Nuclear Weapons

Why Does Congress Fight Over Childcare but Not F-35s?

Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Biden and the Democratic Congress are facing a crisis as the popular domestic agenda they ran on in the 2020 election is held hostage by two corporate Democratic Senators, fossil-fuel consigliere Joe Manchin and payday-lender favorite Kyrsten Sinema.

But the very week before the Dems’ $350 billion-per-year domestic package hit this wall of corporate money-bags, all but 38 House Democrats voted to hand over more than double that amount to the Pentagon. Senator Manchin has hypocritically described the domestic spending bill as “fiscal insanity,” but he has voted for a much larger Pentagon budget every year since 2016.

Joe Biden Acclaimed for Transparency on Nuclear Arsenal

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The following statement by Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of The Arms Control Association, was issued on October 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — The Biden administration’s decision to declassify updated information on the number of nuclear warheads in the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal is a welcome step that reverses an unwise decision by the Trump administration to classify this information. It also puts pressure on other nuclear armed states that maintain excessive secrecy about their arsenals, and highlights the need for further steps to reduce the number, role, and risk of nuclear weapons in the United States and world’s other eight nuclear-armed states.

Image: PCU Virginia (SSN 774) | Wikipedia Commons

Australia's Nuclear-Powered Submarines Will Risk Opening a Pandora's Box of Proliferation

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

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

VIENNA (IDN) — After first suffering a seeming “brain snap” to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) some years back, at long last Australia has been promised a fleet of eight SSNs by the Biden administration under the newly minted and awkwardly named AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and United States) alliance against China.

UN Warned of an Impending Threat from a Climate-Nuclear Nexus

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — When the United Nations hosted a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament on September 28, the annual event was characterized by one underlying fact: the participation for the first time of young climate activists who warned of an impending threat from a Climate-Nuclear nexus.

Photo: A missile is seen in this undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on September 29, 2021 © KCNA

Two Tracks Out of North Korean Nuclear Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — On September 15 news broke that North Korea had test-fired two ballistic missiles off its east coast. On the same day, South Korea announced it had successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The dangerous arms race between the contestants in what is in effect a civil war was wound up a few more notches. It has been going on for decades. Peace-making initiatives have been and gone. The Biden Administration and its partner (erstwhile?) in this endeavour, the Chinese government, appears to be treading water.

Photo: ‘Don’t even THINK about starting a nuclear war’ social media action in front of the American embassy in Prague. Credit: Alyn Ware

Climate Change & No-First-Use Key Issues for The International Day for Nuclear Abolition

By Alyn Ware

Alyn Ware is Member of the World Future Council and Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

PRAGUE (IDN) — The global push for nuclear armed countries to adopt no-first-use policies, and the connections between climate change and the threat from nuclear weapons, have emerged as key issues for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Collage of Posters for Peace (left to right): Anjali Chandrashekar, NY; Roberto Losada Maestre, Getafe, Spain; Kumi Nakazato, Nara, Japan. Credit: UN Office for Disarmament Affairs.

2021 International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

By Tariq Rauf

Tariq Rauf, board member of Atomic Reporters, was formerly Head of Verification and Security Policy Coordination, Office reporting to the Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency. Personal views are expressed here.

VIENNA (IDN) — The commemoration of the 2021 International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, takes place at a time of increasing nuclear dangers, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and major damaging climate changes.

A US-UK Submarine Deal Triggers Nuclear Fears Down Under

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — A tripartite deal, under which the US and UK have joined hands, to provide a nuclear-powered submarine to Australia (AUKUS) has prompted anti-nuclear activists to express fears it may eventually lead to a new nuclear power in the region.

The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the three nations had agreed to “a new enhanced trilateral security partnership”. The new arrangement, he asserted, “does not signal a move towards domestic nuclear power or nuclear weapons”.

Photo: Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi and CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr. Robert Floyd during his visit to Astana, Kazakhstan.

UN Presses for Entry into Force of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — As the race for modernisation of cyber and nuclear technologies gains momentum, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) "the centrepiece of global efforts to eliminate nuclear tests once and for all". A statement delivered on his behalf by the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu said this Treaty has the power to protect future generations from the human suffering and environmental catastrophe produced by nuclear tests.

Image: 'Youth Fusion' imposed on Youth Disarmament image.

A New Online Youth Platform Promotes Nuclear Disarmament

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) — Worldwide youth are standing up for peace and nuclear disarmament and taking a wide range of innovative actions. The Youth Working Group of Abolition 2000 global network to eliminate nuclear weapons builds cooperation amongst these youth actions, brings youth voices into key UN and other disarmament processes. The group has launched a new online platform and youth action plan for a nuclear-weapons-free world: Youth Fusion.