By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The United Nations, faced with a defiant nuclear-armed Russia in a destructive war with Ukraine now running towards the third month, is fighting an equally unsuccessful confrontation with North Korea which is openly violating multiple Security Council resolutions as it continues launching ballistic missiles threatening neighbouring countries.
Blown to Hell: America’s Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders
Reviewed by Desmond Narain Doulatram* The book by Walter Pincus (Diversion Books, November 2021) was reviewed in Arms Control Today. MAJURO, Marshall Islands (IDN) — Many researchers have written extensively on the nuclear history of the Marshall Islands, but these publications have not benefited the indigenous Marshallese population justly. Ultimately, it is the Marshallese, not […]
Ukraine Proves UN Cannot Singlehandedly Usher in a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The devastating war in Ukraine—now moving towards the third month—has triggered several threats of the “nuclear option”. The battle, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, is between one of the world’s major nuclear powers and a neighboring non-nuclear country.
Implications of Delisting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps from Terror List
By Ghazal Vaisi The author is an Iranian-born international affairs analyst focusing on the evolution of authoritarianism in the modern world. Her writings have appeared in the Middle East Institute, Independent Farsi, and Iran International. NEW YORK (IDN) — Nuclear talks between Iran and the West have stalled as the US continues to refuse Iran’s […]
Avoidance of Nuclear Weapons in a Possible NATO-Russia War Should Be “Foremost” Responsibility
Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura BERLIN (IDN) — “We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” pledged the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, UK, and the United States—in a joint statement on January 3, adding that they “consider the avoidance of war” between them and “the reduction […]
The Ultimate Winners in Ukraine are the World’s Arms Merchants
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The war in Ukraine may not be a head-on conflict between Russia and the United States but it is certainly a battle between the heavily-stocked military arsenals of two of the world’s major military and nuclear powers. At a press briefing March 22, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was […]
Growing Number of Corporations Against Investing in Nuclear Weapons
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) — “The nuclear weapons narrative is changing. The implicit permission to make weapons of mass destruction is getting revoked by governments, parliamentarians, cities and the financial sector,” says a new report, released ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which marks a turning point in post-Cold War history. Significantly, the Russian […]
World’s Largest Arms Importers Include Nuclear Powers
By Thalif Deen NEW YORK (IDN) — A significant spike in arms imports by Europe, East Asia and Oceania during the last five years has reaffirmed the continuously sharp increase in global arms sales—a rising trend undaunted by a faltering world economy or the two-year-long pandemic lockdown. According to a new study by the Stockholm […]
A Conflict Over Ukraine Embroils Four of the World’s Major Nuclear Powers
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The spiraling crisis in Ukraine has an ominous underlying fact: it is a conflict that involves four of the world’s major nuclear powers: the US, Russia, UK and France, with the remaining five, namely China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel on the sidelines as spectators—at least so […]
Latin American and Caribbean Countries Support the Nuclear Test Ban
By Reinhard Jacobsen VIENNA (IDN) — The Commonwealth of Dominica announced its decision early February to join the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) that bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere—on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground. The Treaty was signed 26 years ago but it has yet to enter into force.