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Declaration by the “Initiative Abrüsten statt Aufrüsten”, an IPB member.

Title: Frankfurter Appeal

Abrüsten statt Aufrüsten (disarming instead of investing in arms) – a new policy of détente now!

The ghost of the Cold War has returned. The world is on the verge of peace, for it becomes a fragile entity. The cancer of nationalism is spreading. Social inequalities are becoming more acute. The global climate crisis is threatening humanity. Wars and destruction of nature are crucial reasons for flight and expulsion. The Corona pandemic is proof that the social and environmental layers which protect human life have become thin. New struggles over distribution are looming – nationally, within Europe, globally. The 21st century will be either a century of new violence or a century of sustainable peace. That is what we are deciding today. We need civil responses, here, in Europe and worldwide. Continue reading “The Frankfurter Appeal by Initiative Abrüsten Statt Aufrüsten (Translation)”

The Uncertain Election: Defending Constitutional Democracy and Human Survival

Written by Joseph Gerson*

November 4, 2020

In the run up to the U.S. election, Daniel Ellsberg, the courageous whistleblower who risked 115 years in prison in the early 1970s for revealing the Pentagon’s secret history of the Vietnam War in his effort to stop the killing, wrote that the country was “facing an authoritarian threat to our democratic system of a kind we’ve never seen before.” Despite differing with Biden on many issues, he urged people to vote for Biden  “to free the nation from Trump’s unhinged and destructive grip” – not least because four more years of Trump racism and maximizing the use of fossil fuels would be calamitous. “World civilization”, he wrote, “cannot afford another four years of Trump’s presidency.

Continue reading “The Uncertain Election: Defending Constitutional Democracy and Human Survival”

Written by Joseph Gerson*

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)  has received the last ratifications needed to put the Treaty into force. With the milestone of 50 ratifications having been achieved, the next critical step will be winning the signing and ratification by one or more of the nuclear weapons umbrella states, a European NATO member or one of the newly christened, “quad”, envisioned as an Asia-Pacific NATO: Japan, Australia and India. (The U.S. being the fourth member of the quad.) Continue reading “The Promise of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has deep and regional roots. With every life lost in the conflict, positions on both sides will harden. This alone is an urgent reason for a ceasefire.

Continue reading “Nagorno-Karabakh: Calls for a Ceasefire and Peace Talks are not Enough”

At the time of writing, more than 100 lives have been lost since fighting began in Nagorno-Karabakh, on the 27^th of September.  In the spirit of the International Day of Non-Violence, the 2^nd of October, the IPB calls for an immediate end to the violence and for a non-violent resolution to the conflict. Continue reading “IPB Calls for Renewed Peace Talks and an End to the Violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan”