Nuke Summit Agenda Circumvents Armed Powers
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS
By THALIF DEEN
- When over 50 world leaders meet in the Netherlands next month for a Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), the primary focus will be on a politically-loaded question: how do we prevent non-state actors and terrorists from getting their hands on nuclear weapons or nuclear materials?
But sceptical anti-nuclear activists and academics pose an equally serious, but long ignored, question: how do you prevent the use of nukes by the eight countries that already possess the devastating weapon of mass destruction (WMD). [P] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
A Manufactured Nuclear Crisis
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS
- The subtitle of Gareth Porter’s new book, “The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare,” is well-chosen. Large parts of “A Manufactured Crisis” are indeed untold till now. They amount to what the author terms an “alternative narrative”. [P] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
But don’t be misled by “alternative”. This is not the work of some crank who imagines conspiracies where none exist. One senses, rather, from the author’s meticulous sourcing and the extent of his research that what motivates him is a fierce hunger for truth and aversion to deceit.
Africa Asked To Address Nuke Proliferation Risks
Nuclear Abolition News | IDN
By JAYA RAMACHANDRAN
STOCKHOLM (IDN) - African countries, which are party to the 1996 African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty of Pelindaba and already contribute a significant share of the uranium used in the peaceful nuclear industry worldwide, have been asked to develop “a full understanding of their extractive industries, to avoid the risk that uranium will be supplied from unconventional sources – for example, as a by-product of other mining activities”.
No-Nuke Australia Thwarts Nuclear Free World
Nuclear Abolition News | IDN
By NEENA BHANDARI*
SYDNEY (IDN) - Australia has been expressing support for a nuclear weapons-free world, but documents obtained by disarmament advocacy group, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), reveal that the Australian Government sees the increasing international focus on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons as "rubbing up against" its reliance on the United States nuclear weapons. [P] CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN
Daughter Takes Kennedy’s Peace Torch To Japan
Nuclear Abolition News | IDN
By TARO ICHIKAWA
TOKYO (IDN) - Caroline Kennedy was just 20 years old when she accompanied her uncle, the late Senator Edward Kennedy, to Hiroshima, site of the first U.S. bomb attack that killed 140,000 people on August 6, 1945. In a Senate hearing in September, confirming her appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, she said she was deeply moved by her visit in 1978 that included a tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
[P] HINDI | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SPANISH
India’s Nuclear Ambitions Unabated
Nuclear Abolition NewsViewpoint | Eurasia Review
By USMAN ALI KHAN*
KARACHI - As the world seeks to shrink global stockpiles of nuclear weapons, India continues to modernise its arsenal which increases Pakistan’s security dilemmas, compelling it to respond appropriately. Much alarm has been raised in the West about Pakistan’s enhancement of its nuclear capability and depicted this as a mindless, irrational drive motivated by the unbridled ambitions of the nuclear scientific-military lobby, which is far from reality. This has been in play against Pakistan but no one cares what India does. The links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons go back to the very beginning of the development of atomic energy. Over time the nature and strength of these links have varied.
An Embittered Riyadh May Weigh Nuclear Option
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS
By THALIF DEEN
- Saudi Arabia’s unyielding opposition to November 24 interim nuclear agreement with Iran has triggered speculation about its own projection of military power in the Middle East.
As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, the Saudis may conclude that international acceptance of a nuclear programme of any kind by Iran may compel them “to seek their own nuclear weapons capability through a simple purchase.”
The likely source: Pakistan, whose nuclear programme was partly funded by the Saudis. [P] ARABIC | GERMAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | SWEDISH | TURKISH
‘We Are Suffering A Slow-Motion Nuclear War’
Nuclear Abolition Interview | IDN 
By JULIO GODOY*
BERLIN (IDN) - Robert Jacobs was born 53 years ago, at the height of the cold war, amidst the then reigning paranoia of nuclear annihilation of humankind. In school, he was eight years old. “We learned about how to survive a nuclear attack. We we[P]re told that the key to survival was to always be vigilant in detecting the first signs of a nuclear attack.” [P] ARABIC TEXT VERSION PDF | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN
Nagasaki Meet Recommends Concrete Steps For Nuke Abolition
Nuclear Abolition News | IDN
By RAMESH JAURA*
BERLIN | NAGASAKI (IDN) – More than 50,000 nuclear weapons have been eliminated since the historic Reykjavík Summit between the then U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his counterpart from the erstwhile Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, which culminated into a groundbreaking Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in December 1987. But 17,300 nukes remain, threatening many times over the very survival of human civilization and most life on earth, as the 2013 Nagasaki Appeal points out. [P] ARABIC TEXT VERSION PDF | GERMAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | PERSIAN | SPANISH | SWEDISH | TURKISH | URDU
Israel’s Nuclear Ambiguity Prodded
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS
By PIERRE KLOCHENDLER
- As Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and nuclear talks on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme continue, a unique international conference, “A Middle East without Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)”, was held in Jerusalem. [P] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
