The IPB & Peacemomo Launch New Brochure: 11 Things We Should Consider about Global Military Spending

On the occasion of the 2021 Global Day of Action for Military Spending,
the International Peace Bureau and PEACEMOMO present a few interesting questions and possible responses around Global Military Spending.

The brochure “11 Things We Should Consider about Global Military Spending” is a guide for educators dedicated to peace in order to address questions around climate change and common security challenges.

This booklet is a didactic tool for people who wants to understand the implications of the military as a threat to peace.

You can download the brochure directly here.

Remembering and Shaping the Future – for a Policy of Common Security

Article by IPB Executive Director Reiner Braun and Prof. Peter Brandt for the German Newsletter „abrüsten statt aufrüsten“

More and more people have the feeling that we are living in a time of intensified confrontations and even the possibility of a major war again. Uncertainty is increasingly shaping our daily lives as well. The statement of the scientific Nobel Prize winners: the clock is at 100 seconds to 12, is the concise expression of these dangers threatening us all, above all – in the longer term – the climate disaster, and directly the 14,000 nuclear weapons present on earth. Continue reading “Remembering and Shaping the Future – for a Policy of Common Security”

GCOMS Book ‘Military Spending and Global Security’ is Now Available

GCOMS’ book ‘Military Spending and Global Security: Humanitarian and Environmental Perspectives‘ is now available at Routledge.

Routledge has launched today the book “Military Spending and Global Security: Humanitarian and Environmental Perspectives”, edited by GCOMS Coordinator and International Peace Bureau (IPB) vice-president Jordi Calvo Rufanges. The book is part of a joint project of the International Peace Bureau and Centre Delàs of Peace Studies, carried out within the framework of the Global Campaign of Military Spending, which has the support of Barcelona’s City Council.

Continue reading “GCOMS Book ‘Military Spending and Global Security’ is Now Available”

Disarmament, Peace and Development Vol: 27

Edited by: Reiner Braun (International Peace Bureau, Germany), Colin Archer (International Peace Bureau, UK), Ingeborg Breines (International Peace Bureau, Norway), Manas Chatterji (Binghamton University – State University of New York, USA), Amela Skiljan (International Peace Bureau, Germany)

December 2018, 188 pp

Series: Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development

Continue reading “Disarmament, Peace and Development Vol: 27”

Demilitarization for Deep Decarbonization: Reducing Militarism and Military Expenditures…

by Tamara Lorincz, Senior IPB Researcher, September 2014, 80pp

To help countries chart a path to low-carbon energy systems and economies, the UN launched the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP). However most of the military sector’s fuel consumption and emissions are excluded from national greenhouse gas inventories. In Demilitarization for Deep Decarbonization: Reducing Militarism and Military Expenditures to Invest in the UN Green Climate Fund and to Create Low-Carbon Economies and Resilient Communities, IPB argues that war must stop for global warming to slow down. Military expenditures must be reduced and re-directed for climate finance to create low carbon economies and climate-resilient communities. Disarmament must take place alongside mitigation and adaptation.

Opportunity Costs: Military Spending and the UN Development Agenda

By Colin Archer and Annette Willi, 2012

IPB wrote a Position Paper entitled Opportunity Costs: Military Spending and the UN’s Development Agenda. It makes the case that military spending should be taken into consideration in the debate now under way on the UN’s Post-2015 Development Agenda (following on from the Millennium Development Goals). In IPB’s view, militarization is a significant factor in the sustainable development equation, often undermining the security of citizens. At the same time, the massive resources devoted to the military sector could – if even a small portion were reallocated – make a major contribution to meeting the challenges of mass poverty, unemployment and climate change.

Nuclear Weapons: at what cost?

Ben Cramer, 2009, 150pp

Nuclear weapons not only threaten massive destruction, but they also incur enormous costs. Apart from the damage caused by blast, fire and radioactive fallout from actual use in warfare, the weapons impose major financial, moral and political costs on nuclear weapons states and countries that host the weapons. The US alone spends annually over US$ 50 billion on its nuclear arsenal, and the global annual total is around  $90 billion. At a time of global economic crisis, when the international community is also struggling to come up with ways to respond to climate challenge and dwindling energy resources, can this be the right use of public money? Nuclear Weapons: At What Cost? offers a survey of the costs of the nuclear weapons programmes of all the relevant states