Opinion

The drums of war in Kashmir

Tensions between India and Pakistan are at their highest level in decades, and many fear the nuclear-armed neighbours are on the brink of yet another war over the disputed Kashmir region. But the latest eruption is different from its predecessors.The two countries’ struggle over Kashmir began in 1947.

5 March 2019
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Vietnam and the dilemma of new wealth

Five days before United States (US) President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Hanoi for their second summit, two former Vietnamese ministers of communications were arrested and charged with “violations related to management and use of public capital.” The two officials are alleged to have approved a state-owned telecom company’s purchase of a private television provider for over four times its estimated value, at a loss to the state of around US$307 million.Similarly,

1 March 2019
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The Vietnam model for North Korea

In Hanoi, Vietnam, this week for his second summit with United States (US) President Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s 35-year-old leader, will not only be looking for a deal with the US on the nuclear issue.

27 February 2019
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Business and biodiversity

At the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos last month, the evidence of mounting threats to nature, and of nature’s contributions to people, featured higher on the agenda than ever before.

24 February 2019
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Achieving the global education goals

Throughout my life, I have seen the power of education. I have witnessed how quality education for all can support the creation of dynamic economies and help to sustain peace, prosperity, and stability.

19 February 2019
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Europe, please wake up

Europe is sleepwalking into oblivion, and the people of Europe need to wake up before it is too late. If they don’t, the European Union (EU) will go the way of the Soviet Union in 1991.

17 February 2019
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Europe and the new nuclear-arms race

One of the pillars of nuclear-arms control became history on 2 February, with the expiry of the 60-day deadline that the United States (US) had given Russia to save the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Russia blithely let the deadline pass. But so did the European Union (EU), abetted by Germany.

5 February 2019
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Arrested diplomacy

On 19 November, Carlos Ghosn, the board chair and former CEO of Nissan, was arrested at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on suspicion of under-reporting income and misusing corporate funds for personal purposes; he remains in custody.

1 February 2019
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Why China must save less

In his influential 1954 article “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” the future Nobel laureate economist Arthur Lewis concluded that “the central problem in the theory of economic development is to understand the process by which a community which was previously saving and investing four or five percent of its national income or less, converts itself into an economy where voluntary saving is running at about 12 or 15 percent of its national income or more.” That process,

31 January 2019
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Trump’s North Korean road to nowhere

When United States (US) President Donald Trump meets again with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next month, he will be staging the second act in a comedy of manners that now passes for US foreign policy on the Korean Peninsula. Between Kim’s billets-doux to the White House and Trump’s gushing praise of Kim, the script could have been written by Oscar Wilde.

29 January 2019
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How to eat to save the world

There is not a country in the world that is not grappling with the serious health and environmental consequences of their people’s diets. There has to be a better way to feed everyone well and sustainably.As it stands, roughly 820 million people worldwide lack sufficient food, and many more – often in the same countries – consume unhealthy foods that lead to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other life-limiting conditions.

27 January 2019
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Data-driven gender equality

At the current rate of progress, it will take more than 200 years to achieve gender equality and female empowerment at work. In many countries, girls are still forced to marry young, which limits their access to education and future employment opportunities. In Niger, for example, in 2016, 76 percent of girls aged 15-19 were married, which partly explains why 73 percent of lower-secondary-school-age girls are out of school.

26 January 2019
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