USA and Canada

Photo: Screenshot of U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo briefing the press in Washington, DC on June 13, 2019. Credit: U.S. State Department

U.S. Accusations Against Iran Not Without Risk

By Kelsey Davenport

The following article by Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, was published on their website.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – Tensions over the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran continue to rise after the Trump administration accused Tehran of violating one of its commitments under the agreement, but Iran’s decision to install additional advanced centrifuges appears to fall into a gray area not covered by the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 14 June 2019

Photo: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meeting with Ronald Reagan and President-elect George H. W. Bush in New York City in December 1988. Source: Wikimedia Commons

From Russia with Additional Insights

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – When I was in Moscow three weeks ago, I was briefing myself for an interview with the Soviet Union’s last president, Mikhail Gorbachev. As it happened, he had to cancel it as he went into hospital for tests.

One of the American academics I always read is Gordon Hahn, an ex-fellow of the highly regarded Centre for Strategic and International Studies. He wrote that American policy towards Russia is a runaway train without rails, driven by a troubling confluence of hubristic ideological influences and bureaucratized sectorial interests.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Russia; 12 June 2019

Photo (l to r): President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 30, 2018 at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks | cropped version)

China’s Meteoric Rise Revives ‘Yellow Peril’ in the U.S.

Viewpoint by Kishore Mahbubani

The writer is a Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the author of ‘Has the West Lost It?’ This analysis first appeared in EastAsiaForum on June 5, 2019 with the heading ‘A ‘yellow peril’ revival fuelling Western fears of China’s rise’.

SINGAPORE (IDN-INPS) – Do we arrive at geopolitical judgements from only cool, hard-headed, rational analysis? If emotions influence our judgements, are these conscious emotions or do they operate at the level of our subterranean subconscious? Any honest answer to these questions would admit that non-rational factors always play a role.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 10 June 2019

Protect Pristine Areas from Relentless Development

Viewpoint by Dominick A. DellaSala, William J. Ripple and Franz Baumann

This article was first published in San Francisco Examiner on May 29, 2019. While Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D., is chief scientist for the Geos Institute in Ashland, William J. Ripple, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University and the initiator of the Alliance of World Scientists. Franz Baumann, Ph.D., is a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and a visiting research professor at New York University. – The Editor

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 01 June 2019

Photo: "Baker Shot", part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear test by the United States at Bikini Atoll in 1946. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

USA Claims Russia Flouting Global Ban on Nuclear Testing Too

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Amid mounting signs of a new arms race unleashing between the United States and Russia, which together account for 93 percent of the nuclear weapons around the world, a top Trump Administration official has obliquely accused Russia of violating the global ban on nuclear tests enshrined in the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The allegation comes within days of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on the anniversary of the launch of his disarmament agenda 'Securing Our Common Future', in Geneva on May 24.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 29 May 2019

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: Kremlin.ru

Uncertainty over U.S.-Russian Arms Control Talks

By Kingston Reif and Shervin Taheran

While Kingston Reif is Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy, Shervin Taheran is Research Assistant at the Arms Control Association, which carried this report on May 24, 2019.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Following a May 14 meeting in Sochi, Russia, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the two countries “agreed that … we will gather together teams that will begin to work not only on [the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] New START and its potential extension but on a broader range of arms control issues that each of our two nations have.”

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 24 May 2019

Photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. overseeing weapons tests at an undisclosed location in May. KCNA/EPA

Door to North Korea Remains Open Despite Missile Tests

By Alicia Sanders-Zakre and Kelsey Davenport

While Alicia Sanders-Zakre is research assistant, Kelsey Davenport, is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, which carried this report on May 21, 2019.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – The next steps for U.S. diplomacy with North Korea remain unclear after Pyongyang tested several short-range ballistic missiles in early May. Despite the missile tests, South Korea and the United States urged a resumption of dialogue. North Korea, however, has said little about returning to talks since Chairman Kim Jong Un declared in April that he would give the Trump administration until the end of the year to change its approach to negotiations or face a "bleak and very dangerous" situation.

: J C Suresh; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 May 2019

Photo: 38th Anniversary of the 1979 Revolution in Azadi square, Tehran, 2017. CC BY 4.0

The Security Council Must Stop the U.S. Going to War with Iran

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Amnesty International reported on March 11 that an Iranian lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has been sentenced to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes. She has dedicated her life to defending women accused of removing their hijabs in public. The persecution of human rights dissidents in Iran appears to be getting worse.

It makes it harder to feel sorry for Iran, even if President Donald Trump is wielding the heavy stick against it, and even though Trump has sabotaged the Agreement to freeze Iran’s nuclear research and uranium enrichment carefully negotiated by President Barack Obama’s team, the EU, Russia and China.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 21 May 2019

Photo: Iran has warned that if the other 2015 nuclear deal signatories fail to deliver sanctions relief, it will resume construction on the unfinished Arak nuclear reactor. The picture shows IR-40 (Arak) Reactor in 2012. CC BY-SA 3.0

Experts Exhort Nuclear Deal Signatories to Help Iran

By Jamshed Baruah

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Arms Control Association (ACA), a Washington-based nonpartisan organization, has warned that Iran’s "threat to violate" the landmark 2015 nuclear deal is "a very worrisome but predictable response" to U.S. President Donald Trump's "dangerous decision" to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) one year ago.

The Washington-based organization said: "The Trump administration’s systematic campaign to deny Iran any benefits from the agreement has driven the leadership in Tehran to take these retaliatory steps."

: Jamshed Baruah; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 08 May 2019

Photo: North Korea's Kim Jong Un has photo session with newly-elected members of Party and State leadership bodies. Credit: KCNA.

North Korea Stays in Focus Amid Talk About Next Summits

By Kelsey Davenport and Alicia Sanders-Zakre*

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have both said they are willing to meet for a third summit but are looking for certain conditions to be met ahead of any meeting. Kim said the United States must be more flexible and Trump is looking for North Korea to demonstrate its willingness to give up nuclear weapons.

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said in an April 17 interview with Bloomberg that Washington is looking for a “real indication from North Korea that they’ve made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons.”