ARMAMENTS

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson opens the 2015 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York on April 27, 2015. Credit: United Nations

Time To Bolster the NPT's Disarmament Pillar

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The following by Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of The Arms Control Association, was published on October 29, 2021 in Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — Twenty-six years ago, as states-parties negotiated the terms for the extension of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the future of the treaty was not assured.

Yet at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, the world came together, committed to the “complete elimination of nuclear weapons,” and endorsed specific disarmament actions that led to the indefinite extension of this bedrock agreement to reduce the nuclear danger. Additional commitments were made at the 2000 and 2010 review conferences to advance implementation and compliance with all three pillars of the treaty.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 30 October 2021

Photo: "There has already been a serious accident in the Pacific. In 2005, the US nuclear attack submarine USS San Francisco ran into a sea mount near the Caroline Islands." Image: National Interest

Australia Censured For ‘Abandoning’ Pacific Nuclear-Free Pact

By Asia Pacific Report Newsdesk

SUVA (IDN) — Australia needs to be put on notice by Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders over abandoning its commitments under the South Pacific’s nuclear free accord— he Treaty of Rarotonga—by signing up to the controversial security pact, AUKUS, says the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG).

The deal by the Australian, the United Kingdom, and the United States governments is “highly problematic” and “heightens risks for nuclear proliferation” in the region, PANG coordinator Maureen Penjueli said.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 29 October 2021

Photo: A tractor in North Korea. CC BY 2.0

North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program is a Logical Response to Repeated Threats from the US-Japanese-South Korean Alliance

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson

The writer is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security; Co-Founder of the Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy; and author of “Empire and the Bomb: How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World”.

NEW YORK (IDN) — News reports recently broadcast North Korea’s ostentatious display of its nuclear arsenal and delivery systems, along with macho circus-like performances to demonstrate the power and courage of its military.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 October 2021

Image: North Korea Test-Fires New 'Long-Range Cruise Missile': KCNA

North Korea Flexes its Nuclear Muscles – and Defies the Western World

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) – North Korea, long dubbed as a "hermit kingdom" has continued to remain cut off from the rest of the world—politically, economically and geographically.

But neither rigid sanctions, nor international isolation and growing food insecurities, have prevented the country—officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)—from making significant advances as the world’s ninth nuclear power, along with the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 17 October 2021

Why Does Congress Fight Over Childcare but Not F-35s?

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Biden and the Democratic Congress are facing a crisis as the popular domestic agenda they ran on in the 2020 election is held hostage by two corporate Democratic Senators, fossil-fuel consigliere Joe Manchin and payday-lender favorite Kyrsten Sinema.

But the very week before the Dems’ $350 billion-per-year domestic package hit this wall of corporate money-bags, all but 38 House Democrats voted to hand over more than double that amount to the Pentagon. Senator Manchin has hypocritically described the domestic spending bill as “fiscal insanity,” but he has voted for a much larger Pentagon budget every year since 2016.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 October 2021

Joe Biden Acclaimed for Transparency on Nuclear Arsenal

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The following statement by Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of The Arms Control Association, was issued on October 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — The Biden administration’s decision to declassify updated information on the number of nuclear warheads in the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal is a welcome step that reverses an unwise decision by the Trump administration to classify this information. It also puts pressure on other nuclear armed states that maintain excessive secrecy about their arsenals, and highlights the need for further steps to reduce the number, role, and risk of nuclear weapons in the United States and world’s other eight nuclear-armed states.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 06 October 2021

Image: PCU Virginia (SSN 774) | Wikipedia Commons

Australia's Nuclear-Powered Submarines Will Risk Opening a Pandora's Box of Proliferation

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

VIENNA (IDN) — After first suffering a seeming “brain snap” to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) some years back, at long last Australia has been promised a fleet of eight SSNs by the Biden administration under the newly minted and awkwardly named AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and United States) alliance against China.

: Opinion Editor; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 30 September 2021

UN Warned of an Impending Threat from a Climate-Nuclear Nexus

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — When the United Nations hosted a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament on September 28, the annual event was characterized by one underlying fact: the participation for the first time of young climate activists who warned of an impending threat from a Climate-Nuclear nexus.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 29 September 2021

Photo: A missile is seen in this undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on September 29, 2021 © KCNA

Two Tracks Out of North Korean Nuclear Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — On September 15 news broke that North Korea had test-fired two ballistic missiles off its east coast. On the same day, South Korea announced it had successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The dangerous arms race between the contestants in what is in effect a civil war was wound up a few more notches. It has been going on for decades. Peace-making initiatives have been and gone. The Biden Administration and its partner (erstwhile?) in this endeavour, the Chinese government, appears to be treading water.

: Jonathan Power; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 29 September 2021

Photo: ‘Don’t even THINK about starting a nuclear war’ social media action in front of the American embassy in Prague. Credit: Alyn Ware

Climate Change & No-First-Use Key Issues for The International Day for Nuclear Abolition

By Alyn Ware

Alyn Ware is Member of the World Future Council and Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

PRAGUE (IDN) — The global push for nuclear armed countries to adopt no-first-use policies, and the connections between climate change and the threat from nuclear weapons, have emerged as key issues for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.