Nuclear Abolition News and Analysis

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TOWARD A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD was first launched in 2009 with a view to raising and strengthening public awareness of the urgent need for non-proliferation and ushering in a world free of nuclear weapons. Read more

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New Data Dampens Hope of a Global Ban on Nuclear Weapons

Analysis by Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – While campaigners for a world free of nuclear weapons are confident that “a ban is coming”, the annual nuclear forces data launched by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on June 13 gives little hope for optimism.

“Despite the ongoing reduction in the number of weapons, the prospects for genuine progress towards nuclear disarmament remain gloomy,” says Shannon Kile, Head of the SIPRI Nuclear Weapons Project. “All the nuclear weapon-possessing states continue to prioritize nuclear deterrence as the cornerstone of their national security strategies.” [P09] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SPANISH

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If Provoked, U.S. Public Likely to Support Nuclear Attack

Analysis by Rodney Reynolds

Photo: Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Source: Wikimedia Commons

NEW YORK (IDN) – When President Barack Obama made a historic visit on May 27 to Hiroshima – where a U.S. nuclear attack on Japan in 1945 resulted in over 200,000 casualties* – he offered no apologies for the human devastation nor provided any justification for the first and only use of nuclear weapons ever. [P08] ARABIC | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SPANISH

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Countdown Begins for Kazakhstan’s Election to Security Council

Analysis by J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As countdown begins for the election of five non-permanent members to the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, Kazakhstan – an unrelenting campaigner for a nuclear weapons free world and diverting funds to sustainable development – is strengthening its bid for a single seat reserved for the Asia-Pacific Group. The Central Asian country is pitted against Thailand.

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Obama’s Hiroshima Debut Does Not Prohibit Nuclear Weapons

Analysis by Ramesh Jaura

ISE-SHIMA | Japan (IDN) – Despite President Barack Obama’s call for a “world without nuclear weapons” during his ‘historic’ visit to Hiroshima, the city where the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, causing over 140,000 casualties, the United States is nowhere close to prohibiting nuclear weapons. [P07] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

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Leadership in Disarmament Will Benefit Canada at UN

Viewpoint by Paul Dewar

This article is being reproduced courtesy of The Toronto Star. The writer is a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. He was the New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Ottawa Centre. He served as the Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs, until he left the post in October 2011 to run for the leadership of the NDP.

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Making Nuclear Arms Race Come to Its End

Analysis by Anastasia Shavrova *

This article appears in cooperation with the CTBTO, as part of the initiative ‘Youth for CTBTO’. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CTBT. – Editor

MOSCOW (IDN) – The year 2016 is an important milestone for the international nonproliferation regime. It marks the 20th anniversary of opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Back in 1996, after two years of intense negotiations, the then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali announced that the opening for signature of CTBT could unleash a new era. And the Treaty, regardless of many differences that arose among States during the negotiation process, “meets the demand of the great majority of the world’s people for a clear signal that the nuclear arms race is coming towards its end”.

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Obama’s Nuclear-Free World Vision Has Come to Naught

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – During the Cold War barely a week went by without some reportage or debate on nuclear weapons. Not today. Yet most of the nuclear weapons around then are still around.

It would be alright if they were left to quietly rust in their silos. But they are not. When in 2010 President Barack Obama made a deal with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev to cut their respective arsenals of strategic missiles by one-third the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress, as the price for its ratification of the deal, decreed that Obama and future presidents be made to spend a trillion dollars on updating and modernizing America’s massive arsenal.

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