ensure peace among the continent’s great powers; more recently, to enlarge the area of democratic stability and economic prosperity across the continent.

For seven decades, the U.S. security umbrella, represented by the NATO Alliance, helped defend our European allies and gave them the opportunity to concentrate on building the European Community and later the European Union (EU). With the U.K. poised to leave the EU, leadership from the United States is needed to keep the U.K. and its continental partners working closely together in NATO and beyond in the aftermath of last week’s referendum.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 30 June 2016

Right to Health Must Prevail Over All Property Rights

By South Centre*

GENEVA (IDN-INPS | South Bulletin) – A High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines convened by the UN Secretary-General is currently considering a number of proposals to address the policy incoherence between intellectual property (IP) rights, human rights, trade rules and access to medicines.

The final report of the High-Level Panel will be submitted to the UN Secretary-General, who will present the report to the UN General Assembly to take further action.

The South Centre has made the following three contributions (Nos 67, 112 and 113) to the Panel based on the premise that the right to health for all must prevail over trade and intellectual property rules.

: South Centre; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 29 June 2016

Photo: President of the European Council, Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Credit: NATO

NATO Breaks Non-Expansion Promise

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - NATO has just announced a plan to send troops to the Alliance’s eastern flank, close to the Russian border. NATO says it is attempting to deter potential Russian aggression.

The UK, the U.S., Canada and Germany will lead four battle groups to be based in Poland and the Baltic states. Diplomats say the troops will be a deterrent to Russian aggression by acting as a “tripwire” that would trigger a full response from the alliance if necessary

On June 26, 2016 the foreign minister of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, condemned Western “sabre-rattling and war cries”. He said, “Anyone who believes the symbolic tank parades on the Alliance’s eastern border will increase security is wrong”.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 28 June 2016

Photo: Prime Minister Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping during New Delhi visit in September 2014. Credit: www.narendramodi.in

Failure to Join NSG Should Not Damage Sino-Indian Ties

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

BEIJING (IDN) - India's failure to break into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) at its plenary on June 23 in Seoul does not translate into China's gain. It would be erroneous to see the NSG session as an India-China match which ended with a score of 0-1, for it casts in bilateral terms what was not a bilateral contest at all. However, there is no denying that New Delhi's abortive bid for NSG membership is bound to impact Sino-Indian relations in ways that it should not.

After the door was shut on India in Seoul, there was implied criticism of China, including in official statements, which referred to procedural hurdles raised by "one country." This may be attributed to anger and frustration over being unable to achieve the desired goal. The outcome is still rankling in India, and it may be a while before those stung by the perceived "humiliation" can take an objective view of the matter.

Even the most sympathetic of informed observers and those with an insider's grasp of the matter in India are on record that the bid for membership was a gross miscalculation on the part of the Government of India (GoI).

: Shastri Ramachandran; OPINION; 28 June 2016

Photo: Roberto Savio. Credit: Christine Sunbean.

Brexit – Or What Happens When People Vote With Their Guts

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN) – Polling specialists say that when voters do not feel comfortable in saying how they will really vote, it is because they are not comfortable at a rational level with how they will actually vote. In other words, voters act because of their guts, not because of their brains.

This is what happened when the exit polls after the June 23 British referendum on whether to remain part of or leave the European Union showed the 'remain' vote in a slight lead, only to be proved wrong overnight.

The Brexit referendum was really based on gut feelings. It was a campaign of fear. The 'leave' campaign was about a massive invasion of Great Britain by Turks because of the possible admission of Turkey to the EU (totally false) and that Great Britain was paying the EU 50 millions pounds a day (again false).

: Roberto Savio; OPINION; 25 June 2016

Photo: The parliament buildings in Astana, Kazakhstan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Central Asia (Kazakhstan) Deserves Seat in Security Council

Viewpoint by Erlan Idrissov | Reproduced courtesy of The Hill

The author is Foreign Minister Kazakhstan. This article originally appeared with the headline High time for Central Asia and Kazakhstan to have a voice in UN Security Council.

ASTANA - No organisation has a greater global responsibility than the United Nations Security Council. The Council has the solemn task of maintaining international peace with the power to intervene if threats put it or the safety of civilian populations at risk. Its effectiveness has a huge impact on our world and the lives of millions of people.

The Council’s authority stems from the UN Charter and the support of the international community. But it is strengthened when its membership is as representative as possible. Its decisions, too, benefit when drawing on differing global perspectives. It is why from the beginning, the Council’s membership included not just the great powers but a rotating group of countries elected on a regional basis.