UPDATE: Pentagon cancels contract As the result of bipartisan U.S. Congressional opposition, the Pentagon has cancelled the latest order of Russian Mi-17 helicopters for Afghanistan. Many members of Congress objected to the U.S. buying equipment from the same source that supplies Syrian government forces. Wars come and go but the military industry lives on. The Russian state-owned arms trade company, Rosoboronexport, …
Obama’s second chance at nuclear disarmament
Author Cesar Jaramillo The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 34 Issue 1 Spring 2013 Achieving complete and irreversible nuclear disarmament has been an unequivocal aspiration of the international community since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force more than four decades ago. No one state can hope to achieve this goal unilaterally. But one thing seems clear: a world free of …
Obama’s second chance at nuclear disarmament
Author Cesar Jaramillo Published in the Waterloo Region Record References to nuclear disarmament were nowhere to be found last week in U.S. President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address. But in April 2009, less than three months after taking office for his first term, Obama delivered a seminal speech in Prague articulating his vision for a world free of nuclear weapons, leading some to …
Arms control beyond Earth? Talks related to space weaponization and the prevention of an arms race in outer space are not gaining traction
Author Cesar Jaramillo The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 33 Issue 3 The nature of outer space activities has changed dramatically in the more than five decades since the dawn of the space age. The end of the Cold War, the emergence of a highly profitable space services industry, and a sharp decrease in the financial and technological barriers to entry have …
Preoccupation with Aggression: The Latest U.S. National Security Space Strategy
Author Cesar Jaramillo The Ploughshares Monitor Spring 2011 Volume 32 Issue 1 The unclassified summary of the National Security Space Strategy (NSSS), newly released by the US Department of Defense (2011), combines lofty goals with dubious tactics. While it states that the United States will support the establishment of norms of behaviour for the responsible use of space, it also …
Pentagon Orders with General Dynamics in Canada Exceed $1-Billion
Author Kenneth Epps The Ploughshares Monitor Summer 2010 Volume 31 Issue 2 Following recent major Canadian military industry acquisitions, US corporation General Dynamics has emerged as the dominant recipient of Pentagon contracts brokered by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC). The crown-owned Canadian Commercial Corporation has reported that three subsidiaries of US-based General Dynamics Corporation together won more than $1-billion in Pentagon …
U.S. Policy and the Arms Trade Treaty
Author Rachel Stohl Working Paper 10-1 Unlike their nuclear counterparts, conventional weapons have been relatively unregulated in international forums. Because the global trade in conventional arms is a necessary and integral part of global security and international commerce, States have been hesitant to place conditions on and criteria for the transfer of conventional weapons. Global agreements on conventional arms have …
US Joins Efforts Toward a Global Arms Trade Treaty: UN Resolution Promises Negotiations to Begin in 2010
Author Kenneth Epps The Ploughshares Monitor Winter 2009 Volume 30 Issue 4 In a dramatic volte-face in October, the US government announced its support for the multilateral negotiation of an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Treaty advocates welcomed the announcement by the world’s largest arms supplier. Many also expressed concern at the condition the US placed on its support. Impact of resolution …
Called to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Public Issue Statement Conference of European Churches, 13th Assembly, Lyon, France, July 15 – 21, 2009 2009 commemorates the end of the Cold War 20 years ago bringing with it the hope that Europe would no longer be a divided continent. It also brought the hope of a Europe free of the fear of a new war that would bring …
States Parties NPT Reports: United States of America
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Reporting — Nuclear Weapons States 2009 Statement by Ambassador Marguerita Ragsdale, Director, Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs Department of State, “Cluster 1 (Disarmament)”, Third Session of the Preparatory Committee 2010 Review Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, May 6, 2009. Statement by Rose Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary of …