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.

Rushing Carefully in Libya

John Norris | Center for American Progress | March 2011

Issues:Global militarisation, Marginalisation

Executive Director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress, John Norris discusses the need to consider options carefully to avoid militarising the West's response to the crisis in Libya. He writes that blowing up a runway or imposing a no-fly zone are not silver bullets. And one would hope that after the experience of both Afghanistan and Iraq—and earlier interventions such as Kosovo and Bosnia—we understand that war is a dangerous, uncertain business.

Image source: Quigibo. 

Read more »

Human Security in practice

Mary Kaldor | openDemocracy | February 2011

Issue:Global militarisation

One aspect of the global economic crisis that is rarely discussed is the hole in government budgets caused by the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by the mind-boggling expense of weapons systems like Trident or advanced combat aircraft or aircraft carriers. In the United States, the War on Terror enabled President Bush to double the military budget; excluding the supplemental cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. US military spending accounts for some $700 billion a year, roughly the same as Obama’s stimulus plan, and the cost of the wars may be as much as three trillion dollars. What makes this myopia worse is that conventional military spending does not appear to contribute to a sense of security, if it ever did.

Read the full article here

Image source: VinothChandar

Read more »

Bridging the North-South divide: Sustainable Security for all

Hannah Brock | Oxford Research Group | January 2011

Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources, Global militarisation, Marginalisation

For some years, the Oxford Research Group (ORG) has been analysing the likely underlying drivers of global insecurity over the coming years, and ways to develop sustainable responses to these threats. This analysis has focused on four trends that are expected to foster substantial global and regional instability, and large-scale loss of life, of a magnitude unmatched by other potential threats. These are climate change, competition over resources, marginalisation of the ‘majority world’ and global militarisation.

Read the full article here.

Author: Hannah Brock

Image source: WorldIslandInfo.com

Read more »

A New Military Paradigm

Paul Rogers | openDemocracy | January 2011

Issue:Global militarisation

A near-decade of global war since 9/11 highlights the urgent need for revision of Washington’s military-led global strategy. A fresh analysis offers the ingredients for change -  a joint study by the LSE professor Mary Kaldor and the United States army colonel Shannon  D Beebe: The Ultimate Weapon is No Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace

 

Image source: The National Guard. 

Read more »

A Backwards Step for Sustainable Security in the US

Brian Katulis | Center for American Progress | January 2011

Issue:Global militarisation

Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Brian Katulis writes of the rise of an influential faction among America’s right that can best be described as national security regressives. These are “conservative” voices such as Gov. Mitt Romney (pictured) who oppose strengthening and utilizing the full range of traditional tools of American statecraft, including assertive diplomacy, smart and balanced national security spending, and precise and targeted measures to combat terrorist groups. 
 

Photo source: nmfbihop.

Read more »

New UN Resolution on Uranium Weapons

Issue:Global militarisation

148 states have supported a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling on state users of depleted uranium weapons to reveal where the weapons have been fired when asked to do so by affected countries

Article source: International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons

Image source: BlatantWorld.com

Read more »