GENEVA | 28 February 2024 (IDN | UN Geneva) — Amid geopolitical divides, arms competition, increasingly dangerous new technologies and an elevated nuclear risk, the Secretary-General highlighted his concern that the UN Conference on Disarmament is consistently failing to deliver. The Conference, which was established with the primary goal of fostering cooperation for mutual disarmament, […]
Is Nuclear Outer Space a Possible Reality or an Empty Threat?
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 21 February 2024 (IDN) — The growing fear of a nuclear weapon in outer space was perhaps never anticipated 65 years ago when the UN General Assembly routinely created a Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) back in 1959. The 102-member committee, described as one of […]
Ending the Existential Risks of the Menace of Nuclear Weapons
By Tariq Rauf* VIENNA | 20 February 2024 (IDN) — Following the Trinity nuclear test detonation of 16 July 1945, nuclear scientist Leó Szilárd observed: “Almost without exception, all the creative physicists had misgivings about the use of the bomb” and further that “[President] Truman did not understand at all what was involved regarding nuclear […]
The Complexity of Nuclear Submarine Safeguards Impacts the Current Landscape
By Leonam dos Santos Guimarâes* RIO DE JANEIRO | 14 February 2024 (IDN) — The topic of applying safeguards to nuclear submarine fuel, focusing on ensuring security and proliferation resistance, involves a complex interplay of international regulations, agreements, and technical considerations. A pivotal aspect of this discussion centres on the application of International Atomic Energy […]
Russia Refuses Talks Though New START Expires in Two Years
By Libby Flatoff and Shizuka Kuramitsu The writers are program and research assistants at the Arms Control Association (ACA). This article first appeared in ‘Arms Control Now’ of the ACA and is being reproduced with their permission. WASHIGNTON, D.C. | 7 February 2024 (IDN) — With less than two years to go before the expiration […]
The US Should Have Persuaded Newcomers to Renounce Nuclear Weapons
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 6 February 2024 (IDN) —There are 29 states which have, at one time or another, set about becoming nuclear weapons powers or have explored the possibility. Most have failed or drawn back. Only the US, Russia, France, UK, China, India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea have crossed the threshold. […]
Nuclear Deterrence Justifies Possession — Threatens Use of World’s Deadliest Weapon
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 30 January 2024 (IDN) — The annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit, scheduled to take place in Washington DC January 31-February 2, will focus on an ideology that has long triggered critical responses from anti-nuclear and peace activists. The 2017 Nobel Peace laureate, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), […]
There Is a Way Out of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 26 January 2024 (IDN) — Last November the dangerous arms race between North Korea and South Korea in what is in effect a civil war was wound up a few more notches. South Korea said it was going to scrap a security pact made with North Korea in 2018. […]
The New Cold War Masks the Risk of Nuclear Annihilation
By Charles Derber and Suren Moodliar* This excerpt is adapted from Dying for Capitalism: How Big Money Fuels Extinction and What We Can Do About It, by Charles Derber and Suren Moodliar (Routledge, 2023), and produced for the web by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Source: Globetrotter. BOSTON, […]
Will New Regional Conflicts Accelerate Iran’s Plans to go Nuclear?
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 18 January 2024 (IDN) — The Israeli-Hamas war has ignited a new Middle Eastern regional conflict involving the United States and the Houthis in Yemen, a militant group described as proxies for Iran. The Iranians have long been accused of funding and arming not only the Houthis, but also […]