International

What does it mean to be on the right side of history?

Anyone who corners a nuclear power is acting irresponsibly. US President John F. Kennedy already knew that

by Oskar Lafontaine,* Germany

(23 December 2022) In his government statement to the German Bundestag on 27 February 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “In Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa and Mariupol, people are not only defending their homeland. They are fighting for freedom and their democracy, for values that we share with them. As democrats, as Europeans, we stand by their side, on the right side of history.”
Reflections on Events in Afghanistan – 41

US brings culture wars to Afghanistan

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(16 December 2022) The time has come to pick up threads from my blog of January 27 titled The West co-opts the Taliban.1 Indeed, the wheel has come full circle since the three-day conclave in Oslo on January 23-25 between a core group of Western diplomats with Taliban officials failed to work out a reasonable modus vivendi. The pendulum has since swung to the other extreme.

Beware of Long Wars

Ukrainian Attacks on Russia Are Dangerously Escalatory

by William J. Astore,* USA

(16 December 2022) Reports that Ukraine is launching modified drones to strike airbases deep in Russia1 highlight the unpredictability and escalatory nature of wars. Ukraine is no longer content at defending itself against Russian aggression; Russia itself must be made a target, which will likely provoke harsher Russian counterattacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress continues to authorize billions in military aid to Ukraine, which is pitched as defending democracy and freedom.
Palestine and International Law

From occupation to de facto annexation?

Statement of “International Progress Organization” at United Nations meeting on Palestine

United Nations Office at Vienna, 29 November 2022 – RE/28630c-is

(6 December 2022) In a statement delivered at a special United Nations meeting convened by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the President [Hans Köchler*] of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.) welcomed the decision of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee of the UN General Assembly to request an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice concerning the legal consequences from the ongoing violation of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.
U.N. General Assembly, 3 November 2022

Near-Unanimous UN Call to End Cuba Blockade

by Brett Wilkins,* USA

(6 December 2022) Thursday’s vote was 185-2. The only two “no” votes were those of the United States and Israel, with Ukraine and Brazil abstaining.

Russia’s Kherson withdrawal is tactical

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(29 November 2022) General Mark Milley, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States assessed that it would take several weeks for Moscow to complete the evacuation of some 30,000 Russian troops deployed in Kherson city in southern Ukraine. But Russians have announced that the evacuation was successfully completed in 2 days — both soldiers and over 5000 pieces of heavy equipment.