Peace & Justice

Back to the Future with the Taliban?

Viewpoint by Amin Saikal

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

SINGAPORE (IDN) — The defeat of the United States and its allies and return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan have changed the regional landscape. The configuration of forces has shifted in favour of Pakistan as the Taliban’s patron and China as a strategic partner of Pakistan, confronting India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Central Asian Republics and the main power behind them, Russia, with certain policy quandaries. Yet not all is lost, as both Islamabad and Beijing may find that Afghanistan is a very difficult country to govern and sustain.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 04 October 2021

Photo: The UNICEF Nutrition Specialist and Emergency Response Team screen for malnutrition in Adikeh in Wajirat in Southern Tigray in Ethiopia. © UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt

UN Implicitly Warns Member States Against Expelling Officials for Political Reasons

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — Ethiopia’s decision last week to expel seven UN officials, including senior humanitarian officials from the politically troubled African nation, generated an implicit warning to all 193 member states: do not kick out any UN officials for political reasons or declare them “persona non grata”.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 04 October 2021

Photo: Personal care kits are distributed to families affected by the Beirut port explosion in Lebanon. (file) Credit: UNICEF/Fouad Choufany

UN Announces Humanitarian Plan to Address ‘Living Nightmare’ in Lebanon

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — Lebanon has been assured critical life-saving assistance and protection to some 1.1 million citizens and migrants over the next 12 months. The UN and humanitarian partners have announced an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) worth $383 million.

The ERP covers 119 projects in the sectors of education, food security, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection and protection against gender-based violence.

: Radwan Jakeem; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 03 October 2021

Photo: President Joe Biden delivering his inaugural address on 20 January 2020. Credit: The White House.

US Facing End of Its Unipolar Moment

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Recent developments—such as the pandemic’s impact, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, its nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the release of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou—once again raise the question of whether the US remains the world’s sole superpower with its hegemony unchallenged. As is the wont in matters concerning the United States, analysts are divided on the subject, as they have been since the global financial crisis of 2008.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; OPINION; 02 October 2021

Photo: Paul Rusesabagina. Wikimedia Commons.

Film Hero from Movie Hotel Rwanda Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on terror charges despite pleas from human rights watchdogs and other critics of Rwanda’s repressive government to lessen the judgement or cancel it.

Rusesabagina was credited with sheltering more than a thousand ethnic Tutsis during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and was a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. He boycotted the announcement of the verdict after calling the trial a “sham.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 October 2021

Photo. 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Literature Wole Soyinka during a lecture at Stockholm Public Library on October 4, 2018. CC BY-SA 4.0

Nobel Laureate Soyinka’s ‘Searing Political Satire’ Of Nigeria Today

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The first Black African laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature has a precious gift for his place of birth. It’s a new book, his first novel in 50 years, scheduled to land on the 60th anniversary of Nigerian independence.

“I wanted this to be my present to the nation,” the 87-year-old Wole Soyinka told a reporter in a recent interview. “To the people who live here: both the governed and those who govern, the exploiters and the exploited.”

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 October 2021

Photo: NAM process in South Asia and in the Middle East. NAM summit in Iran. CC BY 4.0.

Foreign Policy: Sri Lanka and South Asia and the Conundrum to Resolve

By A. L. A. Azeez*

COLOMBO (IDN) — Whenever the foreign policy of the government of Sri Lanka is explained, the familiar refrains that are bandied around are ‘non-alignment’ and ‘neutrality’. No other South Asian country today has the burden of clarifying its foreign policy in terms of such ideals or any other as much as Sri Lanka seems to have demonstrated as of late.

: A. L. A. Azeez; OPINION; 29 September 2021

Photo: Collage of Dr Seneviratne on the road and SDO

Sustainable Development Observer – A Promotional Blog

BERLIN | SYDNEY (IDN) — The ‘Sustainable Development Observer’ (SDO) is an associated publication of IDN-InDepthNews, with a selection of articles from SDGsforAll.Net, a joint media project with the Soka Gakkai International. IDN is flagship agency of the non-profit International Press Syndicate. SDO will be a monthly e-magazine published towards the end of each month.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 28 September 2021

Photo: ‘Don’t even THINK about starting a nuclear war’ social media action in front of the American embassy in Prague. Credit: Alyn Ware

Climate Change & No-First-Use Key Issues for The International Day for Nuclear Abolition

By Alyn Ware

Alyn Ware is Member of the World Future Council and Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

PRAGUE (IDN) — The global push for nuclear armed countries to adopt no-first-use policies, and the connections between climate change and the threat from nuclear weapons, have emerged as key issues for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

: Alyn Ware; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 27 September 2021

Photo (from left to right): Jainendra Karn and Manish Uprety F.R.A.S.

Afghanistan: The Great Game or a Tumbling Dice on the Road to Ruin

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn

Manish Uprety is an ex-diplomat & ALCAP’s Special Adviser for Asia & Africa and Jainendra Karn is a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News.

New Delhi (IDN) — The SAARC Foreign Minister’s Meet scheduled for 25 September 2021 in New York was cancelled as Pakistan insisted that the Taliban government rather than the representatives of the previous Afghan government should be allowed to participate.