Allan Patience. Within this question is an assumption (which is all too plausible) that Australia has done – and still does – very little to contribute to the making of a world that can live at peace with itself. The grim truth is that for most of the history of European intervention on this continent, […]
James O’Neill. A new ABC report, quoting from a previously classified document, reveals that the Australian government decided in early 2002 to join the American-led Iraq War, but failed to disclose that to Parliament or the public. A newly declassified document, originally compiled by Dr Albert Palazzo of the Australian Army’s Land Warfare Studies Centre, […]
Bruce Duncan. A new arms race is looming as the United States, Russia, and China continue to modernise their weapons systems, including tactical nuclear weapons. President Trump has announced that the US will withdraw from the Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, and has abandoned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran which has carefully […]
History made, a solid start, here to stay, and miles to go, before we sleep. Tilman Ruff. One year ago, on 7 July 2017, at the United Nations in New York, 122 nations took a historic step when they voted to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Treaty filled a gaping […]
SPC Forum Address 21 June 2018 A significant life-and-death concern we have had to grapple with over the centuries is that of war and peace, conflict and nonviolence. One doctrine that has evolved to provide moral guidance is the Just War doctrine. It accords with our instinctive belief, our traditional sense of righteousness, that a […]
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis has issued strong backing to calls to ban nuclear weapons entirely, including as a deterrent. On a flight back to Rome from Bangladesh on 2 December 2017, he declared, “Today we are at the limit”, because the dangers from nuclear arsenals were now so severe that they risked destroying “the great […]
Andrew Glikson. “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save human way of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.” Albert Einstein, 1946. Daniel Ellsberg, former presidential advisor, who had released the famous top-secret Pentagon Papers related to the VietNam war, also possessed a cache of top secret documents related to America’s […]
Joseph A Camilleri. In the year that Trump has been in the White House, ministers have continued to repeat the well-worn mantra that we are committed to defending and upholding the international rules-based order and the web of norms, alliances, and institutions created over the last seventy years. Such glib rhetoric, a feature also of […]
Bill Frilay. I use that heading, because I do not know the answer, and wish world leaders did. All I know is that the likelihood of using nuclear weapons is greater than at any time since the 1962 Cuban crisis. We have Kim Jong Un, belligerent, young, but not to be underestimated. Seemingly prepared to […]
Bill Frilay. What is ICAN? It is a coalition of non-governmental organisations in one hundred countries seeking the elimination of nuclear weapons. While it is an international organisation, ICAN’s first office was established here in Melbourne in 2007. So there’s justified local pride in its achievement. Its main office (albeit very small) is in Geneva. […]
