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By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – A conference on the establishment of a Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone (WMDFZ) and a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East appeared to have been consigned to oblivion until the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided in December 2018 "to entrust to the Secretary-General the convening" of an international meeting to address the risk of nuclear proliferation in one of the world's most volatile regions.
By Kelsey Davenport and Alicia Sanders-Zakre*
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have both said they are willing to meet for a third summit but are looking for certain conditions to be met ahead of any meeting. Kim said the United States must be more flexible and Trump is looking for North Korea to demonstrate its willingness to give up nuclear weapons.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an April 17 interview with Bloomberg that Washington is looking for a “real indication from North Korea that they’ve made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons.”
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – In the run-up to the forthcoming round of crucial talks on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, Buddhist philosopher, educator and a staunch advocate of nuclear disarmament, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, has called for easing tensions to halt further escalation of the conflict over nuclear weapons development.
Underlining the importance of the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) from April 29 to May 10, 2019 at UN Headquarters in New York, Dr. Ikeda has urged the need to gather the support of States parties for multilateral efforts toward nuclear disarmament. 2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the accord.
Viewpoint by Beatrice Fihn
Following are extensive excerpts from International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Executive Director Beatrice Fihn’s address to the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council on April 4, 2019 at the organization's Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
ADDIS ABABA (IDN-INPS) – Across the world we have seen the devastating impacts of weapons on civilian populations. Humanitarian disarmament is a preventative approach aimed at reducing human suffering through the creation of norms and laws around weapons with indiscriminate and inhumane impact on civilians.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – As the nuclear weapons and fossil fuel divestment campaigns gather steam, their political impact could be as powerful as the divestment campaign against South Africa in the late 20th Century, which was a critical factor in moving the South African government to end apartheid in 1994, anticipates Thies Kätow, researcher for the World Future Council.
There are hardly any signs that such an expectation will be realized and the campaign under way would persuade heavily armed nuclear states to disarm. Yet South Africa remains a shining example of a country that went from developing its own nuclear arsenal to dismantling it and being an outspoken advocate against these weapons of mass destruction.
By Daryl G. Kimball*
WASHINGTON , D.C. (IDN-INPS) – In the latest in a series of expert conferences and dialogues in Moscow and Washington, a group of distinguished U.S. and Russian experts released a public statement calling on U.S. and Russian officials to get back to the arms control negotiating table, with the first order of business being agreement on a five-year extension of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), as allowed for in Article XIV of the treaty, and talks designed to head-off new arms competition in the wake of the likely termination of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
By Jamshed Baruah
GENEVA | BASEL (IDN) – While Fridays for Future protests underline a global dissatisfaction with the continuing failure of governments and industry to protect the climate, the setting of the Doomsday Clock hands to 2 minutes to midnight in January 2019 signifies a continuing high risk of a nuclear clash with disastrous consequences for human beings and the planet Earth.
But devastating climate change and the risk of a nuclear war will not be prevented unless the international community tackles the economic and political influence of the fossil fuel and nuclear weapons industries: this is the crux of the message expected to emerge from an international conference organized by the Basel Peace Office and taking place in Basel, Switzerland on April 12-13, 2019.
Viewpoint by Kingston A. Reif
The writer is director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at Arms Control Association (ACA). This article appeared in Volume 49: April 2019 of the Association's monthly journal 'Arms Control Today'.
WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – .Consistent with the recommendations of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2020 budget request would continue plans to expand U.S. nuclear weapon capabilities.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – President Donald Trump has been exonerated of collusion with Russia. As I wrote a while back, I expected this conclusion from the investigation carried out by Robert Mueller.
The big clue lay in Trump’s anti-Russian posture. Trump has continued the expansion of NATO which Russia, more than understandably, sees as a provocative, unfriendly and dangerous move. Then there is the unwillingness to step forward to negotiate an end to the Ukrainian situation.
By Kelsey Davenport and Alicia Sanders-Zakre
The following appeared in Volume 11, Issue 5 of the Issue Brief of the Arms Control Association. Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy, and Alicia Sanders-Zakre, research assistant.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – The second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended abruptly in Hanoi without any agreement on the next steps to advance the shared goals of denuclearization and peacebuilding on the Korean peninsula. While both Trump and Kim described the meeting [February 27-28, 2019] as valuable and appeared committed to continuing dialogue, the future of the diplomatic process is unclear.
