By Tarique Niazi ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Azerbaijan is making the most of its hosting of the UN climate summit (COP29) in November this year. Its president, Ilham Aliyev, has been on a whirlwind tour of the world to court major nations for a climate finance pact that will feature Baku’s initiative […]
The World’s Nod to Taliban Misogyny
By Tarique Niazi | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The United Nations recently hosted a third round of talks on Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar, to weigh the prospects for the country’s return to the international system. The talks were attended by special envoys on Afghanistan from 30 world nations, including the United […]
Water Shortage: Was Iran’s late President Raisi a Martyr to Climate Change?
By Tarique Niazi | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died on May 19 while returning from a ceremony to inaugurate a hydropower project in a remote corner of northwestern Iran. Why would a head of state brave the hazardous conditions of unseasonal blizzards in a mountainous region to […]
Why Iran’s Upcoming Presidential Elections Matter
By Abolghasem Bayyenat | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Iran is set to hold extraordinary presidential elections in about two weeks following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran last month. Out of a list of 80 presidential nominees, the Council of Guardians, which is in […]
Israel, Russia and International Law
By Lawrence S. Wittner | ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – International law―the recognized rules of behavior among nations based on customary practices and treaties, among them the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights―has been agreed upon by large and small nations alike. To implement this law, the nations of […]
A Way Out: Each Path to Gaza Peace Seems Improbable, Until Steps are taken to Make it Happen
By Louis Kriesberg | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) -In the face of an increasingly terrible conflict, political leaders, academic scholars, engaged officials, and media experts tend to explain how the conflict arose and is escalating badly. This has the effect of making the conflict appear inevitable and insurmountable short of totally defeating the […]
Dangerous Deceptions and Outright Lies: Language in the War on Gaza
By Dubravka Žarkov | ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Israel’s political and military leaders have produced so many outright lies regarding Gaza and Hamas that it might seem there is no point in wasting one’s breath on them. Consider the following statements and the contrary evidence for those not yet convinced: The IDF […]
The Most Dangerous Wars: When Local Conflicts become Geopolitics
By Walden Bello ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The three major wars or conflicts that are ongoing today demonstrate the volatility of the intersection between the local and the global. In the Hamas-Israeli conflict, we see how the maintenance of the Israeli settler-colonial state is intertwined with the preservation of the global hegemony […]
Amid War, Palestinian-Israeli Peace Work Continues
By Louis Kriesberg | February 14, 2024 ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) The terrible war initiated in October 2023 between Israel and Hamas was the result of the failure of leaders in both camps to construct a mutually acceptable peace. Yet, the horrors of this war can be an impetus to put an end […]