Global Geopolitics

Pompeo’s Iran Speech a Prelude to War?

By Stephen Zunes
The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech this past Monday targeting Iran may have created a new benchmark for hypocritical, arrogant, and entitled demands by the United States on foreign governments.

Upholding International Law in the Context of International Peace & Security

By Dr Amrith Rohan Perera
The Security Council debate last week – on “Upholding International Law within the context of Maintenance of International Peace and Security – took place at a crucial moment when the strengthening and invigorating of collective measures for the maintenance of international peace and security has become an imperative.

Can Preventive Diplomacy Avert Military Conflicts?

By Thalif Deen
In the paradoxical battle against military conflicts, is preventive diplomacy one of the political remedies that can help deter wars before they break out?Miroslav Lajcak, President of the UN General Assembly, points out that prevention takes many forms, and it must tackle conflict at its roots – before it can spread.

“What do you Become When you Shoot to Kill Someone who is Unarmed, & not an Immediate Threat to You?”

By Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein
Appalling recent events in Gaza have called this Council into Special Session. Since the protests began on 30 March, 87 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli security forces in the context of the demonstrations, including 12 children; 29 others, including three children, were killed in other circumstances. And over 12,000 people have been injured, more than 3,500 of them by live ammunition.

White House Should State Opposition to Saudi Threat to Acquire Nuclear Weapons

By Daryl G. Kimball and Thomas Countryman
We are deeply disappointed by the counterproductive response from the Trump administration to the statements from senior Saudi officials threatening to pursue nuclear weapons in violation of their nonproliferation commitments.

Trump’s Dangerous Abrogation of the Iran Deal

By Stephen Zunes
The Trump Administration’s decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the United States—strikes a dangerous blow against arms control and international security and even more firmly establishes the United States as a rogue nation.

Economic & Social Costs of Gun Violence Appalling

By Izumi Nakamitsu
Every day, hundreds of lives are lost due to gun violence worldwide. Guns are responsible for about half of all violent deaths – nearly a quarter million each year.But the dire consequences of gun violence are not limited to those slain by guns. For every person killed by a gun, many more are injured, maimed, and forced to flee their home and community. Still many more live under constant threats of gun violence.

To Sustain Peace: Heed the Warnings & Prevent the Next War

By Sanam Naraghi Anderlini
New York and Washington DC may be three hours apart geographically, but in global affairs, they are worlds apart.With the wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere unabating, at the UN in New York, terms like ‘conflict prevention’ and ‘sustaining peace’ are back in vogue, with world leaders attending a major summit. Meanwhile in Washington while the talks with North Korea took center stage behind the scenes the drum roll of war against Iran is revving up.

What’s Changing As Countries Turn INDCs into NDCs?

By Mengpin Ge and Kelly Levin
In the lead up to the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted in 2015, more than 160 countries and the European Union submitted their own plans to address climate change, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Democratic Multilateralism

By Federico Mayor Zaragoza
“If we don’t do everything possible to democratize globalization, globalization will pervert national democracies”, said the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, as President of the “International Panel on Democracy and Development” set up by UNESCO and chaired by the man who had worked so hard, at a global scale, in favour of giving voice to the peoples -as required in the first sentence of the Charter of the United Nations- to allow constant participation from citizenship as should be the rule in a genuine democracy.

Argentina Aims for a Delicate Climate Balance in the G20

By Daniel Gutman
As president this year of the Group of 20 (G20) developed and emerging nations, Argentina has now formally begun the task of trying to rebuild a consensus around climate change. It will be an uphill climb, since the position taken by the United States in 2017 led to a noisy failure in the group with regard to the issue.

Middle East: a Threat to World Peace & Security, Warns UN Chief

By António Guterres
The situation in the Middle East is in chaos — to such an extent it has become a threat to international peace and security.The region is facing a true Gordian knot – different fault lines crossing each other and creating a highly volatile situation with risks of escalation, fragmentation and division as far as the eye can see with profound regional and global ramifications.

“International Solidarity” at Yemen Donor Conference

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
The international community has pledged over two billion dollars towards urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Yemen during a UN event.

Bolton: Is He the Walrus –Goo goo g’joob?

By Ian Williams
President Trump’s nomination of John Bolton as his National Security Advisor highlights the deep irrationality of this White House’s global agenda. Apparently, the world has hitherto been spared Bolton’s robust sabotage only because the President has an eccentric visceral antipathy to his mustache, but so far could not find another, clean-shaven, candidate in the rapidly draining pool of applicants for White House jobs.

Trump Begins to Reverberate in Mexico’s Presidential Elections

By Emilio Godoy
Statements by U.S. President Donald Trump against Mexico have begun to permeate the presidential election campaign in this Latin American country, forcing the candidates to pronounce themselves on the matter.

What’s Happening to the World Income Distribution?

By Homi Kharas and Brina Seidel
In 2013, Christoph Lakner and Branko Milanovic published a graph—quickly dubbed the “elephant chart”—that depicts changes in income distribution across the world between 1988 and 2008.

Yemen the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis, Says UN Chief

By António Guterres
Thank you all for being here today to show your solidarity with the women, men, girls and boys of Yemen. And I want to thank my co-chairs, the Governments of Sweden and Switzerland, for hosting this conference for the second year and for their continued humanitarian commitment.

Castro’s Successor to Inherit Long-standing Conflict Between Cuba and the United States

By Patricia Grogg
Cuba's tense relations with the United States under the administration of Donald Trump reflect a scenario of conflict that is not alien to the generation that will take over the country on Apr. 19, when President Raúl Castro is set to step down.

Trump Hurtles Toward Three Nuclear Crises

By Daryl G. Kimball
One year into the unorthodox presidency of Donald Trump, the United States faces an array of complex and dangerous foreign policy challenges that require principled leadership, pragmatism, patience, and smart diplomacy.

Has Trump Just Launched a Global Trade War?

By Martin Khor
Last week’s action by President Donald Trump has ended the United States’ leadership on liberal trade and may trigger a global trade war with major damaging consequences.

It’s the War, Stupid

By Joaquín Roy
It is revealing that a ruler who did not serve in the military, nor enjoys any experience in war affairs, has a special inclination to use a vocabulary more typical of bloody clashes between states than in diplomatic relations.
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