Author: Metta Spencer
Even before our primate ancestors began to walk upright, there were wars—times when whole human communities or groups within a community tried to kill each other. Scholars have reached this conclusion partly on the basis of Jane Goodall’s discovery that our closest primate relative, the chimpanzee, engages in war,(1) and partly on the basis of archaeological evidence. One site of skeletons was found in Kenya dating back 9,500 to 10,500 years showing that a group of 27 people had been massacred together.(2) Indeed, there is strong evidence that levels of violence were higher in prehistoric times than today.(3) One example is a cemetery about 14,000 years old where about 45 percent of the skeletons showed signs of violent death.(4) An estimated 15 percent of deaths in primitive societies were caused by warfare.
But life did not consistently become friendlier as our species spread and developed. By one estimate, there were 14,500 wars between 3500 BC and the late twentieth century. These took around 3.5 billion lives.(5)
Can we conclude, then, that war is simply an intrinsic part of “human nature,” so that one cannot reasonably hope to overcome it? No, for there is more variation in the frequency and extent of warfare than can be attributed to genetic differences. In some societies, war is completely absent. Douglas Fry, checking the ethnographic records, identified 74 societies that have clearly been non-warring; some even lacked a word for “war.” The Semai of Malaysia and the Mardu of Australia are examples.(6)
We may gain insights about solutions to warfare by exploring the variations in its distribution, type, and intensity. We begin with the best news: We are probably living in the most peaceful period in human history!
Infographic, Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS)
Steven Pinker is the scholar who most convincingly argues that violence has declined, both recently and over the millennia. Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now, contains a graph showing the numbers of battle deaths by year from 1945 to 2015. A huge spike represents World War II, of course, for that was most lethal war in human history, causing at least 55 million deaths. How can we reconcile that ghastly number with any claim that the modern era is a peaceful epoch?
Pinker’s proof is based on distinguishing sharply between absolute numbers and rates. To be sure, 55 million is a huge number, but the Mongol Conquests killed 40 million people back in the thirteenth century, out of a world population only about one-seventh the size of the world’s 1950 population. Pinker says that if World War II had matched the Mongols’ stupendous rate of killing, about 278 million people would have been killed.
And there was an even worse war than the Mongol Conquest: the An Lushan Revolt of eighth century China, an eight-year rebellion that resulted in the loss of 36 million people — two-thirds of the empire’s population, and a sixth of the world’s population at the time. Had it matched that level of atrocity, considering the size of the world’s population in the 1940s, World War II would have killed 419 million people! Pinker calls An Lushan the worst war in human history. By his calculations, based on rates or percentages, World War II was only the ninth worst in history and World War I was the 16th worst.(7)
Moreover, Pinker shows that the two world wars were huge spikes in a graph of war deaths that has declined remarkably since 1950. There has been a slight upward bump since 2010, representing the civil war in Syria, but even that increase is minuscule in comparison to the rates of battle deaths over the preceding centuries.(8)
Pinker admits that there is no guarantee that this civilizing trend will continue, but he marshals much empirical evidence to explain it in terms of several historical changes. One was the transition to agriculture from hunting and gathering. This brought about a fivefold decrease in rates of violent death from chronic raiding and feuding.(9)
A second factor occurred in Europe between the Middle Ages and the 20th century when feudal territories were consolidated into large kingdoms with centralized authority and an infrastructure of commerce. This led to a tenfold-to-fiftyfold decline in homicide rates. There have been numerous other changes since then, including the abolition of such practices as slavery, dueling, sadistic punishment, and cruelty to animals. Since the end of World War II the downward trend has been remarkable.(10)
Unlike Steven Pinker, who attributes the current relatively wonderful degree of peacefulness to cultural and social changes in history, Dave Grossman attributes it to nature itself. In contrast to those who claim that human nature destines us to be killers, Grossman argues that people are “naturally” reluctant to kill members of their own species. In this respect we resemble other animals, for it is normal for animals to avoid killing their own species. When, for example, two male moose bash each other with their horns, they rarely do much real damage.
In fact, the human reluctance to kill their own kind poses a real problem for military leaders, who must induce their soldiers to fight wars. Lt. Col. Grossman himself had been responsible for training US Army Rangers, and he seems to have taken considerable pride in overcoming nature’s inhibitions.
Grossman cites Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall’s book Men Against Fire, which showed that only 15 to 20 percent of the individual riflemen in World War II fired their weapons at an exposed enemy soldier.(11) Similar results can be shown in earlier wars as well, including for example the battlefield of Gettysburg, where of the discarded muskets later found there, 90 percent were still loaded.(12)
On the other hand, soldiers who work together as crews (e.g. in launching cannon-fire or flamethrowers together) do not show the same hesitation, nor do soldiers whose officers stand nearby, ordering them to fire. And distance matters too; stabbing an enemy is harder to do than shooting one a few meters away, and the farther away the enemy is, the easier it is to shoot him. Bombardiers rarely hesitate to drop shells on the people below, nor do drone operators sitting at controls in a different continent. Distance, team spirit and authority can apparently overcome nature’s misgivings.
In response to Marshall’s discovery, the U.S. military developed new training measures to break down this resistance. For example, instead of having soldiers fire at bulls-eye targets, the army now provides realistic human-shaped silhouettes that pop up suddenly and must be shot quickly. The training also relies on repetition; soldiers are required to shoot many, many times so they stop thinking about the possible implications of each shot.(13)
The best technological innovation for inuring fighters for battle is the video training simulator. As a result of using the equivalent to violent videogames, the military successfully raised soldiers’ firing rates to over 90 percent during the Vietnam War. Because of this “superior training,” Grossman claims that today “non-firers” are almost non-existent among U.S. troops.
While lauding the military for developing such excellent training systems, Grossman is scathing in criticizing the use of video games as entertainment. He maintains that the very methods that turn soldiers into superb killers will, and do, influence the players to become violent in real life. He blames the epidemic of school shootings, for example, largely on the exposure of teen-aged boys to violent films and especially violent video games.(14)
Moreover, the training of soldiers for battle does not protect them from the psychological consequences of fighting. In a study of World War II soldiers, after sixty days of continuous combat, 98 percent of all those surviving had become psychiatric casualties. One-tenth of all American military men were hospitalized for mental disturbances between 1942 and 1945.[14] Moreover, upon their return to civilian life, the incidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder remains high, and more veterans commit suicide than had been killed during the war. Also, the U.S. Army dismissed more than 22,000 soldiers for misconduct between 2009- 2016 after they returned from war with mental health problems or brain injuries.(15)
These facts clearly disprove the assertion that human nature itself destines us all to be killers; indeed, one might argue that, on the contrary, nature intends for us all to be peaceful. However, even that assertion is hard to sustain when we look at the evidence showing how widespread is the cultural pattern of glorifying war and warriors.
Not everyone is reluctant to kill. On the contrary. For example, consider Mr. L, an Asian friend of ours whose brother was found decapitated on a forest trail. Mr. L knew who had done it — the army of Burma — so he went to the jungle and joined the resistance army. For seventeen years he was a sniper. Now living in Canada, he finds the memory hard to explain:
“Actually, I loved it. I probably killed about thirty men in all, and it was the greatest feeling! I was always so elated after killing an enemy soldier that I couldn’t sleep that night. That’s what I went to there to do, after all. But now? Well…”
No one in Canada glorifies Mr. L’s achievements, but in another time or place he might be considered a war hero. Brave, effective warriors have been honored by their own societies at least as far back as the ancient Assyrians and Greeks.
There were good reasons for it. When our ancestors still lived in caves, presumably some strong fellow volunteered to stand guard at night to keep out the saber-toothed tigers. His mother must have felt proud of him, and perhaps also praised him and his brave buddies for raiding the neighbors’ cave and bringing home valuable loot.
The Iliad is one long bloodcurdling story about heroes seeking to outdo each other in courage and brutality. Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values.(16) Among the most intelligent militarists who glorified war was the philosopher Georg Hegel,(17) whose views were perfectly ordinary in the Prussian society of his day.
A century later in America militarism was not quite as popular, but the great American psychologist William James, who was a pacifist, could nevertheless understand and even respect it as a moral stance. He pointed out that young males need a thrilling opportunity to test their capacity for enduring physical hardship and surmounting obstacles. That is what sports are for, but James wanted this experience to involve sacrifice and a sense of service as well. He was seeking to innovate a rigorous substitute for military discipline whereby youths could instead contribute positively to society. James understood the emotional value and even romance of militarism, as shown in his sardonic depiction of war from the militarists’ point of view:
“Its ‘horrors’ are a cheap price to pay for rescue from the only alternative supposed, of a world of clerks and teachers, of co-education and zoophily, of ‘consumer’s leagues’ and ‘associated charities,’ of industrialism unlimited, and feminism unabashed. No scorn, no hardness, no valor any more! Fie upon such a cattleyard of a planet!”(18)
James believed that this “manly” yearning for hard challenges ought to be fulfilled. He proposed a system of national service whereby all young males would be conscripted to serve in a challenging role. (He called it a “war against nature,” which is a shocking notion today; we’d prefer to call it a “war for nature.”) He thought that privileged youths should have to experience at least once the hardships that poor people endure throughout their lives. And indeed, since James’s day, the United States and many other prosperous societies have developed programs such as the Peace Corps to fill that need. It is unlikely, however, that the challenges they offer overseas are comparable to the emotions of killing or stepping onto a landmine.
If Pinker’s fond hopes (and our own) could be fulfilled, the planet might indeed resemble what James’s militarists consider a boring “cattleyard” — but that seems unlikely to occur. Our war heroes are still celebrities. And many of them still commit suicide.
Pinker’s statistics are correct, but it is far too early to celebrate the impending death of war. Weaponry continues to become ever more deadly, and the history of warfare is best described in terms of the evolutionary improvement of weapons. We present in Table 1 the summary of those developments provided by Dave Grossman and Loren Christensen— who, oddly, have omitted today’s worst weapons of mass destruction, as well as the future of autonomous weapons and cyber weapons. These innovations require our utmost concern.
Dates generally represent century or decade of first major, large-scale introduction
c. 1700BC Chariots provide key form of mobility advantage in ancient warfare
c. 400BC: Greek phalanx
c. 100BC: Roman system (pilum, swords, training, professional leadership)
c. 900AD: Mounted knight (stirrup greatly enhances utility of mounted warfare)
c. 1300: Gunpowder (cannon) in warfare
c. 1300: Wide scale application of long bow defeats mounted knights
c. 1600: Gunpowder (small arms) in warfare, defeats all body armor
c. 1800: Shrapnel (exploding artillery shells), ultimately creates renewed need for helmets, c. 1915
c. 1850: Percussion caps permit all-weather use of small arms *
c. 1870: Breech-loading, cartridge firing rifles and pistols
c. 1915: Machine gun
c. 1915: Gas warfare
c. 1915: Tanks
c. 1915: Aircraft *
c. 1915: Self-loading (automatic) rifles and pistols
c. 1940: Strategic bombing of population centers
c. 1945: Nuclear weapons
c. 1960: Large scale introduction of operant conditioning in training to enable killing *
c. 1960: Large scale introduction of media violence begins to enable domestic violent crime
c. 1965: Large scale introduction of helicopters in battle
c. 1970: Introduction of precision-guided munitions in warfare
c. 1980: Kevlar body armor provides first individual armor to defeat state-of-the-art small arms in over 300 years *
c. 1990: Large scale introduction of operant conditioning through violent video games begins to enable mass murders in domestic violent crime
c. 1990: First extensive use of precision guided munitions in warfare (approximately 10 percent of all bombs dropped), by Unites States forces in the Gulf War
c. 1990: Large scale use of combat stress inoculation in law enforcement, with the introduction of paint bullet training
c. 2000: Approximately 70 percent of all bombs used by United States forces in conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq are precision-guided munitions
c. 2000: Large scale use of combat stress inoculation in United States military forces, with the introduction of paint bullet combat simulation training *
* Represents developments influencing domestic violent crime.
Source: Grossman and Christensen, Evolution of Weaponry. Loc. 2058 in Kindle version
In a nutshell, weapons keep get more and more effective at killing, and the population keeps increasing (especially during the past century), so this might suggest a gloomy prediction: that we must expect a world war vastly larger than either of the two previous ones.
But neither Pinker nor Grossman have concluded that the magnitude of a war will inevitably be determined by either the population or the effectiveness of weapons. Pinker believes that the records of history show that war is rather randomly distributed over time and space, not following any discernable pattern.
Scholars know quite a lot about warfare in early civilizations, for we have epic stories such as Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia (about 2500 BCE) and Achilles versus Hector in Homer’s Greece (supposedly 1184 BCE).
The Hittites invented the chariot, and the Egyptians adopted it from them, though there were long intervals when chariots were not used in any Middle Eastern wars. Though the Greeks often used chariots, they would sometimes stop and dismount for hand-to-hand combat. The Greeks invented the phalanx, or row of middle-class citizen-soldiers(19) fighting side by side with their shields overlapping, with long pikes against an enemy’s phalanx.
But the elite warriors worked differently. Achilles, for example, would individually single out the enemy he considered a worthy match. Such a noble warrior might stroll across the battlefield to the enemy’s side, and call out their best fighter by name to come and fight him to the death. This kind of semi-organized warfare also has been practiced until recently in some paleolithic societies, such as in Papua New Guinea.(20)
We need not trace the complete evolution of weaponry from ancient times to now, except to mention a few dramatic innovations. One was the invention of gunpowder, which of course made it easy to kill large numbers of opponents. It was discovered in China during the late ninth century, but was not used in that country except for fireworks. It was adopted in the West, and ironically, much later, the Chinese were defeated by Westerners with firearms.
Historians debate why the Chinese did not use gunpowder(21) for military purposes, but the more interesting point is simply the fact that they did not. We can take this as evidence that technological innovation does not take an inevitable course, for sometimes a society opts not to perfect a weapon that offers the every prospect of improved effectiveness.
Much later, there were other extraordinary military discoveries that have been prohibited almost everywhere. Chemical weapons (notably chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas.) were used in World War I. Although the Germans soon developed powerful nerve agents such as sarin, no chemical weapons were used in World War II. Some say that Hitler ruled out using them against troops because he had experienced gas poisoning during World War I. However, he did not hesitate to use them in his death camps. In the Geneva Protocol of 1925 the international community banned the use of chemical and biological weapons. In 1973 and 1993 the prohibition was even strengthened by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the development, production, stockpiling and transfer of these weapons. By now 193 states have ratified that treaty and the whole world expresses shock whenever it is violated, as in the Syrian civil war in 2017.(22)
Likewise, biological agents could be, and have sometimes been, used effectively in warfare. For example, in 1763 the British forces defending Fort Pitt, near Philadelphia, gave blankets from smallpox patients to Indian chiefs who had come to negotiate an end to their conflict.(23)
Epidemics of disease have been a regular feature of warfare throughout the ages. Indeed, more people died of “Spanish flu” during World War I — between 20 million and 50 million(24) — than were killed by military action. When troops move around, they may be exposed to pathogens and carry them with them. However, such epidemics are not spread intentionally, and there is not only a norm against the use of biological agents to kill enemies, but it is also prohibited by the same treaty that bans the use of chemical weapons.
Thus it is evident that at times even the most horrible technological means of killing — gunpowder, chemical, and biological weapons — have been banned and the prohibitions against them have generally been obeyed. People sometimes opt not to use weapons that are available to them. Take heart, for this proves that war is not inexorable.
Yet not all of the worst weapons have been banned, and until they are abolished, one cannot be as optimistic as Steven Pinker in expecting the end of warfare. There are four crucial initiatives going on now to ban weapons. If all are fulfilled, such optimism will be wholly justified. These propose to (a) regulate the trade in conventional arms among nations to prevent the violation of human rights; (b) ban the existence of nuclear weapons, and (c) prohibit the development of lethal autonomous weapons — those sometimes called “killer robots” — and (d) regulate the potential for cyberattacks. Our Platform for Survival promotes each of these bans in specific planks.
It is not now realistic to ban all firearms or other conventional weapons, if only because we depend on states to authorize the use of weapons by police to protect citizens whenever necessary. Nevertheless, it is possible to reduce the incidence and violence of contemporary wars by preventing the transfer of conventional weapons (e.g. assault rifles and other military hardware such as armored personnel carriers) to insurgent groups or lawless states.
Most of the real wars in today’s world differ from what we previously thought of as war. Mary Kaldor calls them “new wars.”(25) For centuries, war had meant conflicts between states with the maximum use of violence. But these “new wars” combine war, organized crime, and human rights violations. They are sometimes fought by global organizations, sometimes local ones; they are funded and organized sometimes by public agencies, sometimes private ones. They resort to such tactics as terrorism and destabilizing the enemy with false information on the Internet.
What is a suitable response to such wars, given our historical assumption that, according to Max Weber’s definitions, a sovereign state is any organization that succeeds in holding the exclusive right to use, threaten, or authorize physical force against residents of its territory.(26) In a time of globalization, Kaldor insists that the monopoly of legitimate organized violence must be shifted from a national to a transnational level and that international peacekeeping must be redefined as law enforcement of global norms. Kaldor’s proposal is consistent with our Platform for Survival’s plank 25, which promotes the cosmopolitan notion of “sustainable common security.”
This approach can begin with the development of a treaty regulating (though not completely banning) the international trade in conventional weapons. Such an international law — the Arms Trade Treaty — was adopted in 2013, when 155 UN member states voted in favor of it and three against, with 23 abstentions. It entered into force on 24 December 2014 after the fiftieth state ratified it.
The treaty, if well enforced, can reduce the incidence and violence of wars. Although one might suppose that the main source of weaponry for “new wars” is the black market trade in illegal arms, that is not the case. Until now, most violent movements have obtained their weapons by purchasing them openly from states that are indifferent as to whether or not the “end users” are responsible. The Arms Trade Treaty prohibits countries from permitting the transfer of weapons to any group or state that violates human rights or international humanitarian law. However, the treaty is only a regulation between states, having no bearing on nations’ internal gun laws.
If there is such a thing as a “perfect sword,” or a “perfect storm,” then what would be a “perfect weapon”? Probably it would be a thermonuclear bomb. A nuclear bomb manifests precisely every attribute of an ideal killing machine; it is the consummate device for destroying enemies on an unlimited scale.
The largest hydrogen bomb that was ever exploded was the Soviet invention, Tsar Bomba, which was exploded by the Soviet Union on 30 October 1961 over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian Arctic Sea. It was equivalent to 58.6 megatons of TNT, and its fireball was five miles wide and could be seen from 630 miles away. It was ten times more powerful than all of the munitions expended during World War II combined. The blast wave orbited the earth three times. And even so, Tsar Bomba was only half the size that the inventors had originally planned to build. They had realized that exploding that a full-sized version might have been self-destructive. Indeed, such a weapon is too big ever to be used in a war. It is the “perfect weapon” — so good that it can kill everything, including its creators. No war with such weapons can ever be won. And, as Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan agreed, no nuclear war must ever be fought.
Tsar Bomba was only one bomb, and logically a single such perfect weapon ought to be enough — indeed, it should be “one too many.” You would want to dismantle it as soon as possible. But suppose your crazy enemy has such a bomb too. You might reasonably fear that, seeing you without one, he would take the opportunity to use his. To prevent that, you might want to keep some of these “perfect weapons” and declare that you will retaliate if he starts a fight.
That is what happened. The owners of nuclear weapons each kept a growing stockpile of them. Each side knew that any nuclear war would involve “mutual assured destruction” or “MAD” — the total annihilation of them all. Each side also knew that to explode one them in war would be an act of suicide, yet by 1986 there were 64,449 nuclear bombs on the planet.(27) Madness! But once such a situation of mutual deterrence is established, how can you end it?
The creators of “mutual assured destruction” proposed that the situation be reversed gradually by a process of “arm control.” The adversaries would meet, discuss their predicament, and agree to reduce their stockpiles in equal amounts, one step at a time. But this was tricky, for each side considered every weapon to be, not only a terrible threat, but also a necessity for “security.” It would be used only to deter the other side, keep the adversary from using his bomb.
But when your arsenals contain bombs of different sizes, in different types of delivery systems, it is hard to decide which combination of weapons to offer as your package, or what combination your adversary should offer to match yours. You could go on haggling over this kind of thing for decades.
As indeed the arms controllers have done. Negotiations for nuclear disarmament are supposed to take place by 55 states in Geneva — an organization called the Conference on Disarmament — “CD.” However, all decisions there require the unanimous consent of all parties— which never happens. No progress has been made at the “CD” since the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was negotiated in August 1996. In fact, the nuclear weapons states make it clear that they do not intend to relinquish their bombs within the foreseeable future, since they claim that their “security” depends upon retaining them.
In a strange sense, they are right. However weak a country may be, if it acquires a nuclear arsenal, any unfriendly country will think twice before threatening it. On the other hand, that is obviously an insane notion of “security.” The existence of a “perfect weapon” creates a logical paradox as well as a practical dilemma that no military leaders have solved.
The most humane solution to the paradox is one that the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev recognized and adopted in dealing with President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War. In this he was influenced by the German politician Egon Bahr, who explained in a 1994 interview:
“I came to a very astonishing result at that time. I thought, based on the mutual assured destruction, it’s quite obvious that neither side in a major nuclear exchange can win a war. So if this is true, then the result is in the political sphere — that the potential enemy becomes the partner of your own security and the other way around. In other words, despite the fact of the East-West conflict, both sides can live together or can die together. If this is true, we live in a period de facto of common security.
“And when I reached this result, I was surprised because this was against the experience of history. In history, when you fought, you had to beat the enemy. To become secure, you had to win a war. So, I wrote this down and I thought, better think it over.”(28)
This notion of common security became the guiding principle in the Palme Commission, which was then seeking solutions to the Cold War. The Russian participant in the Palme Commission, Georgy Arbatov, conveyed Bahr’s ideas to Mikhail Gorbachev, who was then the Soviet Minister of Agriculture. Evidently Gorbachev fully assimilated the notion to his own thinking. Shortly after he came to power, Egon Bahr met him and Gorbachev began explaining to him the idea of common security as if he had thought of it himself.(29)
Actually, however, Gorbachev’s notion of common security seems to have differed from that of Bahr, who believed that the situation of common security was created by, and even depended on, the existence of the relationship of mutual assured destruction. Gorbachev cannot have believed that, for it was he, more than anyone else, who sought to abolish all nuclear weapons for the sake of common security. And for about one day, October 11, 1986, in Reykjavik, Iceland he almost got his wish.
President Ronald Reagan shared Gorbachev’s recognition that nuclear war could never be won, and when the two men met in Iceland’s capital, Gorbachev offered to disarm every one of his nuclear weapons if the Americans would do the same with theirs. Since between them the two countries owned the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons, such a deal would have ended the arms race and moved humankind back closer to a state of genuine security.
Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan wanted to have both nuclear disarmament and a defence against nuclear weapons, lest any be kept and used to bomb the United States. He had developing a project called “Strategic Defense Initiative,” (then popularly called “Star Wars”) that he hoped would be able to intercept and destroy incoming nuclear missiles before they could reach their targets. If it worked, such a system would only be defensive; it could not attack an enemy but only defend against an enemy’s bombs. However, any country with such a “shield” would enjoy vast superiority over an enemy if it retained even a few nuclear weapons secretly, for its enemy would be helpless. Mutual Assured Destruction would no longer exist to confer its perverse version of “security” on both sides. Gorbachev realized that he could not trade away MAD for such partial progress. Thus the deal collapsed — much to the relief of Reagan’s advisers who had never wanted to give up their country’s nuclear arsenal at all. The subject was never officially broached again in the United States.
However, the conversation between the two superpower leaders did have benign effects. A year later the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to a new treaty, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987. Both sides agreed to ban ground-launched missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. This removed the most frightening danger of that era, when both the Soviet side and the NATO side had been toe-to-toe, nearly installing weapons in Europe that would almost inevitably have led to a real nuclear war.
Indeed, Gorbachev went even further, removing Soviet troops from Eastern Europe and no longer promising to support any of the Communist regimes in that region, should their citizens wish to leave the Soviet sphere of influence — as indeed they did. In 1989, protests swept through those states and forced the Communist regimes, now lacking the support of Soviet military intervention, to relinquish power to formerly dissident political activists.
Nor was the Soviet Union itself exempt from opposition movements. In 1991 Gorbachev had to lower the Soviet flag from the Kremlin, for nationalism and the economic strains of transitioning to capitalism were fragmenting the union that he had led.
But the Cold War was over, and nuclear disarmament continued for several years, though relations between East and West never quite became cordial. Their last arms reduction agreement, the “New START” Treaty, was signed by Presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Barack Obama in 2010. Today there are still about 15,000 nuclear weapons on the planet, 90 percent of which belong to the US or Russia.(30) Moreover, to win approval of that treaty by the U.S. Senate, Obama had found it necessary to consent to modernizing the American nuclear arsenal, which is expected to cost about $1.5 trillion over the next thirty years—unless the Democrats now controlling the House of Representatives reverse that plan.
Tensions are still increasing, with Russia complaining that the US broke the promise it made to Gorbachev not to move NATO “one inch to the east” when he was so readily dismantling the Warsaw Treaty Organization. Indeed, he should probably have insisted that such a promise be recorded in a treaty, for most of the formerly Soviet bloc countries now hope to join NATO and several already have been admitted.
Moreover, although “Star Wars” never lived up to its promoters’ hopes, there is a continuing interest in defensive systems that can intercept incoming missiles in flight. NATO (read “the US”) is installing such a system called Aegis on ships in the Mediterranean, as well as ashore in Romania and Poland. Russia objects that these are not merely defensive, and in a recent paper Theodore A. Postol has shown that their objections are well founded. The canisters from which missiles can be launched in the Aegis Ashore system can easily have software installed that can launch cruise missiles, in violation of the INF Treaty.(31)
For its part, the US has accused Russia of violating the INF Treaty too by preparing to install a new missile that count hit Western European cities. Indeed, President Trump has announced his intention of withdrawing from the INF Treaty in six months and President Putin says he will develop new nuclear weaponry in response. We are in a new arms race.
Thus we see that the long experiment with arms control has failed to abolish nuclear weapons. What other options might succeed instead?
Though there is no prospect of speedy progress, the best alternative initiative is the “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” (TPNW), which was adopted (by a vote of 122 States in favour (with one vote against and one abstention) at the United Nations on 7 July 2017. It will enter into force 90 days after the fiftieth ratification has been deposited.(32)
The TPNW was the result, not of official arms control negotiations, but of action by civil society—notably an organization called the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). According to all international public opinion polls, the majority of citizens of virtually every country have always wanted nuclear weapons to be abolished, but they have lacked any means of forcing the nuclear weapons states to comply. But the governments of Norway, Mexico, and Austria convened several conferences that flatly denied that nuclear weapons can ever make the world safer. The participants reminded everyone of the catastrophic humanitarian effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and showed that on numerous occasions nuclear missiles have nearly been exploded, sometimes by intention, sometimes by mistake. ICAN’s argument has been convincing, and nations are ratifying the TPNW more quickly than with most previous treaties.
So far, the nuclear weapons states just ignore the treaty. Nevertheless, ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 and continues pressing the nuclear states to comply, invoking shame to motivate them. To be sure, the leaders of all nuclear weapons states are shameless and are unmoved by humanitarian appeals to any ethical principles. On the other hand, they can no longer pretend to be progressing toward disarmament with the methods that they have used so far.
So the greatest threat lies ahead, when states are no longer inhibited by the INF treaty or, possibly, even by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which may also be terminated if the nuclear arms race heats up. The US is making a new nuclear weapon only one-third the size of the Hiroshima bomb. One might consider such smaller bombs less dangerous than large ones, but that is not so. A small nuclear weapon is designed to be used in battle, not merely rattled ominously to intimidate or deter an enemy. We are in a post-MAD world now, and something new must be done to counter the threat.
Gunpowder and nuclear weapons were “breakthroughs” in the development of weaponry. Now we must act quickly to prevent the development of other innovations with shocking potential: the application of artificial intelligence, robotics, and cyber-hacking to the development of weapons. Fortunately, we may still have enough time to stop lethal autonomous weapons, for the Pentagon is not yet working on producing them.(33) It is much harder to stop a weapons program after investors have sunk their savings into it and workers’ jobs would be lost by banning the weapon. Stopping cyberattacks will be harder to achieve, for there are already huge institutions using such systems.
In a way, it is entertaining to imagine two shiny robots fighting a duel — a nicer replay of the Iliad, when Achilles and Hector went mano-a-mano at Troy. If the two machines would merely kill each other we might even enjoy cheering for our side’s tin soldier, since no real blood would be shed. Unfortunately, lethal autonomous weapons will not be so restrained. Instead, they will be programmed to hunt down you or me–human adversaries. And if they have artificial intelligence, they may even learn to plan how to take over the world. Or at least such is the warning of some widely respected persons, including Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking.
But the Chinese rejected gunpowder, and we can reject killer robots and cyber war. The mechanism for opposing lethal autonomous weapons is a UN body that reviews and enforces a treaty called the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Of course, killer robots are not plausibly considered “conventional,” but they are officially categorized as such because they are not chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. The common trait shared by all the banned so-called “conventional” weapons is that they are deemed “inhumane.” (Some of us do not consider any weapons humane except perhaps the darts that are used to tranquilize wild animals for medical treatment.) We must expect that lethal autonomous weapons, if allowed to select their own targets, would not be gentle, so there is an urgent need for such innovations to be prohibited.(34)
Cyberattacks are already a familiar experience for most of us, since we receive fraudulent phishing attacks or fake news in our social media all the time. Banks experience large losses through cyber theft, but prefer not to publicize that fact. There are even ransom attacks on civilians and hospitals, whereby the hacker promises to restore one’s computer to proper functioning only after receiving a large payoff. But these are mere annoyances when compared to an organized cyber war.
Indeed, a malevolent adversary can wreak terrible effects on any society today without firing any weapon. Already you are probably receiving “likes” on your Facebook account from foreign “bots” — fake accounts purporting to belong to someone who shares your values. The purpose is to lure you into reading posts that influence you to accept more extremist ideas or even to participate in extremist street demonstrations. We lack any easy means of identifying and intercepting these messages, though the political effects can indeed be significant in a democracy.
Still the effects of a violent cyber war can surpass these problems. It would be easy for the anti-ballistic missile defence system of any country or alliance to knock out the satellites belonging to its enemy. Already our electric grid and municipal water purification systems are vulnerable to attack, and we are entering the era of the “Internet of Things.” All our digital equipment— e.g. cars, door locks, kitchen stoves, phones — will be managed through remote systems that are vulnerable to hacking. If ten million electric cars stall at the same time on our streets, we will be helpless.
The plans to manage these threats are almost exclusively military: deter your enemy by proving that you can retaliate powerfully to any cyberattack. In 2010 the Obama Administration established a military Cyber Command in the military, and the US is not unique. Out of 114 states with some form of national cyber security programs, 47 assign some role to their armed forces.(35) Russia has already used cyberattacks against Estonia and Georgia; Israel has used them against Syria in conjunction with its bombing of a covert nuclear facility; and the US has used them (a cyber “worm” called “Stuxnet”) against Iran’s nuclear enrichment plant. None of these advanced countries seem genuinely interested in reaching an international agreement to regulate or ban any of their cyber activities.
On the other hand, there have been ostensible efforts to create limits. Obama’s administration called for some action and In 2011 China and Russia submitted a Code of Conduct for Information Security to the UN General Assembly. Most of the proposals in it were innocuous, but one clause asserted all states’ sovereign right to protect their ”information space”. The vagueness of this principle left others wondering whether the whole code of conduct was meant as a serious proposal or as only a cover for problematic intentions. There is an urgent need for international law to prevent cyber war.
War and weapons constitute only one of the six global threats that we must urgently address, since any one of them could destroy civilization within a short interval. If we are to strategize and decide how to solve the six threats together, it may be useful to identify which option may have the largest payoff. Probably the answer is this: reduce militarism.
You may ask: Why militarism? Answer: Because war and weapons cause or exacerbate all five of the other global threats. By reducing the national armed forces (we probably cannot eliminate them entirely) we will reduce all the other risks.
Global warming is a danger on the same scale as war. To solve it we must urgently halt the emissions of greenhouse gas from every expendable human activity. And war is not only expendable, but abolishing it would benefit every person involved.
Moreover, it harms all the rest of us by emitting vast amounts of carbon. Manufacturing each gun, each airplane, each tank, each bomb, each bomb or bullet emits greenhouse gas. Flying the planes, shooting the bullets emits it too. The Pentagon is the largest consumer of fuel in the world. When it conducts a military operation overseas, such as in Afghanistan or Iraq, forty percent of the cost goes for transporting the fuel for use there. Then that fuel is used for injuring people and destroying buildings that later must be reconstructed, emitting even more carbon.
Suppose every country reduces its military by, say, 80 percent by the year 2030. No one can say with certainty how much this would reduce the CO2 in the planet’s atmosphere. However, one of the strongest arguments for cutting military expenditures is to limit climate change.
But militarism imposes huge opportunity costs. Diverting the money from militarism could enable other essential innovations, including limiting climate change. Global military expenditures between 1995 and 2016 hovered at about 2.3% of the world’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Sustainable Development Goals could be met with about half of that amount. In other words, such a shift in expenditures would enable humanity’s unmet needs to be provided, for health, education, agriculture and food security, access to modern energy, water supply and sanitation, telecommunications and transport infrastructure, ecosystems, and emergency response, humanitarian work, plus climate change mitigation and adaptation.(36)
The most grave threat besides the risk of nuclear war is climate change, and the most promising way of reducing CO2 in the air is by planting about a trillion trees. But that will cost vast sums. The only likely source of such funds is by diverting budgets from military activities to afforestation. Reducing militarism is the best — maybe the only realistic — way to reduce climate change. Unfortunately, in Kyoto and Paris accords, no country is even obliged to report /em> its military activities as part of its commitment to reduce CO2 emissions.
The other global threats are also all connected to militarism. For example, the only famines in the world today are not the result of food shortages. They are all created deliberately as acts of war or to subdue a population. For example, Saudi Arabia has blockaded food shipments into Yemen precisely to starve the Yemeni population into submission. And the people of Venezuela are starving because of their government’s deliberate policies to suppress protests against a military-backed regime. Famines are designed to violate human rights. Ending militarism would be a decisive step toward ending famine.
Likewise, ending militarism would reduce the incidence of epidemics. Historically, soldiers on the move carry diseases with them and spread them wherever they go. Germ warfare is prohibited by international law now but, as usual, more of the famine victims in Yemen are dying from diseases such as cholera than are actually starving to death or dying in battle. When people are weakened by stress and deprivation, they succumb to diseases. War is a cause.
Furthermore, ending militarism would reduce the risks of massive exposure to radioactivity. The original reason for creating reactors was to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs. Only later did anyone think of using the heat from these reactors as a means of generating electricity. Today large swathes of land are poisoned by radioactive waste, as for example around Hanford, Washington, where the Manhattan Project produced the radioactive ingredients for America’s nuclear arsenal. Seventy years later, the Hanford area is still poisonous and, as Ronan Farrow has reported, “Clean up of the toxic material at the Hanford Nuclear Site is expected to take 50 years.”(37) Numerous other contaminated military sites exist around the world, including battlefields in Syria and Iraq littered with depleted uranium(38) and a leaking dome-shaped dump in the Marshall Islands.(39)
There are countless ways of using radioactivity as a weapon of war. Crashing a plane into an enemy’s reactor may create a plume that would circle the planet, falling everywhere or polluting the oceans. Terrorist organizations are known to be seeking access to radioactive materials, probably for “dirty bombs” that will not explode but will contaminate large areas. The more radioactive waste there is in the world, the more opportunities will inevitably exist for these to become weapons. A solution to the problem requires two approaches: (a) managing the radioactive waste itself for many thousands of years, and (b) reducing the militarism that misuses these wastes as weapons. The technological challenge of burying the waste is probably easier than the social challenge of changing militaristic thinking.
Finally, reducing militarism obviously will reduce the risk of cyberattacks. Indeed, when we speak of cyberattacks, most people assume that we are speaking of a military attack, though there are probably more such attacks waged every day by civilian criminals stealing from businesses and individuals than are sponsored by foreign governments.
All six threats tend to interact causally, so that we need to address them together as a system. Nevertheless, there may be more “leverage” available by quickly demanding a reduction of militarism than through any other direct policy changes.
Still, this will not be easy. People have their jobs and their live savings tied up in the military-industrial complex and will not readily change to projects that can actually save the world. And they will argue that their security depends on having a robust military to defend their country from attack. Their concerns cannot properly be disregarded. If militarism is to be reduced, some other form of armed protection is necessary. We would not, for example, abolish the police in a country or city, for doing so always results in more crime and violence. A few countries (notably Costa Rica) have abolished their armed forces, but they still have police. Something similar must be provided at the international level. Two planks in the Platform for Survival call for the development of “sustainable common security” and a United Nations Emergency Peace Service, which would quickly rush to protect people anywhere in the world who are in danger of attack.
But how many people would trust the United Nations to protect them? There are surely good reasons for skepticism, since the Security Council is controlled ultimately by the veto power of five major states. Only a more democratically accountable body in the United Nations can be trusted to protect people equally, without regard to alliances and enmities between states. Hence, in the Enabling Measures section of the Platform for Survival, we consider some reforms of the United Nations that will make the United Nations a more reliable source of security.
All of these reforms, if introduced together, can reduce militarism and the risks that flow from war and weapons. This argues for a policy assigning top priority to the drastic, worldwide reduction of armed forces as the best means of saving the world from all six global threats.
Footnotes for this article can be seen at the Footnotes 1 page on this website (link will open in a new page).
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PEACEKEEPERS ARE TOLD TO LEAVE THE CONGO AFTER DECADES Congolese Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula and the head of the UN stabilization mission in Congro signed agreements to end the presence of UN peacekeepers after more than two decades in the country. The ceremony marked the end of a collaboration that has not ended permanent war. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called for an accelerated withdrawal of the 15,000 peacekeepers. Earlier this month, he told Congress that “the phased withdrawal of the U.N. mission must be responsible and sustainable.” Tshisekedi is seeking another term in the Dec. 20 presidential election. Already the conflict in the country’s east has taken center stage. Dozens of armed groups seeking a share of the region’s gold and other resources. Some have been quietly backed by Congo’s neighbors, including Rwanda. Last month the Congolese government directed the East African… Read more »
SUMMARY OF THIS IMPORTANT PAPER BY PETER WADHAMS, WHO ATTENDED THE TOWN HALL BUT DIDN’T GET A CHANCE TO SPEAK. SORRY, PETER! THE Whole paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.31223/X5DT25 “Bad science and good intentions prevent effective climate action” Authors: Graeme Taylor, BEST Futures: graeme@bestfutures.org Peter Wadhams, University of Cambridge: pw11@cam.ac.uk Daniele Visioni, Cornell University: daniele.visioni@cornell.edu Tom Goreau, Global Coral Reef Alliance: goreau@globalcoral.org Leslie Field, Stanford University: lafield@stanford.edu Heri Kuswanto, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember: heri_k@statistika.its.ac.id All enquiries and comments welcome! Corresponding authors: Peter Wadhams pw11@cam.ac.uk Daniele Visioni dv224@cornell.edu Abstract Although the 2015 Paris Agreement climate targets seem certain to be missed, only a few experts are questioning the adequacy of the current approach to limiting climate change and suggesting that additional approaches are needed to avoid unacceptable catastrophes. This article posits that selective science communication and unrealistically optimistic assumptions are obscuring the reality that greenhouse gas emissions reduction and carbon dioxide… Read more »
CHAT BOX FOR EPISODE 577, GLOBAL TOWN HALL NOV 2023 The war in Gaza has been going on all month, so we talked most about it. Shane Steinman, Alan Haber, Paul Werbos all want a solution that does not involve exclusive sovereignty. Andre Sheldon and Alastair Farrugia both promote changes in process. Sandy Greer worries about small modular nuclear reactors, and Alexey Prokhorenko has applied for a visa to live in Poland. For the video, audio podcast, transcript and comments: https://tosavetheworld.ca/episode-577-global-town-hall-nov-2023. 14:09:04 From Alastair (he, him) Farrugia : https://twitter.com/PaxYerushalmi 14:09:31 From Dinesh Xavier : Thanks 14:09:42 From Alastair (he, him) Farrugia : https://apoji.org/ 14:24:31 From Andre Sheldon : Andre@GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org Please see this brilliant article about uniting! https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/11/24/end-the-insanity-for-nuclear-disarmament-and-global-demilitarization/ 14:26:01 From Sandy Greer : Sorry, but the sound volume is too low to hear clearly, although I turned up my volume to maximum. Is anyone else experiencing same? 14:27:35 From Alastair (he,… Read more »
The article linked by Michaela (autonomous weapons and the new laws of war) is certainly an interesting topic which can be expanded to encompass AI more broadly and how it may influence the waging of war, the making/keeping of peace, the environment, and global systems.
Re: A Peace of Jerusalem
For anyone who wishes to participate in the crowdsourcing project, you can send us your ideas by way of Twitter/X, email, or via the form located at the end of the text. You may be as anonymous as you like. First, simply review the current iteration of the document, then send in any comments, questions, or suggestions. Contact info below.
Web: https://apoji.org/preamble/ (preamble)
Current text linked at end of preamble.
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaxYerushalmi
Email: periji@apoji.org
A Peace of Jerusalem: The basic process…
OBAMA ON THE GAZA CRISIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZvcSBel2w0&pp=ygUab2JhbWEgaXNyYWVsIHBhbGVzdGluZSB3YXI%3D
CHAT for the TOWN HALL 15:00:49 From Andre : akamenshikov@gmail.com 15:25:45 From Charles David Tauber : Vamik Volkan 15:31:13 From arthuredelstein : I need to leave for another call. Thank you everyone, it has been an excellent discussion. 15:43:55 From Rose Dyson : Thank you Metta. I must run 15:45:05 From Charles David Tauber : Davidson, contact me at cwwppsummer@gmail.com. To see what we do, have a look at http://www.cwwpp.org 16:09:02 From Davidson Akhonya – KENYA : My non profit is building a school in a village cut off as it is between 2 rivers 16:09:54 From Davidson Akhonya – KENYA : And we are appealing for support from well wishers 16:10:40 From Charles David Tauber : We can give training but not funds. 16:11:18 From Davidson Akhonya – KENYA : Great 16:11:54 From Charles David Tauber : Contact me. 16:12:09 From Patrick Chun/World Civility Index/Canada : Thank you Metta… Read more »
570 GLOBAL TOWN HALL SEPT. 2023 (CHAT WINDOW) 14:04:18 From Adam Wynne : I will be back in a moment. 14:04:58 From Kolavennu K K Chand : Good Day to all. 14:05:38 From Kolavennu K K Chand To Metta Spencer(privately) : Good morning Metta. Its odd time in Australia. 14:15:12 From Adam Wynne : Dinesh – can you please make a note of the attendees. 14:15:37 From Adam Wynne : I am grateful you are here in case Metta has issues. I will rejoin later. 14:20:39 From Mike S Goodmann : BRICS will rise again! 14:25:41 From Mike S Goodmann : there’s also still child labour and caste in India! 14:30:39 From Kolavennu K K Chand : The timing for this issue between India and Canada brings surprise for India that there is some mischief by external to these two Nations to create drift for their own interest. 14:32:56 From Paul Werbos… Read more »
CHAT BOX FOR EPISODE 570 GLOBAL TOWN HALL SEPT 2023 14:04:18 From Adam Wynne To Everyone: I will be back in a moment. 14:04:58 From Kolavennu K K Chand To Everyone: Good Day to all. 14:05:38 From Kolavennu K K Chand To Metta Spencer(Privately): Good morning Metta. Its odd time in Australia. 14:15:12 From Adam Wynne To Everyone: Dinesh – can you please make a note of the attendees. 14:15:37 From Adam Wynne To Everyone: I am grateful you are here in case Metta has issues. I will rejoin later. 14:20:39 From Mike S Goodmann To Everyone: BRICS will rise again! 14:25:41 From Mike S Goodmann To Everyone: there’s also still child labour and caste in India! 14:30:39 From Kolavennu K K Chand To Everyone: The timing for this issue between India and Canada brings surprise for India that there is some mischief by external to these two Nations to… Read more »
This is the report of the CWWPP for 2022. It indicates that there can be no peace without work on the trauma of war. We welcome correspondence and discussion to cwwppsummer@gmail.com
Would you like to end war and to create a culture of peace? Join our 6 hour course Ending War 101 that looks at “Can War be Ended?, Is a “Just War” even possible?, What does Tolerating War Cost Us? and What Can We Do?” please register at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/ending-war-101-making-the-impossible-possible/ The course is on now in Sept. 2023
CHAT BOX FOR EPISODE 564 GLOBAL TOWN HALL JULY 2023 Chat Global Town Hall July 2023 14:05:12 From Paul Werbos : I still cannot hear anything. my wife might fix it but you have ai e session so. 14:05:18 From Marilyn Krieger, CCBC : My latest article–I welcome feedback/comments: https://urbanedgewildlife.org/you-can-make-a-difference/ 14:12:15 From Marilyn Krieger, CCBC : Sandy, please send me an e-mail. our work and interests overlap: Marilyn@urbanedgewildlife.org 14:12:48 From Sandy Greer : Sandy Greer’s email address is sandygreer36@gmail.com, and invite addresses from fellow participants to continue conversations. Thanks so much to Metta for providing this forum. 🙂 14:31:04 From Peace And Justice Alliance : From Peace And Justice Alliance, Now western countries become safe haven for the Bangladesh dirty money owners, many kleptocrats of Bangladesh present autocratic regime (Since 2009 regime keeping power without people mandate) perpetrators politicians, businessmen & bureaucrats has been transferred billions of billions dollars illicit assets to USA, Canada, Europe,… Read more »
UKRAINE NEEDS A PEACE PLAN – AND SOMEONE TO CHAMPION IT By Cesar Jaramillo Well over a year into the devastating armed conflict in Ukraine, discussions on how to end it are disconcertingly absent from public and political discourse. Such silence not only indicates the fractious state of global affairs but constitutes a disservice to the people who continue to suffer in this brutal war. It also perpetuates a perilous gamble, with the very real risk of nuclear escalation. Both Ukraine and Russia persist in pursuing a decisive military victory that can only prolong the fighting. At the same time, the fervour for a battlefield win stands in stark contrast with a lack of clarity and consensus on what victory would entail in practice – or what all the ongoing sacrifice and pain and loss are ultimately for. Rather than clinging to the notion of military triumph, the international community… Read more »
RUSSIANS’ SUPPORT FOR THE WAR MAY BE SOFTER THAN YOU THINK RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT May 25, 2023 A close examination of credible polling in the country suggests a clear desire for negotiations to end the conflict. by David Cortright and Alexander Finiarel David Cortright is professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and former director of policy studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is currently serving as visiting research fellow at the Alva Myrdal Centre on Nuclear Disarmament, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden. Alexander has a Master’s degree in political science from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He has worked as an analyst of electoral campaigns in Moscow. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he became involved in with multiple anti-war organizations as a researcher, studying the reaction of the Russian society to the war… Read more »
Foreign Affairs April 7, 2023 Putin’s Second Front: The War in Ukraine Has Become a Battle for the Russian Psyche By Andrei Kolesnikov ANDREI KOLESNIKOV is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/putins-second-front For more than two decades, ordinary people in Vladimir Putin’s Russia could count on at least one fundamental right: the right to remain passive. As long as they were willing to turn a blind eye to corruption at the top and the never-ending rule of the Putin regime, they were not required to demonstrate active support for the government. Whatever Russia was doing in the world need not concern them. Provided that they did not interfere in the affairs of the elite, they were free to live their lives. Since the Russian government announced its “partial mobilization” in September–October 2022, that right has been taken away. No longer is it possible to stay… Read more »
New report documents 235 nonviolent resistance actions in Ukraine
EXCERPT: Since March, the International Institute for Nonviolent Action (Novact), the Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP), and the NGO Corridors – Dialogue through Cooperation have been collecting stories of civil resistance in Ukraine. The result of their work, Ukrainian Nonviolent Civil Resistance in the Face of War, analyzes the trends, impacts and challenges of nonviolence in Ukraine from February 24 through June 30. In cooperation with students from the National University Kyiv-Mohyla, the authors identified and systematized 235 nonviolent actions during this period; detailed information of this process can be found in this map.
• English version: https://novact.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ENG_VF.pdf
• Ukrainian version: https://novact.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/UKR_VF.pdf
The authors found that nonviolent resistance 1) has hindered some of the long-term military and political goals of the Russian authorities, such as the institutionalization of the military occupation and repression in the occupied territories; 2) has protected many civilians; 3) undermined the Russian narrative; 4) built community resilience; and 5) strengthened local governance.
Read on:
https://paxchristiusa.org/2022/10/28/new-report-documents-235-nonviolent-resistance-actions-in-ukraine/
N O N V I O L E N T R E S I S T A N C E TO R U S S I A ’ S I N V A S I O N O F U K R A I N E By Andre Kamenshikov, Demitro Zvonok and a team of civil society activists, many of whom were personally involved in organizing on violent resistance in the temporarily occupied territories. P E A C O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, resulted in the largest war on the European continent since 1945. Besides the armed resistance of Ukraine to Russia’s aggression, a process of great importance was taking place on the territories that were occupied by Russian forces. In nearly all occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian forces were confronted by… Read more »
Great article
Russia Withdraws Its Nuclear Weapons from US inspections Yehven Kizilov | Pravda | 8 August 2022 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/08/8/7362406/ On 8 August, Russia informed the United States that it was suspending inspections of its nuclear weapons under the bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Source: the Russian newspaper Kommersant, quoting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Quote from the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry: “Statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the situation with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) On 8 August 2022, the Russian Federation officially informed the United States of America through diplomatic channels that our country is temporarily withdrawing its facilities subject to inspections under the START Treaty from the scope of inspections under this Treaty. This withdrawal also applies to facilities where screenings stipulated by the Treaty can be held.” Reference: Under the bilateral treaty between Russia and the United States on the mutual reduction… Read more »
A Nuclear Review Conference Amidst Loud War Drums By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which runs from August 1-26, takes place amidst a raging battle: a nuclear Russia vs a non-nuclear Ukraine and potential military conflicts on the horizon, including a nuclear China vs a non-nuclear Taiwan, a nuclear North Korea vs a non-nuclear South Korea and a nuclear Israel vs a non-nuclear Iran. And in equally serious development, US non-proliferation experts have written to US President Joe Biden, echoing concerns expressed by both China and Indonesia, about a proposed plan by US and UK, two major nuclear powers, to sell Australia atomic submarines under the 2021 AUKUS partnership. Tariq Rauf, former Alternate Head of NPT Delegation, and Head of Verification and Security Policy at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told IDN the Tenth… Read more »
With regard to our discussion of this evening, 31 July 2022 on the Global Town Hall, I have a comment that I didn’t have a chance to make.
We will not be able to heal the wounds of war or to prevent future conflicts without dealing with the psychological traumas. We must work seriously with the generation that experienced the conflict. We also must work with future generations. Wars and conflicts repeat. There is vast evidence of trans-generational transmission of the traumas.There are very large numbers of examples of this.
Unfortunately, there is insufficient capacity to deal with these traumas.
The organization with which I work, the Coalition for Work with Psychotrauma and Peace, www,cwwpp.org, cwwppsummer@gmail.com, gives training and supervision online and without charge to anyone, regardless of previous training. We also are open to cooperation with other non-profit organizations.
I propose something different: the Universal Abolition of Militarism. That is, give politicians a chance to speak the truth. The War industry forces them to lie to us, for they sre not magicians. Politicians cannot ensure their country exports the tanks, machine guns, air-fighters, bombs, rockets, and other killing toys they produce and promote Peace at the same time. If there are no wars, countries stop buying, causing the unemployment of millions of workers in the War industry. Also the redundancy of millions who make a living a legal murderers, employed by the Armed Forces. By the way, these are the most traumatized of all people involved in war. This is a natural phenomenon, for employees of the Armed Forces are ordered to kill people they don’t know, never met before. People who’ve done nothing wrong to them. They simply have to kill to prevent whoever politicians decided to call… Read more »
We are pleased to provide The Simons Foundation Canada’s most recent Arctic Security Briefing Paper on military policies and practices in the Arctic region. Arctic Security Cooperation – Still Needed, but is it Still Possible? Arctic Security Briefing Paper By Ernie Regehr O.C. Senior Fellow in Arctic Security and Defence The Simons Foundation Canada June 21, 2022 Russia’s brazenly illegal war on Ukraine certainly means business as usual is not a serious option for relations with Russia, including in the Arctic. But the effort to repel aggression in Europe should not be the occasion to escalate tensions and reject cooperation or engagement in a hitherto stable region. Given that pan-Arctic cooperation is a professed and genuinely practiced Arctic value, shutting down dialogue forums ought not to be the go-to Arctic response to conflict and gross violations of norms and laws outside, or inside, the region. In response to Russia’s illegal annexation of… Read more »
Talk to the Russians in the Arctic?
Maybe the best way to begin taking care of the well-being of the Arctic people is by talking to them, person-to-person. Most younger people in Russia now speak English. There are huge numbers of the living in the Arctic — at least in comparison to the numbers in other Arctic countries. They have cities with universities. I bet they even have Zoom there. (I don’t actually know, but I bet they do.) Why not get the names of some scholars in a city like Norilsk and send them a note to get acquainted? Here is a picture of a street in Norilsk.
Pugwash Note on Present Dangers The present global situation is very dangerous. Not since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis have we had such a dangerous environment. But while the Cuban missile crisis lasted 13 days, the present situation has continued for over 100 days since February 2022. Of course, the main problem now is the war in Ukraine. There are many underlying motivations for this war. The history of relations between what is now Ukraine and Russia is several centuries old and very complex. More recently, antagonism between the Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking populations has been revived, together with the separatist movement in the eastern part of Ukraine (the Donbas) where, according to the UN, between 2014 and the end of 2021 more than 14,000 people have been killed. The annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 also raised concerns in Ukraine. The eastward expansion of NATO that reached many of the… Read more »
Animated Chart: Nuclear Warheads by Country (1945-2022) Visualizing The Nuclear Warheads of Countries Since 1945 Despite significant progress in reducing nuclear weapon arsenals since the Cold War, the world’s combined inventory of warheads remains at an uncomfortably high level. Towards the late 1980s, the world reached its peak of stockpiled warheads, numbering over 64,000. In modern times, nine countries—the U.S., Russia, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea—are estimated to possess roughly 12,700 nuclear warheads. The animated chart above by creator James Eagle shows the military stockpile of nuclear warheads that each country has possessed since 1945. Nuclear Warheads Currently in Possession by Countries The signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) brought about a rapid disarmament of nuclear warheads. Though not immediately successful in stopping nuclear proliferation, it eventually led to countries retiring most of their nuclear arsenals. As of 2022, about 12,700 nuclear warheads are still… Read more »
Feeling Around for Something Human Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine? Shura Burtin investigates. 9:14 am, May 3, 2022 Source: Meduza For more than two months now, many Russians have openly supported the Kremlin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine — choosing to close their eyes to executions and rapes, the shelling of peaceful cities, unthinkable destruction, and millions of people losing their homes. Journalist Shura Burtin spent several weeks talking to Russian citizens about their thoughts and feelings about the war. For Meduza, Burtin recounts how fear and a sense of humiliation defeated Russians’ humanity. Please note. This article was originally published in Russian on April 24, 2022. “I don’t understand why people in Russia are silent!” This cry was heard across hundreds of Ukrainian posts during the first weeks of the war. “Do they really support this? Do they not care? We’re getting bombed and they are too scared to get… Read more »
We need to find a way to demilitarize, both to prevent an accidental or intentional nuclear exchange, and to release resources to resolve global warming. But how? Civilian defence can be part of the answer for many countries. It would not only reduce military budgets gradually, but, by lowering tensions, make nuclear disarmament more tenable. Also, nonviolent defence, when it is intended as more than a minor supplement to military defence, is a radical democratic project. That is an important consideration, in light of authoritarian tendencies worldwide.
To follow up: https://sandbroo.faculty.politics.utoronto.ca/The-Viability-of-Nonviolent-Defence-Today/
The continuing unprovoked mass-slaughter of innocent Ukrainian civilians by Russia is inexcusable. Having said that, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s apparent fear of NATO expansion, though especially the deployment of additional U.S. anti-nuclear-missile defense-system batteries, further into eastern Europe is typically perceived by the West as unmerited paranoia. Surely he must realize that the West, including NATO, would never initiate a nuclear-weapons exchange. But, then, how can he — or we, for that matter — know for sure, particularly with America’s military past? While Ronald Reagan postulated that “Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong,” who can know what may have historically come to fruition had the U.S. remained the sole possessor of atomic weaponry. There’s a presumptive, and perhaps even arrogant, concept of American leadership as somehow, unless directly militarily provoked, being morally/ethically above using nuclear weapons internationally. Cannot absolute power corrupt… Read more »
Opinion: Give Russia’s U.N. Security Council seat to Ukraine Marc Thiessen | The Washington Post | 7 April 2022 In a fiery speech Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called out the U.N. Security Council for its utter fecklessness in responding to Russia’s horrific war crimes in his country. The United Nations is incapable of holding Russia to account, Zelensky said, because Moscow “turns the right of veto in the U.N. Security Council into a right to kill.” Member states should “remove Russia” from the Security Council, he said, or “dissolve yourself altogether.” Read more Zelensky is absolutely right. But we should take his bold proposal a step further. Not only should Russia be kicked off the Security Council, its seat should be given to Ukraine. Indeed, there is precedent for doing just that. It is not written into the U.N. Charter that the “Russian Federation” is entitled to a permanent seat on the… Read more »
Hi everyone––I’ve written a short piece for Passage advocating for Canada to attend the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. I hope folks find it useful!
https://readpassage.com/why-wont-canada-attend-a-historic-meeting-on-nuclear-disarmament/
Matt Korda
A Statement for Peace All citizens around the world are urged to stand up against war and the potential conflict between the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the NATO alliance. In an age of global interdependence, when the Cold War has been relegated to a bygone era, global citizens should exercise their will, based on the foresight that conventional and nuclear weapons of one nation can no longer overtake another. Any conflict, even started by nations claiming self-defense or territorial integrity, can find that targeted bombing boomerangs back to their populations. This style of incurring damage on one country by another is outmoded because advanced technologies have changed the nature of warfare: it has become lethal to fight, and it halts the advance of all human development. This threat of war comes at a time when most countries are dealing with the Covid pandemic, and when national economies are suffering economic hardship. One hundred… Read more »
Dmitri Trenin on the Prospect of Russia’s Invading Ukraine Moscow Carnegie Center January 20, 2022 What a Week of Talks Between Russia and the West Revealed Moscow’s demands of the United States and NATO are in fact the strategic goals of Russian policy in Europe. If Russia cannot achieve them by diplomatic means, it will resort to other methods. By Dmitri Trenin Director, Moscow Carnegie Center https://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/86222 The meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken on January 21 follows on from the previous week’s intensive talks: the first round of U.S.-Russian dialogue on European security issues in Geneva, followed by sessions of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels and the OSCE Standing Committee in Vienna. The extremely tough talks that took place last week in Europe didn’t end in a public scandal or definitive rupture, but nor did they inspire confidence that the ongoing European… Read more »
Op-ed: Toronto’s Waterfront Shouldn’t Serve as a Stage to Promote Warplanes Yves Engler | NOW Toronto | 29 August 2021 https://nowtoronto.com/op-ed-torontos-waterfront-shouldnt-serve-as-a-stage-to-promote-warplanes With the Canadian military set to select a new fighter jet, the controversial F-35 stealth fighter will be participating in its first Canadian International Air Show next weekend. As a father of a young child, I understand the appeal of some excitement in the sky, especially after the lockdown. But flying warplanes over Lake Ontario is not innocent fun. Since the establishment of the Royal Canadian Air Force a century ago the Department of National Defence has promoted airshows. The CF-18 Demonstration Team and Snowbirds, which will also be flying over Lake Ontario, seek to “inspire” support for an air force that has bombed Iraq, Serbia, Libya and Iraq/Syria over the past three decades. Many civilians were killed directly or due to the destruction of infrastructure. As people seek to make sense… Read more »
The US spent $2 trillion in Afghanistan – and for what? Patrick Sabga | Al Jazeera | 16 August 2021 “Since 2001, the US has spent $2.26 trillion in Afghanistan, the Costs of War Project at Brown University calculates. The biggest chunk – nearly $1 trillion – was consumed by the Overseas Contingency Operations budget for the Department of Defense. The second biggest line item – $530bn – is the estimated interest payments on the money the US government borrowed to fund the war. Yet for all those trillions, Afghanistan still has one of the smallest formal economies on the planet. Last year, President Ashraf Ghani said 90 percent of the population was living on less than $2 a day. The illicit economy, meanwhile, has boomed. After US forces drove the Taliban from power in 2001, Afghanistan cemented its place as the leading global supplier of opium and heroin –… Read more »
The Canadian public shows much greater support for serious nuclear disarmament measures than does its Government. My opinion piece based on a Nanos poll demonstrates a solid majority in favour of Canada adhering to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Government out of step with Canadians on nuclear weapons
THE UNIVERSAL ABOLITION OF MILITARISM To me, the Universal Abolition of Militarism, that is of Armed Forces, Military Sciences and the War Industry are the very first thing we must campaign for and achieve. The trillions of dollars spent annually on the Military, would solve all other problems. Take health for instance, at the moment Governments spend 30 to 40 times on scientists and engineers working to destroy life, buildings and nature than what they spend on those working on medical research, to help us live longer and healthier lives. 80% of the destruction of the environment is caused by military tests and actual wars. Hunger, lack of hospitals, of schools, homelessness (though poverty of refugees) is the direct result of wars and of the money spent on them. Social violence exists because in order to have Armed Forces, Governments must produce lovers of weapons, of fighting, on killing. This… Read more »
Canada, NATO, & The Nuclear Ban Treaty Paul Meyer | CDI Institute | 19 January 2021 “Does the TPNW complement existing treaties? What are its aims and what gaps could it fill? Supporters of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) characterized it as filling a “legal gap”. This refers to the fact that of the three categories of WMDs—chemical, biological, and nuclear, only the first two categories are subject to comprehensive prohibition treaties. Nuclear weapons are only constrained by the 1968 (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT has a far lower standard of restriction on nuclear weapons. The treaty commits its state parties to work towards nuclear disarmament and oppose any proliferation, but the NPT is actually silent on the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Article VI of the NPT outlines an obligation to engage in good faith negotiations to bring the arms race to… Read more »
Canada, NATO, & The Nuclear Ban Treaty Paul Meyer | CDI Institute | 19 January 2021 “Does the TPNW complement existing treaties? What are its aims and what gaps could it fill? Supporters of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) characterized it as filling a “legal gap”. This refers to the fact that of the three categories of WMDs—chemical, biological, and nuclear, only the first two categories are subject to comprehensive prohibition treaties. Nuclear weapons are only constrained by the 1968 (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT has a far lower standard of restriction on nuclear weapons. The treaty commits its state parties to work towards nuclear disarmament and oppose any proliferation, but the NPT is actually silent on the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Article VI of the NPT outlines an obligation to engage in good faith negotiations to bring the arms race to… Read more »
Canada, NATO, & The Nuclear Ban Treaty Paul Meyer | CDI Institute | 19 January 2021 “Does the TPNW complement existing treaties? What are its aims and what gaps could it fill? Supporters of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) characterized it as filling a “legal gap”. This refers to the fact that of the three categories of WMDs—chemical, biological, and nuclear, only the first two categories are subject to comprehensive prohibition treaties. Nuclear weapons are only constrained by the 1968 (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT has a far lower standard of restriction on nuclear weapons. The treaty commits its state parties to work towards nuclear disarmament and oppose any proliferation, but the NPT is actually silent on the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Article VI of the NPT outlines an obligation to engage in good faith negotiations to bring the arms race to… Read more »
I don’t know either. But does it matter? I mean, we know what they are doing to the Yemen people, regardless of the national origin of their weapons, so we should not be providing them with tools that they MIGHT use to oppress people. Sell weapons only to legitimate police forces, and only certain kinds of non-military weapons at that.
Canada, NATO, & The Nuclear Ban Treaty Paul Meyer | CDI Institute | 19 January 2021 “Does the TPNW complement existing treaties? What are its aims and what gaps could it fill? Supporters of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) characterized it as filling a “legal gap”. This refers to the fact that of the three categories of WMDs—chemical, biological, and nuclear, only the first two categories are subject to comprehensive prohibition treaties. Nuclear weapons are only constrained by the 1968 (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT has a far lower standard of restriction on nuclear weapons. The treaty commits its state parties to work towards nuclear disarmament and oppose any proliferation, but the NPT is actually silent on the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Article VI of the NPT outlines an obligation to engage in good faith negotiations to bring the arms race to… Read more »
I don’t know either. But does it matter? I mean, we know what they are doing to the Yemen people, regardless of the national origin of their weapons, so we should not be providing them with tools that they MIGHT use to oppress people. Sell weapons only to legitimate police forces, and only certain kinds of non-military weapons at that.
If you’re in Canada, please take action to say No to the War on Yemen,
Yemen is now the world’s worst humanitarian disaster – and 15 billion in Canadian-made weapons are going to the Saudis. Take action and call on Trudeau to stop sending munitions that fuel the war in Yemen.
Social Media Post to use:
Please kindly sign & widely share this Canadian Government petition. With enough signatures we can tell the Trudeau Govt to stop the sale of arms to Saudi & to bring them to The Hague for war crimes in #Yemen > https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3075 #YemenCantWait #Yemen #StopArmingSaudi
Thank you
Excellent suggestion, Ali. Is there any proof that the Saudis are using Canadian weapons against the Yemen people? I am not saying that they AREN’T — I really just don’t know.
That’s an interesting point, but it sure seems contradictory to say that you are negotiating in good faith while actually continuing to possess nuclear weapons. In fact, I don’t think any NW state even pretends to be negotiating for nuclear disarmament.
If you’re in Canada, please take action to say No to the War on Yemen,
Yemen is now the world’s worst humanitarian disaster – and 15 billion in Canadian-made weapons are going to the Saudis. Take action and call on Trudeau to stop sending munitions that fuel the war in Yemen.
Social Media Post to use:
Please kindly sign & widely share this Canadian Government petition. With enough signatures we can tell the Trudeau Govt to stop the sale of arms to Saudi & to bring them to The Hague for war crimes in #Yemen > https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3075 #YemenCantWait #Yemen #StopArmingSaudi
Thank you
Excellent suggestion, Ali. Is there any proof that the Saudis are using Canadian weapons against the Yemen people? I am not saying that they AREN’T — I really just don’t know.
That’s an interesting point, but it sure seems contradictory to say that you are negotiating in good faith while actually continuing to possess nuclear weapons. In fact, I don’t think any NW state even pretends to be negotiating for nuclear disarmament.
On Tuesday, February 9, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, I will be joining a conversation with Metta Spencer on her To Save The World YouTube channel. We will be speaking about my work on the McIntyre Powder Project, which is a justice project that I founded to seek answers about the health effects on miners and factory workers who were historically required by their employers to inhale finely ground aluminum dust known as McIntyre Powder – a non-consensual prophylactic medical treatment against the lung disease silicosis. My father, Jim Hobbs, was one of the affected underground miners, who ended up with Parkinson’s. After years of advocacy, researchers found a link between Parkinson’s and McIntyre Powder exposure in a groundbreaking study released in 2020. What does this have to do with PEACE? Metta’s invitation to engage in this conversation gave me pause to think about the notion of peace… Read more »
On Tuesday, February 9, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, I will be joining a conversation with Metta Spencer on her To Save The World YouTube channel. We will be speaking about my work on the McIntyre Powder Project, which is a justice project that I founded to seek answers about the health effects on miners and factory workers who were historically required by their employers to inhale finely ground aluminum dust known as McIntyre Powder – a non-consensual prophylactic medical treatment against the lung disease silicosis. My father, Jim Hobbs, was one of the affected underground miners, who ended up with Parkinson’s. After years of advocacy, researchers found a link between Parkinson’s and McIntyre Powder exposure in a groundbreaking study released in 2020. What does this have to do with PEACE? Metta’s invitation to engage in this conversation gave me pause to think about the notion of peace… Read more »
The following document was produced by a movement initiated by Sergey Rogov, former director of the USA/Canada Institute in Moscow. It has been endorsed by 146 experts; see their names at the end. We hope to produce a talk show on our Youtube channel with arms control experts in Moscow, Canada, and other NATO countries. Watch for it on our channel, https://youtube.com/c/ToSaveTheWorld . — Metta Spencer Recommendations of the Participants of the Expert Dialogue on NATO-Russia Military Risk Reduction in Europe EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This group of experts from Russia, the United States and Europe held 15 online-seminars on NATO–Russia Risk Reduction in summer and fall of 2020 and offer the following ideas: To maintain strategic stability, we look forward to immediate action to extend the New START Treaty for 5 years. At the same time, we are concerned by the deterioration of the European security situation in recent years. The… Read more »
The following document was produced by a movement initiated by Sergey Rogov, former director of the USA/Canada Institute in Moscow. It has been endorsed by 146 experts; see their names at the end. We hope to produce a talk show on our Youtube channel with arms control experts in Moscow, Canada, and other NATO countries. Watch for it on our channel, https://youtube.com/c/ToSaveTheWorld . — Metta Spencer Recommendations of the Participants of the Expert Dialogue on NATO-Russia Military Risk Reduction in Europe EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This group of experts from Russia, the United States and Europe held 15 online-seminars on NATO–Russia Risk Reduction in summer and fall of 2020 and offer the following ideas: To maintain strategic stability, we look forward to immediate action to extend the New START Treaty for 5 years. At the same time, we are concerned by the deterioration of the European security situation in recent years. The… Read more »
‘This is going to be quite a show’: Biden’s arms control team eyes nuclear policy overhaul President Joe Biden is assembling a national security team with an unusually ambitious agenda to negotiate new arms control treaties, scale back the nuclear arsenal, and review decades of military doctrine. But veterans of the last administration fear this newly empowered group of progressives may be naive about what can be achieved without undermining U.S. security, and are already warning them to prepare for a shock when they read the latest intelligence. Taking up posts at the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council are a cadre of experts who collectively have their sights on a renaissance in nuclear restraint, after President Donald Trump withdrew from three arms control pacts, threatened a nuclear war with North Korea and expanded the role of nuclear weapons in war planning. Biden has already agreed to extend the last remaining… Read more »
‘This is going to be quite a show’: Biden’s arms control team eyes nuclear policy overhaul President Joe Biden is assembling a national security team with an unusually ambitious agenda to negotiate new arms control treaties, scale back the nuclear arsenal, and review decades of military doctrine. But veterans of the last administration fear this newly empowered group of progressives may be naive about what can be achieved without undermining U.S. security, and are already warning them to prepare for a shock when they read the latest intelligence. Taking up posts at the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council are a cadre of experts who collectively have their sights on a renaissance in nuclear restraint, after President Donald Trump withdrew from three arms control pacts, threatened a nuclear war with North Korea and expanded the role of nuclear weapons in war planning. Biden has already agreed to extend the last remaining… Read more »
Suggestion Box: Compulsory Dispute Resolution to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
James Ranney has posted this proposal in the suggestion box:
“The missing link? Compulsory international dispute resolution. Check out my new book, World Peace Through Law.”
Great idea, James. Would you care to elaborate on it with another comment here? You may need to propose ways of making it happen!
Sure. The argument is as follows: 1) We must abolish war (or war will abolish us, JFK); 2) we therefore need ALTERNATIVES TO WAR; 3) this means we need INTERNATIONAL ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION; and 4) this means, in order to be workable, we need COMPULSORY INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION (compulsory negotiation, which would probably have prevented WWI, according to two historians); compulsory mediation (which would probably prevent 95% of all int’l conflict); compulsory arbitration (as argued by President Theodore Roosevelt, but was rejected by the Republicans in the Senate); and compulsory adjudication in the World Court (proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 & discussed for a couple years before being forgotten). This proposal was accepted by representatives of the U.S. and the USSR in the famous McCloy-Zorin Agreement in 1961, but has been totally forgotten since then.
Suggestion Box: Compulsory Dispute Resolution to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
James Ranney has posted this proposal in the suggestion box:
“The missing link? Compulsory international dispute resolution. Check out my new book, World Peace Through Law.”
Great idea, James. Would you care to elaborate on it with another comment here? You may need to propose ways of making it happen!
Sure. The argument is as follows: 1) We must abolish war (or war will abolish us, JFK); 2) we therefore need ALTERNATIVES TO WAR; 3) this means we need INTERNATIONAL ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION; and 4) this means, in order to be workable, we need COMPULSORY INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION (compulsory negotiation, which would probably have prevented WWI, according to two historians); compulsory mediation (which would probably prevent 95% of all int’l conflict); compulsory arbitration (as argued by President Theodore Roosevelt, but was rejected by the Republicans in the Senate); and compulsory adjudication in the World Court (proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 & discussed for a couple years before being forgotten). This proposal was accepted by representatives of the U.S. and the USSR in the famous McCloy-Zorin Agreement in 1961, but has been totally forgotten since then.
Suggestion Box: Petition Canada to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons!
Nancy Covington has posted this suggestion:
“Until closing Feb 6, 2021 petition to call on the Canadian Government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is open. Sign here:https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3028”
Yes! This is important, folks. Let’s get behind this campaign!
Suggestion Box: Petition Canada to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons!
Nancy Covington has posted this suggestion:
“Until closing Feb 6, 2021 petition to call on the Canadian Government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is open. Sign here:https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3028”
Yes! This is important, folks. Let’s get behind this campaign!
Suggestion Box: Build New Global Peace Movement by Women for Children
Andre Sheldon has posted this idea in the suggestion box:
” I have networked with women leaders from around the world, planting seeds, in preparation for this moment….Global Strategy of Nonviolence, For the Children Facilitator, CALL to WOMEN, a World-Wide Unity Campaign +1-617-964-5267 Email: Andre@GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org Website: http://www.GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org Facebook: Global Movement of Nonviolence”
Suggestion Box: Build New Global Peace Movement by Women for Children
Andre Sheldon has posted this idea in the suggestion box:
” I have networked with women leaders from around the world, planting seeds, in preparation for this moment….Global Strategy of Nonviolence, For the Children Facilitator, CALL to WOMEN, a World-Wide Unity Campaign +1-617-964-5267 Email: Andre@GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org Website: http://www.GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org Facebook: Global Movement of Nonviolence”
Suggestion Box: Conventional Wars Count Too!
Alberto Portugheis posted this idea in the suggestion box: “It should be the other way round: “Weapons & War” and NEVER “especially nuclear.” 1,000s die daily from conventional warfare. Alberto, President HUFUD.”
Of course it’s true. The people being killed in wars now are all hit by regular bullets and bombs, not nuclear ones. Would you like to come back to this comments column and elaborate on this idea, Alberto? You can also tell us about HUFUD, or post events if you have anything planned. Thanks for your sensible comment.
Suggestion Box: Conventional Wars Count Too!
Alberto Portugheis posted this idea in the suggestion box: “It should be the other way round: “Weapons & War” and NEVER “especially nuclear.” 1,000s die daily from conventional warfare. Alberto, President HUFUD.”
Of course it’s true. The people being killed in wars now are all hit by regular bullets and bombs, not nuclear ones. Would you like to come back to this comments column and elaborate on this idea, Alberto? You can also tell us about HUFUD, or post events if you have anything planned. Thanks for your sensible comment.
Will America Help Britain Build A New Nuclear Warhead? Matthew Harries | War on the Rocks | 22 October 2020 “The future of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent depends, in part, on decisions being made right now in the U.S. Congress. At stake are Britain’s plans to build a replacement for its current nuclear warhead. According to the U.K. defense secretary and senior U.S. officials, the United Kingdom’s program is reliant on the United States pursuing its own new warhead program of record, the W93. But the Donald Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2021 request for funds for the W93 was first nixed by House appropriators and then excluded from the stopgap continuing resolution. It is neither clear whether the W93 program will eventually make it into the budget proper, nor whether it would be taken up immediately by a potential incoming Joe Biden administration.” Read more The United Kingdom’s new warhead will be… Read more »
Will America Help Britain Build A New Nuclear Warhead? Matthew Harries | War on the Rocks | 22 October 2020 “The future of the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent depends, in part, on decisions being made right now in the U.S. Congress. At stake are Britain’s plans to build a replacement for its current nuclear warhead. According to the U.K. defense secretary and senior U.S. officials, the United Kingdom’s program is reliant on the United States pursuing its own new warhead program of record, the W93. But the Donald Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2021 request for funds for the W93 was first nixed by House appropriators and then excluded from the stopgap continuing resolution. It is neither clear whether the W93 program will eventually make it into the budget proper, nor whether it would be taken up immediately by a potential incoming Joe Biden administration.” Read more The United Kingdom’s new warhead will be… Read more »
Until closing Feb 6, 2021 petition to call on the Canadian Government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is open.
Sign here: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3028
Until closing Feb 6, 2021 petition to call on the Canadian Government to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is open.
Sign here: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3028
Vatican’s Foreign Minister Reaffirms Church’s Shift Away From Accepting Nuclear Deterrence Joshua J. McElwee | National Catholic Reporter | 16 December 2020 ROME — The Vatican’s foreign minister reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s recent shift away from accepting the Cold War-era global system of nuclear deterrence Dec. 16, telling a webinar featuring arms control activists that nuclear weapons only give “a false sense of security.” “International peace and security cannot be founded on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or maintaining a balance of power,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher told the webinar, which was co-hosted by the Vatican and several institutes at Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame. “Peace and security must be built on justice, integral human development, [and] respect for fundamental human rights,” said Gallagher. “From this perspective, it is necessary to go beyond nuclear deterrence.” Read more The webinar, livestreamed on the Vatican’s YouTube channel, was… Read more »
Vatican’s Foreign Minister Reaffirms Church’s Shift Away From Accepting Nuclear Deterrence Joshua J. McElwee | National Catholic Reporter | 16 December 2020 ROME — The Vatican’s foreign minister reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s recent shift away from accepting the Cold War-era global system of nuclear deterrence Dec. 16, telling a webinar featuring arms control activists that nuclear weapons only give “a false sense of security.” “International peace and security cannot be founded on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or maintaining a balance of power,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher told the webinar, which was co-hosted by the Vatican and several institutes at Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame. “Peace and security must be built on justice, integral human development, [and] respect for fundamental human rights,” said Gallagher. “From this perspective, it is necessary to go beyond nuclear deterrence.” Read more The webinar, livestreamed on the Vatican’s YouTube channel, was… Read more »
Google Earth Reveals Suspected Nuclear Weapons Facility in Pakistan
Adam Vaughan | NewScientist | 27 November 2020
Sleuthing with satellite images on Google Earth has revealed a substantial and undocumented expansion to a suspected nuclear processing plant in Pakistan. Researchers say it is a possible sign of the country boosting the capacity of its nuclear weapons programme.
Pakistan has possessed nuclear weapons since 1998, but isn’t a signatory to key international treaties on nuclear proliferation and tests. The country’s secretive nuclear weapons programme is closely watched due to tensions with neighbouring India, which also has a nuclear arsenal.
Full article available here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2261031-google-earth-reveals-suspected-nuclear-weapons-facility-in-pakistan
Google Earth Reveals Suspected Nuclear Weapons Facility in Pakistan
Adam Vaughan | NewScientist | 27 November 2020
Sleuthing with satellite images on Google Earth has revealed a substantial and undocumented expansion to a suspected nuclear processing plant in Pakistan. Researchers say it is a possible sign of the country boosting the capacity of its nuclear weapons programme.
Pakistan has possessed nuclear weapons since 1998, but isn’t a signatory to key international treaties on nuclear proliferation and tests. The country’s secretive nuclear weapons programme is closely watched due to tensions with neighbouring India, which also has a nuclear arsenal.
Full article available here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2261031-google-earth-reveals-suspected-nuclear-weapons-facility-in-pakistan
Time to Ban the Bomb: A Path Forward: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Beatrice Fihn | Ploughshares Fund | 2020 “The risk of use of nuclear weapons is higher today than it has been for years. With developments in cyber warfare, autonomous weapons and an increasingly uncertain global security situation, that risk will only increase over time. A security policy based on plans to fight — and “win” — a nuclear war is morally bankrupt and unsustainable. The United States must begin developing a policy for a non-nuclear future, or risk becoming an outlier without moral authority. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a global coalition of over 530 organizations, is leading a movement to achieve this non-nuclear future. Over 10 years, together with countless partners in governments, international organizations and civil society groups around the world, we helped incubate and amplify a previously-ignored… Read more »
Time to Ban the Bomb: A Path Forward: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Beatrice Fihn | Ploughshares Fund | 2020 “The risk of use of nuclear weapons is higher today than it has been for years. With developments in cyber warfare, autonomous weapons and an increasingly uncertain global security situation, that risk will only increase over time. A security policy based on plans to fight — and “win” — a nuclear war is morally bankrupt and unsustainable. The United States must begin developing a policy for a non-nuclear future, or risk becoming an outlier without moral authority. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a global coalition of over 530 organizations, is leading a movement to achieve this non-nuclear future. Over 10 years, together with countless partners in governments, international organizations and civil society groups around the world, we helped incubate and amplify a previously-ignored… Read more »
Talking Tough and Carrying a Radioactive Stick: The Nuclearization of American Diplomacy Michael T. Klare | Moyers on Democracy | 20 October 2020 “States have long engaged in military operations to intimidate other powers. Once upon a distant time, this would have been called “gunboat diplomacy” and naval vessels would have been the instruments of choice for such missions. The arrival of nuclear arms made such operations far more dangerous. This didn’t, however, stop the US from using weaponry of this sort as tools of intimidation throughout the Cold War. In time, however, even nuclear strategists began condemning acts of “nuclear coercion,” arguing that such weaponry was inappropriate for any purpose other than “deterrence” — that is, using the threat of “massive retaliation” to prevent another country from attacking you. In fact, a deterrence-only posture eventually became Washington’s official policy, even if the temptation to employ nukes as political cudgels never entirely… Read more »
Talking Tough and Carrying a Radioactive Stick: The Nuclearization of American Diplomacy Michael T. Klare | Moyers on Democracy | 20 October 2020 “States have long engaged in military operations to intimidate other powers. Once upon a distant time, this would have been called “gunboat diplomacy” and naval vessels would have been the instruments of choice for such missions. The arrival of nuclear arms made such operations far more dangerous. This didn’t, however, stop the US from using weaponry of this sort as tools of intimidation throughout the Cold War. In time, however, even nuclear strategists began condemning acts of “nuclear coercion,” arguing that such weaponry was inappropriate for any purpose other than “deterrence” — that is, using the threat of “massive retaliation” to prevent another country from attacking you. In fact, a deterrence-only posture eventually became Washington’s official policy, even if the temptation to employ nukes as political cudgels never entirely… Read more »
US urges countries to withdraw from UN nuke ban treaty Edith M. Lederer | The Associated Press | 21 October 2020 Link: https://apnews.com/article/nuclear-weapons-disarmament-latin-america-united-nations-gun-politics-4f109626a1cdd6db10560550aa1bb491 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States is urging countries that have ratified a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons to withdraw their support as the pact nears the 50 ratifications needed to trigger its entry into force, which supporters say could happen this week. The U.S. letter to signatories, obtained by The Associated Press, says the five original nuclear powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and America’s NATO allies “stand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions” of the treaty. It says the treaty “turns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous” to the half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts. “Although we recognize your sovereign right to ratify or accede to the Treaty… Read more »
US urges countries to withdraw from UN nuke ban treaty Edith M. Lederer | The Associated Press | 21 October 2020 Link: https://apnews.com/article/nuclear-weapons-disarmament-latin-america-united-nations-gun-politics-4f109626a1cdd6db10560550aa1bb491 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States is urging countries that have ratified a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons to withdraw their support as the pact nears the 50 ratifications needed to trigger its entry into force, which supporters say could happen this week. The U.S. letter to signatories, obtained by The Associated Press, says the five original nuclear powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and America’s NATO allies “stand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions” of the treaty. It says the treaty “turns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous” to the half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts. “Although we recognize your sovereign right to ratify or accede to the Treaty… Read more »
In subtle diplomatic move, Canada ceases its opposition to nuclear weapons prohibition treaty
The Hill Times | Douglas Roche | October 30, 2020
In a renewed political atmosphere, the paralysis that has plagued nuclear disarmament for so long may be broken. With a becoming modesty, Canada has nudged this process forward.
EDMONTON—In a subtle diplomatic move, the Government of Canada has ceased its opposition and now “acknowledges” the reason for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which will enter into force on Jan. 22, 2021.
The new treaty, which has been ratified by 50 states, has been denounced by the Trump administration and also rejected by NATO. Canada is betting that the expected election, on Nov. 3, of Joe Biden as president will bring the United States back into more cooperative multilateral work, and that NATO will gradually recognize that the global norm against the possession of nuclear weapons is rising.
Only the states that join the treaty will be bound by it, but its central provision—the prohibition of the possession of nuclear weapons—is a direct attack on the military doctrine of nuclear deterrence.
Canada is not joining the treaty—at least at this moment in history. But its policy is shifting. In 2017, when negotiations for the treaty were under way, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the exercise “useless.” Then, when 122 states adopted the treaty at the UN, government spokespeople dismissed it as “premature.” Now Global Affairs Canada says: “We acknowledge the widespread frustration with the pace of global efforts toward nuclear disarmament, which clearly motivated the negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
Some might argue that this is not a clear-cut endorsement of the treaty, but given that Global Affairs Canada did not want to directly contradict the prime minister or directly challenge NATO, which still claims that nuclear weapons are the “supreme guarantee” of security, the statement is a diplomatic expression of a shift in policy. Doubtless, the recent rebuke to NATO’s nuclear policies by two former Canadian prime ministers (Jean Chrétien, the now later John Turner), three former foreign ministers (Lloyd Axworthy, Bill Graham, John Manley) and two former defence ministers (Jean-Jacques Blais, John McCallum)—all of them Liberals—made an impression on the Pearson Building. The prohibition treaty is now treated with respect in Canada. The logical next step is for Canada to open a dialogue with NATO to bring the organization’s nuclear weapons policies into conformity with the Prohibition Treaty.
The government statement adds that, for 50 years, Canada has pursued a “pragmatic, inclusive approach to nuclear disarmament,” which is “anchored” in the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, with nine states still holding 13,865 nuclear weapons, the NPT has clearly not produced a nuclear weapons-free world.
Reacting to this failure to eliminate nuclear weapons, a new movement, composed of activist governments and civil society leaders, began to warn of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. The Prohibition Treaty resulted.
The treaty, driven by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts, does not pretend to eliminate nuclear weapons. Nor does it seek to replace the NPT, which the treaty hails as the “cornerstone” of nuclear disarmament. What it does is stigmatize nuclear weapons as standing outside international humanitarian law and prepare the ground for comprehensive negotiations by all states for the elimination of nuclear weapons as called for by the NPT.
At the same time, the treaty is more than an exercise in public education. It is an international legal reality, binding on all those who join it. The combined educational, political, and legal value of the treaty, taking the world a step closer to the end of nuclear weapons, is what the U.S. fears most.
In a letter to supporters of the treaty urging they recant, the U.S. claims that the treaty is divisive and “will detract from realistic and practical efforts to advance the cause of nuclear disarmament.” It is quite hard to see how the U.S. is advancing nuclear disarmament when it plans to spend $1.7-trillion over the next quarter-century modernizing its fleet of nuclear missiles.
Whether Joe Biden, if elected president, will butt heads with the military-industrial complex, driving such outrageous expenditures, remains to be seen. But he did say in his campaign, “I will work to bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.” And he emphasized his respect for treaties: “For decades, American leaders of both parties have understood that the United States has a national security imperative and a moral responsibility to reduce nuclear threats, including by negotiating treaties and agreements to control and eventually eliminate these weapons.”
It will take a lot of pressure on a Biden presidency to “acknowledge” the Prohibition Treaty, but even if he only stops the U.S. attack on it, the treaty may come to be seen as a reinforcement of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a renewed political atmosphere, the paralysis that has plagued nuclear disarmament for so long may be broken.
With a becoming modesty, Canada has nudged this process forward.
Statement issued to Doug Roche from Global Affairs Canada Oct. 26, 2020:
Former Senator Douglas Roche is a former Canadian ambassador for disarmament.
Lloyd Axworthy, Jean Chrétien, Bill Graham, John McCallum, John Manley, and the now-late John Turner all signed an open letter.
In subtle diplomatic move, Canada ceases its opposition to nuclear weapons prohibition treaty
The Hill Times | Douglas Roche | October 30, 2020
In a renewed political atmosphere, the paralysis that has plagued nuclear disarmament for so long may be broken. With a becoming modesty, Canada has nudged this process forward.
EDMONTON—In a subtle diplomatic move, the Government of Canada has ceased its opposition and now “acknowledges” the reason for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which will enter into force on Jan. 22, 2021.
The new treaty, which has been ratified by 50 states, has been denounced by the Trump administration and also rejected by NATO. Canada is betting that the expected election, on Nov. 3, of Joe Biden as president will bring the United States back into more cooperative multilateral work, and that NATO will gradually recognize that the global norm against the possession of nuclear weapons is rising.
Only the states that join the treaty will be bound by it, but its central provision—the prohibition of the possession of nuclear weapons—is a direct attack on the military doctrine of nuclear deterrence.
Canada is not joining the treaty—at least at this moment in history. But its policy is shifting. In 2017, when negotiations for the treaty were under way, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the exercise “useless.” Then, when 122 states adopted the treaty at the UN, government spokespeople dismissed it as “premature.” Now Global Affairs Canada says: “We acknowledge the widespread frustration with the pace of global efforts toward nuclear disarmament, which clearly motivated the negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
Some might argue that this is not a clear-cut endorsement of the treaty, but given that Global Affairs Canada did not want to directly contradict the prime minister or directly challenge NATO, which still claims that nuclear weapons are the “supreme guarantee” of security, the statement is a diplomatic expression of a shift in policy. Doubtless, the recent rebuke to NATO’s nuclear policies by two former Canadian prime ministers (Jean Chrétien, the now later John Turner), three former foreign ministers (Lloyd Axworthy, Bill Graham, John Manley) and two former defence ministers (Jean-Jacques Blais, John McCallum)—all of them Liberals—made an impression on the Pearson Building. The prohibition treaty is now treated with respect in Canada. The logical next step is for Canada to open a dialogue with NATO to bring the organization’s nuclear weapons policies into conformity with the Prohibition Treaty.
The government statement adds that, for 50 years, Canada has pursued a “pragmatic, inclusive approach to nuclear disarmament,” which is “anchored” in the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, with nine states still holding 13,865 nuclear weapons, the NPT has clearly not produced a nuclear weapons-free world.
Reacting to this failure to eliminate nuclear weapons, a new movement, composed of activist governments and civil society leaders, began to warn of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. The Prohibition Treaty resulted.
The treaty, driven by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts, does not pretend to eliminate nuclear weapons. Nor does it seek to replace the NPT, which the treaty hails as the “cornerstone” of nuclear disarmament. What it does is stigmatize nuclear weapons as standing outside international humanitarian law and prepare the ground for comprehensive negotiations by all states for the elimination of nuclear weapons as called for by the NPT.
At the same time, the treaty is more than an exercise in public education. It is an international legal reality, binding on all those who join it. The combined educational, political, and legal value of the treaty, taking the world a step closer to the end of nuclear weapons, is what the U.S. fears most.
In a letter to supporters of the treaty urging they recant, the U.S. claims that the treaty is divisive and “will detract from realistic and practical efforts to advance the cause of nuclear disarmament.” It is quite hard to see how the U.S. is advancing nuclear disarmament when it plans to spend $1.7-trillion over the next quarter-century modernizing its fleet of nuclear missiles.
Whether Joe Biden, if elected president, will butt heads with the military-industrial complex, driving such outrageous expenditures, remains to be seen. But he did say in his campaign, “I will work to bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.” And he emphasized his respect for treaties: “For decades, American leaders of both parties have understood that the United States has a national security imperative and a moral responsibility to reduce nuclear threats, including by negotiating treaties and agreements to control and eventually eliminate these weapons.”
It will take a lot of pressure on a Biden presidency to “acknowledge” the Prohibition Treaty, but even if he only stops the U.S. attack on it, the treaty may come to be seen as a reinforcement of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a renewed political atmosphere, the paralysis that has plagued nuclear disarmament for so long may be broken.
With a becoming modesty, Canada has nudged this process forward.
Statement issued to Doug Roche from Global Affairs Canada Oct. 26, 2020:
Former Senator Douglas Roche is a former Canadian ambassador for disarmament.
Lloyd Axworthy, Jean Chrétien, Bill Graham, John McCallum, John Manley, and the now-late John Turner all signed an open letter.
Historic Milestone: UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Reaches 50 Ratifications Needed for Entry Into Force ICAN | 24 October 2020 On October 24, 2020, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons reached the required 50 states parties for its entry into force, after Honduras ratified just one day after Jamaica and Nauru submitted their ratifications. In 90 days, the treaty will enter into force, cementing a categorical ban on nuclear weapons, 75 years after their first use. This is a historic milestone for this landmark treaty. Prior to the TPNW’s adoption, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not banned under international law, despite their catastrophic humanitarian consequences. Now, with the treaty’s entry into force, we can call nuclear weapons what they are: prohibited weapons of mass destruction, just like chemical weapons and biological weapons. ICAN’s Executive Director Beatrice Fihn welcomed the historic moment. “This… Read more »
Historic Milestone: UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Reaches 50 Ratifications Needed for Entry Into Force ICAN | 24 October 2020 On October 24, 2020, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons reached the required 50 states parties for its entry into force, after Honduras ratified just one day after Jamaica and Nauru submitted their ratifications. In 90 days, the treaty will enter into force, cementing a categorical ban on nuclear weapons, 75 years after their first use. This is a historic milestone for this landmark treaty. Prior to the TPNW’s adoption, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not banned under international law, despite their catastrophic humanitarian consequences. Now, with the treaty’s entry into force, we can call nuclear weapons what they are: prohibited weapons of mass destruction, just like chemical weapons and biological weapons. ICAN’s Executive Director Beatrice Fihn welcomed the historic moment. “This… Read more »
Canada can’t hide behind NATO in refusal to sign treaty on nuclear weapons prohibition Here is Senator Douglas Roche’s article in The Hill Times, regarding the extraordinary new list of eminent persons urging all states to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. EDMONTON—Sept 21. Lloyd Axworthy, Jean-Jacques Blais, Jean Chrétien, Bill Graham, John McCallum, John Manley, and John Turner.These seven names hardly need an introduction to readers of The Hill Times and certainly not to the Government of Canada. Two of them are former prime ministers, three are former foreign ministers, and two are former defence ministers, who ran and served Liberal governments. All of them signed an open letter, released on Sept. 21, that features 53 former high officials of NATO countries expressing support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is an astonishing rebuke of NATO’s moribund policies on nuclear weapons, and… Read more »
Canada can’t hide behind NATO in refusal to sign treaty on nuclear weapons prohibition Here is Senator Douglas Roche’s article in The Hill Times, regarding the extraordinary new list of eminent persons urging all states to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. EDMONTON—Sept 21. Lloyd Axworthy, Jean-Jacques Blais, Jean Chrétien, Bill Graham, John McCallum, John Manley, and John Turner.These seven names hardly need an introduction to readers of The Hill Times and certainly not to the Government of Canada. Two of them are former prime ministers, three are former foreign ministers, and two are former defence ministers, who ran and served Liberal governments. All of them signed an open letter, released on Sept. 21, that features 53 former high officials of NATO countries expressing support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is an astonishing rebuke of NATO’s moribund policies on nuclear weapons, and… Read more »
Program ABM systems to shoot down intrusions, without regard to their source Unlike Ronald Reagan’s 1980s Strategic defence initiative, a.k.a. Star Wars, the anti-missile defence shield, into which Canada currently seems to be placing some serious stock, is quite realistic and technologically sound. In fact, over two decades ago the tech had impressively (at least to me) proved itself to be on solid ground, though I feel that it could’ve already been by now solidly established as a fully functional defense shield. Though there still are skeptics, I can recall the successful interceptions by Patriot missiles launched from batteries stationed around Israel during Desert Storm. If I recall correctly, the Patriot missiles had been barely developed with no practical testing, thus they had to be field tested during actual warfare. Only one scud made it through the defence shield intact and another after being severely damaged, though both did not… Read more »
Program ABM systems to shoot down intrusions, without regard to their source Unlike Ronald Reagan’s 1980s Strategic defence initiative, a.k.a. Star Wars, the anti-missile defence shield, into which Canada currently seems to be placing some serious stock, is quite realistic and technologically sound. In fact, over two decades ago the tech had impressively (at least to me) proved itself to be on solid ground, though I feel that it could’ve already been by now solidly established as a fully functional defense shield. Though there still are skeptics, I can recall the successful interceptions by Patriot missiles launched from batteries stationed around Israel during Desert Storm. If I recall correctly, the Patriot missiles had been barely developed with no practical testing, thus they had to be field tested during actual warfare. Only one scud made it through the defence shield intact and another after being severely damaged, though both did not… Read more »
Does the Soviet “Dead Hand” system count as a Lethal Autonomous Weapon? Has this system carried over into modern day Russia?
Does the Soviet “Dead Hand” system count as a Lethal Autonomous Weapon? Has this system carried over into modern day Russia?
Arctic Peace and Security Policy Issues The history of the circumpolar nations has been one of cooperation, of necessity in the harsh polar environment, and for the mutual benefit of all. As the Arctic opens to greatly enlarged economic and governance activity, there is significant risk that competition and confrontation will occur, and that the presently non-militarized Arctic could change dramatically, in a non-beneficial manner. To this end, it is important that the Arctic should be free of nuclear weapons, and that positive actions by the non-nuclear-weapon circumpolar states should commence in the immediate future. Canada, with its vast territories and extensive coastline is in a key position to draft its Arctic Policy to include its aspiration for a nuclear-weapon-free Arctic, and take an international leadership role. In this context, it is very important to recall the 1983 Declaration of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) on a Nuclear Free Arctic.… Read more »
Arctic Peace and Security Policy Issues The history of the circumpolar nations has been one of cooperation, of necessity in the harsh polar environment, and for the mutual benefit of all. As the Arctic opens to greatly enlarged economic and governance activity, there is significant risk that competition and confrontation will occur, and that the presently non-militarized Arctic could change dramatically, in a non-beneficial manner. To this end, it is important that the Arctic should be free of nuclear weapons, and that positive actions by the non-nuclear-weapon circumpolar states should commence in the immediate future. Canada, with its vast territories and extensive coastline is in a key position to draft its Arctic Policy to include its aspiration for a nuclear-weapon-free Arctic, and take an international leadership role. In this context, it is very important to recall the 1983 Declaration of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) on a Nuclear Free Arctic.… Read more »
Japan Council’s Statement on Trump’s Nuclear Tests President Trump’s Message on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Trinity Nuclear Test Shows No Sign of Remorse and Blatantly Declaring Further Nuclear Arms Buildup On July 16, U.S. President Trump released a Presidential Message on the 75th Anniversary of the Trinity Nuclear Test held in New Mexico. Referring to the Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bombs, the Message says that it “helped end World War II and launch an unprecedented era of global stability” and “Our nuclear deterrent has also greatly benefitted our Nation and our allies”. This is a laudatory statement trying to justify the current nuclear buildup and modernization program promoted by the Trump Administration. We strongly protest against his attempt to justify the production of the atomic bombs, rather than shifting to the elimination of nuclear weapons in the 75th year of the atomic bombing, which… Read more »
Well, yes, in a way you are right. But can programmers foresee all possible circumstances that may arise and the exceptions that should be made? Not in my experience. Just remember those telephone messages that tell you to press 2 for this and 3 for that and 4 for the other thing. Invariably, the issue I am dealing with will not fit into any of the categories they had anticipated, so there is no number established for me to press. So imagine saying “if this,” immediately shoot. “If that,” wait and while and think it over. Etc.
Hey, look: It’s not nuclear “balance” that we need! It’s disarmament, stupid!
Japan Council’s Statement on Trump’s Nuclear Tests President Trump’s Message on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Trinity Nuclear Test Shows No Sign of Remorse and Blatantly Declaring Further Nuclear Arms Buildup On July 16, U.S. President Trump released a Presidential Message on the 75th Anniversary of the Trinity Nuclear Test held in New Mexico. Referring to the Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bombs, the Message says that it “helped end World War II and launch an unprecedented era of global stability” and “Our nuclear deterrent has also greatly benefitted our Nation and our allies”. This is a laudatory statement trying to justify the current nuclear buildup and modernization program promoted by the Trump Administration. We strongly protest against his attempt to justify the production of the atomic bombs, rather than shifting to the elimination of nuclear weapons in the 75th year of the atomic bombing, which… Read more »
Well, yes, in a way you are right. But can programmers foresee all possible circumstances that may arise and the exceptions that should be made? Not in my experience. Just remember those telephone messages that tell you to press 2 for this and 3 for that and 4 for the other thing. Invariably, the issue I am dealing with will not fit into any of the categories they had anticipated, so there is no number established for me to press. So imagine saying “if this,” immediately shoot. “If that,” wait and while and think it over. Etc.
Hey, look: It’s not nuclear “balance” that we need! It’s disarmament, stupid!
“Five reasons to say no to spending $19 billion on war planes” By: Brent Patterson The Canadian government intends to sign a $19 billion contract in 2022 with one of three transnational corporations bidding to manufacture 88 fighter jets for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Here are five reasons to say no to that planned purchase: 1- We can’t afford the fighter jets. On July 8, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that he expects a $343.2 billion deficit for the 2020-21 fiscal year due to the spending related to the pandemic. This is a dramatic increase from the $19 billion deficit in 2016 when the Trudeau government announced the bidding process for new fighter jets. Read more 2- We need work, not war planes. Research by the Costs of War Project based at Brown’s University in Providence, Rhode Island found that $1 million spent on “defence” creates 6.9 direct and indirect jobs, while the same amount… Read more »
“Five reasons to say no to spending $19 billion on war planes” By: Brent Patterson The Canadian government intends to sign a $19 billion contract in 2022 with one of three transnational corporations bidding to manufacture 88 fighter jets for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Here are five reasons to say no to that planned purchase: 1- We can’t afford the fighter jets. On July 8, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that he expects a $343.2 billion deficit for the 2020-21 fiscal year due to the spending related to the pandemic. This is a dramatic increase from the $19 billion deficit in 2016 when the Trudeau government announced the bidding process for new fighter jets. Read more 2- We need work, not war planes. Research by the Costs of War Project based at Brown’s University in Providence, Rhode Island found that $1 million spent on “defence” creates 6.9 direct and indirect jobs, while the same amount… Read more »
New Technologies Disrupt the Nuclear Balance! Article by: Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall “For decades, American policymakers and military planners have focused on preserving what is known in the nuclear lexicon as ‘strategic stability.’ During the Cold War, especially as mutual assured destruction became accepted logic between the United States and the Soviet Union, the pursuit of strategic stability provided a framework for managing the existential risks associated with massive nuclear arsenals. Under conditions of strategic stability, each superpower recognized that its adversary could massively retaliate against a nuclear first strike—which created a disincentive to resorting to nuclear weapons. Preserving confidence that each side had a “second-strike capability” thus became essential. And even with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, strategic stability has continued to structure thinking among policymakers and planners about how to create predictability in the nuclear relationship and reduce incentives to escalation.” Read more Yet as the quest… Read more »
New Technologies Disrupt the Nuclear Balance! Article by: Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall “For decades, American policymakers and military planners have focused on preserving what is known in the nuclear lexicon as ‘strategic stability.’ During the Cold War, especially as mutual assured destruction became accepted logic between the United States and the Soviet Union, the pursuit of strategic stability provided a framework for managing the existential risks associated with massive nuclear arsenals. Under conditions of strategic stability, each superpower recognized that its adversary could massively retaliate against a nuclear first strike—which created a disincentive to resorting to nuclear weapons. Preserving confidence that each side had a “second-strike capability” thus became essential. And even with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, strategic stability has continued to structure thinking among policymakers and planners about how to create predictability in the nuclear relationship and reduce incentives to escalation.” Read more Yet as the quest… Read more »
Are Killer Robots Conventional Weapons? The photo is of a UN meeting in Geneva addressing the issue of lethal autonomous weapons. The UN category of weapons that supposedly include lethal autonomous weapons is “Certain Conventional Weapons,” though the term “Killer Robots” is more apt, since there is nothing “conventional” about them. These are weapons that, in a battle situation, would decide, without consulting humans, whom to kill as directed by pre-established algorithms. Anyway, there is a regular UN organization that is suppposed to evaluate these so-called “conventional” weapons and since 2014 they have been meeting and discussing the legitimacy of their use — and even of their creation. The official governmental body is being “lobbied” by a civil society organization called the “Campaign to Stop Killer Robots,” which includes 160 non-governmental organizations in 60 countries. As their title implies, the group insists that there must be meaningful human control over… Read more »
Are Killer Robots Conventional Weapons? The photo is of a UN meeting in Geneva addressing the issue of lethal autonomous weapons. The UN category of weapons that supposedly include lethal autonomous weapons is “Certain Conventional Weapons,” though the term “Killer Robots” is more apt, since there is nothing “conventional” about them. These are weapons that, in a battle situation, would decide, without consulting humans, whom to kill as directed by pre-established algorithms. Anyway, there is a regular UN organization that is suppposed to evaluate these so-called “conventional” weapons and since 2014 they have been meeting and discussing the legitimacy of their use — and even of their creation. The official governmental body is being “lobbied” by a civil society organization called the “Campaign to Stop Killer Robots,” which includes 160 non-governmental organizations in 60 countries. As their title implies, the group insists that there must be meaningful human control over… Read more »
Brezhnev was not so bad (comparatively)… While we’re progressing toward the abolition and dismantling of all nuclear weapons, there are smaller contributions that nuclear states could make by simply taking their arsenals off high alert and declaring a policy of No-First-Use. That means a policy that they will never use a nuclear weapon against another state unless they were first attacked with the use of a nuclear weapon. This No-First-Use policy is a pretty mild form of self-limitation, but it has actually been the policy of certain states. India and China both maintain this position. However, NATO has always refused to make such a promise. It claims that a “pre-emptive nuclear strike” is essential for the credibility of its policy of deterrence against Russia. For its part, Russia used to adhere to a position of No-First-Use. It was Leonid Brezhnev who made that promise in 1982, and the Soviet regime… Read more »
What are they selling? In Canada it’s armoured personnel carriers.
Brezhnev was not so bad (comparatively)… While we’re progressing toward the abolition and dismantling of all nuclear weapons, there are smaller contributions that nuclear states could make by simply taking their arsenals off high alert and declaring a policy of No-First-Use. That means a policy that they will never use a nuclear weapon against another state unless they were first attacked with the use of a nuclear weapon. This No-First-Use policy is a pretty mild form of self-limitation, but it has actually been the policy of certain states. India and China both maintain this position. However, NATO has always refused to make such a promise. It claims that a “pre-emptive nuclear strike” is essential for the credibility of its policy of deterrence against Russia. For its part, Russia used to adhere to a position of No-First-Use. It was Leonid Brezhnev who made that promise in 1982, and the Soviet regime… Read more »
What are they selling? In Canada it’s armoured personnel carriers.
The Need for and Elements of a New Treaty on Fully Autonomous Weapons By Bonnie Docherty The rapid evolution of autonomous technology threatens to strip humans of their traditional role in the use of force. Fully autonomous weapons, in particular, would select and engage targets without meaningful human control. Due in large part to their lack of human control, these systems, also known as lethal autonomous weapons systems or “killer robots,” raise a host of legal and ethical concerns. States parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) have held eight in-depth meetings on lethal autonomous weapons systems since 2014. They have examined the extensive challenges raised by the systems and recognized the importance of retaining human control over the use of force. Progress toward an appropriate multilateral solution, however, has been slow. If states do not shift soon from abstract talk to treaty negotiations, the development of technology will… Read more »
The Need for and Elements of a New Treaty on Fully Autonomous Weapons By Bonnie Docherty The rapid evolution of autonomous technology threatens to strip humans of their traditional role in the use of force. Fully autonomous weapons, in particular, would select and engage targets without meaningful human control. Due in large part to their lack of human control, these systems, also known as lethal autonomous weapons systems or “killer robots,” raise a host of legal and ethical concerns. States parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) have held eight in-depth meetings on lethal autonomous weapons systems since 2014. They have examined the extensive challenges raised by the systems and recognized the importance of retaining human control over the use of force. Progress toward an appropriate multilateral solution, however, has been slow. If states do not shift soon from abstract talk to treaty negotiations, the development of technology will… Read more »
What a Scary Idea!
No News is not Good News
What a Scary Idea!
No News is not Good News
Centenarians for a Standing UN Army!
Sir Brian is now 101 years old, and certainly the person with the longest career at the United Nations. He worked on it while it was still only a “preparatory committee,” but went on to become Under-Secretary General. In that capacity he directed the first peacekeeping forces, especially in Cyprus.
Centenarians for a Standing UN Army!
Sir Brian is now 101 years old, and certainly the person with the longest career at the United Nations. He worked on it while it was still only a “preparatory committee,” but went on to become Under-Secretary General. In that capacity he directed the first peacekeeping forces, especially in Cyprus.
The End of the Open Skies Treaty and the Politics of Compliance By Alexander Graef On May 22, the Trump administration notified the remaining state parties that the United States would withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. The treaty has been in force since January 2002 and allows its 34 members to conduct joint, unarmed observation flights over each other’s territory using sensors with a predefined resolution. The U.S. withdrawal will come into effect in November. On July 6, all member states will meet at an online state conference to decide whether to preserve the treaty without U.S. participation. Why has the U.S. decided to leave the treaty? The main reason is a bilateral conflict with Russia. The official withdrawal statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia of “flagrantly and continuously violating the Treaty in various ways for years.” Moscow had “twisted and perverted” the treaty’s implementation and… Read more »
The End of the Open Skies Treaty and the Politics of Compliance By Alexander Graef On May 22, the Trump administration notified the remaining state parties that the United States would withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. The treaty has been in force since January 2002 and allows its 34 members to conduct joint, unarmed observation flights over each other’s territory using sensors with a predefined resolution. The U.S. withdrawal will come into effect in November. On July 6, all member states will meet at an online state conference to decide whether to preserve the treaty without U.S. participation. Why has the U.S. decided to leave the treaty? The main reason is a bilateral conflict with Russia. The official withdrawal statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia of “flagrantly and continuously violating the Treaty in various ways for years.” Moscow had “twisted and perverted” the treaty’s implementation and… Read more »
Can Your Country Feel Secure Without an Army? This is the flag of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. It is true that there are some countries that lack any army, though I think they all have police and some have institutions like militias and “national guards.” Nonviolence is a marvelous aspiration, but no modern society has come close to achieving it, and even Christianity soon abandoned any general recommendation that the faithful should “turn the other cheek” to those who would injure them. Instead, the high goal of perfect nonviolence was soon replaced with the notion of the “just war,” which involves all kinds of qualifications, but mainly makes it clear that everyone has the right to self-defence. We should occasionally review the criteria for deciding that a war is just, but I don’t think we are likely to give up the idea altogether within any foreseeable future. Japan goes through that… Read more »
That plutonium pit is being held by someone wearing a rubber glove. But is that safe? I wouldn’t hold a piece of plutonium for anything in the world, would you?
Can Your Country Feel Secure Without an Army? This is the flag of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. It is true that there are some countries that lack any army, though I think they all have police and some have institutions like militias and “national guards.” Nonviolence is a marvelous aspiration, but no modern society has come close to achieving it, and even Christianity soon abandoned any general recommendation that the faithful should “turn the other cheek” to those who would injure them. Instead, the high goal of perfect nonviolence was soon replaced with the notion of the “just war,” which involves all kinds of qualifications, but mainly makes it clear that everyone has the right to self-defence. We should occasionally review the criteria for deciding that a war is just, but I don’t think we are likely to give up the idea altogether within any foreseeable future. Japan goes through that… Read more »
That plutonium pit is being held by someone wearing a rubber glove. But is that safe? I wouldn’t hold a piece of plutonium for anything in the world, would you?
Defund the Police, Then Defund the Military Democrats used to have a clearer agenda for cracking down on an out-of-control military. It’s time to bring that back. BY NOAH BERLATSKY Following the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month, activists and protesters are calling on the government to “defund the police.” The Minneapolis City Council has declared its intention to do exactly that. But national Democratic pundits and elected officials have been wary of adopting the idea. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has opposed defunding police; so has his erstwhile primary opponent, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. But throttling cash flows to harmful institutions isn’t a new idea on the left, or for Democrats. For decades, Democrats and the left called for the defunding of the military in much the same terms as protesters and activists are calling for the defunding of the police. “Defund the… Read more »
Defund the Police, Then Defund the Military Democrats used to have a clearer agenda for cracking down on an out-of-control military. It’s time to bring that back. BY NOAH BERLATSKY Following the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month, activists and protesters are calling on the government to “defund the police.” The Minneapolis City Council has declared its intention to do exactly that. But national Democratic pundits and elected officials have been wary of adopting the idea. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has opposed defunding police; so has his erstwhile primary opponent, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. But throttling cash flows to harmful institutions isn’t a new idea on the left, or for Democrats. For decades, Democrats and the left called for the defunding of the military in much the same terms as protesters and activists are calling for the defunding of the police. “Defund the… Read more »
What Does Russia think of the TPNW? Russia can launch its nuclear weapons from missiles, submarines, and airplanes. The former Soviet Union tested 715 nuclear weapons from 1949-1990, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in modern-day Kazakhstan and across modern-day Russia. In 2019, Russia spent an estimated $8.5 billion to build and maintain its nuclear weapons. Russia did not participate in negotiations of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and has not yet signed or ratified it. Read more The minister for foreign affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, said in November 2019 that the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons cannot be achieved “by the unilateral and rather arrogant methods on which this document is based”. Russia voted against a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 that welcomed the adoption of the treaty and called upon “all states that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or… Read more »
Are you proposing general and complete disarmament of all weapons, or just nuclear ones? If you don’t get rid of all armies and weapons, we will still have horrible wars. And to get rid of all weapons we have to have a global government that can keep any nation from becoming aggressive. How to get there from here?
Probably a lot depends on the “early warning system” that will tell people at the UN when trouble is brewing so they can get some conflict resolution experts into the field in time. I heard someone say that it helps for everybody to be carrying cameras. Or even body cameras, so long as the potential aggressors know that they are being watched. How much truth is there in that notion? Has anyone studied it systematically?
What Does Russia think of the TPNW? Russia can launch its nuclear weapons from missiles, submarines, and airplanes. The former Soviet Union tested 715 nuclear weapons from 1949-1990, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in modern-day Kazakhstan and across modern-day Russia. In 2019, Russia spent an estimated $8.5 billion to build and maintain its nuclear weapons. Russia did not participate in negotiations of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and has not yet signed or ratified it. Read more The minister for foreign affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, said in November 2019 that the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons cannot be achieved “by the unilateral and rather arrogant methods on which this document is based”. Russia voted against a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019 that welcomed the adoption of the treaty and called upon “all states that have not yet done so to sign, ratify, accept, approve, or… Read more »
Are you proposing general and complete disarmament of all weapons, or just nuclear ones? If you don’t get rid of all armies and weapons, we will still have horrible wars. And to get rid of all weapons we have to have a global government that can keep any nation from becoming aggressive. How to get there from here?
Probably a lot depends on the “early warning system” that will tell people at the UN when trouble is brewing so they can get some conflict resolution experts into the field in time. I heard someone say that it helps for everybody to be carrying cameras. Or even body cameras, so long as the potential aggressors know that they are being watched. How much truth is there in that notion? Has anyone studied it systematically?
Why won’t Canada sign the Treaty? Canada supports the retention and potential use of nuclear weapons on its behalf, as indicated by its endorsement of various alliance statements of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), of which it is a member. Canada has not yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It did not participate in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and thus did not vote on its adoption. Read more In a statement in Geneva in February 2018, the then-minister for foreign affairs of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, said that the “popularity” of the treaty “speaks to the desire of countries, activists, and communities to accelerate the work toward disarmament” and “reflects frustration and disappointment at the pace of global efforts so far”. Canada’s New Democratic Party and Green Party have criticised the Liberal government for… Read more »
Remembering August 6, 1945 Thank you, John Polanyi. So you knew Szilard. Well, I knew others who also contributed to the tragedy that took place seventy-five years ago. In a sense, maybe I am one of them. Today is Hiroshima day and my heart is heavy with the memory of it. I was 13 years old. Both of my parents were working at a military supply depot at San Bernardino, California. They helped collect the equipment for bombing missions. I remember reading the newspaper, with its big headline about an “Atomic Bomb,” which no one had ever heard of before. I have to acknowledge this horrible truth: I was glad, even thrilled. It was a wonderful thing. for we were almost certain to win the war soon with such a weapon. My response was normal. It must have been at least four or five years after that before I heard… Read more »
Why won’t Canada sign the Treaty? Canada supports the retention and potential use of nuclear weapons on its behalf, as indicated by its endorsement of various alliance statements of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), of which it is a member. Canada has not yet signed or ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It did not participate in the negotiation of the treaty at the United Nations in New York in 2017 and thus did not vote on its adoption. Read more In a statement in Geneva in February 2018, the then-minister for foreign affairs of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, said that the “popularity” of the treaty “speaks to the desire of countries, activists, and communities to accelerate the work toward disarmament” and “reflects frustration and disappointment at the pace of global efforts so far”. Canada’s New Democratic Party and Green Party have criticised the Liberal government for… Read more »
Remembering August 6, 1945 Thank you, John Polanyi. So you knew Szilard. Well, I knew others who also contributed to the tragedy that took place seventy-five years ago. In a sense, maybe I am one of them. Today is Hiroshima day and my heart is heavy with the memory of it. I was 13 years old. Both of my parents were working at a military supply depot at San Bernardino, California. They helped collect the equipment for bombing missions. I remember reading the newspaper, with its big headline about an “Atomic Bomb,” which no one had ever heard of before. I have to acknowledge this horrible truth: I was glad, even thrilled. It was a wonderful thing. for we were almost certain to win the war soon with such a weapon. My response was normal. It must have been at least four or five years after that before I heard… Read more »
Botswana is fortieth to ratify!
On July 16, 2020, Botswana became the 40th State to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Now there are only ten more ratifications lacking, and they are happening fast. (Botswana followed Fiji by only a few days.) It opened for signature on September 20, 2017, and the “Treaty shall enter into force 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession”.
Botswana is fortieth to ratify!
On July 16, 2020, Botswana became the 40th State to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Now there are only ten more ratifications lacking, and they are happening fast. (Botswana followed Fiji by only a few days.) It opened for signature on September 20, 2017, and the “Treaty shall enter into force 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession”.
Congress may block new nuclear tests This is a photo of the Nevada underground test site at Frenchman’s Flat, unused since 1992. Recently there has been a serious discussion in the White House about resuming nuclear testing, and Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) has won approval in a party-line committee vote to add $10 million to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the budget of 2021 for a nuclear test explosion. However, polls show that about 72 percent of Americans would oppose a nuclear test today. And, during the week of July 20, 2020, the House will consider an amendment to prohibit funding for a demonstration nuclear test explosion in fiscal year 2021. Moreover Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass) and 16 other senators are preparing a similar amendment to the NDAA. These bills are complementary. The Arms Control Association points out the following arguments against any resumption of testing: Read more… Read more »
I am wondering as to the phrasing of the treaty – does it cover all classes of weapons? It discusses prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and WMDs. What about newer activities like asteroid and lunar mining? How would this fit within the notion of “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means?” The United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs offers the following principals for the 1966/1967 Outer Space Treaty: The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law, including the following principles: the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind; outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States; outer space is not subject to national appropriation by… Read more »
Congress may block new nuclear tests This is a photo of the Nevada underground test site at Frenchman’s Flat, unused since 1992. Recently there has been a serious discussion in the White House about resuming nuclear testing, and Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) has won approval in a party-line committee vote to add $10 million to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the budget of 2021 for a nuclear test explosion. However, polls show that about 72 percent of Americans would oppose a nuclear test today. And, during the week of July 20, 2020, the House will consider an amendment to prohibit funding for a demonstration nuclear test explosion in fiscal year 2021. Moreover Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass) and 16 other senators are preparing a similar amendment to the NDAA. These bills are complementary. The Arms Control Association points out the following arguments against any resumption of testing: Read more… Read more »
I am wondering as to the phrasing of the treaty – does it cover all classes of weapons? It discusses prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and WMDs. What about newer activities like asteroid and lunar mining? How would this fit within the notion of “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means?” The United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs offers the following principals for the 1966/1967 Outer Space Treaty: The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law, including the following principles: the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind; outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States; outer space is not subject to national appropriation by… Read more »
Eek! Trump’s even talking of testing The Washington Post reported on May 22 that the Trump administration weighed whether to conduct a nuclear test explosion during a May 15 meeting with national security agencies. (See ACT, May 2020.) The administration reportedly believes that a nuclear test would help prod Russia and China into negotiating a new trilateral arms control deal. While Senator Tom Cotton proposed allocating money for such new tests, Senator Ed Markey Read more and other Democrats introduced legislation to block any funding nuclear tests. This legislation, titled “the Preserving Leadership Against Nuclear Explosives Testing (PLANET) Act,” was introduced on June 4 and co-sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 13 other senators. The Russian and Chinese foreign ministries also condemned the Trump administration for contemplating a resumption of nuclear testing. “This bombshell,” said a Russian statement, demonstrates “a U.S. campaign against international law.” Russia ratified… Read more »
I don’t understand why the existing Outer Space Treaty is not enough to prevent the weaponization of outer space. That’s what it was meant to do. Will someone please explain. And what that has to do with the commercialization of the moon?
Ed Markey just got re-nominated in the Massachusetts primary for his senate seat, though he was challenged by a Kennedy! It seems that he is popular with the young voters because of co-authoring the Green New Deal. He has always (even in the House of Representatives) been a great promoter of nuclear disarmament. Nice work, Ed!
And Canada did not get chosen for a position on the Security Council. See the connection? You can talk big about hot “Canada’s back!” but unless you do something sensible, the rest of the world will see you for what you are! A lackey of the United States!
Eek! Trump’s even talking of testing The Washington Post reported on May 22 that the Trump administration weighed whether to conduct a nuclear test explosion during a May 15 meeting with national security agencies. (See ACT, May 2020.) The administration reportedly believes that a nuclear test would help prod Russia and China into negotiating a new trilateral arms control deal. While Senator Tom Cotton proposed allocating money for such new tests, Senator Ed Markey Read more and other Democrats introduced legislation to block any funding nuclear tests. This legislation, titled “the Preserving Leadership Against Nuclear Explosives Testing (PLANET) Act,” was introduced on June 4 and co-sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 13 other senators. The Russian and Chinese foreign ministries also condemned the Trump administration for contemplating a resumption of nuclear testing. “This bombshell,” said a Russian statement, demonstrates “a U.S. campaign against international law.” Russia ratified… Read more »
I don’t understand why the existing Outer Space Treaty is not enough to prevent the weaponization of outer space. That’s what it was meant to do. Will someone please explain. And what that has to do with the commercialization of the moon?
Ed Markey just got re-nominated in the Massachusetts primary for his senate seat, though he was challenged by a Kennedy! It seems that he is popular with the young voters because of co-authoring the Green New Deal. He has always (even in the House of Representatives) been a great promoter of nuclear disarmament. Nice work, Ed!
And Canada did not get chosen for a position on the Security Council. See the connection? You can talk big about hot “Canada’s back!” but unless you do something sensible, the rest of the world will see you for what you are! A lackey of the United States!
Are these REALLY immoral?
I found this interesting that morality was brought up – why is delegating killing to machines immoral? After all, I believe that humans would need to program the machines to only kill in certain circumstances- therefore the humans make the decision when to kill and under what circumstance. Therefore, the humans really decide…
Are these REALLY immoral?
I found this interesting that morality was brought up – why is delegating killing to machines immoral? After all, I believe that humans would need to program the machines to only kill in certain circumstances- therefore the humans make the decision when to kill and under what circumstance. Therefore, the humans really decide…
China is Happy to Negotiate — But Only If… Mr. Xi has a point. Donald Trump has been demanding that China join any future nuclear arms reduction talks, which the past have been deals struck by the US and Russia. Clearly, Trump is not interested in nuclear disarmament, or even in maintaining the reductions in weaponry that had been achieved by previous administrations. Nor is it clear that Vladimir Putin in enthusiastic about creating any new arms control treaties. Both the US and Russia are building terrible new weapons and bragging about how dangerous they are. Nevertheless, neither leader feels quite comfortable in accepting the blame for the collapse of arms control — even the New START Treaty that Obama had achieved. So Trump wants to put the blame on — of all people! — Xi of China. Read more This is an easy onus for Xi to evade. He… Read more »
There are lots of stories like that. Apparently before there was any scientific study of pathogens, many people knew to keep their distance from contaminated objects and other people with infectious diseases. During the Black Death, for example, people tried to get out of town and stay in quarantine. Apparently they had better judgment than some Americans of today who won’t wear masks. But at least we’re not trying to infect each other on purpose.
Congratulations, Botswana! And Fiji too!
Besides, I bet they don’t need spy planes for surveillance anymore anyhow. The satellites are zipping around the world at all times, taking photos that are probably as good as the ones the planes used to take during the Cold War. (I am just guessing, of course. Can someone tell me whether I am right or not, please?)
China is Happy to Negotiate — But Only If… Mr. Xi has a point. Donald Trump has been demanding that China join any future nuclear arms reduction talks, which the past have been deals struck by the US and Russia. Clearly, Trump is not interested in nuclear disarmament, or even in maintaining the reductions in weaponry that had been achieved by previous administrations. Nor is it clear that Vladimir Putin in enthusiastic about creating any new arms control treaties. Both the US and Russia are building terrible new weapons and bragging about how dangerous they are. Nevertheless, neither leader feels quite comfortable in accepting the blame for the collapse of arms control — even the New START Treaty that Obama had achieved. So Trump wants to put the blame on — of all people! — Xi of China. Read more This is an easy onus for Xi to evade. He… Read more »
There are lots of stories like that. Apparently before there was any scientific study of pathogens, many people knew to keep their distance from contaminated objects and other people with infectious diseases. During the Black Death, for example, people tried to get out of town and stay in quarantine. Apparently they had better judgment than some Americans of today who won’t wear masks. But at least we’re not trying to infect each other on purpose.
Congratulations, Botswana! And Fiji too!
Besides, I bet they don’t need spy planes for surveillance anymore anyhow. The satellites are zipping around the world at all times, taking photos that are probably as good as the ones the planes used to take during the Cold War. (I am just guessing, of course. Can someone tell me whether I am right or not, please?)
Fiji Ratifies the Treaty! We’re Getting Close!
Fiji has become the 39th nation to ratify the treaty banning nuclear weapons. That island country was active throughout the period when the treaty was negotiated in 2017. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will enter into force 90 days after 50 States have deposited their instrument of consent to be bound by it. Hence, to the dismay of the nations possessing nuclear weapons (none of whom has signed the treaty) it is highly likely to become a binding international law soon. When that happens, let’s all shout for joy and demand that ALL nations on earth sign and comply with it.
Biological warfare is a horrible thought, but not a new one. During the early years, Americans presented “gifts” of blankets to Indian leaders who had come to negotiate with them. These blankets had previously been on the beds of smallpox patients. One of the Americans wrote in his diairy that he hoped they would have the intended effect.
Fiji Ratifies the Treaty! We’re Getting Close!
Fiji has become the 39th nation to ratify the treaty banning nuclear weapons. That island country was active throughout the period when the treaty was negotiated in 2017. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will enter into force 90 days after 50 States have deposited their instrument of consent to be bound by it. Hence, to the dismay of the nations possessing nuclear weapons (none of whom has signed the treaty) it is highly likely to become a binding international law soon. When that happens, let’s all shout for joy and demand that ALL nations on earth sign and comply with it.
Biological warfare is a horrible thought, but not a new one. During the early years, Americans presented “gifts” of blankets to Indian leaders who had come to negotiate with them. These blankets had previously been on the beds of smallpox patients. One of the Americans wrote in his diairy that he hoped they would have the intended effect.
The Brits Do it Too
The Brits Do it Too
What’s new?
We need some updates on status of disarmament agreements
What’s new?
We need some updates on status of disarmament agreements
Hurting Military Friends’ Feelings
Some of my friends with military backgrounds are deeply offended by the video that we posted this week. It is a recording of our monthly town hall, and we discussed the new proposal to defund the military. You can talk about defunding the police now, but you must nut speak of defunding the military, lest you hurt their feelings. Pride and honor mean too much to them.
But surely everyone can see that all those weapons we have purchased have not given us any security. A tiny virus can kill millions, so we should.be spending on health, education, and climate change. How can anyone take offense because i propose that? The world spends $1.9 trillion per year on militarism. That is ridiculous. Sorry, pal. We are friends but I cannot softpedal that reality to make you feel good about your job.
Does that surprise you?
Hurting Military Friends’ Feelings
Some of my friends with military backgrounds are deeply offended by the video that we posted this week. It is a recording of our monthly town hall, and we discussed the new proposal to defund the military. You can talk about defunding the police now, but you must nut speak of defunding the military, lest you hurt their feelings. Pride and honor mean too much to them.
But surely everyone can see that all those weapons we have purchased have not given us any security. A tiny virus can kill millions, so we should.be spending on health, education, and climate change. How can anyone take offense because i propose that? The world spends $1.9 trillion per year on militarism. That is ridiculous. Sorry, pal. We are friends but I cannot softpedal that reality to make you feel good about your job.
Does that surprise you?
More Plutonium Pits for Uncle Sam
The US (well, call it the Trump administration) is planning to resume the production of plutonium pits for nuclear weapons. Despite a history of trouble producing them at Los Alamos, about 30 per year will be manufactured there, and 50 more annually at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. Shame!
So you’re telling me that Trump and the USA are willing to just use any type of weapon as long as it gives them the advantage?!!!!
More Plutonium Pits for Uncle Sam
The US (well, call it the Trump administration) is planning to resume the production of plutonium pits for nuclear weapons. Despite a history of trouble producing them at Los Alamos, about 30 per year will be manufactured there, and 50 more annually at the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. Shame!
So you’re telling me that Trump and the USA are willing to just use any type of weapon as long as it gives them the advantage?!!!!
John Polanyi is a Nobel laureate in chemistry and a professor at the University of Toronto. We must do more to prevent nuclear war By John Polanyi December 9, 2019 When Greta Thunberg gives a speech, she wastes no time getting to the point. “You come to young people for hope,” she told the United Nations General Assembly in September. “You say you understand the urgency…How dare you then pretend that this can be solved by ‘business as usual’?…Change is coming, whether you like it, or not.” What Greta said is no less true of the most serious danger we face today: nuclear war. To counter that, the world needs to take two major steps back from the brink of disaster, on which we have teetered for three-quarters of a century. The first of these steps is disarmament, and the second a ban on nuclear weapons. You may think these… Read more »
John Polanyi is a Nobel laureate in chemistry and a professor at the University of Toronto. We must do more to prevent nuclear war By John Polanyi December 9, 2019 When Greta Thunberg gives a speech, she wastes no time getting to the point. “You come to young people for hope,” she told the United Nations General Assembly in September. “You say you understand the urgency…How dare you then pretend that this can be solved by ‘business as usual’?…Change is coming, whether you like it, or not.” What Greta said is no less true of the most serious danger we face today: nuclear war. To counter that, the world needs to take two major steps back from the brink of disaster, on which we have teetered for three-quarters of a century. The first of these steps is disarmament, and the second a ban on nuclear weapons. You may think these… Read more »
Prevent the weaponization of space The Russian News Agency TASS has published articles about the Kremlin’s recent statements on preventing the weaponization of space. This appears to be a response to President Trump’s recent statement on potential commercial activities on the moon. Let’s remember the 1966 Outer Space Treaty. Any attempts to ‘privatize’ outer space unacceptable — Kremlin GENEVA, August 14. /TASS/. Moscow calls on the global community to develop consensus measures to keep outer space free from weapons, which will contribute to strengthening peace and security, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov said at a plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament on Wednesday. “We call on all states to have a meaningful, constructive conversation to prevent an arms race in outer space with a view to jointly developing consensus measures to keep outer space free from weapons and thereby… Read more »
Prevent the weaponization of space The Russian News Agency TASS has published articles about the Kremlin’s recent statements on preventing the weaponization of space. This appears to be a response to President Trump’s recent statement on potential commercial activities on the moon. Let’s remember the 1966 Outer Space Treaty. Any attempts to ‘privatize’ outer space unacceptable — Kremlin GENEVA, August 14. /TASS/. Moscow calls on the global community to develop consensus measures to keep outer space free from weapons, which will contribute to strengthening peace and security, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov said at a plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament on Wednesday. “We call on all states to have a meaningful, constructive conversation to prevent an arms race in outer space with a view to jointly developing consensus measures to keep outer space free from weapons and thereby… Read more »
When the Minuteman Missiles Disappeared This is an alarming article by Dr. Bruce G. Blair – one of the co-founders of Global Zero. “It is tempting for the United States to exploit its superiority in cyberwarfare to hobble the nuclear forces of North Korea or other opponents. As a new form of missile defense, cyberwarfare seems to offer the possibility of preventing nuclear strikes without the firing of a single nuclear warhead. But as with many things involving nuclear weaponry, escalation of this strategy has a downside: United States forces are also vulnerable to such attacks. Imagine the panic if we had suddenly learned during the Cold War that a bulwark of America’s nuclear deterrence could not even get off the ground because of an exploitable deficiency in its control network. We had such an Achilles’ heel not so long ago. Minuteman missiles were vulnerable to a disabling cyberattack, and… Read more »
When the Minuteman Missiles Disappeared This is an alarming article by Dr. Bruce G. Blair – one of the co-founders of Global Zero. “It is tempting for the United States to exploit its superiority in cyberwarfare to hobble the nuclear forces of North Korea or other opponents. As a new form of missile defense, cyberwarfare seems to offer the possibility of preventing nuclear strikes without the firing of a single nuclear warhead. But as with many things involving nuclear weaponry, escalation of this strategy has a downside: United States forces are also vulnerable to such attacks. Imagine the panic if we had suddenly learned during the Cold War that a bulwark of America’s nuclear deterrence could not even get off the ground because of an exploitable deficiency in its control network. We had such an Achilles’ heel not so long ago. Minuteman missiles were vulnerable to a disabling cyberattack, and… Read more »
Nuclear Vulnerability to Hacking the Missile Controls By Dr. Bruce G. Blair – one of the co-founders of Global Zero. New York Times 14 March 2017 Article Excerpt(s): “It is tempting for the United States to exploit its superiority in cyberwarfare to hobble the nuclear forces of North Korea or other opponents. As a new form of missile defense, cyberwarfare seems to offer the possibility of preventing nuclear strikes without the firing of a single nuclear warhead. But as with many things involving nuclear weaponry, escalation of this strategy has a downside: United States forces are also vulnerable to such attacks. Imagine the panic if we had suddenly learned during the Cold War that a bulwark of America’s nuclear deterrence could not even get off the ground because of an exploitable deficiency in its control network. Read more We had such an Achilles’ heel not so long ago. Minuteman missiles… Read more »
Nuclear Vulnerability to Hacking the Missile Controls By Dr. Bruce G. Blair – one of the co-founders of Global Zero. New York Times 14 March 2017 Article Excerpt(s): “It is tempting for the United States to exploit its superiority in cyberwarfare to hobble the nuclear forces of North Korea or other opponents. As a new form of missile defense, cyberwarfare seems to offer the possibility of preventing nuclear strikes without the firing of a single nuclear warhead. But as with many things involving nuclear weaponry, escalation of this strategy has a downside: United States forces are also vulnerable to such attacks. Imagine the panic if we had suddenly learned during the Cold War that a bulwark of America’s nuclear deterrence could not even get off the ground because of an exploitable deficiency in its control network. Read more We had such an Achilles’ heel not so long ago. Minuteman missiles… Read more »
Could the Coronavirus Be a Biological Weapon in the Not-Too-Distant Future? By Deen, Thalif Inter Press Service: News Agency 20 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “The devastating spread of the deadly coronavirus across every continent– with the exception of Antarctica– has triggered a conspiracy theory on social media: what if the virus was really a biological weapon? And more specifically, was it an experimental weapon that accidentally escaped from a laboratory in China? Or as others contend, is it a weapon surreptitiously introduced to de-stabilize a country with more than 1.4 billion people and described as the world’s second largest economy, after the United States. Both narratives are considered false, and probably part of a deliberate disinformation campaign, according to military experts. Still, in the US, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has repeated the charge that the virus was a creation of the Chinese military while others source it to North… Read more »
Could the Coronavirus Be a Biological Weapon in the Not-Too-Distant Future? By Deen, Thalif Inter Press Service: News Agency 20 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “The devastating spread of the deadly coronavirus across every continent– with the exception of Antarctica– has triggered a conspiracy theory on social media: what if the virus was really a biological weapon? And more specifically, was it an experimental weapon that accidentally escaped from a laboratory in China? Or as others contend, is it a weapon surreptitiously introduced to de-stabilize a country with more than 1.4 billion people and described as the world’s second largest economy, after the United States. Both narratives are considered false, and probably part of a deliberate disinformation campaign, according to military experts. Still, in the US, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has repeated the charge that the virus was a creation of the Chinese military while others source it to North… Read more »
Here Earl Turcotte – the Chair of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (CNANW) – examines the links between nuclear disarmament and other global crises, such as pandemics. Public Health Crisis Offers New Lens Towards Nuclear Disarmament Earl Turcotte, The Hill Times, 15 April 2020 “That COVID-19 has created a new global reality is clear. If there is any positive aspect to this unfolding situation, it could be a deeper understanding of the fact that the well-being of people throughout the world is inextricably linked. The COVID crisis might also serve as a cautionary tale, helping us to appreciate the fragility of life and avoid threats to humanity that are within our control. In 2019, a team of researchers at Princeton University simulated a limited exchange of low-yield “tactical” nuclear weapons to depict “a plausible escalating war between the United States and Russia, using realistic nuclear force postures, targets,… Read more »
Here Earl Turcotte – the Chair of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (CNANW) – examines the links between nuclear disarmament and other global crises, such as pandemics. Public Health Crisis Offers New Lens Towards Nuclear Disarmament Earl Turcotte, The Hill Times, 15 April 2020 “That COVID-19 has created a new global reality is clear. If there is any positive aspect to this unfolding situation, it could be a deeper understanding of the fact that the well-being of people throughout the world is inextricably linked. The COVID crisis might also serve as a cautionary tale, helping us to appreciate the fragility of life and avoid threats to humanity that are within our control. In 2019, a team of researchers at Princeton University simulated a limited exchange of low-yield “tactical” nuclear weapons to depict “a plausible escalating war between the United States and Russia, using realistic nuclear force postures, targets,… Read more »
Here Senator Douglas Roche discusses the interconnection of conflicts / wars and COVID-19. he obviously admires the Secretary General of the United Nations for his bold proposal to cease warfare during the pandemic. Warring Parties Must Lay Down Weapons To Fight Bigger Battle Against COVID-19 By Douglas Roche, the Hill Times, 6 April 2020 Article Excerpt(s): EDMONTON—”The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.” In one short sentence, UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the door to a new understanding of what constitutes human security. Will governments seize the opportunity provided by the immense crisis of COVID-19 to finally adopt a global agenda for peace? In an extraordinary move on March 23, Guterres urged warring parties around the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19 the common enemy now threatening all of humanity. He called for an immediate global ceasefire everywhere: “It… Read more »
Here Senator Douglas Roche discusses the interconnection of conflicts / wars and COVID-19. he obviously admires the Secretary General of the United Nations for his bold proposal to cease warfare during the pandemic. Warring Parties Must Lay Down Weapons To Fight Bigger Battle Against COVID-19 By Douglas Roche, the Hill Times, 6 April 2020 Article Excerpt(s): EDMONTON—”The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.” In one short sentence, UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the door to a new understanding of what constitutes human security. Will governments seize the opportunity provided by the immense crisis of COVID-19 to finally adopt a global agenda for peace? In an extraordinary move on March 23, Guterres urged warring parties around the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19 the common enemy now threatening all of humanity. He called for an immediate global ceasefire everywhere: “It… Read more »
The Bomb Still Ticks By George Perkovich April 07, 2020 Summary: Kaplan shows in his new book that the Americans and Russians who built the doomsday machine will not allow it to be dismantled. The more pertinent question is whether they could be motivated to meaningfully downsize and constrain it. “Nuclear books don’t sell,” a New York book editor advised not long ago. “To have a chance, you would have to feature a really interesting central character.” Fred Kaplan’s excellent new volume, “The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War,” will test this proposition. Plenty of characters (nearly all male) abound in his fast-paced easy-to-follow narrative: from Curtis LeMay, Robert McNamara, John Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, and so on to Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But what drives the story is an unresolvable dilemma: “[h]ow to plan a nuclear attack that [is] large enough to terrify… Read more »
The Bomb Still Ticks By George Perkovich April 07, 2020 Summary: Kaplan shows in his new book that the Americans and Russians who built the doomsday machine will not allow it to be dismantled. The more pertinent question is whether they could be motivated to meaningfully downsize and constrain it. “Nuclear books don’t sell,” a New York book editor advised not long ago. “To have a chance, you would have to feature a really interesting central character.” Fred Kaplan’s excellent new volume, “The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War,” will test this proposition. Plenty of characters (nearly all male) abound in his fast-paced easy-to-follow narrative: from Curtis LeMay, Robert McNamara, John Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, and so on to Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But what drives the story is an unresolvable dilemma: “[h]ow to plan a nuclear attack that [is] large enough to terrify… Read more »
Stephen Young is Washington representative for the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. By Stephen Young, 27 February 2020. House Hearings Should Reveal Recklessness of Administration’s Nuclear Weapons Budget Request Article Excerpt(s): “The Trump administration is charging ahead with new nuclear weapon systems and joining a new nuclear arms race with Russia. Not only are these weapons pushing up current budgets by billions, but they are unnecessary add-ons to an already bloated, excessively expensive plan to rebuild the entire U.S. arsenal. Coupled with the Trump administration’s disdain for arms control, these new weapons will lead to a more dangerous strategic environment. Read more “The administration has already pulled out of the INF Treaty with Russia and has not committed to extending New START, the last U.S.-Russian arms control treaty standing. It also deployed a new, more ‘useable’ warhead on U.S. submarines and is planning for a new,… Read more »
Stephen Young is Washington representative for the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. By Stephen Young, 27 February 2020. House Hearings Should Reveal Recklessness of Administration’s Nuclear Weapons Budget Request Article Excerpt(s): “The Trump administration is charging ahead with new nuclear weapon systems and joining a new nuclear arms race with Russia. Not only are these weapons pushing up current budgets by billions, but they are unnecessary add-ons to an already bloated, excessively expensive plan to rebuild the entire U.S. arsenal. Coupled with the Trump administration’s disdain for arms control, these new weapons will lead to a more dangerous strategic environment. Read more “The administration has already pulled out of the INF Treaty with Russia and has not committed to extending New START, the last U.S.-Russian arms control treaty standing. It also deployed a new, more ‘useable’ warhead on U.S. submarines and is planning for a new,… Read more »
Canada Played a Critical Role in Nuclear Development. We Should Play a Critical Role in Reparations This is an interesting article about some (not all) of Canada’s connections to nuclear weapons. By Matt Korda CBC News Opinion, 30 August 2019 Article Excerpt(s): “Canada holds contradictory positions in the world of nuclear weapons. We played an essential role in their development, but we never built any bombs of our own. No nukes are stationed on Canadian soil; however, they were for 20 years, until we finally sent the last American warheads back home in 1984. As a people, Canadians are largely against nuclear weapons; however, Canada is part of a nuclear alliance and our government actively participates in NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group. Almost 60 per cent of Canadians live in regions that have banned nuclear weapons, like Ontario, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories, or in self-proclaimed nuclear weapons-free cities like Toronto,… Read more »
Canada Played a Critical Role in Nuclear Development. We Should Play a Critical Role in Reparations This is an interesting article about some (not all) of Canada’s connections to nuclear weapons. By Matt Korda CBC News Opinion, 30 August 2019 Article Excerpt(s): “Canada holds contradictory positions in the world of nuclear weapons. We played an essential role in their development, but we never built any bombs of our own. No nukes are stationed on Canadian soil; however, they were for 20 years, until we finally sent the last American warheads back home in 1984. As a people, Canadians are largely against nuclear weapons; however, Canada is part of a nuclear alliance and our government actively participates in NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group. Almost 60 per cent of Canadians live in regions that have banned nuclear weapons, like Ontario, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories, or in self-proclaimed nuclear weapons-free cities like Toronto,… Read more »
How the Coronavirus Outbreak is like a Nuclear Attack: An Interview with Jeffrey Lewis This Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ interview with Dr. Jeffrey Lewis – author of “The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel.” Jeffrey Lewis and John Krzyzaniak Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 20 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “One thing about nuclear command and control, which the virus outbreak underscores, is that it is so hard to get good information in a crisis. The epidemic spiraled out of control so quickly in certain countries that even the best experts were rushing to figure out what was going on. To me the danger of a nuclear war is not that somebody’s going to get up one morning and say, “Ah, fuck it,” and push the button. It’s that we’re deeply flawed as human beings, and we have imperfect information,… Read more »
Good question, John. But I worry more about the fairness of the Security Council. As it stands now, the P5 have all the final power, and they have their own interests and alliances in mind more than justice. Some of these changes have to occur at the same time, if they are to be realized at all, I’m sorry to say.
In any case, “No-First Use” is just a “declaration.” There is no way of knowing what people will do in a real situation as long as they have the means. The only way to make sure that someone will not use a weapon is to remove the weapon.
Yes! The pandemic gives us an extra argument for turning down the whole plan. Spend the money on things that Canadians actually will need in order to create a healthy society after this damned pandemic!
I just worry that the UN peacekeepers (or this new military unit) would be used to fight for one side against another. If they are used to keep separate combattants apart long enough to negotiate a settlement, then fine! But it’s not okay to use them to help one side win a war — even if it’s the side that we all consider more desirable than its enemy.
Amazing discussion, with this being the key question. All addressed at length in my book called “World Peace Through Law: Replacing War With the Global Rule of Law” (Routledge 2018). For a discount flyer, email me at jamestranney@post.harvard.edu
How the Coronavirus Outbreak is like a Nuclear Attack: An Interview with Jeffrey Lewis This Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ interview with Dr. Jeffrey Lewis – author of “The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel.” Jeffrey Lewis and John Krzyzaniak Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 20 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “One thing about nuclear command and control, which the virus outbreak underscores, is that it is so hard to get good information in a crisis. The epidemic spiraled out of control so quickly in certain countries that even the best experts were rushing to figure out what was going on. To me the danger of a nuclear war is not that somebody’s going to get up one morning and say, “Ah, fuck it,” and push the button. It’s that we’re deeply flawed as human beings, and we have imperfect information,… Read more »
Good question, John. But I worry more about the fairness of the Security Council. As it stands now, the P5 have all the final power, and they have their own interests and alliances in mind more than justice. Some of these changes have to occur at the same time, if they are to be realized at all, I’m sorry to say.
In any case, “No-First Use” is just a “declaration.” There is no way of knowing what people will do in a real situation as long as they have the means. The only way to make sure that someone will not use a weapon is to remove the weapon.
Yes! The pandemic gives us an extra argument for turning down the whole plan. Spend the money on things that Canadians actually will need in order to create a healthy society after this damned pandemic!
I just worry that the UN peacekeepers (or this new military unit) would be used to fight for one side against another. If they are used to keep separate combattants apart long enough to negotiate a settlement, then fine! But it’s not okay to use them to help one side win a war — even if it’s the side that we all consider more desirable than its enemy.
Amazing discussion, with this being the key question. All addressed at length in my book called “World Peace Through Law: Replacing War With the Global Rule of Law” (Routledge 2018). For a discount flyer, email me at jamestranney@post.harvard.edu
The South China Morning Post published this editoria about the NPT Does it reflect wider Chinese opinions? Talks Give World an Opportunity to Avoid Nuclear Weapons Nightmare South China Morning Post, 20 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “The United States sparked fears of a new nuclear arms race when it pulled out of a key missile treaty with Russia little more than six months ago. Hopes of preventing a race are now focused on another pact credited with helping keep us safe since the height of the Cold War – the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which came into force 50 years ago this month. More importance now attaches to a five-yearly treaty review conference set to be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York next month. The US pulled out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed in 1987 after Washington and Nato accused… Read more »
The South China Morning Post published this editoria about the NPT Does it reflect wider Chinese opinions? Talks Give World an Opportunity to Avoid Nuclear Weapons Nightmare South China Morning Post, 20 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “The United States sparked fears of a new nuclear arms race when it pulled out of a key missile treaty with Russia little more than six months ago. Hopes of preventing a race are now focused on another pact credited with helping keep us safe since the height of the Cold War – the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which came into force 50 years ago this month. More importance now attaches to a five-yearly treaty review conference set to be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York next month. The US pulled out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed in 1987 after Washington and Nato accused… Read more »
Alarming US acceptance of Landmine Use Here’s an excerpt from the World Federalist newsletter. Article Excerpt(s): At the end of January, US President Donald Trump reversed the Obama-era ban on the use of landmines (other than in the defence of South Korea). The brief statement from the White House says, “The Department of Defense has determined that restrictions imposed on American forces by the Obama Administration’s policy could place them at a severe disadvantage during a conflict against our adversaries. The President is unwilling to accept this risk to our troops.” Read more A new US policy on landmines “will authorize Combatant Commanders, in exceptional circumstances, to employ advanced, non-persistent landmines specifically designed to reduce unintended harm to civilians and partner forces.” The United States has not signed the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines (otherwise known as the Ottawa Treaty… Read more »
Alarming US acceptance of Landmine Use Here’s an excerpt from the World Federalist newsletter. Article Excerpt(s): At the end of January, US President Donald Trump reversed the Obama-era ban on the use of landmines (other than in the defence of South Korea). The brief statement from the White House says, “The Department of Defense has determined that restrictions imposed on American forces by the Obama Administration’s policy could place them at a severe disadvantage during a conflict against our adversaries. The President is unwilling to accept this risk to our troops.” Read more A new US policy on landmines “will authorize Combatant Commanders, in exceptional circumstances, to employ advanced, non-persistent landmines specifically designed to reduce unintended harm to civilians and partner forces.” The United States has not signed the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines (otherwise known as the Ottawa Treaty… Read more »
Do Young People Care About Nuclear Weapons? By Matt Korda, Inkstick, 27 February 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “Last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a report with a shocking — and seemingly contradictory — pair of statistics. According to the report, a majority of millennials (54%) believe that a nuclear attack will occur within the next decade. Yet those same respondents simultaneously ranked nuclear weapons as the “least important” out of 12 global issues. These findings, although seemingly in conflict, may not actually be that surprising. In fact, they reflect an existential question that the nuclear community has been grappling with for some time: HOW CAN WE GET YOUNGER PEOPLE TO CARE ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS? Two of the most common responses to this question are either: “we should scare the youths straight,” or: “we should meme nuclear weapons.” Neither of these is the answer. In fact, millennial Dadaist… Read more »
Do Young People Care About Nuclear Weapons? By Matt Korda, Inkstick, 27 February 2020 Article Excerpt(s): “Last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a report with a shocking — and seemingly contradictory — pair of statistics. According to the report, a majority of millennials (54%) believe that a nuclear attack will occur within the next decade. Yet those same respondents simultaneously ranked nuclear weapons as the “least important” out of 12 global issues. These findings, although seemingly in conflict, may not actually be that surprising. In fact, they reflect an existential question that the nuclear community has been grappling with for some time: HOW CAN WE GET YOUNGER PEOPLE TO CARE ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS? Two of the most common responses to this question are either: “we should scare the youths straight,” or: “we should meme nuclear weapons.” Neither of these is the answer. In fact, millennial Dadaist… Read more »
One potential victim of coronavirus? Nuclear inspections in Iran By George M. Moore, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 17 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): ” Should the new IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi decide to suspend inspection visits to protect the health of his inspectors, it could metastasize concerns about Iranian nuclear proliferation. The same result would occur if Iran acted unilaterally to bar inspectors based on real or manufactured concerns about further spread of Covid-19. To date, there is no public information about whether the IAEA will continue to send inspectors to Iran under the terms of the nuclear deal. Suspending inspections, even temporarily, could potentially leave a multi-month gap that Iran could exploit if it chose to fully break out of the nuclear agreement. In early March, the IAEA reported that Iran had amassed over 1,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, nearly triple the amount allowed under the deal. Read… Read more »
At the end of the day, it’s all just a security dilemma. All countries have to decide to ban these weapons together, otherwise none will- because then certain countries will have the advantage. After all, these weapons give such an advantage…but at what cost?
So sad to hear that Bruce Blair has died. He made wonderful contributions with his analyses of nuclear forces. Not many other people know as much about those weapons as he did.
This missile looks to me like a giant plucked chicken, ready to put into the oven.
And that flag is kind of ominous looking, isn’t it? Remember ‘the land of the rising sun’?
You are re-stating an old Roman conundrum: Who will guard the guardians?
One potential victim of coronavirus? Nuclear inspections in Iran By George M. Moore, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 17 March 2020 Article Excerpt(s): ” Should the new IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi decide to suspend inspection visits to protect the health of his inspectors, it could metastasize concerns about Iranian nuclear proliferation. The same result would occur if Iran acted unilaterally to bar inspectors based on real or manufactured concerns about further spread of Covid-19. To date, there is no public information about whether the IAEA will continue to send inspectors to Iran under the terms of the nuclear deal. Suspending inspections, even temporarily, could potentially leave a multi-month gap that Iran could exploit if it chose to fully break out of the nuclear agreement. In early March, the IAEA reported that Iran had amassed over 1,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, nearly triple the amount allowed under the deal. Read… Read more »
At the end of the day, it’s all just a security dilemma. All countries have to decide to ban these weapons together, otherwise none will- because then certain countries will have the advantage. After all, these weapons give such an advantage…but at what cost?
So sad to hear that Bruce Blair has died. He made wonderful contributions with his analyses of nuclear forces. Not many other people know as much about those weapons as he did.
This missile looks to me like a giant plucked chicken, ready to put into the oven.
And that flag is kind of ominous looking, isn’t it? Remember ‘the land of the rising sun’?
You are re-stating an old Roman conundrum: Who will guard the guardians?
Here Dr. Tariq Rauf discusses the impacts of COVID-19 (aka coronavirus) on the upcoming Non-Proliferation Treaty conferences. There is a possibility the conferences and associated discussions will be pushed to 2021 and beyond. Relentless Spread of Coronavirus Obliges Postponing the 2020 NPT Review to 2021 By Tariq Rauf Article Excerpt(s): “Harvard University epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch in his “very, very rough” estimate (relying on “multiple assumptions piled on top of each other”) has stated that 100 or 200 people were infected in the U.S. a week or so ago. But that is all it would take to widely spread the disease. Lipsitch has predicted that within a year, 40% to 70% of the world’s population could be infected with COVID-19? With the world’s population hovering around 7.5 billion, that translates to some 3 to 5 billion people getting COVID-19 and that perhaps fatalities of 60 to 100 million, according to… Read more »
Here Dr. Tariq Rauf discusses the impacts of COVID-19 (aka coronavirus) on the upcoming Non-Proliferation Treaty conferences. There is a possibility the conferences and associated discussions will be pushed to 2021 and beyond. Relentless Spread of Coronavirus Obliges Postponing the 2020 NPT Review to 2021 By Tariq Rauf Article Excerpt(s): “Harvard University epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch in his “very, very rough” estimate (relying on “multiple assumptions piled on top of each other”) has stated that 100 or 200 people were infected in the U.S. a week or so ago. But that is all it would take to widely spread the disease. Lipsitch has predicted that within a year, 40% to 70% of the world’s population could be infected with COVID-19? With the world’s population hovering around 7.5 billion, that translates to some 3 to 5 billion people getting COVID-19 and that perhaps fatalities of 60 to 100 million, according to… Read more »
A World War Could Break Out in the Arctic By Michael Klare The Nation, 11 feb. 2020 Finnmark, Norway Notes: Discusses various elements ranging from the role of the military to the role of the resource extraction industry. Particular focus is on the new military exercises that will be occurring in March 2020 in Scandinavia. Article Excerpt: “In early March, an estimated 7,500 American combat troops will travel to Norway to join thousands of soldiers from other NATO countries in a massive mock battle with imagined invading forces from Russia. In this futuristic simulated engagement—it goes by the name of Exercise Cold Response 2020—allied forces will “conduct multinational joint exercises with a high-intensity combat scenario in demanding winter conditions,” or so claims the Norwegian military anyway. At first glance, this may look like any other NATO training exercise, but think again. There’s nothing ordinary about Cold Response 2020. As a… Read more »
A World War Could Break Out in the Arctic By Michael Klare The Nation, 11 feb. 2020 Finnmark, Norway Notes: Discusses various elements ranging from the role of the military to the role of the resource extraction industry. Particular focus is on the new military exercises that will be occurring in March 2020 in Scandinavia. Article Excerpt: “In early March, an estimated 7,500 American combat troops will travel to Norway to join thousands of soldiers from other NATO countries in a massive mock battle with imagined invading forces from Russia. In this futuristic simulated engagement—it goes by the name of Exercise Cold Response 2020—allied forces will “conduct multinational joint exercises with a high-intensity combat scenario in demanding winter conditions,” or so claims the Norwegian military anyway. At first glance, this may look like any other NATO training exercise, but think again. There’s nothing ordinary about Cold Response 2020. As a… Read more »
There is ongoing debate in Ireland about allowing the United States’ military to use airports – both as a base for operations, as well as a stopover. Should the Irish government push for an end to the US military use of Shannon Airport? News Agency: The Journal (Ireland) 29 January 2020 Article Excerpt: If in Government, Labour would push for an end to the use of Shannon Airport for US military planes according to party leader Brendan Howlin. Read more Speaking to The Journal.ie for the general election podcast The Candidate, Howlin said the Labour Party would go head-to-head with President Donald Trump and end the use of Shannon for US military planes unless those troops were involved in UN-sanctioned military operations. Howlin’s calls follow concerns about inspections of US aircraft that land at Shannon being raised on numerous occasions in the last Dáil. The issue was highlighted again last… Read more »
There is ongoing debate in Ireland about allowing the United States’ military to use airports – both as a base for operations, as well as a stopover. Should the Irish government push for an end to the US military use of Shannon Airport? News Agency: The Journal (Ireland) 29 January 2020 Article Excerpt: If in Government, Labour would push for an end to the use of Shannon Airport for US military planes according to party leader Brendan Howlin. Read more Speaking to The Journal.ie for the general election podcast The Candidate, Howlin said the Labour Party would go head-to-head with President Donald Trump and end the use of Shannon for US military planes unless those troops were involved in UN-sanctioned military operations. Howlin’s calls follow concerns about inspections of US aircraft that land at Shannon being raised on numerous occasions in the last Dáil. The issue was highlighted again last… Read more »
New York City Divests Pension Funds from Fossil Fuel Companies. Next maybe nuclear weapons? Jonathan Granoff In January 2018, New York City decided to divest the city’s $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within the next five years. Now the city looks set to also divest from the nuclear weapons industry. Last Tuesday (January 28), the Council held public hearings on draft Resolution 0976 which calls on New York City to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and divest from the nuclear weapons industry, and on Initiative 1621 to reaffirm New York City as a nuclear weapons-free zone and establish an advisory committee to implement this status. Read more The draft measures were introduced to the council in June 2019 by Council members Daniel Dromm, Helen Rosenthal and Ben Kallos. Since then, New York peace, climate and disarmament activists have been campaigning to build endorsement from… Read more »
New York City Divests Pension Funds from Fossil Fuel Companies. Next maybe nuclear weapons? Jonathan Granoff In January 2018, New York City decided to divest the city’s $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within the next five years. Now the city looks set to also divest from the nuclear weapons industry. Last Tuesday (January 28), the Council held public hearings on draft Resolution 0976 which calls on New York City to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and divest from the nuclear weapons industry, and on Initiative 1621 to reaffirm New York City as a nuclear weapons-free zone and establish an advisory committee to implement this status. Read more The draft measures were introduced to the council in June 2019 by Council members Daniel Dromm, Helen Rosenthal and Ben Kallos. Since then, New York peace, climate and disarmament activists have been campaigning to build endorsement from… Read more »
Divest Nuclear! On Tuesday last week (January 28), New York City Council held public hearings on two measures (draft Resolution 0976 and Initiative 1621) which if adopted would oblige the city to divest its city pension funds from the nuclear weapons industry and establish an advisory committee to develop city action to further implement its status as a nuclear-weapon-free zone. New York City pensions have approximately $480 million invested in the nuclear weapons industry. The divestment of this amount would probably not make any financial impact on the weapons manufacturers. However, it would serve as a positive example of an action that can be taken by cities and other investors to align their investments with their ethical values. And it would give support to federal initiatives to cut nuclear weapons budgets, such as the SANE Act introduced into the U.S. Senate by PNND Co-President Ed Markey and the Nuclear Weapons… Read more »
Divest Nuclear! On Tuesday last week (January 28), New York City Council held public hearings on two measures (draft Resolution 0976 and Initiative 1621) which if adopted would oblige the city to divest its city pension funds from the nuclear weapons industry and establish an advisory committee to develop city action to further implement its status as a nuclear-weapon-free zone. New York City pensions have approximately $480 million invested in the nuclear weapons industry. The divestment of this amount would probably not make any financial impact on the weapons manufacturers. However, it would serve as a positive example of an action that can be taken by cities and other investors to align their investments with their ethical values. And it would give support to federal initiatives to cut nuclear weapons budgets, such as the SANE Act introduced into the U.S. Senate by PNND Co-President Ed Markey and the Nuclear Weapons… Read more »
Risk of Nuclear War Rises as U.S. Deploys a New Nuclear Weapon for the First Time Since the Cold War By William Arkin, Democracy Now! 7 Feb. 2020 Article Excerpt: The Federation of American Scientists revealed in late January that the U.S. Navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. The USS Tennessee deployed from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia in late 2019. The W76-2 warhead, which is facing criticism at home and abroad, is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) called the news “an alarming development that heightens the risk of nuclear war.” We’re joined by William Arkin, longtime reporter focused on military and nuclear policy, author of numerous books, including “Top Secret America: The Rise of the New… Read more »
Risk of Nuclear War Rises as U.S. Deploys a New Nuclear Weapon for the First Time Since the Cold War By William Arkin, Democracy Now! 7 Feb. 2020 Article Excerpt: The Federation of American Scientists revealed in late January that the U.S. Navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. The USS Tennessee deployed from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia in late 2019. The W76-2 warhead, which is facing criticism at home and abroad, is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) called the news “an alarming development that heightens the risk of nuclear war.” We’re joined by William Arkin, longtime reporter focused on military and nuclear policy, author of numerous books, including “Top Secret America: The Rise of the New… Read more »
How to dispose of plutonium? Russia and the USA agreed to dispose of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. This was an agreement made in 2000 – 20 years ago. It is unclear how the USA plans on safely disposing of this surplus plutonium – as the 8 November 2018 senate report mentions they are cancelling the MOX program – though no viable alternative exists. Russia has been using fast reactors to burn up the surplus material. Read more There was additionally a roundtable discussion on 14 March 2001 – hosted in Washington DC by the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project and the Monterey Institute for International Studies – which sought to examine challenges in disposing of surplus weapons-grade plutonium. The chairs for this were Alex Flint, Laura Holgate, and John Tuck. Does anyone know if there have been any more-recent round-table discussions on this subject? I additionally presently have a CSIS report… Read more »
How to dispose of plutonium? Russia and the USA agreed to dispose of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. This was an agreement made in 2000 – 20 years ago. It is unclear how the USA plans on safely disposing of this surplus plutonium – as the 8 November 2018 senate report mentions they are cancelling the MOX program – though no viable alternative exists. Russia has been using fast reactors to burn up the surplus material. Read more There was additionally a roundtable discussion on 14 March 2001 – hosted in Washington DC by the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project and the Monterey Institute for International Studies – which sought to examine challenges in disposing of surplus weapons-grade plutonium. The chairs for this were Alex Flint, Laura Holgate, and John Tuck. Does anyone know