Russian missile strike on the sprawling industrial complex in Dnipro on November 21 produced far more strategic resonance than material damage – and has reopened hard questions about the constant mutation of the long Russia-Ukraine war and the methods of managing its escalation.
Kyiv in April 2024. Photo: STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images
In October the Security Council met for its annual Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Open Debate under the theme of “Women Building Peace in a Changing Environment.”
A 32 years old female FARC guerrilla fighter inside a demobilization camp in Colombia in 2017. Photo: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images
Despite the WPS agenda’s goals for including women in all aspects of security and peace-making, their participation in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR), a crucial part of peace processes, has often been minimal or merely symbolic.Read More
With the devastating news from Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan among other wars, we witness a crisis of the international regime for protecting civilians in armed conflict. However, this is not a total collapse but a return to the troubling world that the legal protections for civilians in the 1949 Geneva Conventions were made for.
Photo: Majdi Fathi/Nur Photo via Getty Images
Russia’s strategy in executing its aggressive war against Ukraine, passing the 1,000-day mark last week, puts the country’s economy, society, and armed forces under enormous pressure that Moscow’s militaristic propaganda cannot quite cover.
Vladimir Putin (R) and Kim Jong Un before Russian-North Korean talks in June 2024 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images
Technology is radically changing the work and role of scholars and the function of academic publishing. Fake and fabricated content (data, facts, arguments, claims, conclusions) undermines the foundations of knowledge in a democratic society.
Illustration: Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images
On 4 November, the Israeli Foreign Ministry cancelled the agreement the country signed with UNRWA in 1967. A week earlier, the Knesset had passed legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Sacks of flour at a UNRWA distribution center in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, November 2024. Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Why is Israel doing this, and what could the consequences be?Read More
The Kremlin had confidently expected confusion and turmoil following the US presidential election.
Instead, a definite outcome and the commitment to a smooth transition of power are set to shape the US political environment for the next couple of months.
Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki in 2018. Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
The US presidential election, which has been dominating the global news, will come to its natural culmination on November 5, even if the outcome remains uncertain for many more days.
Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024. Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a two-day diplomatic visit. Photo: Contributor/Getty Images
Even in Russia, where war and inflation are major concerns, official sources report that more than 60 percent of adults are following the US elections. Independent polls show that only about 19 percent are following closely, however (TASS, October 31).Read More
The world is suffering from escalating levels of conflict. The Civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the bombing of Gaza have all significantly contributed to dramatic increase in battle deaths in recent years.
Children in displacement camp in Somalia. Photo: Save the Children
Moreover, 2023 witnessed the highest number of state-based conflicts – 59 – since 1946. While armed conflicts affect people of all ages, children are especially vulnerable to the devastating consequences of war.Read More
The BRICS summit on October 22–24, held in Kazan, Russia, was met with great fanfare in Russian propaganda, which hailed it for its “epochal” significance.
Vladimir Putin at a press conference at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024. Photo: Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty Images