by Stefan Hofer,* Switzerland
(16 January 2023) The war in Ukraine, like any war, is terrible and should be ended as soon as possible. However, one cannot assess this war and its political responsibility without first knowing and taking into account its origins. (Written in late December 2022)
by Jeffrey D. Sachs,* USA
(23 December 2022) The Ukraine War is an extremely dangerous war between nuclear superpowers in a world desperately in need of peace and cooperation.
There is a new glimmer of hope for a quick negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.
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.”
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.
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.
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.