Peace and Disarmament

Throwing Gas on the Fire in North Korea     The U.S.-North Korea nuclear crisis is not over. While tensions seem to have eased in the past few weeks, the situation remains dangerous and potentially volatile. It is in this…

“When can we go back?” This plaintive question of refugees since time immemorial was asked again of Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire at the United Nations High Commission on Refugees intake center in Zahleh, Lebanon, overlooking the vast Beqaa valley,…

By Baher Kamal* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint CAIRO (IDN) – Not that nuclear issues are an actual source of concern to Egyptian citizens. They are deeply worried about their present and immediate future now that inter-religious violence is on the rise,…

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,…

Supporters from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) turned out in force to shame arms giant BAE Systems at their Annual General Meeting AGM), accusing it of supporting repressive regimes through arms sales and unethical business practices. Acute questioning combined with high farce…

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…

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…

As the NPT prepcom enters its second week of work, Pressenza republishes today’s editorial from the daily news bulletin of Reaching Critical Will, prepared by Ray Acheson. “Treaty violations are not to be tolerated as inconvenient facts,” declared the US…

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…

The Security Council today approved a 12,600-strong United Nations peacekeeping operation to take over from the African-led mission in Mali on 1 July and authorized the blue helmets “to use all necessary means” to carry out security-related stabilization tasks, protect…