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Nuclear Disarmament

A nuclear-weapons-free Arctic?

Posted on: November 20th, 2014 by Ernie Regehr

Changing climatic conditions in the Arctic have brought regional security concerns into renewed focus, and security relations in the north are in turn inevitably affected by confrontations in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, the region continues to develop as a “security community” in which there are reliable expectations that states will continue to settle disputes by peaceful means and in accordance with international law. In keeping with those expectations, the denuclearization of the Arctic has been an enduring aspiration of indigenous communities and of the people of Arctic states more broadly. (more…)

Visiting Reykjavik’s Hofdi House 27 years later

Posted on: November 20th, 2013 by Ernie Regehr

Twenty-seven years to the day after the historic Reagan/Gorbachev Summit in Reykjavik, a visit to the scene, the modest Hofdi House near Reykjavik harbour, is a reminder of what almost happened on October 12, 1986. Continue reading at The Simons Foundation.

Greenland’s Turn to Uranium Mining

Posted on: October 31st, 2013 by Ernie Regehr

The Parliament of Greenland has just voted by a narrow margin to lift the 25-year ban on mining radioactive materials. What that means is a controversial first step along a still very long road toward the mining and exporting of uranium. Continue reading at The Simons Foundation.

Missile Defence and the Arctic

Posted on: June 13th, 2013 by Ernie Regehr

Ballistic missile defence installations in the Arctic may have little direct bearing on day-to-day security concerns and arrangements there, but it would be naïve to assume that the irritations that missile defence visits on strategic relations among Russia, the United States, and NATO, and even China, can be kept fully out of Arctic security dynamics. Continue reading at The Simons Foundation.

A flawed Arms Trade Treaty: Taking courage from a flawed NPT

Posted on: May 1st, 2013 by Ernie Regehr

Elements of the peace and disarmament community are currently engaged in a spirited debate over whether the new Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is an achievement worth celebrating or a failure that could actually harm arms transfer control efforts in the long run.  The ATT is clearly a compromise-ridden agreement, but did enough survive to make it a good basis for ongoing efforts to bring restraint and accountability into the international arms transfer system?

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Are Russian nuclear weapons on the rise in the Arctic?

Posted on: April 18th, 2013 by Ernie Regehr

As Senior Fellow in Arctic Security at The Simons Foundation, the following introduces a posting on my Disarming Arctic Security blog on the Foundation website. Click on the link below for the complete article.

The Barents Observer reported in January that “the number of strategic warheads deployed from the Kola Peninsula is on the rise for the first time since the collapse of the USSR.”   Modernization of Russia’s sea-based nuclear arsenal, a predominantly Arctic force, is part of a disturbing global trend, but it doesn’t necessarily mean an expanded nuclear arsenal in the Arctic. Continue reading at The Simons Foundation.

Circumpolar Military Facilities of the Arctic Five

Posted on: April 15th, 2013 by Ernie Regehr

As Senior Fellow in Arctic Security at The Simons Foundation, the following introduces a compilation of military facilities found on the Foundation website. Click on the link below for the complete document.

In 2011 the Canadian Senate Committee on Security and Defence, in its interim report on Arctic sovereignty and security, asked whether the Arctic is “again becoming militarized.” That question prompted the following compilation of current military facilities in the circumpolar region. Continue reading at  The Simons Foundation.

Iran and the limits of deterrence

Posted on: March 30th, 2012 by Ernie Regehr

Deterrence would become the default response if Iran were not ultimately prevented from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but neither the Cold War nor the South Asian experience offers much hope that stability would ensue.

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Canadian uranium and China’s nuclear weapons arsenal

Posted on: February 17th, 2012 by Ernie Regehr

Exporting uranium to any state with nuclear weapons should obviously proceed only with the greatest of caution. Hence, this two-fold question: Is Canada taking sufficient care to ensure that Canadian uranium will never end up in a Chinese bomb; can Canada ensure that new supplies of uranium for China’s growing civilian needs will not free up uranium from domestic sources to facilitate expansion of its nuclear arsenal?[i]

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