Subject: Santa Marta Conference: Can countries move beyond fossil fuels and ISDS?

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As governments, policymakers and civil society organisations come together in Colombia for the Santa Marta Conference, the implications of Colombia’s recent decision to withdraw from the international investment protection regime are already resonating beyond national borders.

More than 340 civil society organisations have called on governments to build a global coalition to break free from investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS), arguing that these mechanisms continue to constrain the policy space needed for a just transition.

At a moment when the urgency of a fossil fuel phase-out is widely recognised, the question is not only how to transition, but how to do so on terms shaped by public interest, rather than corporate power.

Or, visit the conference website: transitionawayconference.com

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Tunisia’s Green Industrial Policy

Between Renewed Dependency and the Imperative of Sovereignty

By Ines Zaghdoudi

This report takes a critical look at Tunisia’s green transition. Despite its renewable potential, the current model risks reproducing extractive dynamics and external dependency, putting sovereignty, social justice, and the promise of a truly “just” transition at stake.

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New article in TNI's Palestine Liberation Series

Palestine in a World of Struggle

The role of Palestinians in Third World solidarity

By Wael Omar

Palestine has come to occupy a distinctive place in political life and consciousness. But, why Palestine? This is the question that Wael Omar answers in this new longread from TNI's Palestine Liberation Series.

Omar answers this question by tracing the role Palestinians played in the Third World project. From Argentina to Thailand, South Africa to Ireland, Haiti to the Congo, Basque Country and Iran, thousands of fighters and cadres passed through the Palestinian training camps. Omar notes that this history embeds Palestine within a wider architecture of relations, political memory and infrastructures of struggle, and thus Palestine's centrality is thus not a moral demand, it is a historically produced capacity rooted in a collective vision to change the world.

New book pre-sales open:

Towards Palestinian Liberation

Global Perspectives on Anti-Colonial Resistance & Solidarity

By Abi Bae, Hamza Hamouchene

TNI and Daraja Press are turning the Palestine Liberation series into an edited book Towards Palestinian Liberation: Global Perspectives on Anti-Colonial Resistance and Solidarity, with entries from TNI fellows and staff such as Adam Hanieh, Muzan Alneel (1986-2026), Achin Vanaik, and Hamza Hamouchene.

Pre-order with this 20% discount code: M8PP9W5J.

Offer is open until the end of May.

“I can think of no other book that addresses the question of solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians as urgently and as eloquently as this collection”
– Laleh Khalili, author of Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration

“a crucial intervention in these tumultuous times”
– Yara Hawari, co-director at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network

“A book that proves once again that writing and recording is itself resistance … essential reading”
– Anuradha Chenoy, Adjunct Professor, Jindal Global University, India

“indispensable for an acquaintance with Palestinian resistance that goes beyond reading the headlines”
– Walden Bello, Filipino scholar-activist and Right Livelihood awardee 2003

We dedicate this book to the late Muzan Alneel. In the final steps of preparing this book, Muzan sadly passed away. The world has lost another critical and brilliant mind and a tireless fighter for justice and liberation. Her legacy, commitment and revolutionary spirit will continue to inspire us.

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Colonial legacies of agrarian violence, and persistent struggles to end it

By Jun Borras, Maria Malaya de la Tierra

Remembering is resistance. On International Day of Peasant Struggles (17 April), we honor land defenders murdered in the struggle for justice, connect past and present violence, and affirm memory as defiance against exploitation, dispossession, and ecological destruction.

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On 1 April 2026, the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions came to an end. This article reflects on the implications of that development for global trade and digital governance.

GreenPaths project

TNI contributed four longreads to the GreenPaths project, exploring how green industrial policies are shaping transitions across the Global South.

The pieces examine regional dynamics in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and North Africa.

Together, they offer grounded insights into how green transition strategies unfold in practice, highlighting both opportunities and tensions as countries balance industrialisation, decarbonisation and social outcomes. Across contexts, the research underscores the importance of addressing structural inequalities and avoiding extractive development models in the shift to greener economies.

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Events

Book Tour in Portugal: Launch of Dismantling Green Colonialism

From 27–30 April, TNI's Hamza Hamouchene is participating in a small book tour in Portugal to launch the Portuguese edition of Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region, with events in Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon.

We warmly invite everyone interested in climate justice, energy democracy, and anti-colonial struggles to join these events.

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The Transnational Institute (TNI) seeks two additional Supervisory Board members

TNI is looking for two committed individuals to join its Supervisory Board: one to serve as Audit Committee Member, with a focus on financial oversight and risk management, and one as Supervisory Board Member, contributing broader strategic, legal, organisational or fundraising

expertise.

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TNI Obituary Muzan Alneel (1986-2026)

With complete disbelief we learned of the early death of Muzan Alneel. Words fail us in finding ways to describe our shock and sadness at her loss. Born in Omdurman, Sudan in June 1986, she died at the very young age of 39. Her loss leaves an eternal gap, for she is irreplaceable. Survived by her parents to whom she was the first child, by her three siblings: Misdar, Marine, and Malab, and her husband Ahmad. To them we extend our heart-felt condolences and offer our deep sympathies (البركة فيكم).

Fellowship

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The Unfolding World War, the Political Uses of Madness, and the Fate of Republics by Thomas Refer

The IPS Iran Reader: A one-stop guide to IPS work on the crisis in Iran and the wider Middle East. Updated periodically. By Phyllis Bennis, Karen Dolan, John Feffer, Hanna Homestead, Lindsay Koshgarian, Alliyah Lusuegro, Khury Petersen-Smith

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