Kazakhstan Committed to a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World
By Katsuhiro Asagiri and Kunsaya Kurmet-Rakhimova*
ASTANA. 10 September 2023 (IDN) — The Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan is playing a key role in implementing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)—as the designated president of the third meeting of states parties of the TPNW, and the co-chair of the working group on victim assistance and environmental remediation—alongside another state affected by nuclear tests, Kiribati.
Contentious Preparations for the 2026 NPT Review Conference
Analysis by Sergio Duarte
The writer is an Ambassador, a former High Representative of the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs., and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
NEW YORK. 7 September 2023 (IDN) — The preparatory cycle for each Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was established at the Review and Extension Conference as one of the elements that made possible agreement on the indefinite extension of the Treaty. (P17) JAPANESE | KOREAN
US Accused of Double Standards at the UN Security Council
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS. 6 September 2023 (IDN) — As North Korea continues to defy the Security Council, it has made a mockery of one of the most powerful political bodies at the UN—openly violating its resolutions with monotonous regularity.
The violations have triggered strong condemnations by the US, the Group of 7 (G7) and Secretary-General António Guterres.
From Nagasaki to Vienna: Youth Advocates for a Nuclear-Free Future
By Mitsunobu Takahashi *
VIENNA. 5 September 2023 (IDN) — The first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 NPT Review Conference was convened from 31 July until 11 August at the Vienna International Centre in Austria. This was my first time to attend such an international conference at the United Nations.
African Connection of Atom Bomb That Destroyed Hiroshima
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK. 24 August 2023 (IDN) — This month marks the anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb, developed in the U.S. and dropped on a Japanese city to deadly effect.
Little is known, however, of the African connection to this deadly weapon—namely the use of uranium in making the bomb and subsequent atomic weapons —all of the mineral sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Hiroshima Was Not Necessary or Inevitable
By Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden. 15 August 2023 (IDN) — 78 years ago, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9 was premeditated mass murder.
President Harry Truman had a workable alternative to using the atom bomb- to cooperate with Stalin, as Roosevelt and Churchill had done on the Western front and in the Soviet advance on Japan, rather than making it a race for control. Indeed, it was the Soviet advance that convinced Japan to surrender.
First Person: Life Story of a 3rd Generation Survivor of Soviet Nuclear Tests in Kazakhstan
VIENNA. 13 August 2023 (IDN) — At a side event co-organized by the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan in Vienna, Soka Gakkai International (SGI), and Center for International Security and Policy (Kazakhstan), Dmitriy Vesselov—a third-generation Semipalatinsk nuclear-testing survivor—spoke at the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) beginning of August 2023 in Vienna.
It’s Time for No-First Use as Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight
By Aurora Weiss
VIENNA. 11 August 2023 (IDN) — At the two-week-long Preparatory Committee meeting here for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI)—in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)—and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation organized a side event. (P 16) ITALIAN | JAPANESE
The Erosion of The International Arms Control Regimes
By Sergio Duarte
The writer is an Ambassador, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.
NEW YORK. 9 August 2023 (IDN) — Nuclear weapons burst into the international scenario 21 days after the signature of the Charter of the United Nations. For that chronological reason, the Charter does not mention nuclear weapons. (P 15) INDONESIAN | JAPANESE | KOREAN
An Early Warning to Prevent Renewed & Catastrophic Korean War
By Joseph Gerson*
NEW YORK. 9 August 2023 (IDN) — Along with the obvious and increasing military tensions across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China/West Philippine Sea, the continuing danger that confrontational policies, arms racing, and provocative military operations across and around the Korean Peninsula could all too easily trigger escalation to the unthinkable.
