If U.S. leaders were really interested in Americans security, they would upgrade public health and housing rather than upgrading the military and thereby encouraging a dangerous arms race with China. Everyone who abhors war, detests imperialism, and favors cooperation between nations on global warming, poverty reduction, protection of biodiversity, international disarmament, implementation of international law, […]
Wikipedia gives a running list of the “contributions” that nations around the world have made in both humanitarian aid and military aid to Ukraine. While Wikipedia itself is often subject to “influence” and, hence, biased reporting, it seems that the aggregate of information presented here is a fair representation of what is taking place. Many […]
President Carlos Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica wore a mask during his entire video speech to the UN General Assembly high-level debate this year. Of 190 leaders who spoke, only 9 were women. JOHN PENNEY
Brian Hook, the US envoy for Iran, with Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, Kuwait City, July 27, 2020. Hook has left his job just as the US wants the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution extending the arms ban embedded in the Iran nuclear deal. Elliott Abrams, US envoy for Venezuela, is to replace Hook.
A Saudi-led post-bombing scene in Hodeidah, Yemen. The US is the world’s largest exporter of explosive weapons, and Saudi Arabia is its biggest customer. DIETRICH KLOSE/FLICKR
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov of Russia, left, with Marshall Billingslea, US envoy for arms control, in a tweet posted on June 22 by the latter after the first round of nuclear-arms bilateral talks in Vienna. The essayists say that Washington’s arms controllers “seem stuck in the unipolar worldview of the 1990s.”
[Prefatory Note: The essay below, longer than most of my posts, started off as a tribute to my friend David Krieger, serving as a chapter in a forthcoming book honoring his dedication to the abolition of nuclear weaponry by way of a treaty regime being prepared under the editorship of Rick Wayman, now President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Krieger’s successor. In the modified form published below the essay calls attention to the generally unappreciated tensions between managing nuclear weapons and eliminating them altogether.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, an Argentine who was heavily backed by the US, becomes the new director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Dec. 2. He faces many internal and external pressures, including Iran’s uranium enrichment activities. DEAN CALMA/IAEA
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s top diplomat to the UN, briefing the media, Oct. 16, 2019. Russia and Iran have been vigorously protesting US visa denials to dozens of their diplomats. Our new podcast episode explains their strategy. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
While Turkey has carried out its plan to invade northeast Syria and the United Nations Security Council has failed to react in a unified way, Russia and Iran have been making their own moves in the UN headquarters in New York, to achieve a political goal: disrupting crucial General Assembly committees.
Demonstrators in Berlin protesting the war in Syria. A new attribution team at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is ready to work on determining who is to blame for the 2018 chemical attacks in Syria, despite angry objections by Russia. CREATIVE COMMONS
