December 10th, 2009
Canadian churches “encourage Canada to mount a peace mission and to accord it the same level of political energy and commitment, along with requisite material support, as has been accorded the military mission to date.” The Canadian Council of Churches has issued a new brief[i] calling on “Canada to mount a new peace mission in […]
Read MoreDecember 8th, 2009
In meetings last week with civil society representatives in South Korea there was little mistaking where they think responsibility for the current nuclear standoff with North Korea rests – and it’s not primarily with Kim Jong-il. A visit to the Hwacheon district and a “World Peace Bell Park” and newly-constructed conference centre on the edge […]
Read MoreNovember 30th, 2009
Iran’s announcement of another 10 uranium enrichment plants[i] is sufficiently out there to be neither very alarming nor of much predictive value in considering the long-term development of Iran’s nuclear programs. While not exactly alarming, the move is depressingly indicative of a failing process and as such seems to be lifting the spirits of the […]
Read MoreNovember 23rd, 2009
A November 13-14 public forum at Toronto City Hall looked at the opportunities and obstacles to nuclear disarmament. The program and details are available athttp://zeronuclearweapons.com/. The following notes are part 2 of my comments, focusing on Canadian disarmament diplomacy priorities. The first, and really most urgent, priority is for Canada to rediscover its traditional of […]
Read MoreNovember 16th, 2009
A November 13-14 public forum at Toronto City Hall looked at the opportunities and obstacles to nuclear disarmament. The program and details are available athttp://zeronuclearweapons.com/. The following notes are my comments on some of the obstacles. The current possibilities for finally locking in some significant gains in the slow movement toward zero nuclear weapons are […]
Read MoreNovember 5th, 2009
Transparency and verification are central to sustainable nuclear disarmament and a compelling new report on nuclear weapons materials includes a look at ways in which “societal verification” can contribute to a more effective nonproliferation regime. The just released 2009 report of the International Panel on Fissile Materials[i] (IPFM) examines, in addition to its main focus on […]
Read MoreOctober 28th, 2009
The new German Foreign Minister has pledged to pursue the removal of the last of US nuclear weapons on German soil. It’s a move that will either signal the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons in Europe or the beginning of a new political quarrel within NATO. It seems anachronistic in the extreme, not […]
Read MoreOctober 21st, 2009
The 28 wars now being fought on the territories of 24 countries leave a legacy of squandered potential well beyond their immediately measurable consequences. Project Ploughshares has been tracking global armed conflict since 1987 and the good news is that the current count of 28 armed conflicts in 24 countries is the lowest on record […]
Read MoreOctober 13th, 2009
A new CIGI study, “From Nuclear Energy to the Bomb,” offers a clear and compelling review of one of the central challenges of disarmament diplomacy. This study[i] comes out of the Nuclear Energy Futures project of CIGI and provides a clear account of the real and potential links between a state’s peaceful nuclear energy capacity […]
Read MoreOctober 8th, 2009
It’s hard to dispute the prevailing conclusion that all options in Afghanistan have become bad.[i] That includes the option that still earns only occasional and grudging mention – negotiation. But what distinguishes this option from all the others is its inevitability. In his recent and widely dissected assessment of the Afghan security assistance mission, Gen. […]
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