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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine is forcing most European countries to increase defence spending, boost military capabilities and secure their territorial borders.
The attack against Ukraine, which began February 24 and has continued despite international condemnations, has resulted in thousands of civilian killings, along with the devastation of a country of 44 million people, triggering charges of war crimes.
Viewpoint by Alice Slater
The writer serves on the Boards of World Beyond War, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. She is also the UN NGO representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
NEW YORK (IDN) — In 1954 I attended Queens College during the years before Senator Joseph McCarthy finally met his comeuppance at the Army-McCarthy hearings after terrorizing Americans for years with accusations of disloyal communists, waving lists of blacklisted citizens, threatening their lives, their employment, their ability to function in society because of their political affiliations.
Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN (IDN) — "We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," pledged the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, UK, and the United States—in a joint statement on January 3, adding that they "consider the avoidance of war" between them and "the reduction of strategic risks" as their "foremost responsibilities". The five nuclear-weapon states are also the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council, which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The war in Ukraine may not be a head-on conflict between Russia and the United States but it is certainly a battle between the heavily-stocked military arsenals of two of the world’s major military and nuclear powers.
At a press briefing March 22, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was forcefully explicit when he said the war in Ukraine “is unwinnable”.
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) — "The nuclear weapons narrative is changing. The implicit permission to make weapons of mass destruction is getting revoked by governments, parliamentarians, cities and the financial sector," says a new report, released ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which marks a turning point in post-Cold War history. Significantly, the Russian invasion has also triggered the fear of a third world war, which would involve nuclear weapons.
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — A significant spike in arms imports by Europe, East Asia and Oceania during the last five years has reaffirmed the continuously sharp increase in global arms sales—a rising trend undaunted by a faltering world economy or the two-year-long pandemic lockdown.
According to a new study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released March 14, Asia and Oceania remained the largest importing region for major arms, receiving 43 per cent of global transfers during 2017–21.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The spiraling crisis in Ukraine has an ominous underlying fact: it is a conflict that involves four of the world’s major nuclear powers: the US, Russia, UK and France, with the remaining five, namely China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel on the sidelines as spectators—at least so far.
Mercifully, the nuclear option is not on the negotiating table—but it is still very much in the air.
By Reinhard Jacobsen
VIENNA (IDN) — The Commonwealth of Dominica announced its decision early February to join the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) that bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere—on the Earth's surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground. The Treaty was signed 26 years ago but it has yet to enter into force.
By Daryl Kimball
The writer is executive director, Arms Control Association. This editorial is issued in the March 2022 issue of Arms Control Today.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — President Vladimir Putin has chosen the path of destruction instead of diplomacy. His months-long build-up of a massive Russian invasion force encircling Ukraine and his decision on February 21 to order Russian soldiers into the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk have set in motion a catastrophic war.
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) — Along with the United Nations, the community-based Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI) offers a beacon of hope particularly when the world is plagued by crises threatening the survival of humankind.
Every year since 1983, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder and educator, has issued a peace proposal. His latest—and the 40th—titled "Transforming Human History: The Light of Peace and Dignity"—was released on January 26.
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