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.
Nuclear Disarmament Requires Prompt Resolution, Says a Buddhist Peacebuilder
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) — Along with the United Nations, the community-based Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI) offers a beacon of hope particularly when the world is plagued by crises threatening the survival of humankind. Every year since 1983, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder and educator, has issued […]
India Trapped on A Tightrope in Big Power Games
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran * This article was issued by WION and DNA, and is being re-published with the writer’s permission. NEW DELHI (IDN) — India’s diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing this week was another balancing act of a piece with its position on Ukraine in the UN Security Council meeting last […]
The Sad Story of Western Wrongs to Russia
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Are the West’s chickens coming home to roost? If the Western powers had gambled 2% of NATO’s budget and met the Soviet Union’s economic needs in President Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost era there would have been a much less de-stabilising transition and today, there would have been a […]
World’s Major Nuclear Powers Pledge to Avoid Wars—Even as they Continue to Upgrade their Arsenals
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — When the world’s five major nuclear powers—the US, UK, China, France and Russia—pledged to prevent nuclear wars and abandon the pursuit of more weapons, their joint statement released January 3 explicitly left out several of the demands from anti-nuclear activists, including an end to the upgrading and enhancing […]
North Korea, Perpetual Victim of the US Military-Industrial Complex
Viewpoint by Alice Slater The writer is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. She is also the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. www.warbeyondwar.org NEW YORK (IDN) — It seems hard to believe that in these possible end times in the midst of a global pandemic with […]
A Politically Isolated North Korea Garners Support from two Nuclear Powers at the UN
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, long described as a “hermit kingdom”, apparently isn’t living in total political isolation or is cut off from the rest of the world. Or so it seems, judging by the failure of the US and some of its UN allies to impose sanctions on five North […]
Clarion Call for Policies to End the Nuclear Arms Race
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | PRAGUE (IDN) — On January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus its very first resolution Resolution 1 (I), which established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure “the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction”. […]
‘Veterans For Peace’ Call for Taking Nuclear Arsenals Off Hair-Trigger Alert
By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), issued by the U.S.-based international organization Veterans For Peace, warns that the danger of nuclear war is greater than ever and that nuclear disarmament must be vigorously pursued. NPR also calls for measures that would reduce the risk of nuclear war, such as […]
Growing Calls for Investigation into Bronx Fire That Took Over a Dozen African Lives
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — A smoky building fire that raced through a 19-story building on an early Sunday this month took 17 lives—adults and children, many from the African nation of The Gambia—is raising questions about the building’s reported insufficient heat and automatic doors that should have been shut […]