OPINION

Photo: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the first Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1985.

A Nuclear Arms Race Will Produce No Winners

Despite everything, it is still in our power to avoid nuclear confrontation.

Viewpoint by Mikhail Gorbachev*

MOSCOW (IDN-INPS) – The fate of the INF treaty has politicians and ordinary people worried on every continent. I am also concerned, and not only because I signed that treaty with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Dec. 1987. These events are yet another manifestation of the dangerous and destructive trends in world politics facing us today.

The main idea guiding us on the path to signing the original treaty was expressed in a joint statement with the United States, adopted at our first meeting in Geneva: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 February 2019

Photo: A crane removes a section of the Wall near Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on 21 December 1989. Source: Wikimedia

Why Walls Make Little Sense

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It’s time overdue that the misleading myths on immigration are thrown into the trashcan. They are causing untold damage. The fact is that President Donald Trump’s own government research shows that Mexican migration has dropped sharply in recent years.

In Britain, the Brexit debate which began with a whipped up crisis about immigration has now moved to a level where it’s tearing the country apart. In France and Belgium immigrants are falsely blamed for Islamic terrorism. In Sweden and Denmark the myth-makers have pushed traditionally left of centre electorates rightwards.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 19 February 2019

Photo: A small fence separates densely-populated Tijuana, Mexico, right, from the United States in the Border Patrol's San Diego Sector. Construction is underway to extend a secondary fence over the top of this hill and eventually to the Pacific Ocean. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Trump’s Emergency A Step Towards Presidential Dictatorship

Viewpoint by Patrick Martin*

TORONTO (IDN | INPS) – President Trump’s proclamation of a state of national emergency on the southern U.S. border is a frontal assault on constitutional norms and democratic rights in America. It is the first time in American history that a president has sought to usurp the constitutional prerogative of Congress to decide how public funds are to be spent.

The actual text of the proclamation, released by the White House on February 15 afternoon, confirms that Trump is seeking to accomplish the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border primarily through the U.S. military and using the vast resources of the Pentagon.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 17 February 2019

Photo: Memorial where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. His stylised footsteps lead to the memorial. CC BY-SA 3.0

India's Hindu Nationalists Celebrate Gandhi Assassination

By Ram Puniyani*

This article is the third in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

MUMBAI (IDN) – On January 30, 2019, when the whole country was observing the 71st martyrdom day of ‘Father of the Nation’, Mahatma Gandhi, the members of Hindu Mahasabha recreated the murder of Gandhi in Aligarh. Led by Hindu Mahasabha Secretary Pooja Shakun Pandey, a group of saffron wearing workers assembled with preparation for video shooting.

: Suresh Jaura; OPINION; 15 February 2019

Photo: Ilya Kursenko second from right with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and two other members of the CTBT Youth Group.

Why I Became A CTBTO Youth Group Member

By Ilya Kursenko

MOSCOW (IDN) – It all began with a question to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2016 during the plenary session of the 20th anniversary of CTBTO, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. I asked him back then: “What can the youth do to change the world?” Right after the session, I got invited to join the newly founded Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Youth Group and respond to the question by myself.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; OPINION; 14 February 2019

Photo: A political Advocacy Road show for reelection of Buhari, led by Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, a foremost Buhari loyalist, who is also a member of the Presidential Campaign Council and the National Women Leader of the Presidential Support Committee. Credit: Vanguard.

Buhari, If Reelected, Could Put Nigeria Back On Track

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Nigeria is a veritable factory of sophisticated novelists. It was no surprise that Ben Okri won the British Booker Prize that goes annually to the best novelist of the year.

Considering that high-class novel writing in English only began in Nigeria in 1958 with Chinua Achebe’s famous work, “Things Fall Apart”, now a classic, it has come a long way in a short time. Will Nigeria move at a similar speed with its economy and banish poverty as it once promised to?

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 February 2019

Why Venezuela's Oil Money Could Keep Undermining Its Economy And Democracy

By Scott Morgenstern and John Polga-Hecimovich*

LONDON (IDN-INPS) – As political and economic crises threaten to topple Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, political scientists like us are not surprised that he has run into trouble.

Instead, we see Venezuela as another example of what scholars call the “resource curse.” That’s the unfortunate correlation first described by the British economic geographer Richard M. Auty between nations with vast wealth from oil or other natural resources and political instability.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 10 February 2019

Photo: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the White House had "ordered and planned" a "coup". Credit: cancilleria.gob.ec

Venezuela Crisis Drives A Wedge Between Europeans

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – It’s a topsy-turvy world. President Emmanuel Macron’s France can recognise Juan Guaido, who is leading the protests in distant Venezuela, as “Interim President” of that country. But Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio cannot meet “Yellow Vest” protestors demonstrating on the streets of Paris.

Why is recognition of protests acceptable in the case of Venezuela but not when it comes to France?

Because the West led by the United States and its camp followers in Europe say so. This is the so-called “international community” known for its duplicitous standards.

: Shastri Ramachandran; OPINION; 09 February 2019

Photo: El Salvador President Salvador Sánchez Cerén greets Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro at his inauguration on 10 January 2019. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

It's Not Just About Overthrowing Maduro In Venezuela

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The 'Washington Consensus' on democracy today is not about respecting peoples’ right to elect their leaders by popular vote, but how to buy these votes to promote U.S. business interests. Thus, the ongoing campaign to bring “regime change” in Venezuela is not about overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura, but overthrowing the Bolivarian development model and an alternative trading system introduced by Hugo Chavez after he came to power in 1999.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 08 February 2019

Writing From A Sinking Vessel

Viewpoint by Federico Mayor Zaragoza*

BARCELONA (IDN) – “Suddenly,” said Leonardo Da Vinci, “there are no poor and rich, no young and old, no white and black on board … only a bunch of passengers toiling, working together to survive, to avoid a shipwreck.”

This is the advice we should convey today through all media so that the “peoples” become aware of the situation humanity is facing for the first time in history. In recent years a series of global threats have been recognised as potentially irreversible processes that need to be confronted and dealt with on time before it is too late.