The Complex Game of Counting U.S. and Russian ‘Warheads’

By Hans M. Kristensen*

WASHIGTON, DC (FAS | IDN) – The number of U.S. strategic warheads counted as “deployed” under the New START Treaty has dropped below the treaty’s limit of 1,550 warheads for the first time since the treaty entered into force in February 2011 – a reduction of 263 warheads over four and a half years.

Russia, by contrast, has increased its deployed warheads and now has more strategic warheads counted as deployed under the treaty than in 2011 – up 111 warheads.

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Nuke Disarmament Groups Ask Obama and Putin to ‘Reduce Nuclear Risks’

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – Major nuclear disarmament groups are deeply concerned over speculations whether a Russian Tupolev Tu-160 supersonic bomber, intercepted late September in British airspace, was planning to attack the country and unleash World War 3. They have urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama to agree to “an immediate reduction in nuclear risks”. [P33]  GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PERSIAN

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Kazakh and Japan Go ‘Aggressive’ for Entry into Force of Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

By Fabíola Ortiz

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – “We will be working very aggressively to achieve the goal of making the world nuclear free by 2045,” when the United Nations will mark its 100th birthday, declared Erlan Idrissov, Foreign Minister of the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan. [P32] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT PDF |  NORWEGIAN | PERSIAN

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U.S. 100th Member State to Join Nuke Terrorism Treaty

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A 1997 movie titled “The Peacemaker” –partly shot outside the United Nations – dramatised the story of a Yugoslav terrorist who acquires a backpack-sized nuclear weapon, gone missing after a train wreck in rural Russia, and brings it to New York to detonate it outside U.N. headquarters.

Was it another Hollywood fantasy? Or a disaster waiting to happen?

Conscious of the remote possibility of a terrorist group arming itself with stolen nuclear weapons, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly back in April 2005 and entered into force in July 2007. [P31] ARABIC | BHASA | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF |  PORTUGUESE | SWEDISH | TURKISH

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Japan and Kazakh to Facilitate Entry into Force of Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

By Kanya D’Almeida

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Ahead of a major international conference on September 29 at the UN headquarters in New York, pressure is mounting on the eight states whose backing is vital to the entering-into-force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT): China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States. [P30] CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF |  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

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Nuke Test Ban Treaty Still in Limbo, U.N. Complains

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly back in 1996, has still not come into force for one primary reason: eight key countries have either refused to sign or have held back their ratifications.

The three who have not signed – India, North Korea and Pakistan – and the five who have not ratified — the United States, China, Egypt, Iran and Israel – remain non-committal 19 years following the adoption of the treaty. [P29]  JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | SWEDISH | TURKISH

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Opinion: Campaign to End Nuclear Tests – Kazakhstan Launches ATOM E

By Kairat Abdrakhmanov*

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Despite United Nations General Assembly resolutions since 1946, calling for an end to lethal arsenal, the possession of nuclear weapons has continued to be a symbol of scientific sophistication or military power, until 29 August 1991, when Kazakhstan, upon gaining independence, closed its Nuclear Test Site in Semipalatinsk – the second largest in the world.

This action and the renunciation of our nuclear arsenal – the fourth largest in the world, were unprecedented acts to demonstrate to the world that Kazakhstan does not need these powerful nuclear weapons tests and weapons.

The closure of Semipalatinsk led the way for the closure of other sites in Nevada, Novaya Zemlya, Lop Nur, Moruroa, Kiribati and others. [P28] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

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Opinion: Nuclear States Do Not Comply with the Non-Proliferation Treaty

 By Farhang Jahanpour*

OXFORD (IPS) – Article Six of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) makes it obligatory for nuclear states to get rid of their nuclear weapons as part of a bargain that requires the non-nuclear states not to acquire nuclear weapons. Apart from the NPT provisions, there have been a number of other rulings that have reinforced those requirements.

However, while nuclear states have vigorously pursued a campaign of non-proliferation, they have violated many NPT and other international regulations. [P27] JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

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Opinion: Can Nuclear War be Avoided?

By Gunnar Westberg *

GÖTEBORG, Sweden (IPS) – The Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons had as members former leading politicians or military officers, among others a British Field Marshal, an American General, an American Secretary of Defence and a French Prime Minister.

The commission unanimously agreed in its report in 1996 that “the proposition that nuclear weapons can be retained in perpetuity and never be used – accidentally or by decision – defies credibility. The only complete defence is the elimination of nuclear weapons and assurance that they will never be produced again.”

So that’s it: Nuclear weapons will be used if they are allowed to remain with us. And even a “small” nuclear war, using one percent or less of the world’s nuclear weapons, might cause a worldwide famine leading to the death of a billion humans or more. [P26] ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE |  SPANISH

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‘Generation of Change’ Pleads for Walking the Nuclear Abolition Talk

By Ronald Joshua

HIROSHIMA (IDN) – A new ‘Generation of Change’ is making its presence felt, pledging to walk the talk over the last 70 years in a clarion call for freeing the world of 16,000 to 17,000 nuclear weapons that continue “to threaten every single person with the prospect of a cruel and inhumane death”. [P25] CHINESE TEXT VERSION PDF | GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN TEXT VERSION PDF | NORWEGIAN | SWEDISH

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More Articles...

• 1. The Challenge of Nuclear Submarine Proliferation
• 2. Mayors for Peace Say the Danger of Nuclear War Is Real and Growing
• 3. Middle East Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone, Long Elusive, is Making Progress, say Experts
• 4. Die Eliminierung von Interkontinentalraketen würde die Chancen eines globalen nuklearen Holocaust erheblich verringern
• 5. Elimination of ICBMs Would Greatly Reduce the Chances of a Global Nuclear Holocaust