News
G8 Foriegn Ministers Communique on Indian and Pakistani Nuclear Tests
London 1. We, the Foreign Ministers of eight major industrialised democracies and the Representative of the European Commission, held a special meeting in London on 12 June 1998 to consider the serious global challenge posed by the nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistan. Recalling the statement issued by our Heads of State or Government on 15 May, and emphasising the support of all of us for the communiqué issued by [...]
What is Next After the Latest Nuclear Tests? A Review of Nuclear Armament by the Trustees’ Committee of the Campaign “Abolish Nukes – Start with Ourselves”
Dortmund, Germany (The Campaign is member of the Abolition 2000 Network and consists of 42 German organisations.) On the 11th and 13th May of this year India has conducted nuclear test explosions, followed suit by Pakistan detonating nuclear devices of their own on the 28th and 30th May. The design of the devices and the according statements of the respective governments confirm previous suspicions that India and Pakistan are now both to [...]
An Allegiance to Humanity
https://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/wagingpeaceseries/rotblat.pdf
75 U.S. Catholic Bishops Condemn Policy of Nuclear Deterrence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Dave Robinson 814-453-4955 Ext. 235 Erie, PA -- Nuclear deterrence as a national policy must be condemned as morally abhorrent because it's the excuse and justification for the continued possession and further development of nuclear weapons, say 73 U.S. Catholic bishops in a report issued today by Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace and justice organization. The report, "The Morality of Nuclear Deterrence: An Evaluation by Pax [...]
Why Nuclear Deterrence Is A Dangerous Illusion
In the January-February 1997 issue of the New Zealand International Review, an article by Ron Smith - Director of Defence and Strategic Studies in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Waikato, New Zealand - argued against the growing tide in favour of the abolition of nuclear weapons. On the following point I have no dispute with him. He wrote: "The crucial issue is that of the [...]
India’s Nuclear Testing is a Wake-up Call to the World
India's nuclear tests are a wake-up call to the world, and particularly to the nuclear weapons states. The meeting of the parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in Geneva, which concluded on May 8th, attracted near zero press attention and achieved near zero results. It was virtually a non-event. On the other hand, India's tests three days later immediately got the world's attention. The message of India's tests is that we [...]
United States Policy and Nuclear Abolition
An address to the Olaf Palme Institute in Stockholm, Sweden You are certainly aware that the United States is committed under Article VI of the Non Proliferation Treaty to work in good faith for nuclear disarmament. You are probably also aware that last year President Clinton approved a policy that nuclear weapons would remain the cornerstone of U.S. security for the indefinite future. It is very difficult to reconcile these conflicting positions. [...]
India Press Statement
As announced by the Prime Minister this afternoon, today India conducted three underground nuclear tests in the Pokhran range. The tests conducted today were with a fission device, a low yield device and a thermonuclear device. The measured yields are in line with expected values. Measurement have also confirmed that there was no release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. These were contained explosions like the experiment conducted in May 1974. These tests [...]
Statement of the Foreign Minister of Pakistan
The news of resumption of nuclear testing by India has not come as a surprise to us. For the past 24 years, Pakistan had consistently drawn the attention of the international community to India's nuclear aspirations. the duplicity surrounding India's political pronouncements and its clandestine nuclear weapons programme was also pointed out. The Prime Minister of Pakistan had recently drawn the attention of the international community particularly states permanent members of the [...]
Nuclear Power
It is my belief, based on a professional lifetime of study, that further development of nuclear power presents an unacceptable radioactive curse on all future generations. Aside from the risks of accidents worse than we have so far seen, there is no suitable place in our environment to dispose of either present or future nuclear waste. Now massive public-relations efforts are being launched to retrain the public to trust the "experts." Damaged [...]
Canadian Church Leaders Seek End to Nuclear Weaponry: The Salvation Army War Cry
On Thursday, February 26, 1998, a representative group of church leaders went before the standing Committee of the House of Commons to talk about the moral urgency of a global drive to abolish nuclear weapons. This is one of the many social justice issues which The Salvation Army in this territory, in partnership with other churches and agencies, is seeking to address and resolve. The following letter addressed to Prime Minister Chretien [...]
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Fails to Ban Nuclear Tests
President Clinton submitted the long sought Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTB) to the Senate for ratification, but it falls far short of its description as "comprehensive" and it doesn't ban nuclear tests. Indeed, in 1997 and 1998, three so-called "sub-critical" nuclear test was conducted 1000 feet below the desert floor at the Nevada Test Site in which 3.3 pounds of deadly plutonium was blown up with chemical explosives without causing a chain [...]
NATO Expansion
To the U.S. Senate We believe that NATO expansion is a serious mistake. In this post-Cold War period, we should concentrate on reducing Russia's arsenal of nuclear weapons, ensuring that her warheads and nuclear materials are secure from diversion, and bringing Russia into the Western family of democratic nations. As you know, Russia has delayed ratification of the START II Treaty because of NATO expansion. Further, the tensions raised by expanding NATO [...]
European Parliament Resolution on sub-critical nuclear testing
The European Parliament, - having regard to its previous resolutions on nuclear non-proliferation, A. whereas sub-critical nuclear tests were carried out by the United States on 2 July 1997 and on 18 September 1997 at the Nevada Test Site, and whereas the US plans to carry out four more such tests before September 1998, B. noting that the US Government has presented the tests as necessary to ensure the safety and reliability [...]
Question and Answer Session at the National Press Club Newsmakers Luncheon with General Lee Butler
USAF, (ret.), Commander-in-Chief, United States Strategic Air Command (1991-92); Commander-in-Chief, United States Strategic Command (1992-94) DOUG HARBRECHT (Moderator. National Press Club president and Washington news editor of Business Week): (Brief audio break) - [Do you think the U.S. should consider using nuclear weapons in] Iraq or in response to any chemical or biological weapon threat? GEN. BUTLER: At the risk of reiterating something I just said, I think it's worth reiterating perhaps [...]
A Break in the Clouds
It is a great joy for my wife and I to return to Nagasaki. It has been more then 30 years since we last visited your beautiful city. I have often thought of the irony that Nagasaki should have entered the Nuclear Age as the second city to be bombed by an atomic weapon. When the U.S. B-29, Bock's Car, left Tinian Island carrying its deadly cargo in the early morning hours [...]
Countless Voices of Hope
It is with profound appreciation and gratitude that I return to this city of peace, this sacred city of Hiroshima. This city was made sacred not by the tragedy which befell it, but by the rebirth of hope which emerged from that tragedy. From the ashes of Hiroshima, flowers of hope have blossomed, bringing forth a renewed spirit of possibility, of peace, to a world in which hope has been too often [...]
The Risks of Nuclear Deterrence: From Superpowers to Rogue Leaders
National Press Club Thank you, and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Dorene and I are honored by your presence and gratified by your welcome. Although we are now proud residents of Nebraska -- note the obligatory display of home team colors -- Dorene and I feel very much at home in this city. I see many familiar faces in this audience, which makes the moment all the more special. I have two [...]
20 Mishaps that Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War
Ever since the two adversaries in the Cold War, U.S.A. and U.S.S.R., realized that their nuclear arsenals were sufficient to do disastrous damage to both countries at short notice, the leaders and military commanders have thought about the possibility of a nuclear war starting without their intention or as a result of a false alarm. Increasingly elaborate accessories have been incorporated in nuclear weapons and their delivery systems to minimize the risk [...]
Thirteen Million Voices for Abolishing Nuclear Arms
More than thirteen million Japanese citizens have signed a petition calling for the abolition of the world's nuclear arsenals in what may be the greatest outpouring of support ever for creating a nuclear weapons free world. The petition is part of a global campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons called Abolition 2000, an international network of over 900 citizen action groups in 74 countries. The signatures in Japan were collected in just three [...]
Security and Sustainability in a Nuclear Weapons Free World
There is a danger that the contemplation of security and sustainability in a nuclear weapons free world will imply to some readers that nuclear weapons have in some way provided security and even sustainability. It is not my intention to imply this. I believe that nuclear weapons have never at any time provided security for their possessors, and that they make no contribution to sustainability. The world that we currently live in [...]
Nuclear Weapons: A Call for Public Protest
Nuclear weapons, which are instruments of genocide, incinerate human beings. The Peace Memorial Museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki display gruesome evidence of the atomic bombings of those cities; one can see walls where human shadows remain after the humans who cast those shadows were incinerated into elemental particles. During World War II the Nazis put their victims into gas chambers and then incinerated them in ovens. While the Nazis took their victims [...]
New U.S. Guidelines on Nuclear Warfare Should be Released to the Public
New guidelines for the use of U.S. nuclear weapons were signed by the president in November 1997. These guidelines, which are contained in a four-page Presidential Decision Directive (PDD), have not been released to the public. Aspects of the guidelines, however, were leaked to the press and confirmed by administration officials. What is known about the new guidelines include the following: they were developed entirely in secret without any public, or even [...]
Human Rights, Wrongs, and Responsibilities
This is the 50th Anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document of vision and decency, which was proclaimed as a "common standard" for all humanity by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. At its heart, this is a document about the equal and inalienable right of every person to live in dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the great documents of [...]
Nuclear Weapons: The Global Dialogue
Nuclear weapons, which might more appropriately be called "instruments of genocide," are the ultimate weapons of mass annihilation. Global dialogue, on the other hand, is an engaged series of communications that seeks a deeper understanding and reconciliation of differences as well as peaceful solutions to conflicts affecting the international community. Nuclear weapons necessitate global dialogue. Throughout the Nuclear Age, most of the exchange on nuclear weapons within the nuclear weapons states has [...]