Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change Threaten Human Survival

John Avery interviews David Krieger

COPENHAGEN | SANTA BARBARA, CA (IDN) – One of the five “M’s” can trigger a nuclear war any time: malice, madness, mistake, miscalculation and manipulation. "Of these five, only malice is subject to possibly being prevented by nuclear deterrence and of this there is no certainty. But nuclear deterrence (threat of nuclear retaliation) will not be at all effective against madness, mistake, miscalculation or manipulation (hacking)," David Krieger tells John Scales Avery in an exceptional interview. [P 16] BAHASA | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | THAI

Saudi Arabia's Long-Term Goal of Going Nuclear – With U.S. Backing

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Trump administration’s increasingly cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia has led to widespread speculation that the United States may be assisting the Saudis – directly or indirectly – to achieve their long term goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.

The speculation has been triggered by ongoing secret negotiations between the two countries to help Saudi Arabia gain access to nuclear energy in a proposed deal estimated at over a hefty $80 billion, according to a front-page story in the New York Times November 23. [P 15] ARABIC | GERMAN |  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY

The Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons Violates the Right to Life, Warns a UN Committee

By Alyn Ware

The author is Coordinator of the World Future Council Peace and Disarmament Program, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, and International Representative of Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace (the New Zealand affiliate of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms).

GENEVA (IDN) – The threat or use of nuclear weapons is "incompatible with respect for the right to life" and "may amount to a crime under international law," warns the UN Human Rights Committee's new General comment No. 36 (2018) on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), on the right to life, adopted on October 30, 2018. [P 14] BHASA | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SWEDISH

Combative Politics and Hostile Discourse Mark UN Disarmament Initiatives

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – "If one had to pick a single word to describe this year's First Committee, contentious would be a reasonable contender. The increased volume – in all senses of the word – of accusations and denials has descended as close to name calling as diplomatic forums get," says Ray Acheson, the Director of Reaching Critical Will in an editorial in November 5 issue of The First Committee Monitor 2018. [P 13] ARABIC | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF  

Disarmament in Uncertain Times Discussed in Reykjavik

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – With tension rapidly escalating between the United States and Russia – and indeed between these countries and others – a seminar on disarmament held in parallel with the 14th NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iceland came at an appropriate time. [P 12]  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SWEDISH

UN High-Level Meeting Reflects Broad Support for Total Nuclear Disarmament

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has pursued the goal of nuclear disarmament since the adoption of the very first General Assembly resolution in 1946. But aware that countries possessing nuclear weapons have well-funded, long-term plans to modernize their nuclear arsenals, in 2013 the UN declared September 26 as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. [P 11] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | THAI

Japan Considers Ways of Shedding the Straitjacket and Go the Whole Hog for Nuclear Abolition

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – Japan's profound interest in the international community's efforts to help usher in a world free of nuclear weapons was underlined in the run-up to the commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, which was observed first time in 2014 in accordance with a decision of the UN General Assembly. [P 10] ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH

Calls for Making Global Nuclear Test Ban Legally Binding

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | VIENNA | ASTANA (IDN) – The Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov and CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo have called on all States Signatories "to spare no effort to ensure that the nuclear test ban becomes legally binding by achieving the entry into force" of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in limbo for 22 years. [P 09] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY | NORWEGIAN

73 Years On, a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World Remains a Mirage

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda recall a quote from Martin Luther King Jr – "We are always on the threshold of a new dawn" – and aver that the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017 is such a 'threshold'.

In a joint appeal 'To the Youth of the World', released to the media and wider public in Rome, and handed over to Pope Francis, they note that the Treaty "is an international legal instrument that establishes the absolute illegality" of nuclear weapons. [P 08] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN

UN Chief's Disarmament Agenda Faces Rough Waters

By Jayantha Dhanapala

The UN Secretary-General's new Disarmament Agenda entitled, Securing Our Common Future, "seems unlikely to secure our common future with the present actors," writes Jayantha Dhanapala, a retired Ambassador of Sri Lanka and a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament. "We will either have to wait for a change of actors or search among the debris of failed negotiations for a fresh start. But that depends on the unpredictable Trump and Kim Jong Un," he adds. [P 07] ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF