By J C Suresh | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis Russia is in the midst of a comprehensive modernization of its nuclear forces that began more than a decade ago. The upgrade, which involves replacing all Soviet-era ballistic missiles with fewer improved missiles, is now approaching a point at which the number of modern weapons will shortly exceed the number of old ones, In a decade, virtually all of the Soviet-era ...

The Swedish Foreign Minister (and former Prime Minister) Carl Bildt has found himself in hot water after his curious comments on a radio show in response to questions over Sweden’s refusal to recognize the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at the committee of state parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty this past April (NPT PrepCom). The Swedish government has been criticized for neglect ...

On Friday last week, the NPT PrepCom finished in Geneva to reconvene in New York in 2014.  Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will gives a final review of the outcomes. The scene of the final day of the second NPT PrepCom provided a snapshot of the NPT process itself. Marked by long waits and dissatisfied states parties (especially the non-nuclear weapon states), the final Friday was an anticlimactic finish t ...

Doctrines, deployments, and the political value attached to "nuclear deterrence" are being challenged at the NPT conference.  As 78 nations co-sponsor a growing "humanitarian initiative", the five NPT nuclear-armed states and some of their "nuclear umbrella" allies like Japan, Australia and Germany are in denial. Rebecca Johnson reports As 96 states parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) meet ...

On April 18, 2013, DC's Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton re-introduced HR-1650, the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" for the 11th time WASHINGTON, DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced the Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act of 2013 [HR 1650], to require the United States to negotiate an international agreement to dis ...

At the NPT prepcom in Geneva today, South Africa presented a statement on behalf of 74 states highlighting the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.  Pressenza publishes the statement in full here. Delivered by Ambassador Abdul Samad Minty, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations at Geneva, 24 April 2013 Chairperson, I am taking the floor on behalf of the following States Parties to ...

On Monday 22nd April, the NPT prepcom started in Geneva and will last for two weeks.  The Prepcom is part of the five-yearly cycle of meetings to review the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  Every day Reaching Critical Will produce a newsletter full of analysis, commentary and information for delegates and NGO representatives who are in Geneva.  This article is the editorial for Wednesday 24th of April. Wr ...

For those working in the field of nuclear abolition, Ray Acheson from ‘Reaching Critical Will’, is a well-known, dynamic and tireless organiser who ensures that civil society gets the opportunity to present its case to the world’s diplomats in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conferences.  She deals with all the demands of, and disagreements between, NGO representatives professionally and courteously, yet ...

A delegation from the Abolition 2000 Global Network for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons visited the Clyde Naval Base in Faslane, Scotland today (19 April 2013) where they released the Faslane Declaration, which calls on the UK to remove the nuclear weapons based in Scotland, abandon nuclear deterrence and join negotiations for global nuclear abolition. The statement had been adopted at the Abolition 2000 A ...

The global network of anti-nuclear organisations, Abolition 2000, has just wrapped up its annual general meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland; a venue especially chosen to support the Scottish anti-nuclear movement in their struggle to rid themselves of the trident missile system which 80% of the population wish to see removed from Scottish soil.  Members of Abolition 2000 organisations today visited the Faslane ...