We at Ploughshares highly recommend the new book by War Child’s Samantha Nutt, Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid, the critically acclaimed account of her decades of work in some of the most devastated corners of the world. We were pleased to note that on page 153, she acknowledges the work of Project Ploughshares: “NGOs don’t have to be …
Canada redefines the Libya arms embargo
Joël-Denis Bellavance, a reporter with La Press in Montreal, published an article today dealing with Canada’s approval in April of the export of a suitcase-sized drone to the rebel forces in Libya. The export was made in contravention of the UN embargo on supplying arms to Libya. Bellavance based his story on related documents, heavily blacked out, secured through the …
The F-35: What goes up must come down
One silver lining in the dark clouds of economic malaise accumulating in Western skies is that military spending must inevitably drop. The Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that world military expenditures reached a record $1.6-trillion (U.S.) in 2010, an unprecedented government outlay that is clearly unsustainable. Some states may increase military expenditures in the near term but the big …
Guns and doctors
When I was raising my kids, my pediatrician talked to me a lot about safety issues: having the proper car seat, “childproofing” my house, having CO2 and smoke detectors. He also asked if there was a gun in the home (there was not) and whether it was safely stored. Yet, reports the Boston Globe, Florida lawmakers recently passed a “gag …
Oscar Arias honoured
Former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias received an honourary doctorate from Carleton University this week. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, Arias expressed his admiration during his recent visit for Canada’s role in peacekeeping and support to developing countries. He also expressed dismay at the rise in Canadian military spending: “I do complain that it is unnecessary for Canada …
Hatfield: Death of a moderate
The death of former U.S. Senator, Mark Hatfield, on Aug, 8, gives pause to consider the scope for moderate voices in the hyper-partisan American milieu, focused as it is on military responses to conflicts in the world. Hatfield was a Republican from Oregon, serving there for over 30 years until 1997. The obituary in The Globe and Mail (Aug 9, …
Canada drops the ATT ball
Canada’s performance in arms control discussions at the United Nations has been lacklustre in recent years but this morning it reached a new low. The statement delivered by the Canadian delegation to the international meeting in New York on implementation of a global Arms Trade Treaty was by far the most disappointing of any Canadian intervention to date. In effect …
CARICOM Declaration on Small Arms
At the end of their annual summit this week, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states issued a declaration on small arms and light weapons (SALW). This is a highly significant development. Ploughshares and its partners in the Caribbean – CARICOM Implementation Agency on Crime and Security, Women’s Institute for Alternative Development, and the Caribbean Coalition for Development and Reduction of …
Names and faces of wars
The luck of geography and smart diplomacy over several centuries go a long way towards explaining Canada’s insulation from wars on its own territory. Canada faces no direct military threat. We are fortunate. That does not mean that wars in other parts of the world don’t affect us. We send our troops and guns to places like Cyprus, the Palestinian …
What does success look like?
It’s a good question, and I have plenty of answers for it, but they never flow from my tongue as easily as I want them to. How do you know when you are successful? When one of your primary goals is to advance policies and actions that support a more peaceful world, it can be hard to know when you’ve …