Global militarisation

The current priority of the dominant security actors is maintaining international security through the vigorous use of military force combined with the development of both nuclear and conventional weapons systems. Post-Cold War nuclear developments involve the modernisation and proliferation of nuclear systems, with an increasing risk of limited nuclear-weapons use in warfare – breaking a threshold that has held for sixty years and seriously undermining multilateral attempts at disarmament. These dangerous trends will be exacerbated by developments in national missile defence, chemical and biological weapons and a race towards the weaponisation of space.

Influential European Figures Issue Unprecedented Statement on Nuclear Dangers

Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians For Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation | http://toplevelgroup.org/ | April 2010

Issue:Global militarisation

Tagss:nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation

Reported on the website of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians For Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation, 41 senior European statesmen and women recently signed an unprecedented European statement highlighting the world’s growing nuclear dangers and calling for greater international efforts to address them. Representing a range of political persuasions, this is a non-partisan scaling up of the European political presence in the international nuclear debate. It also signals the formation of a new European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, designed to allow ongoing and coordinated European interventions on crucial nuclear issues.

Source: Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians For Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation

Image source: BlatantNews.com

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Beyond "liddism": towards real global security

Paul Rogers | openDemocracy | April 2010

Issue:Global militarisation

A decade of pitiless wars and brutal inequalities has made the arguments of the book “Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century” - first published before 9/11, and now in its third edition - more relevant than ever. In his 450th column for openDemocracy, Paul Rogers looks back and forward.

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Afghanistan: victory talk, regional tide

Paul Rogers | openDemocracy | March 2010

Issue:Global militarisation

A seductive narrative of military progress in Afghanistan is spreading among United States analysts. The real story is more complicated.

Photo source: The U.S. Army

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Yemen: state fragility, piety, and the problems with intervention

Lisa Wedeen | NOREF | March 2010

Issue:Global militarisation

In this recent publication from the Norwegian  Peacebuilding Centre (NOREF), Lisa Wedeen argues that "The seemingly neutral category of “failed states,” as applied to Yemen, constructs the country as a place in need of intervention. In obscuring more than it reveals about local realities, outside interference runs the risk of being counterproductive."

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How small arms and light weapons proliferation undermines security and development

Rachel Stohl, EJ Hodendoorn | Center for American Progress | March 2010

Issues:Global militarisation, Marginalisation

The proliferation of small arms and light weapons is an immediate security challenge to individuals, societies, and states around the world and an enormous hurdle to sustainable security and development.

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America and Israel: a historic choice

Paul Rogers | openDemocracy | March 2010

Issue:Global militarisation

Pictured to the left, past construction in Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem (courtesy of activestills); yet as Paul Rogers argues 'The serious row between Washington and Tel Aviv is about far more than the construction of homes in east Jerusalem; it goes to the heart of the close military alliance between the two states.'

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