The UK and the NPT: Rhetoric, Simulations and Reality
Issue:Global militarisation
Recently returned from the NPT Review Conference in New York, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ UK Co-ordinator, Tim Street, reflects on the UK’s contribution to the conference exclusively for sustainablesecurity.org. He writes that without sufficient progress on a legally-binding timeframe for disarmament, the current window of opportunity for nuclear abolition may not only close, but a new era of nuclear proliferation and terror may be opened.
Read more »Posted on 26/05/10
New Report: Britain Needs Full International Security Review
Issues:Global militarisation, Marginalisation
A new report by the Oxford Research Group on the UK's Strategic Defence Review calls for the cancellation of the aircraft carrier project, the scaling-down of the Trident programme, and the establishment of an independent Defence Procurement Authority.
Image source: Sgt Rob Knight RLC (MOD/Crown 2010).
Read more »Posted on 26/05/10
Climate change, conflict and fragility: understanding the linkages, shaping effective responses
Issue:Climate change
This excellent report by International Alert examines the growing risk of armed conflict as a result of climate change now being experienced by some of the most fragile regions of the world, and reveals the alarming consequences of continued inaction to enable affected countries to adapt to the consequences of climate driven changes on their populations.
Taken from the introduction:
This paper outlines the climate-conflict interlinkages and the challenges involved in responding to their combined challenge. Establishing the overall goal of international policy on adaptation as helping people in developing countries adapt successfully to climate change even where there is
state fragility or conflict risk, the paper makes and explains eight specific policy recommendations.
To redirect to the International Alert weblink for this report please click here.
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Exploring the security implications of climate change in South Asia - International Alert co-hosts South Asia Climate and Security Expert Roundtable in Dhaka
Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources, Marginalisation
International Alert, together with the Bangladesh Institute for Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) and the Regional Centre for Security Studies and the Peacebuilding and Development Institute in Sri Lanka, co-hosted an expert roundtable on the Security Implications of Climate Change in South Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 29th-30th March 2010.
The two-day event brought together experts from Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for an important regional exchange on issues related to climate change and security. International Alert’s recent work on climate change, fragility and conflict has shown that the security implications of climate change are a very real but relatively unexplored issue worldwide and in this region. This event marked the start of a significant process, creating a space for a critical discussion on the interlinkages between climate change and conflict in South Asia.
Source: International Alert
Image source: Orangeadnan
Read more »Posted on 5/05/10
Nuclear weapons: beyond non-proliferation?
Issue:Global militarisation
The stakes are high and the outcome too close to call as the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for four weeks of intense debate in New York.
The eighth Review Conference of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will get under way at the United Nations in New York next week. Scheduled to run for a month, the Conference brings together top diplomats from 189 countries and over 2000 representatives of civil society to debate a range of issues relating to nuclear disarmament, security and preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons and the fissile materials that make them.
Source: OpenDemocracy
Image source: The Official CTBTO Photostream
Read more »Posted on 5/05/10
NUCLEAR ABOLITION: Dramatic Arab Appeal for a Nuclear-Free World
Issue:Global militarisation
NUCLEAR ABOLITION: Dramatic Arab Appeal for a Nuclear-Free World
ISTANBUL (IDN) - Call it perfect timing or a sheer historical coincidence; be it because they feel caught between the Israeli nuclear hammer and the Iranian might-be atomic anvil or just because they truly want it, the fact is that the leaders of 22 Arab countries have launched an unprecedented massive and pressing call to free the world from nuclear weapons.
During their summit in Sirt, Libya, Arab leaders had to deal with a heavy agenda centred on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Tel Aviv's ongoing challenges to the world community and its progressive violation of international law by further building colonies on occupied territories and East Jerusalem as well as the Darfur conflict, the threatening instability in Yemen, the Somali drama and, above all, the need for more coherent, collective Arab policies, among other key issues.
Source: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES Magazine for international cooperation
Image source: BlatantNews.com
Read more »Posted on 29/04/10
