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.
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.
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.
Behind the arms reductions agreed by Obama and Medvedev is a trend of establishment figures who call for global nuclear disarmament. But is this the first step towards a nuclear-free world, or calculating realpolitik to secure military power? By Andrew Mack.
The number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution
worldwide stood at 42 million at the end of 2008 amid a sharp
slowdown in repatriation and more prolonged conflicts resulting in
protracted displacement.
The rise of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has resulted in the demise of
disarmament movements, killing off global protests against nuclear weapons. Once
the only danger becomes their acquisition by poor states, their retention by rich ones can be forgotten, argues Susan Watkins.
