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Looking Back at UNIDO, Moving Forward

Viewpoint by LI Yong, Director General of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

VIENNA (IDN-INPS) - UNIDO is turning fifty years old. The anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the past. It is also an opportunity to chart a new path for a sustainable future.

Looking back at what UNIDO has achieved throughout all these years, I am amazed by the success of its technical cooperation activities, its normative function and its policy advice, and its contribution to the global discussion of industrial development.

The history of the Organization started on November 17, 1966, when UNIDO was established as a special organ of the United Nations General Assembly to assist, promote and accelerate the industrialization of developing countries, with a particular emphasis on manufacturing. After moving its headquarters to Vienna in 1979, it became a specialized agency in 1985.

Photo: Adelie penguins in Antarctica. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Peace in Antarctica Exemplary for International Relations

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - In 1772, sailing to the far south, Captain James Cook deflated the prevailing myth of Antarctica, that it was a temperate land, fertile and populated. Although he never landed on the continent he saw the vast icebergs, the frozen sea and the “worst weather anywhere in the world”. He wrote that “it is a continent doomed by nature” and doubted that man would ever find a use for it.

The words had not been long out of his mouth before governments started to make tentative grabs. The British were the first to make a move, claiming sovereignty on the grounds that the government needed to regulate commercial whaling.

Mixed Global Reactions to Trump’s Shocking Rise to Presidency

WASHINGTON D.C. (IDN-INPS | Press TV) - The victory of billionaire populist Donald J. Trump in the US presidential election is prompting responses from politicians worldwide, ranging from messages of congratulation to tacit expressions of discomfort.

Trump won more than 270 electoral votes in the 2016 presidential election on Wednesday, enough to make him the 45th president of the United States even as vote counting continued in a number of states.

His rise to the presidency wildly contrasted most forecasts within the United States, which had projected a strong win by his rival, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Photo: Official portrait by Pete Souza of the Obama family in the Oval Office in 2011. (From L-R): Michelle Obama, Malia Obama, Barack Obama, and Sasha Obama.

What If Obama Were President for the Third Term

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - An interesting question is what would happen to American foreign policy if President Barack Obama were allowed to have another four year term in office?

It would be a less interventionist presidency than what is about to become. This is not to say that I think the way Obama has handled the war in Afghanistan has been successful. Nor do I believe the attack on Libya was a sensible idea. Nor do I think the way he dealt with Russia and Ukraine in the last four years has been anything but counterproductive.

Lecture Series

Introduction to Lecture Series on GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

by Dr. Brigitte Fahrenhorst

Photo: UNFCCC | Credit: Joshua Mayer / Flickr

Measures to Protect, Restore and Sustainably Manage Forests

MARRAKECH, Morocco (UNFCC) – Leaders in the global drive to protect, restore and sustainably manage forests announced on November 8 a series of measures that show concrete progress is being made towards delivering on the Paris climate pledges and global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

More than a dozen initiatives from Africa to Indonesia to South America are demonstrating how climate mitigation and adaptation actions related to forests and agriculture are firmly anchored in the Nationally Determined Contributions of over 120 Parties to the Climate Convention.

Photo: An overview of the UNGA First Committee. Credit: ICAN

NATO Shores Up Hegemonial Power Through Nuke Deterrence

By Xanthe Hall, IPPNW and ICAN Germany

Note: This article first appeared in the IPPNW Peace and Health Blog on November 3, 2016.

BERLIN (IDN-INPS) - For once, the United States, France and the United Kingdom are in agreement with Russia: plans to negotiate a nuclear weapons ban need to be stopped. Before the vote on October 27 in the UN First Committee, they pulled out all the stops to pressurise other states to vote against or abstain on a draft resolution co-sponsored by 57 states for a conference to be convened in 2017 to negotiate a nuclear ban.

Photo: Salaheddine Mezouar (left) and Patricia Espinosa (right). Credit: cop22.ma

Celebration & Reality Check as Paris Accord Enters into Force

By Patricia Espinosa and Salaheddine Mezouar

Patricia Espinosa is UNFCCC Executive Secretary and Salaheddine Mezouar, President of COP22 and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco.

MARRAKECH (IDN-INPS | UNFCCC COP22) - Humanity will look back on November 4, 2016, as the day that countries of the world shut the door on inevitable climate disaster and set off with determination towards a sustainable future.

The Paris Climate Change Agreement – the result of the most complex, comprehensive and critical international climate negotiation ever attempted – came into force (on November 4).

Certainly Not Trump But Hillary With Some More Fantasy

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - I have a fantasy. Donald Trump wins. He goes to Moscow on his first trip as president and gives President Vladimir Putin a bear hug and they go hunting in the forest, Soviet style.

When they emerge they have shot a couple of bears and have had a good lunch laid out for them by acolytes at which they have discussed the matters of the world.

They give a press conference. They have decided to re-start negotiations on major nuclear arms reductions and both say they unilaterally are immediately ridding themselves of a 1000 missiles each.

A special "Kasab class" is part of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)'s training module for its new recruits during which they are told about the mistakes committed by Ajmal Kasab during the deadly Mumbai terror attack. Source: IndiaTVNews

India and Pakistan Must Negotiate a Permanent Peace

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - In the middle of September Pakistani militants moved across the “line of control” that separates Pakistan-controlled Kashmir from the Indian-controlled part. The two countries have been at loggerheads about the title to this gorgeously beautiful state, now bereft of tourism and much income, since independence.

In recent years guerrilla activity has died away and most observers thought that the Pakistani army was seriously clamping down on its own sponsored guerrillas. The indications were that the government truly wanted rapprochement with India. And India too with Pakistan.