Arms Control

There Are Enough Resources In The World To Fulfil Human Needs

August 4, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Arms Control, Capitalism, Class Struggle, Peace, United Nations

On 20 July, the United Nations (UN) released a document called A New Agenda for Peace. In the opening section of the report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made some remarks that bear close reflection: We are now at an inflection point. The post-Cold War period is over. A transition is under way to a new global order. While its contours remain to be defined, leaders around the world have referred to multipolarity as one of its defining traits. In this moment of transition, power dynamics have become increasingly fragmented as new poles of influence emerge, new economic blocs form and axes of contestation are redefined.

Scott Ritter: Reimagining Arms Control After Ukraine

March 1, 2023 Scott Ritter, Consortium News. Educate! Arms Control, NATO, New START Treaty, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The U.S. withdrawal from the foundational Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty in 2002 undid the functional and theoretical premise of mutually assured destruction (MAD) that provided logical equilibrium to the fundamentals of nuclear deterrence theory. Similarly, the Trump administration’s precipitous termination of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 2019 attacked both elements of the “trust but verify” maxim that governed issues of compliance verification that made arms control viable in the first place. The last remaining arms control agreement that places limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of both the U.S. and Russia is the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

A Lexicon For Disaster

December 20, 2022 Scott Ritter, Consortium News. Educate! Arms Control, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Wars and Militarism

Dec. 8 marked the 35th anniversary of the signing of the intermediate nuclear forces (INF) treaty. This landmark arms control event was the byproduct of years of hard-nose negotiations capped off by the political courage of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev who together signed the treaty and oversaw its ratification by their respective legislatures. The first inspectors went to work on July 1, 1988. I was fortunate to count myself among them. In August 2019, former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the INF treaty; Russia followed shortly thereafter, and this foundational arms control agreement was no more. The termination of the INF treaty is part and parcel of an overall trend which has seen arms control as an institution — and a concept — decline in the eyes of policy makers in both Washington and Moscow.

Weapons Industry Is Jubilant About Biden’s Nominee For Arms Buyer

December 12, 2021 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Educate! Arms Control, Biden administration, Wars and Militarism, Weapons makers

LaPlante is being poached directly from the military industry that is praising him, which he entered after serving in an acquisitions role under the Obama administration, where he was known for shepherding through major (and controversial) programs, such as the acquisition of the F‑35 fighter jet. By moving from government to industry, then back to government (should the Senate confirm him), all while the weapons industry cheers, LaPlante has spun through a well-trodden revolving door — a career trajectory that is entirely routine, but nonetheless scandalous. In a November 30 White House statement, President Biden praised LaPlante as a “seasoned national security leader with nearly four decades of experience in acquisition, technology, sustainment and the defense industrial base.”

Trump’s War On Arms Control And Disarmament

August 17, 2020 Melvin Goodman, Counterpunch. Educate! Arms Control, Nuclear Ban Treaty, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism

Trump’s hostile and counterproductive acts have undermined the arms control regime that U.S. presidents have developed over the past seven decades. Every president from Eisenhower to Obama contributed to improving the verification and monitoring of strategic arms; reducing the numbers of strategic weapons; eliminating intermediate-range missiles, and/or trying to avoid accidental confrontation. During the presidential campaign in 2016, ten former nuclear control officers anticipated the worst and organized a letter stating that, if elected, Trump should not be given the nuclear codes. For the past two years, Trump has taken steps to thoroughly weaken the arms control regime. In 2018, Trump scuttled the Iran nuclear accord, which had brought a measure of predictability to the volatile Middle East. The Trump administration then scuttled the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which was responsible for the destruction of more missiles than any treaty in history. More recently, the Trump administration walked away from the Open Skies Treaty, which was negotiated by President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker in 1992, but has a history that dates to the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s. . .

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