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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.

Dar es Salaam ('The Abode of Peace') city skyline. Credit: Ali Damji | Wikimedia Commons.

The Press is Blind to the Africa of the Future

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Africa up or down? After 10 years of quite remarkable growth across the continent most countries are experiencing a downturn, with average growth nearer 3.75% than 5% as before.

Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country with its largest economy, was at one time growing year after year at 7+%. Now it looks like it’s heading for recession and a growth rate pointing to zero. It has been hit by a six-fold whammy – oil prices sharply down, the effects of the great recession in the industrialised countries, the Chinese economy slowing, bad economic and foreign exchange policies under the relatively new president, Muhammadu Buhari, increased corruption under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, and the war against Boko Haram in the far north.

Mexican Artists Featured in Mesmerising Paris Expo

By A.D. McKenzie | SWAN

PARIS - It is being billed as the largest exhibition devoted to Mexican art in at least half a century, and the impressive show now on at Paris’ Grand Palais does feel like a landmark event.

Titled Mexique 1900 - 1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Orozco and the avant-garde, it features Mexico’s most famous artists, as well as those less known, and gives a historical perspective of the Latin American country through its art.

Photo: The Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 1994 in Oslo. From left to right: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Credit: Saar Yaacov, GPO - Government Press Office, Israel | Wikimedia Commons

Israel's Self-Obsession Obstructs the Path to Peace

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - The many world leaders who gathered in Jerusalem on September 30 for the funeral of Shimon Peres, the former president of Israel, are safely ensconced back home. They will not bother much to think about Israel again until the next Palestinian uprising. But the Israelis will continue to only think about themselves.

The Israelis are obsessed with themselves, with their history, with the present time and with their destiny. Every nation has some of this but Israeli navel gazing is something else. At this level of intensity it makes compromise difficult and condemns Israel to political paranoia and limitless inflexibility.