UN Chief Concerned About Standstill in Arms Control Talks

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – "We need a strengthened, inclusive and renewed multilateralism built on trust and based on international law that can guide us to our shared goal of a world free of nuclear weapons," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, commemorating the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26.

He was reiterating the resolve adoption of the General Assembly resolution in 1946, which committed the UN to the goal of ridding the planet of nuclear weapons. Because of these, "the world continues to live in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe". [2020–09-27 | 14]  ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN

U.S. Shifts Arms Control Strategy with Russia

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Manila, the Philippines on August 6, 2017. (Photo credit: U.S. Department of State/Public Domain)

While Kingston Reif is the director for disarmament and threat reduction policy, Shannon Bugos is research assistant at the Arms Control Association.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration has softened its demand that China immediately participate in trilateral nuclear arms control talks with the United States and Russia and says it is now seeking an interim step of a politically binding framework with Moscow. 

But the administration continues to reject Russia’s offer of a clean five-year extension of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and has said that President Trump will not consider an extension until several conditions are met. [2020–09-17]

Fervent Calls for The CTBT To Be Urgently Brought into Force

By Jaya Ramachandran

VIENNA (IDN) – The International Day against Nuclear Tests (IDANT) 2020 was a rallying point for calls around the globe for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to be brought into force, featuring a high-level plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly and a prestigious panel discussion at the European Forum Alpbach. [2020–08-31]

Extinguishing Prometheus’ Nuclear Flame: International Day Against Nuclear Tests

By Tariq Rauf*

Collage of photos of the author in his IAEA capacity at the Semipalatinsk “polygon” on 29 August 2011, with ‘Stronger than Death’ monument in Semey in the centre. It was erected in 2001 in memory of the victims of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk. Photos by Tariq Rauf.

VIENNA (IDN) – The first nuclear explosive device was detonated at the Alamogordo Test Range in the New Mexico desert in the United States of America on  July 16, 1945, and then on August 6 and 9 the US carried out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the next seven decades, nine additional countries carried out some 2060 nuclear explosions, spreading radioactive contamination in the air, lands and space, and in the world's oceans, leading to long-lasting catastrophic consequences for the health and well-being of millions of innocent people. [2020–08-29 | 13] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | MALAY

The Limits of Breakout Estimates in Assessing Iran’s Nuclear Program

An Issue Brief by the Arms Control Association Issue Brief

By Kelsey Davenport, Director for Nonproliferation Policy, with Julia Masterson, Research Assistant

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) –Over the past year, Iran has taken several troubling steps to breach the limits that were imposed on its nuclear program by the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). While Iran’s violations of the accord appear to be carefully calibrated to create leverage in response to the Trump administration’s 2018 withdrawal from the accord and reimposition of sanctions, Iran’s actions have rekindled the debate about how quickly Iran could “breakout,” or produce enough nuclear material for a bomb. [2020–08-10]

CTBTO ES on 75th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

[2020-08-10]

Looking Back at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear Attacks on 75th Anniversary

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

Photo: Side view of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.5

The writer is former Head of Nuclear Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, former Alternate Head of the IAEA Delegation to the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT); Senior Advisor on nuclear disarmament to the Chairs at the 2015 NPT Review Conference and 2014 NPT PrepCom; long time Expert with Canada's NPT delegation until 2000. Personal views are expressed here. The following is an expanded version of comments made at the event, 'The 75th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing and the United Nations In the Time of COVID-19: Where Do We Stand and What Can Be Done for a Nuclear-Free World?', organized by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Hiroshima. [2020–08-06 | 12] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

Japanese and American Catholics Take on the Bomb

By Drew Christiansen

Writer Drew Christiansen, S. J., is Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. He is the co-editor with Carole Sargent of A World Free from Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament (Georgetown University Press, 2020). facebook.com/disarmnowgeorgetown

WASHINGTON, DC. (IDN) -- Nagasaki is the historic centre of Japanese Catholicism. In the 16th century, beginning with the missionary visits of one of the first Jesuits, Francis Xavier, Nagasaki was the focal point of their efforts to bring Christianity to Japan. [2020–08-01 | 11] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | TURKISH

A Warrior for Nuclear Peace Dies But His Message Reverberates

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

Photo: Bruce Blair. Credit: Matt Stanley, mattstanleyphoto.com

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Bruce Blair, one of the great unsung heroes of the nuclear bomb age, died on July 19 at the age of 72. In his twenties he had been an intercontinental nuclear rocket launch officer, spending his days or nights deep down in a below-ground bunker waiting for the signal to fire and obliterate the cities and their people, the workers of all classes, pensioners and the totally innocent children of western Russia. [2020–07-28 | 10] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | THAI

Political and Security Implications of a New NATO Strategy in the Making

By Xanthe Hall

The writer belongs to IPPNW Germany. This article first appeared on IPPNW Peace & Health Blog. Please click here for the original link.

Photo: Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joe Dunford, at NATO HQ in Brussels, 2018. Credit: Dominique Pineiro / public domain

BERLIN (IDN) – You could be excused for having missed the fact that NATO is in the process of updating its nuclear strategy, including substantial and significant steps. These include technologically more ambitious weapons that can be used more easily. This is the implementation of a decision made at the NATO Warsaw Summit in 2016 to revise nuclear strategy. [2020–07-17]