In his first inaugural address, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, made an attempt to assess the enormous damage: “The withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence …

There have been many periods of heightened tension between North Korea and the United States over the years, especially in April and August, when South Korea and the United States conducted joint military exercises that North Korea considered preparation for an invasion. A physical engagement between the two nations still looks highly unlikely, but it is something that serious analysts …

Modern information technologies and the advent of machines powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have already strongly influenced the world of work in the 21st century. They really seem to be reaching a point where we are really seeing an acceleration, what you might call an inflection point. Many seem to agree that robots will have a tremendous impact over the …

“The world in its present state of moral advancement compared with its technical development would be eventually at the mercy of such a [nuclear] weapon. In other words, modern civilization might be completely destroyed … Also our leadership in the war and in the development of this weapon has placed a certain moral responsibility upon us which we cannot shirk …

“Famine is already a reality in parts of South Sudan. Unless we act now, it is only a matter of time until it affects other areas and other countries. We are already facing a tragedy; we must avoid it becoming a catastrophe.”   — António Guterres (Secretary-General of the United Nations ) The UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien recently told …

It was, even by the dispiriting standards of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, a futile concept: a peace conference without either of the warring parties. On January 15th, diplomats from more than 70 countries flew to Paris for a summit against which Israeli officials had been inveighing for weeks. After a full day of debate, the diplomats issued a two-page declaration that urged …

The world’s biggest sporting event, Rio Olympics 2016, ended on a miserable note for Pakistan. It was heart-wrenching to see that not even a single athlete of this nation of nearly 200 million people could qualify for the event, let alone winning any medal. How embarrassing is the fact that all seven athletes from Pakistan, the country which prides itself …

In the recent past, there has been much debate on the concern of nuclear weapons going into the hands of terrorists. After the recent terrorist attacks on European cities, the issue is again in vogue and concerns are being expressed that the recent attacks in almost all parts of the world — from Belgium to France, from Germany to Turkey …

“In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.” —Strobe Talbot, Former Deputy Secretary of State (As quoted in Time, July 20th, l992) When a Nato commander warns that the West is on course for an armed conflict with Russia, …

The South China Sea has been a source of tensions between several East Asian countries for decades. The fears are growing that the area will become a flashpoint, with potentially serious global consequences since the rivalry between China and the United States, which apparently backs its ‘ally’ the Philippines, is on the rise. The ruling from the International Tribunal for …