Let Them Eat Weapons: Trump’s Bizarre Arms Race

Viewpoint by Lawrence Wittner, IPPNW *

Image: A common hypersonic glide body launched from Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, on March 19, 2020, during a flight experiment. (Courtesy of the U.S. Navy)

NEW YORK (IDN) – In late May of this year, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for arms control bragged before a Washington think tank that the US government was prepared to outspend Russia and China to win a new nuclear arms race.  “The president has made clear that we have a tried and true practice here,” he remarked.  “We know how to win these races and we know how to spend the adversary into oblivion.”  [2020–06-18]

Time to Act on Dr King’s Call to Tackle Evils of Racism, Economic Exploitation, and War

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

Photo: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking against the Vietnam War, St. Paul Campus, the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, April 27, 1967. CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons.

The writer serves on the Board of 'World Beyond War', and represents the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at the United Nations.

NEW YORK (IDN) –The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) just issued its 2020 Yearbook, reporting on developments in armaments, disarmament, and international security. In light of the drumbeat of frightening news about growing hostility between the dominant nuclear-armed states vying for power, SIPRI describes a bleak outlook for arms control. [2020–06-15 | 06] HINDI |  ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH

How Covid-19 Is Impacting Multilateral Disarmament and Arms Control

By Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) High Representative

Image credit: UNODA

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since my previous update on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the work of disarmament, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs has continued working to fulfil its mandates while supporting the Member States as they respond to the rapidly evolving global health emergency. [2020–06-06]

The Future of Arms Control Hangs in the Balance After US Quits Open Skies Treaty

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

Photo: A USAF Boeing OC-135B Open Skies. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

MOSCOW (IDN) – President Donald Trump's surprise decision to withdraw from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty has posed unprecedented challenges, generated extensive debates among Russian politicians and experts. Equally worried are leaders in Europe and Asia.

Trump administration notified international partners on May 21 that the US was pulling out of a treaty that permits 30 plus nations to conduct unarmed, observation flights over each other's territory. [2020–05-31]

Eminent Persons Warn Against Any Demonstration Nuclear Test Explosion

By Reinhard Jacobsen

Image: More than 300 International Monitoring System (IMS) facilities certified out of the 337 the CTBTO has planned are already in operation. Credit: CTBTO.

VIENNA (IDN) – Members of the CTBTO Group of Eminent Persons (GEM) have expressed "deep concern about credible press reports" that senior U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of conducting "a demonstration nuclear test explosion". [2020–05-30 | 05] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH

Multilateralism, The Covid-19 Pandemic and The NPT Review Conference

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

Ambassador, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

Collage: Images from Internet of multilateralism, coronavirus and nuclear testing.

NEW YORK (IDN) – On April 24, the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace was observed at the United Nations. At the occasion, Secretary-general António Guterres called for a "networked multilateralism, strengthening coordination among all global multilateral organizations" with the regional multilateral organizations making their vital contributions. His advice is both warranted and timely. [2020–05-28]

'Abolition 2000' Warns Against Resumption of Nuclear Testing

By Radwan Jakeem

Photo: Nuclear test carried out on 18 April 1953 at the Nevada test site. Source: UN News.

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Resumption of nuclear explosive testing is absolutely unacceptable. Even discussing nuclear testing again is dangerously destabilizing," the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons has warned. Such testing would, in any case, be in contravention of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBTO), signed by the United States, yet pending entry-into-force, the Abolition 2000 adds in a statement emerging from its annual general meeting (AGM). [2020–05-25]

NPT's 50th Anniversary Encourages 17 Signatories To Remind Five Nuclear-Weapons States of Their Commitments

By UN Bureau

Photo: Every five years since it entered into force in 1970, the states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have held a conference to review its operation and to come to agreement on detailed language assessing the treaty’s various provisions. Credit: Dean Calma CC: BY-SA

NEW YORK (IDN) – The upcoming 2020 Review Conference of a landmark international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, presents "a timely opportunity for the States Parties to undertake a comprehensive review and assessment" of its current status, says the Joint Communiqué issued on May 19 by 17 States Party to the NPT. [2020–05-24]

The US Seeks Iran Arms Embargo Extension Riling Europe

By Kelsey Davenport and Julia Masterson

Photo: The foreign ministers from Iran and the countries of the P5+1, as well as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, after agreeing the Iran Nuclear deal, 14 July 2015. Courtesy of Dragan Tatic/Wikimedia.

While Julia Masterson is research assistant, Kelsey Davenport is the director for non-proliferation policy at Arms Control Association. The Association's website published this analysis on May 15.

WASHINGTON (IDN) – The United States is considering a range of options to prevent the October 2020 expiration of a UN embargo that restricts arms sales to and from Iran. Those options include making a legal case that the United States remains a bona fide participant of the nuclear deal with Iran that it withdrew from in May 2018 in order to use a Security Council provision to block the embargo's expiration. [2020–05-17]

Postponement of NPT Review Conference Offers an Opportunity

Antagonisms, Conflicts and Nuclear Risks After the Pandemic

A Pugwash Document

Photo: Gustavo Zlauvinen of Argentina, president-designate of the 2020 NPT Review Conference (meanwhile postponed to 20201), addresses the UN Security Council in February. Credit: Evan Schneider/UN).

Signed on May 6 by Sergio Duarte (President of Pugwash), Paolo Cotta Ramusino (Secretary-General of Pugwash), Steven Miller (Chair of the Pugwash Executive Committee), and Saideh Lotfian (Chair of the Pugwash Council). Download a copy [PDF]. As of May 10, 135 eminent personalities including ministers had endorsed the document.

ROME | GENEVA | WASHINGTON | LONDON (IDN) – The new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has already inflicted great damage on a number of nations and on the world at large, resulting not only in many tens of thousands of deaths but also in economic, financial and social crises. [2020–05-15]