Nuclear Weapons

Image: A photo of the US Army's new MQ-1C Warrior UAV. Courtesy of US Army | Wikimedia Commons

It Is High Time to End Reliance on Nuclear Armaments

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It's almost twenty-five years since General George Lee Butler made his confessional statement before the National Press Club in Washington—that as commander in chief of the US Strategic Command, which controls all army, navy and air force nuclear weapons, he'd had moral qualms and profound doubts about America's possession of nuclear weapons.

The speech triggered an avalanche of supportive phone calls and letters from all over the world. This led General Butler to conclude that he could "discern the makings of an emerging global consensus that the risks posed by nuclear weapons far outweigh the presumed benefits".

Photo: Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen, President-designate of the Tenth NPT Review Conference, addresses the opening of the regional meeting on November 13-14.

The NPT Will Probably Endure, But Its Longevity May Be at Stake

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The NPT turned 50 in 2020. The anniversary should have coincided with the Tenth Review Conference, but unfortunately it had to be postponed due to the COVID 19 pandemic. President-designate Gustavo Zlauvinen wisely used the delay to deepen his consultations with states parties in an effort to ensure the success of the Conference.

Photo: An artist rendering of the future U.S. Navy Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The 12 submarines of the Columbia-class will replace the Ohio-class submarines which are reaching their maximum extended service life. It is planned that the construction of USS Columbia (SSBN-826) will begin in in fiscal year 2021, with delivery in fiscal year 2028, and being on patrol in 2031. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Challenge of Nuclear Submarine Proliferation

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — While many well-meaning experts have written legal, policy and technical tomes on how to verify naval nuclear fuel and to convert such fuel from weapon-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU), the unfortunate reality remains that none of the nuclear navies using HEU are interested in converting to LEU fuel or to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or any other inspectors within a Scandinavian mile of their nuclear fleets—that is a generous 10 kilometres.

Photo courtesy of General Dynamics Electric Boat Public Affairs: Creative Commons Licence 040730-N-1234E-002

Driving Nuclear Submarines Through IAEA Safeguards!

By Tariq Rauf*

VIENNA (IDN) — Let me start with giving the “bottom line” of this assessment. While many well-meaning experts have written legal, policy and technical tomes on how to verify naval nuclear fuel and to convert such fuel from weapon-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU); the unfortunate reality remains that none of the nuclear navies using HEU are interested in converting to LEU fuel or to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or any other inspectors within a Scandinavian mile of their nuclear fleets—that is a generous 10 kilometres.

Are We Heading for a Cold War with China?

Viewpoint by Herbert Wulf

This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

In recent months, we have often heard that the return of the Cold War is imminent, this time with China. How great is this danger? Some developments point at a dangerous confrontation; others are completely different from the times of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and its allies.

Photo: The Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction held its First Session from 18 November to 22 November 2019 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Credit: UN photo

Achieving The Possible Against the Odds: “A Middle East Nuclear and WMD Free Zone”

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf[1]

VIENNA (IDN) — In normal times, the second session of the “United Nations Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction”, scheduled to take place from 29 November to 3 December 2021, would have been an in-person event at the United Nations in New York.

But we are not in normal times—in addition to a long-lasting deadly pandemic, we also are facing the beginning of a new Cold War with modernization of nuclear weapons and development of destabilizing new weapons technologies, acute climate change, a near complete collapse of the UN disarmament machinery, and longstanding broken promises on the Middle East.

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson opens the 2015 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York on April 27, 2015. Credit: United Nations

Time To Bolster the NPT's Disarmament Pillar

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The following by Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of The Arms Control Association, was published on October 29, 2021 in Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — Twenty-six years ago, as states-parties negotiated the terms for the extension of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the future of the treaty was not assured.

Yet at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, the world came together, committed to the “complete elimination of nuclear weapons,” and endorsed specific disarmament actions that led to the indefinite extension of this bedrock agreement to reduce the nuclear danger. Additional commitments were made at the 2000 and 2010 review conferences to advance implementation and compliance with all three pillars of the treaty.

Photo: "There has already been a serious accident in the Pacific. In 2005, the US nuclear attack submarine USS San Francisco ran into a sea mount near the Caroline Islands." Image: National Interest

Australia Censured For ‘Abandoning’ Pacific Nuclear-Free Pact

By Asia Pacific Report Newsdesk

SUVA (IDN) — Australia needs to be put on notice by Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders over abandoning its commitments under the South Pacific’s nuclear free accord— he Treaty of Rarotonga—by signing up to the controversial security pact, AUKUS, says the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG).

The deal by the Australian, the United Kingdom, and the United States governments is “highly problematic” and “heightens risks for nuclear proliferation” in the region, PANG coordinator Maureen Penjueli said.

Photo: A tractor in North Korea. CC BY 2.0

North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program is a Logical Response to Repeated Threats from the US-Japanese-South Korean Alliance

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson

The writer is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security; Co-Founder of the Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy; and author of “Empire and the Bomb: How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World”.

NEW YORK (IDN) — News reports recently broadcast North Korea’s ostentatious display of its nuclear arsenal and delivery systems, along with macho circus-like performances to demonstrate the power and courage of its military.

Image: North Korea Test-Fires New 'Long-Range Cruise Missile': KCNA

North Korea Flexes its Nuclear Muscles – and Defies the Western World

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) – North Korea, long dubbed as a "hermit kingdom" has continued to remain cut off from the rest of the world—politically, economically and geographically.

But neither rigid sanctions, nor international isolation and growing food insecurities, have prevented the country—officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)—from making significant advances as the world’s ninth nuclear power, along with the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel.