North Korea Continues to Defy UN with 17 Missile Tests in 2022
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The United Nations, faced with a defiant nuclear-armed Russia in a destructive war with Ukraine now running towards the third month, is fighting an equally unsuccessful confrontation with North Korea which is openly violating multiple Security Council resolutions as it continues launching ballistic missiles threatening neighbouring countries. [2022-05-12-03] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN
Ending the War of Attrition in Ukraine
Viewpoint by Jeffrey D. Sachs
This article was issued by Project Syndicate and is being republished with the author's permission.
NEW YORK (IDN) — Wars often erupt and persist because of the two sides’ miscalculations regarding their relative power. In the case of Ukraine, Russia blundered badly by underestimating the resolve of Ukrainians to fight and the effectiveness of NATO-supplied weaponry. Yet Ukraine and NATO are also overestimating their capacity to defeat Russia on the battlefield. The result is a war of attrition that each side believes it will win, but that both sides will lose. [2022-05-11]
Ukraine Proves UN Cannot Singlehandedly Usher in a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World
By Thalif Deen
Photo: The Sun rises behind Long Island City skyscrapers at dawn of the first day of the general debate of the General Assembly's seventy-sixth session (2021). UN Photo/Mark Garten
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The devastating war in Ukraine—now moving towards the third month—has triggered several threats of the “nuclear option”.
The battle, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, is between one of the world’s major nuclear powers and a neighboring non-nuclear country. [2022-04-27-02] CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN | SPANISH
US Urged to Restore the UN-Backed 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal
By Radwan Jakeem
Photo source: Arms Control Association.
NEW YORK (IDN) — More than 40 former government officials and leading nuclear non-proliferation experts have expressed strong support for an agreement that returns Iran and the United States to comply with the 2015 nuclear deal. The accord between Iran and the major world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2231. [2022-04-21]
A Staggering Array of US Arms to Ukraine Pales in Comparison with Russia's Nuclear Weapons
By Thalif Deen
Senior Airman Cameron Manson inspects cargo netting on palletized ammunition, weapons and other equipment bound for Ukraine during a Foreign Military Sales mission at Dover Air Force Base, Del., on Jan. 24, 2022. (Roland Balik/U.S. Air Force)
NEW YORK (IDN) — As the devastating war in Ukraine continues—with thousands of civilian killings and entire cities reduced to rubble—the United States has accelerated an unprecedented flow of weapons to the besieged nation.
If Ukraine loses the ongoing war, battling one of the world’s major military and nuclear powers, it is certainly not for want of weapons. [2022-04-15]
An Upside to The End of Privacy: It Might Someday Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Viewpoint by Matt Bivens, IPPNW
Dr Matt Bivens, an emergency medicine physician, is the immediate past chair of Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility. This article was originally published in The Boston Globe on 7 April 2022.
BOSTON (IDN) — In Stanley Kubrick’s comedic masterpiece “Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” a series of unfortunate events has the world hurtling toward all-out nuclear war. Desperate to prevent this, the US president has the Russian ambassador brought to the White House’s top secret “War Room” for emergency consultations. [2022-04-13]
The End Of (Human) History?
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
The writer is an Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
Image: Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. Source: Wikimedia Commons
NEW YORK (IDN) — Roughly three decades have gone by since the publication of Francis Fukuyama’s essay “The End of History?”. The interrogation mark makes clear that the social scientist and philosopher was not announcing an end to contradiction and conflict among nations. He was mainly asking whether Western liberal democracy could be considered as the final stage of human sociocultural evolution and the final form of governance that would endure. [2022-04-08-01] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN
Tuvalu Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
VIENNA (IDN | CTBTO) — Tuvalu has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), bringing the total number of Treaty ratifications to 172 and underscoring the Pacific Island state’s commitment to ending all nuclear tests, everywhere. [2022-04-03]
The Red Scare
Senator Joseph McCarthy, namesake of McCarthyism. Credit: United Press Library of CongressThe 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.[2022-04-02]
Avoidance of Nuclear Weapons in a Possible NATO-Russia War Should Be "Foremost" Responsibility
Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura
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. [2022-03-26-33] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY | SWEDISH | THAI |
