In the West, there are two different competing narratives about the war in Ukraine. The prevailing narrative is that it is a struggle between the “bad guys” and “good guys”. For many, Russia led by dictator Putin represents imperialism and is alone responsible for this unprovoked war, whereas Ukraine represents freedom and democracy as well…
Georgios is co-founder and Executive Director of FOGGS with almost thirty years of work experience in international affairs, both as a practitioner and as a researcher. His experience includes fourteen years with the United Nations, with a wide range of assignments in many different parts of the world, from Haiti to South Africa, working on…
Yoriko has worked for over 35 years in efforts to advance inclusive and sustainable development, human rights, and cultures of peace, within and outside the United Nations system. She has also participated in the facilitation of negotiations that led to a national agreement on a new Constitution in Bolivia, the development of a citizens’ movement…
By Tapio Kanninen and Georgios Kostakos* After the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022, the world was horrified at the prospect of a new major war in Europe. Condemnation for the invasion rightly goes to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. An overblown Western reaction, though, may have dangerous consequences for the…
This is a republished version of the original article published on the Global Challenges Foundation website, which you can access here. The climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic harshly highlight that there is a lack of an “all-of-government” and an “all-of-multilateralism” approach to addressing contemporary global threats of a non-military nature. But there is…
The following keynote speech was delivered by Richard Kinley on 17th June 2021 at the Coalition for the UN We Need‘s online event – ‘Europe and North America Regional Consultation: working together for the world we deserve’. I was asked to give a keynote on UN multilateralism, for which I’d like to thank the…
We marked the International Day of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this year with the theme ‘Youth standing up against racism’. It seems only right, therefore, to acknowledge the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted across the world in 2020. Research shows that Generation Z and Millennials were at the forefront of the movement and…
What should be the role of an international film festival in these confusing and insecure times? Berlin’s recipe for addressing contemporary challenges
On Friday, 20 January 2017, Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America. He used the occasion to remind his fellow US citizens and the rest of the world of his campaign promises, summing up with the nationalist slogans “America First” and “Make America Great Again”. The new President did not lose time before starting to implement some of those promises.
This year’s summit of the G20 took place from 4 to 5 September in Hangzhou, China. The agenda once again went beyond the classical economic issues of growth, trade and investment, and covered climate change, the 2030 Agenda or Sustainable Development, Brexit and even terrorism and health issues. These summits are gradually turning into sessions of some kind of a Global Economic Security Council, if not of a Global Directorate bringing together the most important established and emerging world powers. Should the G20 remain a stage for those preferring the freedom of ad hoc actions than global multilateral scrutiny, or should it be integrated into the more legitimate UN structures, revitalizing them at the same time?
