By Daryl G. Kimball The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following article appears as the Focus of the June 2024 issue of Arms Control Today. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 6 Jun 2024 (IDN) — Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale, illegal, and brutal assault on Ukraine in […]
Jayantha Dhanapala: An Outstanding Practitioner of Multilateralism at its Best—Part 2
By HMGS Palihakkara* Read Part 1: https://indepthnews.colo.ba.be/jayantha-dhanapala-an-outstanding-practitioner-of-multilateralism-at-its-best-part-1/ COLOMBO | 5 June 2024 (IDN) — On the challenge of Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is an animated ongoing discourse about the vistas of material advances AI promises as well as the dangers it can morph into. The human penchant to weaponise almost every technology they invent is […]
Biden Should Stop Gambling with Nuclear Armageddon
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. Each of the last five presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have brought us closer to the brink. We desperately need leaders with a knack for peace who can steer the nation, and the world, toward a […]
Smiling Buddha Turns 50: Impacts in Brazil and Worldwide
By Leonam dos Santos Guimarães* RIO DE JANEIRO | 29 May 2024 (IDN) — On 18 May 1974, India carried out its first nuclear explosion, called “Smiling Buddha”, in the Pokhran desert. That explosion was described by the Indian government as a “peaceful nuclear explosion.” India justified the explosion as a display of its technological […]
Fifty Years On: The Decision of India to Conduct Its First Nuclear Tests
By Ashish Kumar Singh* NEW DELHI | 18 May 2024 (IDN) — On this day in 1974, India conducted its landmark first nuclear tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan, as part of the ‘Smiling Buddha’ operation. Until it actually happened, secrecy surrounded the event, as many major world powers at the time attempted to restrict the proliferation […]
US Halts 2,000-Pound Bombs to Israel, But Compensates with New Weapons
By Thalif Deen NEW YORK | 15 May 2024 (IDN) — US President Joe Biden’s much-ballyhooed decision to halt the delivery of about 3,500 bombs to Israel seems only a token political gesture to keep his critics silent. The 2,000-pound bombs, used by the US during the Vietnam War, have caused the deaths of thousands […]
A Nuclear Deal with Iran Is Essential to Duck a Nuclear Holocaust
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 30 April 2024 (IDN) — Rightly the debate over a way to end the Iranian (nuclear?) bomb crisis remains one of the prime issues in Western foreign policy. Compared with that the partial war in Ukraine seems to be almost trivial. Likewise, Israel versus Hamas, the de facto rulers […]
S. Korea and India Hold Consultations on Disarmament, Nonproliferation
By Yi Wonju SEOUL | 26 April 2024 (IDN | Yonhap) — South Korea and India held consultations on disarmament to discuss ways to address North Korea’s growing military threats and other emerging security challenges, the foreign ministry said. The fourth “ROK-India Dialogue on Disarmament and Non-proliferation,” led by Youn Jong-kwon, director-general for nonproliferation and […]
Rise in Global Military Spending Amidst Two Ongoing Conflicts
By Thalif Deen NEW YORK | 22 April 2024 (IDN) — The ongoing destructive war between Russia and Ukraine, which has dragged on since February 2014, and the equally devastating six-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas, have triggered a rise in military expenditures worldwide. According to the latest figures released on April 22 by the […]
Why Not the Whole World as A “Zone of Peace”?
By P. Soma Palan* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 21 April 2024 (IDN) — I refer to your Article under the Heading “Indian Ocean – a zone of peace sinking in troubled waters”. I wish to express my seemingly radical views on the subject of attaining world peace in the backdrop of the increasing militarization of […]