(Vatican Radio) The Vatican is calling for integral nuclear disarmament.
According to the preliminary conclusions
Hans Blix: The most important lesson in diplomacy is not to humiliate
In an interview Dr Hans Blix -- after many years of experiences as a Swedish diplomat working in various positions in and for the UN -- shares his views on current international relations and challenges and opportunities in the international rules-based order. We are happy to share this interview, provided by the European Leaders Network ELN. A German edition for our German part of our homepage is in preparation.
In this long interview, Dr Blix elaborates on his 2017 ELN commentary ‘From an Isolated Iran to an Isolated US’ in which he states arguments made against the Iran Deal are tenuous; adding he felt it: “important to say that the US is getting away with claiming they are withdrawing from an agreement – it was not an 'agreement'. The Joint Plan of Action was not signed, nor termed a treaty or agreement because that could never be submitted to the US Senate. It was very deliberate. A deal was agreed between countries and given its legal binding force by the Security Council..."
As well as the Iran Deal, Dr Blix shares his views on supporting the integrity of international organisations, Russia-West relations, NATO, and attitudes toward global non-proliferation and arms control:
Former SPD leaders call to stop a new nuclear arms race in Europe
Early October 2018 President Trump announced his intention to terminate the INF agreement on banning land-based nuclear medium-range missiles which Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 had agreed upon. Trump's announcement has led to a quick reaction in Germany: On 26 October 2018 nine former SPD leaders and four former ministers issued a call to stop a new nuclear arms race in Europe. "New intermediate range missiles will have even less warning time than the systems of the 1980s, the very weapons against which millions of people took to the streets in peaceful manifestations. This increases the risk of an unintended nuclear confrontation due to errors and miscalculations." Within a week more than 5,000 German citizens had declared their support via the Internet: No nuclear arms race in Europe!
A reckoning with America’s failed national-security policy is long overdue. Donald Trump’s reckless machinations are destructive, but so too is the bipartisan establishment consensus that has defined our role in the world for decades and remains remarkably unshaken... while citizen movements have begun to transform domestic politics, they have been virtually invisible when it comes to foreign policy. This special issue of The Nation challenges what has been a remarkably narrow debate in this area...We seek to instigate not only a more open debate, but a new call to action.
William Perry: Have we forgotten the Cold War? Nuclear threat more real than ever!
Statement of William Perry, former Secretary of Defense for the United States, on the risks of the conflict about North Korea's nuclear weapons programme (via "The Hill").
Arms Control and Disarmament — SIPRI and the recommended LINKs
In January 2017 SIPRI presented a new publication:
Reintroducing Disarmament and Cooperative Security to the Toolbox of 21st Century Leaders
edited by Dan Plesch, Kevin Miletic and Tariq Rauf
… To the vast majority of people, ‘disarmament’
Statement Joseph Gerson (PhD) / American Friends Service Committee, AFS
The authors of “Détente Now: A New Call for Peace, Security and Cooperation” have initiated a campaign, which I trust will be pursued by people at many levels society in order to bring the nuclear superpowers back from the brink of nuclear annihilation. Tensions between nations are inevitable, but they must not be permitted to lead to catastrophic war.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier: Reviving Arms Control in Europe!
European security ...is under threat once again. So, once again, Europe’s security must top our political agenda. Even before the Ukraine conflict began in 2014, there were growing signs of a brewing confrontation between rival blocs... Arms-control agreements, history has demonstrated, are not the result of existing trust – they are a means to build trust where it has been lost. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation...Soon after the crisis – when the US-Soviet relationship was at an all-time low – both superpowers decided that it was time to work across the divide, through small and concrete steps. This principle was also at the heart of Willy Brandt’s Neue Ostpolitik in the 1960s and 1970s....
Info on United NationsRole to Maintain Peace and Security
Aufgaben der Vereinten Nationen zur Erhaltung von Frieden und Sicherheit / What We Do – Maintain International
William Perry: “We must restore cooperation between the U.S. and Russia”
“When I left the Pentagon, I believed we were well on the way to ending forever that Cold War enmity, but
1998 – National War College: Brandt’s Ostpolitik was most successful
“By the late 1960s, the stage was set for detente …. For detente to succeed, the West would have to accept
