Ukraine: The Russian Nuke Threat
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
The writer is a former High Representative of the United Nations for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
NEW YORK (IDN) — The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, described by Moscow as a “special military operation”, entered its eighth month without an end in sight, and there is no sign of willingness among the parties involved to start serious negotiations that might lead to a cease-fire followed by arrangements for a durable peace. [2022-11-02]
U.S. Sends Mixed Signals About the Use of Nuclear Weapons
By Daryl G. Kimball
The writer has served as the executive director of the Arms Control Association since 2001 and has been a leading nongovernmental advocate for nuclear threat reduction and disarmament since 1989. In November 2021, he was invited to brief the Pentagon's NPR Working Group. The following was published as Arms Control Association Media Advisory on October 26. [2022-10-28]
Arms Control at Near-Standstill as Nuclear Threats Escalate
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Amid growing nuclear threats from Russia and North Korea, the United Nations commemorated Disarmament Week beginning October 24, warning that weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, continue to be of primary concern, owing to their destructive power and the threat that they pose to humanity.
But so far, they have been either empty threats or sabre rattling—described as a flamboyant display of military power or aggressive blustering. [2022-10-27-17] | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN｜
And What If Saudi Arabia Were the Owner of Nuclear Missiles?
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — In any body politic there will be a group of powerful people who, if not in the inner circle of the president or prime minister, can win access to it at regular intervals. Security is their profession, and they can be met at discrete academic conferences where they tend to stand out as rather earnest, if sombre, figures. [2022-10-25]
Looking Back on the Cuban Missile Crisis Of 60 Years Ago
Viewpoint by Katrina vanden Heuvel*
NEW YORK (IDN) — October 16 marks 60 years since the Cuban missile crisis—the 13-day standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union widely regarded as the closest we ever came to global nuclear war. On this anniversary, as we veer terrifyingly close to the brink of Armageddon once again, we should look to that crisis to guide us in resolving our present one. [2022-10-16]
Don’t Just Worry About Nuclear War — Do Something to Help Prevent It
Viewpoint by Norman Solomon
SAN FRANCISO (IDN) — This is an emergency.
Right now, we’re closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any other time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation is even more dangerous.
Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to decrease the dangers of a nuclear conflagration. The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what’s hanging in the balance—the destruction of almost all human life on Earth. “The end of civilization.” [2022-10-13]
Ukraine War Stresses the Need for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — We were standing in Hiroshima looking at a stonewall. All there was to see was a shadow of a man. It had been etched into the wall at the moment of his obliteration by the blinding light of the first atomic bomb. Olof Palme, prime minister of Sweden, stared hard at it. An hour later, he had to give a speech as head of the Independent Commission on Disarmament, of which I was a member. "My fear", he remarked, "is that mankind itself will end up as nothing more than a shadow on a wall." [2022-10-12]
What If Russia Unleashes a Less Deadly Weapon on Ukraine?
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Russia's military setbacks in Ukraine have triggered widespread speculation in the US that Russian President Vladimir Putin may unleash his stockpile of "tactical nuclear weapons", which may be less devastating than the deadly US weapons that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in August 1945. [2022-10-06-16] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | RUSSIAN | TURKISH
The Era of Nuclear Blackmail Must End
By Thalif Deen*
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — When the United Nations commemorated the annual International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, the President of the General Assembly (GA) Csaba Kőrösi reminded delegates of the statue of Saint—"found in the ruins of Nagasaki, charred and mottled from the atomic blast"—and which now stands at the centre of UN’s permanent collection of memorable anti-nuclear artefacts in the Secretariat building. [2022-09-25-15] CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE
Possible Deployment of North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: "Automatically and Immediately"
Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
BONN (IDN) — In the shadow of the Ukraine war and the extraordinary media attention, the conflict over North Korea's nuclear ambitions is currently receding into the background. For years, the government in Pyongyang has been continuously advancing its program. After numerous missile tests earlier this year, according to the English-language state news agency KCNA, the Supreme People's Assembly passed a law on September 8, "On Policy of the Nuclear Force of DPRK". [2022-09-27]
