Interview wirh Jo Leinen about the European elections and the Ukraine crisis. Leinen: "The "single" idea of Europe no longer exists. After WWII it was easy to agree on the idea of peace. Now it has become more diverse. While the idea of peace still remains – just look at Ukraine – there is the concept of being able to continue living a good life in Europe. In the 21st century we want to defend our values and our interests in an ever-shrinking world. Granted, that is a bit more complicated to explain but it is just as important as the idea for peace." Leinen has called it a disservice that the German Constitutional Court ruled to remove the 3% electoral threshold". He says: "The Court underestimates the role of the parliament as a legislative body and as a means of assembling the European executive. It seems to have compared the European level to the level of a city council, where it does not matter how many parties emerge. That is wrong. We need to bundle interests. A fragmented European parliament is less able to make decisions than one in which political currents and interests are bundled into various political groups. Everything else hinders and complicates its work."
"The New START treaty is in the bag, approved by the US Congress and Russian Duma." Hans M Kristensen : "But the treaty does not, as the New York Times report mistakenly states, “require the United States and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals…to 1,5
"Call for Papers Unthinking the Imaginary War. Intellectual Reflections of the Nuclear Age, 1945-1990 International Conference, jointly organised by the Centre for Peace History, University of Sheffield, and the Arbeitskreis für Historische Friedensforsch
17 february 2010. Hundreds of peace protesters demonstrated Monday outside a factory in southern England where warheads for Trident nuclear submarines are made. Despite efforts from Britain's military to scale down long term spending, Defense Secretary Bo
I sin krönika i Dagsavisen 16 april kommenterar Norges utrikesminister Obamas utspel: "Nå kan vi stå ved en korsvei. For to uker siden ble Obama og Medvedev enige om å forhandle om nye reduksjoner i antallet strategiske raketter. I en tale i Praha 5. apri
By Ian Gallagher and Daniel Boffey, Daily Mail 22nd November 2009. Photo of Protestors: Cathy Ashton, circled, at No10 in 1982, with Bruce Kent and Joan Ruddock, centre. "Other records detail the contact that Miss Ashton and fellow CND members had with th
The Nation, November 16, 2009. - On September 23, Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel and her husband, Stephen F. Cohen, a contributing editor, interviewed former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at his foundation in Moscow.
The New Reasoner 1957-59 issues are made available on line by the Amiel and Melburn Trust, copyright free with an introduction Peter Worsley, assisted by Dorothy Thompson and Stuart Hall
The power of silence is overwhelming. This is the sound of guns falling silent on the Western front 1918. On the 100th anniversary of the Peace after the First World War 11h of November, we call for action to stop the present escalation that is increasing the risk of a war in the world. We…
Von 2026 an sollen Marschflugkörper vom Typ Tomahawk mit deutlich mehr als 2.000 Kilometern Reichweite, Flugabwehrraketen vom Typ SM-6 und neu entwickelte Überschallwaffen für einen besseren Schutz der Nato-Verbündeten in Europa sorgen.
Das gaben das Weiße Haus und die Bundesregierung am Rande des Nato-Gipfels in Washington bekannt.
Die genannten Systeme hätten eine "deutlich weitere Reichweite als gegenwärtige landgestützte Systeme in Europa", hieß es in einer gemeinsamen Erklärung. Sie sollen zunächst zeitweise in Deutschland stationiert werden, später permanent.
Der Beginn der geplanten Stationierung liegt mehr als ein Jahr nach der US-Präsidentenwahl im kommenden November. Die Entscheidung könnte also rückgängig gemacht werden, falls der Republikaner Donald Trump die US-Wahl gewinnt.
Trump hatte während seiner Amtszeit von 2017 bis 2021 eine Reduzierung der US-Militärpräsenz in Deutschland eingeleitet, die später unter dem jetzigen Präsidenten Joe Biden gestoppt wurde.
A bit of background in case you are interested:- Professional I am Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. I am also a part-time Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manchester, where I'm affiliated with the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute. Until August this year I was Secretary General of…
Holger Nehring, 30 March 2010 "With the exception of the small so-called intervention forces, European armies are, therefore, for the most part extremely ill-equipped and under-funded to engage in warfare. This has led to a disjuncture and often complete
"In April 1997, Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy/International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation release
Jonathan Steele in the Guardian 2 November 1999: "So now, as its 10th anniversary approaches this month, it is worth getting back to the facts behind the fall of the Berlin wall. The key role in creating the climate which led to the dramatic climax of the
Russia must halt its covert development of a banned cruise missile system or the United States will seek to destroy it before it becomes operational, Washington's envoy to NATO said on Tuesday.
Die Gefahr durch Atomwaffen steigt. Doch immer weniger Bürger kommen zu den Protesten. Ein Grund sind antieuropäische Positionen. Ein Kommentar von "Christoph Von Marshall"
Sergei A. Karaganov
Professor Emeritus
National Research University–Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs
Academic Supervisor;
Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
Honorary Chairman of the Presidium
Karagano speaks abt the necessity of fear.
"... 4 phases, boost, ascent, mid-course and terminal, each corresponding to a different phase of the threat ballistic missile flight regime.... the geography of each defended area dictates the types of systems that can be employed... Alternatively activities are categorized in 5 "blocks". For example, block 4.0 is "Defend Allies and Deployed Forces in Europe from Limited Iranian Long-Range Threats and Expand Protection of U.S. Homeland". It includes the US missile defense complex in Poland to be constructed, and the European Mid-course Radar (EMR) currently located at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll, to be modified and relocated to the Czech Republic.
26Oct99 - BBC Intranet entry for BAP: "The British American Project (BAP) was founded in 1985 to encourage 'transatlantic friendship' between 'future leaders' of Britain and the United States. It is funded by donations from large corporations and was originally known as the 'British-American Project for the Successor Generation'. Each year BAP invites 24 American and 24 British delegates to take part in four days of dinners, parties and discussions. The aim is to "create, at a time of growing international strains and stresses, a closer rapport between Britain and the United States among people likely to become influential decision-makers during the next two decades". Delegates are nominated by existing fellows. They include George Robertson, Chris Smith, Mo Mowlem, Peter Mandelson, Jonathan Powell, Trevor Phillips, Charles Moore, James Naughtie and Evan Davis. Critics of BAP, such as John Pilger, have suggested that it constitutes a type of right-wing "casual freemasonry". "
E. P. Thompson and English Radicalism Edited By Roger Fieldhouse and Richard Taylor Manchester University Press, December 2013 ISBN: 978-0-7190-8821-6, ISBN10: 0-7190-8821-6, 6.175 x 9.250 inches, 256 pages, Book Hardcover 100 usd
The utilitarian, competitive ethic he now saw as the ethic of Cain; he always known that it murdered art, he had come to understand that it murdered man's dignity as a creator in his daily labour, he now discovered that it could murder mankind. He spoke in a lecture of 'the strength of that tremendous organisation under which we live .... Rather than lose anything which really is its essence, it will pull the roof of the world down upon its head'. He was consumed with the urgency of the socialist propaganda. If capitalism were not to be displaced by a clear-sighted constructive revolutionary movement, if it were to end in mere deadlock and blind insurrection, then 'the end, the fall of Europe, may be long in coming, but when it does, it will be far more terrible, far more confused and full of suffering than the period of the fall of Rome'.
Sergei Karaganov: "For many years I have studied the history of nuclear strategy and come to an unambiguous, albeit seemingly not quite scientific, conclusion. The creation of nuclear weapons was the result of divine intervention. Horrified to see that people, Europeans and the Japanese who had joined them, had unleashed two world wars within the life-span of one generation, sacrificing tens of millions of lives, God handed a weapon of Armageddon to humanity to remind those who had lost the fear of hell that it existed. It was this fear that ensured relative peace for the last three quarters of a century. That fear is gone now. What is happening now is unthinkable in accordance with previous ideas about nuclear deterrence: in a fit of desperate rage, the ruling circles of a group of countries have unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower."
Richard Taylor and Roger Fieldhouse The Guardian, Tuesday 31 December 2013 Our history is under attack EP Thompson knew progress was won from below – a fact that the elite would always rather we forget
Yrjö Kokkonen Yle Uutiset 2.11.13: "Britanniassa julkistetut, tähän saakka salassa pysyneet hallituksen dokumentit paljastavat, että maailma oli erittäin lähellä täysimittaista ydinsotaa vuonna 1983. Tapahtuma säikäytti Britannian pääministerin Margaret Thatcherin, minkä ansiosta Nato-maat alkoivat liennyttää välejä Neuvostoliiton kanssa. Asiasta kertoo brittilehti The Guardian." "Britannian hallituksen asiakirjat on saanut haltuunsa ydinaseita vastustava järjestö Nuclear Information Service (NIS). Sen mukaan ydinsota oli tuolloin paljon lähempänä kuin esimerkiksi Kuuban kriisin aikaan vuonna 1962."
MN3 is an International Network of Unions and Organizations located and acting in countries around/of the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Black Sea and Middle East with ultimate goal the transformation of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Balkans and the Middle East into a Zone free from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction
Among the hundreds of campaigners who will be present at the blockade on Monday, 15 February, are Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jody Williams, from Vermont, USA and Máiread Corrigan-Maguire, from Belfast, Northern Ireland. [3] Also attending the blockade ar
European air force bases that store U.S. nuclear bombs are failing to meet basic security requirements to safeguard the weapons, according to a report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
by William C. Potter, Djuro Miljanic & Ivo Slaus Published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, http://www.bullatomsci.org/ March/April 2000 Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 63-70
The 20 US nuclear bombs that are stationed at Germany’s Büchel Air Base have become so unpopular, that mainstream politicians and religious leaders have joined anti-war organizations in demanding their ouster and have promised to make the weapons a campaign issue in next year’s national elections.
The Europe for Peace Declaration was drafted in 2007 by members of the humanist movement to promote disarmament and peace through the immense power of non-violence. Internationally, it has been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Mikhail Gorbachev, Giulietto Chiesa, Dario Fo, Margherita Hack and many organisations have backed the Declaration.
The campaign has spread around the world, and one of its main achievements was to help stop the United States from building a space shield in the Czech Republic, despite the majority of the population being against it.
Now we are committed to stopping the madness of the war in Ukraine between Russia and the US before it explodes into a third world war.
China’s Global Security Initiative should be carefully considered and discussed. Even a brief survey of world events indicates the pressing need for a different set of security arrangements from those currently pursued by the US and NATO allies.
Text of Lecture by Andrew Lichterman: Looking Forward, Looking Backward: World War I, Today’s Risk of Great Power war, and Nuclear Disarmament. Andrew Lichterman is a lawyer and policy analyst for the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California. This is the text of a presentation delivered at “Facing the Dangers of 21st Century Great Power War: A Conference on the Centenary of World War I,” held May 3, 2014, in New York City. The conference was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Peace and Economic Security Program, International Peace Bureau, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office, and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and its U.S. affiliates, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and the Western States Legal Foundation.
Olav Versto (VG) 21.09.1999 Frank Bjerkholt skriver i sin siste bok at Kåre Willoch reddet Arbeiderpartiet fra å bli tatt i grov løgn under den dramatiske rakettstriden i Stortinget i 1982. Saken kan like gjerne ses slik at det var Willoch-regjeringen som skapte Aps problem. Kåre Willochs Høyre-regjering offentliggjorde sikkerhetspolitiske forhold som Ap-regjeringene i alle år hadde holdt i den dypeste hemmelighet... Gro Harlem Brundtland og hennes menn overså at det var deres egen regjering som i NATO hadde vært med på å bestemme at pengene til rakettforberedelsene skulle utbetales i 1982... Aps misforståelse kan blant annet skyldes at bevilgningsteknikken til NATOs såkalte infrastrukturprogram er meget komplisert. Norge var netto mottager av støtte fra programmet. Det norske bidraget på 3 millioner til rakettrampene fremkom derfor ikke som utgift i forsvarsbudsjettet, men som redusert inntekt.
"We, representatives of the Ukrainian people in Germany, heavily condemn violent repressions, which took place last night in Kyiv and the actions of the President of Ukraine and his government, who stand behind these brutality. We ask for your assistance and involvement...."
The European Parliament today decided to call on the Commission and the Council to award the Title of European Capital of Culture exceptionally to Sarajevo in 2014. The Chairwoman of the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, Doris Pack MEP, said: "Sarajevo holds a special place in Europe's history and culture. With this nomination, we could send an important signal for the multi-ethnic character of the city and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which could cause a change of thinking in the political factor of the country. Furthermore, this city shows how much Europe has failed and how important it is to work together."
Atombomben stoppades av en folkrörelse som samlades kring det socialdemokratiska kvinnoförbundet, med Inga Thorsson som ordförande. Den motståndstraditionen fördes vidare när Ulla Lindström, tidigare biståndsminister i Tage Erlanders regering, blev en av
« Quelle sécurité en Europe et dans le monde, après le sommet de Lisbonne ? » : un modeste colloque, organisé fin janvier au Sénat à Paris par une parlementaire communiste, Michelle Demessine, a permis de faire le point sur trois questions qui ne sont jam
Monday, 15 February 2010 The Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire, was subject to the biggest blockade in years as 800 campaigners effectively blocked all entrances to the site for several hours. Anti-nuclear campaigners are intent on o
Tony Robinson: "DiEM25 believes that nuclear weapons have no place in European security doctrines and that all nuclear weapons should be removed from European territory, be they British, French, American or Russian. We call on all European nations to sign the Ban Treaty as a matter of human survival."
Before the end of the cold war, nuclear apocalypse was a frightening possibility that overshadowed everyone’s lives. With tensions rising between the US and North Korea, we can learn valuable lessons from CND and Greenham Common
Tom Sauer (2020) Power and Nuclear Weapons: The Case of the European Union, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 3:1, 41-59, DOI: 10.1080/25751654.2020.1764260
As the political philosopher Hannah Arendt once stated: “The danger is that these [deterrence] theories are not only plausible because they take their evidence from actually discernable present trends, but that, because of their inner consistency, they have a hypnotic effect; they put to sleep our common sense, which is nothing else but our mental organ for perceiving, understanding, and dealing with reality and factuality” (quoted in Harrington 2016, 105–106)