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By Jürgen Grässlin for the  GLOBAL NET – STOP THE ARMS TRADE (GN-STAT) and ZivilCourage of the  DFG-VK

It really could not have been worse: With the seizure of power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have come into possession of a huge arsenal of state-of-the-art NATO weapons. From now on, they will be able to target these weapons at dissidents as well as people with different faiths or beliefs and use them to secure their rule. Continue reading “NATO Weapons in the Hands of the Taliban – How the Islamists Were Able to Become the Best-Armed Terror Group in the World”

Article written by Karl-Heinz Peil about ‘Code red’, global warming and the risks of a global war.

Already with his message on the New Year in 2018, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared: “I am issuing an alert – a red alert for our world”. Perils, including deepening conflicts and new dangers, emerged, and global concerns over nuclear weapons reached the highest since the Cold War, he added.  At the same time, impacts of climate change worsened at an alarming rate, inequality increased and horrific violations of human rights were committed.

This year, on August 9th, after the release of the new IPCC report, Guterres said the Working Group’s report was nothing less than “a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable”. The new report was created by 234 authors from 65 countries and considered more than 78,000 review comments. Some people may ask: Did the IPCC working group underestimate global warming against the former Assessment Report in 2014? Continue reading “IPCC-Reporting, Tipping Points and Global Security”

August 9,2021. Nagasaki, Japan.

I bring you greetings from the world’s oldest peace organization: the International Peace Bureau.

I bring our respect to the tireless work of the Hibakusha to bring their message of peace to the world. They must be the last people to suffer from nuclear weapons.

My message to you is one of solidarity and hope.

Solidarity with your campaign for a world free of nuclear weapons and solidarity with your appeal that Nagasaki must be the last place on earth where a nuclear weapon is used.

Hope because, with a peace wave of action, we have changed the world, we now have a global treaty that prohibits nuclear weapons.

In this scenario, the Tokyo Olympics have shown how sport can be a force for good. Nevertheless, the existence of Nuclear weapons represents a force for evil placing all human endeavors at risk.

The world is on a wrong and dangerous path. We have reached a tipping point. The doomsday clock is at 100 seconds to midnight. Moreover, Military expenditure surged to 1.9 trillion dollars. 72 billion dollars have been wasted on nuclear weapons each year and spiraling up.

In addition, we are facing new fault lines on old nuclear concerns. Military doctrines are embracing the use of nuclear weapons. As a result, mutual assured destruction is closer and closer.

Strategic cooperation between superpowers sidelined replaced by strategic competition which means a downward spiral of division, polarization, xenophobia. A political narrative that slips into hate, discrimination and encourages relentless military expansion.

We have to demolish the case for strategic competition. It means conflict on all fronts over nuclear, military, land, natural resources, economic and political. It weaponizes diplomacy away from peace to confrontation.

The aggressive language from the G7, NATO, and the Wolf Warrior diplomacy from China is a hammer blow to sustainable peace. It threatens war.

We need sustainable peace in Asia as power shifts, rivalries deepen, the new battlefield for strategic competition. From India to Pakistan, the Korean peninsula, China, the USA, and Russia, nuclear expansion is everywhere.

South China sea military maneuvers, territorial disputes are all tempting conflicts whether from an accident, miscalculation, or misreading of events.

At the IPB we are assembling our members in Asia with the message we want a sustainable peace. The Southern Hemisphere is a nuclear-free zone, the peace movement campaigned for this, it already includes much of Asia. Those in power listened to the people and made the giant step.

Our call: the time has come for a nuclear-free zone for all of Asia.

At this moment let me also express our solidarity with the people of Myanmar who are fighting for their democratic freedoms. We condemn the military dictatorship as we condemn all those that crush human rights in this region. The IPB will not be silenced.

Friends it is time to Re-Imagine our world. That is the theme of our IPB Global Peace Congress that convenes in Barcelona in October.

The responses to the global pandemic, climate crisis, militarization, inequality illustrate not just our lack of preparation but misplaced priorities in a world running away from sustainable peace. Therefore, we must Re-Imagine our world. We have an alternative vision with peace at its cornerstone.

We have helped to the launch of a new Global Commission on Common Security. Together with the Global Trade Union Movement and the Olof Palme Centre in Sweden. Why? It’s because 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Olaf Palme report Common Security: A Blueprint for Survival.

The former Swedish Prime Minister assembled a Global Commission which concluded: “There are no victors in a nuclear war, deterrence cannot be made foolproof, and nations must abandon doctrines and preparation for fighting limited nuclear wars as a matter of deliberate policy”.

The Global Commission was clear: “nuclear deterrence cannot provide a long-term basis for peace, stability, and equity in international society. It must be replaced by the concept of common security”,

Furthermore, they said then and I am sure the new Global Commission will repeat: “The conclusion is therefore inevitable that nuclear weapons must be eliminated”.

We will report in 2022. Our aim is to get the world excited once again about the idea of common security, to put it into practice, to emphasize that collective planetary security rests on our common security.

This is the time to Re-Imagine our world. We must push for nuclear de-escalation. To put brakes on proliferation to reinsert an architecture of control over nuclear weapons.

Russia and the USA have recently reaffirmed that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought – they should go one step further and eliminate their nuclear arsenals. They have launched a strategic stability dialogue. However, the way to achieve stability is by removing thousands of weapons from hair trigger readiness.

The Common Security Commission in 1982 shifted thinking and 2022 aims to do likewise. Help us spark a new debate for common security in Asia.

In conclusion, the campaigning that you have done, the tireless efforts of the Hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, messages conveyed across the generations have resulted in a global treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. 54 nations have already ratified the treaty. Global public opinion is with us. The first meeting of states parties will take place in Vienna in January 2022. The world would welcome Japan signing this treaty before then.

Our struggle continues. We will unite with the new generation, with the climate change and labor movements for with no justice, no green planet there can be no peace.

You will be ready for Vienna.

We will be ready for Barcelona.

Moments of hope, solidarity, and ambition.

The time to Re-imagine our world is upon us.

Let’s deliver.

 

Click here to download the pdf version of the speech.

Also listen to Philip Jenning’s closing remarks to our Common Security 2022 webinar “100 Seconds to Midnight” and his appeal to collectively ensure that Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the last cities targeted with nuclear weapons in our history:

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading “Webinar: 100 Seconds to Midnight – How to Handle the Nuclear Threat?”

Colombian peace activist and International Peace Bureau’s Council member Angelo Cardona received the Diana Award in honour of the late Diana, Princess of Wales for his outstanding contribution to peace in Latin America.

Continue reading “Diana Award Recipient 2021: IPB Council Member Angelo Cardona”