Columns

by Claus Leggewie on 23rd January 2020 Populism is boosted by economic crises, but its roots are cultural. Populism is a method. It works by mobilising an imaginary homogenous entity called ‘the people’ against an equally ill-defined and generally despised ‘elite’, thus radically simplifying the political and social field. Such simplifications have served to orchestrate conflicts since the 19th century ... Read More »

by Frank Hoffer on 22nd January 2020 A serious discussion of ‘just transition’ must break with a social model based on individual utility maximisation—before it breaks the biosphere. Read More »

by Brendan Donnelly Director, The Federal Trust, 22nd January 2020 Many members of the “Remain Coalition” have been disappointed by the role played by the European issue in the leadership contest of the Labour Party. No candidate has suggested a policy of continuing opposition to Brexit. Some candidates have on the contrary sought to argue that Labour’s ambiguous European policy ... Read More »

By Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, Jan 20 2020 (IPS) – The digital revolution arrived late at the heart of ministries of foreign affairs across the Western world. Ministries latched on to social media around the time of Tahrir Square and Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution, beguiled by a vision of the technology engendering a networked evolution toward more liberal societies. Read More »

by Paul Mason @paulmasonnews Paul Mason turns in his Social Europe column from postcapitalism to the theme of post-Brexit Britain. Since 2016 there’s been a question in the back of my mind: which is the last European city I will ever visit as an EU citizen? Now I know the answer: I’ve just come back from Bonn, the city of ... Read More »

y Estrella Durá Ferrandis and Irina de Sancho Alonso on 14th January 2020 @estrella_dura The New Deal was a social contract with the American people. A European Green New Deal must likewise enshrine social alongside ecological aspirations. Read More »

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram Sydney and Kualalumpur, Jan 7 2020 (IPS) – The latest November 2019 UBS/PwC Billionaires Report counted 2,101 billionaires globally, or 589 more than five years before. Earlier, Farhad Manjoo had seriously recommended, ‘Abolish Billionaires’, presenting a moral case against the super-rich as they have and get far, far more than what they might ... Read More »

By Chandra Muzaffar Are we on the brink of a Third World War? There are signs that demand that we ask this question. Three clusters of signs compel us to probe a question that could well determine the future of our civilisation. Read More »

Sudhirendar Sharma In recent times mention of ubiquitous traffic jams often kick-start most civic conversations, and sadly end-up at just that. Lest you missed out, the inconclusive deliberations leave a trail of repetitive accusations on urban planners and traffic regulators. Crowding of roads by paddle and e-rickshaws receive abusive treatment during such civic exchanges which curiously veer towards a discussion ... Read More »

By Dr Ramzy Baroud An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”. Read More »

By Farhana Haque Rahman Rome, Jan 6 2020 (IPS) – Let’s face what lies ahead with open eyes: 2020 is going to be a very tough year for the world, and developing countries in particular. The infant decade has already begun with the harbingers of climate disaster as thousands fled to beaches in Australia from raging bush fires, and the ... Read More »

By Roberto Savio Rome, Jan 3 2020 (IPS) – In a world shaken by so many problems, it is difficult to look at 2020 and not make some kind of holistic analysis. While enormous progress has been made on many fronts, it is clear that the tide has turned, and we are now entering – or have already entered – ... Read More »

by Stephen Pogány on 3rd January 2020 Amid the intractable struggle in Israel/Palestine for the moral high ground of legitimate victimhood, Europe has a historic responsibility. Read More »

Danielle Nierenberg 2019 was a great year for Food Tank. We hosted our largest ever NYC Summit and Gala, spearheaded our first-ever event series across the U.S., and created completely original, informative content for our international readership every day. We participated in global discussions about the food system in Abu Dhabi, Australia, Italy, and across the United States. And we ... Read More »

By Bertrand Badré and Philippe Heim Paris – Discussions about “sustainability” usually center on a company’s environmental and social commitments, and for understandable reasons. But the financial sector in particular should consider two other, less obvious, dimensions of sustainability. Regulatory sustainability is essential for addressing the systemic risk that the financial sector poses to our societies. In addition, the emerging ... Read More »

by Justine Doody on 19th December 2019 Despite rising employment in many western economies, poverty is not declining. What’s wrong with labour-market policies? Read More »

By Anis Chowdhury SYDNEY, Dec 17 2019 (IPS) – The social utility of billionaires’ existence has come under increased scrutiny, especially during the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 US Presidential election. Leading newspapers, such as The New York Times, published opinion pieces arguing to abolish billionaires and reflecting on why billionaires engage in illegal insider trading. Read More »

by Brendan Donnelly Director, The Federal Trust For the outcome of last week’s General Election to have any chance of postponing or even preventing Brexit, four related pieces of the electoral jigsaw needed to fall into place. The Labour Party needed to do as well in votes and seats as in 2017; the Liberal Democrats had to gain more seats ... Read More »

by Marina Povitikina and Bo Rothstein on 17th December 2019 In our series on ‘just transition’, Marina Povitkina and Bo Rothstein argue neglected issues around quality of government need addressing to secure public legitimacy. The challenges which climate change is heralding are nothing if not formidable. Effective policies against this threat to human wellbeing on our planet will imply huge ... Read More »

By Farhana Haque Rahman ROME, Dec 16 2019 (IPS) – By any measure, this has been a devastating year: fires across the Amazon, the Arctic and beyond; floods and drought in Africa; rising temperatures, carbon emissions and sea levels; accelerating the loss of species, and mass forced migrations of people. Read More »

by Liina Carr on 16th December 2019 @liina_carr The principle of ‘sustainability first’ should become the golden thread unifying all EU actions. While recent Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion actions have heightened the focus on climate change, sustainability is not just about the environment. In calling for climate justice, trade unions demand a far-reaching transformation of the economy, a ... Read More »

by Philippe van Parijs on 16th December 2019 @pvpbrussels For the free-market Tory right, Brexit is a means towards a beggar-my-neighbour buccaneering adventure—not ‘future relations’ to which the EU27 can agree. Read More »

By Ramzy Baroud Kafr Qaddum is a small Palestinian village located between Nablus and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank. The inhabitants of the village feel angry and abandoned, with most of their land located under total Israeli military control. Thus, they are subjected to land theft by the ever-expanding nearby illegal Jewish colonies. Protesting the Israeli occupation and the ... Read More »

For any dream to be given any chance to come true, the dreamer must first wake up. Bangladesh needs to wake up to the flaws within the education system and work towards accomplishing Bangabandhu’s dream of a Sonar Bangla Sir Frank Peters If, as they say, ‘ignorance is bliss’, Supreme Court justices Md. Imman Ali and Md. Sheikh Hassan Arif ... Read More »

Sudhirendar Sharma What women need to understand is that they too have the power to make a difference. Ancient myths and legends relegate women as proverbial sacrificial lambs in the gendered narrative of our history. Yashodhara is one such, who was made to suffer protracted isolation as her husband abandoned her in his spiritual journey to attain enlightenment as the ... Read More »

by Carlo Ratti VENICE – Some of the worst floodings in Venice’s history has submerged some of the historic city’s renowned cultural sites, including St. Mark’s Basilica on Piazza San Marco. This is only the sixth time the basilica has been flooded in 1,200 years, but the fourth time in the last two decades, and the second time in under ... Read More »

by Sally Jewell WASHINGTON, DC – When world leaders gather at the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid from December 2-13, they will discuss concrete steps for meeting and increasing national emissions-reduction targets. But equally important, COP25 offers an opportunity to elevate one of the most powerful tools we have to address climate change: nature. Read More »

by Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Angela Valenzuela MADRID – For more than a year, children and young people from around the world have been striking for the climate. We launched a movement that defied all expectations, with millions of people lending their voices – and their bodies – to the cause. Read More »

Since when does adding 2 and 2 together, or subtracting 5 from 10 ¬– and getting the answers wrong – become a punishable crime? Or for not remembering Bangabandhu facts or the lines of a Rabindranath Tagore poem? All are trivial and insignificant in the grand scheme of things and certainly does not warrant being beaten, damaged physically, mentally (or ... Read More »

by Brendan Donnelly Director, The Federal Trust 27th November 2019 – Jeremy Corbyn has rarely in recent decades feared political controversy. On issues such as Ireland, the Middle East, NATO, income redistribution and renationalisation, he has advocated with candour and persistence views that have been unattractive, even shocking to many electors. Many of his supporters thereby hail him as a ... Read More »