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The Ploughshares Monitor: Spring 2021
March 25, 2021Volume 42 Issue 1 A quarterly publication of Project Ploughshares Please click on attachment to view document:
Selling military goods to the United States
March 25, 2021The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), an independently operated Crown corporation, arranges contracts between Canadian manufacturers and foreign governments. Between 60 and 70 per cent of these contracts involve military goods, making the CCC Canada’s largest arms broker.
We need to restart talks on regulating autonomous weapons—now
March 25, 2021To no one’s surprise, United Nations discussions on the regulation of autonomous weapons have stalled. Last year, the global pandemic caused delays, with only one week of discussions—partly in Geneva, Switzerland and partly virtual—taking place from September 21-25. November’s annual meeting of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), at which the 2021 schedule for discussions on autonomous weapons would have been set, was cancelled.
The devastating impact of COVID-19 on refugees
March 25, 2021In 2016, Kirsten Mosey volunteered at Camp Moria on the island of Lesvos, Greece—once Europe’s largest refugee camp. Designed to house between 2,000 and 3,000 people, the former military/detention centre held approximately 20,000 refugees at its peak.
It’s not too late to save the Iran nuclear deal
March 25, 2021Donald Trump opposed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA or Iran nuclear deal) even before he became President of the United States. Despite his hostility, the deal survived his term in office, although not unscathed. Now new President Joe Biden is cautiously optimistic that it can be salvaged. But steps to preserve the deal must be taken immediately, before the already narrow window of opportunity fully closes.
Canada and the Artemis Accords
March 17, 2021On October 13, 2020, the Canadian Space Agency, along with civil space agencies from the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Japan, Luxembourg, and the United Arab Emirates signed bilateral agreements with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Since then, Ukraine’s space agency has also signed on. These agreements are known as the Artemis Accords. The Accords set out ...
The impact of COVID-19 on refugees
March 16, 2021COVID-19 has exposed global vulnerabilities and inequalities. But the plight of refugees has not received its due. When the pandemic hit, the vast majority of refugees found themselves in countries that were experiencing instability, conflict, and economic hardship. Shut away in camps or subsisting in crowded urban areas, refugees were underserved and often ignored. With no stable income or employment ...
The Safe Third Country Agreement in 2021
March 11, 2021New U.S. President Joe Biden has used Executive Orders to overturn the most extreme immigration policies of the Trump era. But deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are ongoing and immigration detention centres are still in operation. The United States does NOT meet the principles of safety required by Canadian and international law.
From safety to security: mapping the normative landscape in outer space
March 10, 2021This map is a visualization of the existing normative landscape in outer space. Created from detailed coding of 90 space governance documents and additional expert feedback from an online survey and global series of workshops, it identifies the prevailing values, documented activities, and prescribed behaviours that currently influence practices in space.
From Safety to Security: Global Workshop Series Report
February 1, 2021In November 2020, global space experts were invited to participate in a series of regional online workshops to identify priorities and possible next steps in the development of norms related to space-based military capabilities and activities.
Five things to know about the nuclear ban treaty
January 21, 2021Formally known as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the nuclear ban treaty is a legally binding multilateral instrument that establishes an explicit prohibition of nuclear weapons, as a step to achieving their complete elimination. It was adopted by 122 states on July 7, 2017, at United Nations headquarters in New York.
The risks of hypersonic weapons
December 3, 2020More states are investing in hypersonic weapons capabilities. These weapons have the potential to travel faster and farther than current intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), with the added benefit of increased manoeuverability. While not all hype around hypersonic missiles is justified, the pursuit of such capabilities is changing the defence landscape and raising concerns about the future of nonproliferation and arms-control regimes.
The Ploughshares Monitor: Winter 2020
November 26, 2020Volume 41 Issue 4 A quarterly publication of Project Ploughshares Please click on attachment to view document:
Joint Statement on Outer Space
November 25, 2020This statement was drafted on behalf of civil society by Project Ploughshares Senior Researcher Jessica West. Dr. West presented it to the United Nations General Assembly First Committee for Disarmament and International Security on October 13, 2020.
Canada remains silent on illegal Canadian weapons in Libya
November 25, 2020On October 5, under mounting pressure from civil society and the Armenian diaspora community, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) suspended exports of Canadian-made L3Harris WESCAM surveillance and targeting sensors to Turkey. These sensors had been found on Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) that were illicitly diverted to Azerbaijan by ally Turkey for use in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The making of Killer Optics
November 25, 2020Ploughshares Communications Officer Tasneem Jamal spoke with Kelsey Gallagher about the genesis of Killer Optics, the impact of its publication, and the role of open-source data in tracking arms transfers.