A Seismic Event in US-Russia Relations

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — The President of the United States Joseph Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met on June 16 in Geneva at a time when the two countries are engrossed in an antagonistic confrontation over many issues—historically, the worst ever relations between the two countries.

Even during the rancorous Cold War years, the two countries engaged in many noteworthy projects on global issues, nuclear disarmament, scientific advancements, and to promote foreign investment and trade that were mutually beneficial to both nations. [2021-06-17]

Canadian and French Nuclear Weapons Policies Challenged for Violating the Right to Life

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) — Spurred by civil society organisations, the UN Human Rights Committee has challenged the nuclear weapons policies of Canada and France as being in violation of the Right to Life, a right enshrined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). These rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person. [2021-06-07 | 04]  ARABIC |  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN

Young Disarmament and Arms Control Experts Make Their Voices Heard

By Collin McDowell

NEW YORK (UNODA) — In the months before States across the world convene for a conference to advance the elimination and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, a number of next-generation experts delivered practical and actionable proposals to achieve a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons. [2021-05-30]

Only 'No First Use' Policy Can Defuse Tension

Viewpoint by Ramesh Thakur*

The article was first published in International Politics and Society Journal. on May 20, 2021, by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Brussels office.

CANBERRA (IDN | IPS-Joural.EU) — A ‘no first use’ (NFU) policy is an official commitment by a nuclear-armed state that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons against any adversary under any contingency. By making such a declaration, the state confirms its use of nuclear weapons will be restricted solely to retaliation and only against a nuclear attack. Consequently, these weapons will never be used for preventive, pre-emptive or coercive (nuclear blackmail) purposes. [2021-05-23]

Stop Muddying The Waters On The Appointment Of The CTBTO Executive Secretary

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf*

“And so … ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”, President John Kennedy, 20 January 1961.

VIENNA (IDN) — For the better part of a year, diplomats from more than 180 countries have been feuding over the appointment of the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) located in Vienna, alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). [2021-05-16]

The Nuclear Threat in the New Information Age

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The writer is the executive director of Arms Control Association and publisher of Arms Control Today since 2001. The following is the text of Mr Kimball's Foreword to 2021 Joint Media Project Report of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as flagship agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — An informed and mobilized public is essential to human survival in the nuclear age—and effective and independent journalism is essential to revealing the hard truths, the consequences, and the choices that nuclear weapons pose for all of us. [2021-05-12]  JAPANESE 

NATO Plans to Focus on Russia and China

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (IDN) — “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a blunt interview with The Economist in November 2019. Europe stands on “the edge of a precipice”, he said, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power; otherwise, we will “no longer be in control of our destiny.” [2021-05-12 | 03] CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF |  RUSSIAN

Biden Should Return Quickly to the Obama-led Iran Nuclear Deal

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It was the Americans who helped the long-ago-deposed Shah of Iran start Iran’s nuclear power research. He wanted a bomb. The Americans seemed insouciant about where this might lead.

After the revolution, the research was bequeathed from the wrong pair of hands to another wrong pair of hands—the revolutionaries who overthrew the Shah in 1979. [2021-05-11]

Time to Think Beyond Current NWFZs

Viewpoint by Dr Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikhan

The writer is Chairman of Blue Banner NGO, Former Mongolian Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

ULAANBAATAR (IDN) — Post-cold war peace dividend has not realized. Though the number of nuclear weapons of the two largest nuclear weapon holders—Russia and the United States—was reduced but then the reduction process came to a complete halt. The number of states possessing nuclear weapons has almost doubled against the background of further modernization of such weapons, lowering the threshold of their possible use and the increase in nuclear weapon spending. The non-proliferation regime is gradually weakening. [2021-04-30 | 02] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN | SPANISH 

Sleepwalking into Nuclear War?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Last week on Tuesday (April 20), US Strategic Command, the part of the military responsible for nuclear weaponry and its use, posted an official Tweet that read, “We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option”. [2021-04-27]