UNITED NATIONS, December 23 (IPS) - Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made a highly-debatable distinction between “friendly” right-wing “authoritarian” regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing “totalitarian” dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).

GENEVA, December 23 (IPS) - In my more than 30 years with the United Nations, I’ve seen enormous change, collaboration and progress towards improving human development. But I’ve also seen how history has a way of repeating itself to entrench some of the most intractable global challenges.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, December 23 (IPS) - Opinions have been divided over the annual UN climate conferences. While some see COP30 in Belém, Brazil, as confirming their irrelevance, others see it as a turning point in the struggle for climate justice.

ROME, December 22 (IPS) - Bangladesh in recent years started drawing global attention for its success in emerging out of poverty through economic growth and agricultural development. From early 2000 until 2023, while population growth continued to decline from 1.2 in 2013 to 1.03 in 2023, this growth has been the powerful driver of poverty reduction since 2000. Indeed, agriculture accounted for 90 percent of the reduction in poverty between 2005 and 2010 (World Bank).

TOKYO, Japan, December 22 (IPS) - Leaders of Japan and the five Central Asian states met in Tokyo on Dec. 20 and adopted the “Tokyo Declaration,” launching a new leaders-level format under the “Central Asia plus Japan Dialogue” (CA+JAD). The declaration places at the core of cooperation two priorities: strengthening supply-chain resilience for critical minerals, and supporting the Trans-Caspian Corridor (the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route), which links Central Asia with Europe without transiting Russia.

Fulgence Ndayizeye, a Burundian bicycle taxi driver who used to cross the Congolese-Burundian border every day to support his family, wanted to return home. He and more than 500 other Burundians, including women, men, and children, stranded in Uvira on the border between the DRC and Rwanda, were finally allowed to return to their country on Sunday, December 14, 2025, by M23-Congo River Alliance (AFC) rebels after being stuck in the DRC due to an M23 rebel offensive that had taken the town a few days earlier. According to Human Rights Watch the M23 and Rwandan forces entered Uvira on […]

Multiple shocks defined 2025: conflict, climate breakdown and shrinking democracy. Multilateral institutions were tested as never before.

TORONTO, Canada, December 22 (IPS) - Our traditional “year-ender” usually kicks off with a grim litany of world disasters and crises over the past 12 months, highlights IPS partners and contributors and culminates in a more positive-sounding finale. This time I’d like to begin on a more personal note intended also as a metaphor.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, December 22 (IPS) - Myanmar is heading for an election, beginning on 28 December, that’s ostensibly an exercise in democracy – but it has clearly been designed with the aim of conferring more legitimacy on its military junta.

UNITED NATIONS, December 22 (IPS) - 2025 marked a notable year of progress in reducing global hunger; yet climate pressures, economic instability, and ongoing conflicts continue to push agri-food systems to their limits, undermining food availability. In a new report, UN agencies raise the alarm on how these factors are particularly pronounced in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for 40 percent of the world’s undernourished.