Nuclear Weapons

Image: Senator Joseph McCarthy, namesake of McCarthyism. Credit: United Press Library of Congress

The Red Scare

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

The writer serves on the Boards of World Beyond War, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. She is also the UN NGO representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

NEW YORK (IDN) — In 1954 I attended Queens College during the years before Senator Joseph McCarthy finally met his comeuppance at the Army-McCarthy hearings after terrorizing Americans for years with accusations of disloyal communists, waving lists of blacklisted citizens, threatening their lives, their employment, their ability to function in society because of their political affiliations.

Photo: Russia test-launches intercontinental ballistic missile RS-24. Credit: TASS

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 of strategic risks" as their "foremost responsibilities". The five nuclear-weapon states are also the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council, which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Photo: Laser Weapon System (LaWS) on USS Ponce. Credit: US Navy

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 forcefully explicit when he said the war in Ukraine “is unwinnable”.

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 invasion has also triggered the fear of a third world war, which would involve nuclear weapons.

Photo: Sikorsky HSS-2 Sea King US helicopter whose production has been licensed to manufacturers in UK, Italy, Canada and Japan. Credit: US Navy

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 International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released March 14, Asia and Oceania remained the largest importing region for major arms, receiving 43 per cent of global transfers during 2017–21.

Image: Nuclear warheads shot outside the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CC BY Flickr: Megan Eaves

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 far.

Mercifully, the nuclear option is not on the negotiating table—but it is still very much in the air.

Photo: CTBTO Executive Secretary Floyd meets Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit. Credit: CTBTO

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.

Putin’s War of Aggression on Ukraine and the Non-proliferation Regime

By Daryl Kimball

The writer is executive director, Arms Control Association. This editorial is issued in the March 2022 issue of Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — President Vladimir Putin has chosen the path of destruction instead of diplomacy. His months-long build-up of a massive Russian invasion force encircling Ukraine and his decision on February 21 to order Russian soldiers into the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk have set in motion a catastrophic war.

Photo: SGI President Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

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 a peace proposal. His latest—and the 40th—titled "Transforming Human History: The Light of Peace and Dignity"—was released on January 26.

Photo: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed in April 2021 to continue to work together, in cooperation with Ukrainian authorities, towards safe and cost-effective solutions to decommission the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and manage radioactive waste in the Exclusion Zone. Photo: M. Klingenboeck/IAEA

If You Want to Deter a Military Invasion, Should You Go Nuclear?

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, whose economy has been severely undermined by rigid sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the United States, in retaliation for its active nuclear weapons program, has long justified its growing military arsenal on sheer political and ideological grounds.

The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, were perhaps facilitated by one fact: none of these countries either had nuclear weapons or had given up developing them.