In 2009, countries have reached perilous new levels of conflict, tension and military spending characterised by nuclear proliferation, ideological warfare and pre-emptive invasions of sovereign nations. As news reports highlight an intensifying competition over natural resources, the international community is faced with a stark choice - to share resources and cooperate, or to continue on the path to further warfare.
The US Air Force
is ramping up the use of pilotless drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing
unprecedented numbers of militants and
civilians alike. Is this trend leading
toward robotic warfare where human accountability is left out of the loop? By Nick
Turse.
In the midst of economic, environmental and resource crises,
the US military budget is larger than at any time during the Cold War. Current political and economic structures must be reformed in order to deprioritise the
military-industrial complex, argues Ernest Partridge.
Over the three years that governments at the UN spent discussing
a proposed Arms Trade Treaty, almost 2.1 million people have died as a result
of armed violence. Negotiations must begin immediately for a robust treaty to
be drawn up by 2012, says a report by Oxfam.
The design of the EU’s security research agenda has been
outsourced to the very corporations who will gain most from its implementation.
This strategy will encourage militarisation at the expense of human rights and
social justice, says a new report by the Transnational Institute.
Sixty-four years after the tragedy of Hiroshima and a year before the next review conference
of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a combination of strategic, political and attitudinal factors is
finally facilitating progress towards global nuclear disarmament, writes Paul Rogers.
A number of extractive companies from Europe and Asia are purchasing minerals in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that fuel conflict, lead to militarisation and facilitate the exploitation of civilians, says a report by Global Witness.
The international efforts of all nuclear nations, regardless of their
political ideologies or systems of government, must concentrate on preventing nuclear technology from falling into the hands of non-state agents - requiring a global plan of action to accomplish
this goal, writes Aqueil Ahmad.
