The Ukraine crisis could trigger a nuclear catastrophe
There are two potential nuclear dimensions to a war in Ukraine, which could create a massive humanitarian disaster and have profound global implications.
In the first week of February, US officials estimated that if war using conventional weapons broke out, 25,000 to 50,000 civilians could die in Ukraine, along with 5,000 to 25,000 Ukrainian and 3,000 to 10,000 Russian soldiers, and that between 1 and 5 million people would flee their homes and become refugees.
The toll could be much greater, especially if the conflict spread to neighbouring countries and NATO forces became embroiled.
Read more…IPPNW medical students bike for the ban
Joint Statement by IPPNW Student Chapters in Germany, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, and Zambia
The weekend of 18 February, dozens of medical students in six countries — Germany, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, and Zambia — carried IPPNW’s mission to their local communities via regional bike tours. Despite the physical distance between the chapters, all were brought together with one unifying message: the abolition of nuclear weapons is a public health imperative.
Read more…US and Russian doctors warn of possible global catastrophe from escalating conflict in Ukraine
IPPNW Briefing Paper: War in Eastern Europe
American and Russian physicians representing IPPNW are warning that a war in Ukraine could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of conventional fighting and the attendant risks to that country’s nuclear power facilities and of escalation to nuclear war.
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Commentators on the current Ukraine crisis have sometimes compared it to the Cuban missile crisis. This is a good comparison―and not only because they both involve a dangerous US-Russian confrontation capable of leading to a nuclear war.
During the 1962 Cuban crisis, the situation was remarkably similar to that in today’s Eastern Europe, although the great power roles were reversed.
Read more…Finland’s NATO option and the TPNW
by Kati Juva
Finland has not signed the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), although is going as an observer to the first meeting of TPNW member states in Vienna, which has now been postponed until later this year. Finland is not a member of NATO, nor does it have an extended deterrence relationship with US. Nevertheless, it acts like it does.
Why has Finland forgotten its past as an active promotor of nuclear disarmament, while 84% of Finns want Finland to signs the TPNW and three out of the five parties in the coalition government support the ban treaty?
Read more…Let’s not allow the great powers to destroy the world
The vast destruction wrought by the atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945 should have been enough to convince national governments that the game of war was over.
Wars have had a long run among rival territories and, later, nations, with fierce conflicts between Athens and Sparta, Rome and Carthage, Spain and Britain, and the combatants of World Wars I and II among the best-known. Although the wars had a variety of causes and were sometimes promoted with lofty ideals and slogans, they were often occasioned by disputes over territory and resources. Not surprisingly, the most powerful, most heavily-armed countries, which had the best chances of emerging victorious in a military conflict, were usually the most eager for it.
Read more…How France greenwashes nuclear weapons
by Angelika Claussen
At the turn of the year, France assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union. And last week, the EU defence ministers met informally to talk about the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Among other issues, they discussed nuclear security and nuclear deterrence strategies.
“Le Terrible.”
In recent years, the French president has been a strong advocate of nuclear power. Historically, France’s independent development of nuclear technology for atomic weapons has been an important source of national pride. Since the 1990s, however, nuclear power has been declining as a consequence of the Chernobyl disaster. Annual reports by Mycle Schneider, an international consultant on energy and nuclear policy, show that this is a part of a global trend. Nevertheless, France continues to be a tireless advocate of this technology.
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Late January of this year will mark the first anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This momentous international agreement, the result of a lengthy struggle by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and by many non-nuclear nations, bans developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, and threatening to use nuclear weapons. Adopted by an overwhelming vote of the official representatives of the world’s nations at a UN conference in July 2017, the treaty was subsequently signed by 86 nations. It received the required 50 national ratifications by late October 2020, and, on January 22, 2021, became international law.
Read more…The friendship of two heart doctors
by Mary-Wynne Ashford
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is mourning the deaths last year of its founding co-presidents, Dr. Bernard Lown and Dr. Evgueni Chazov. Lown was a cardiologist in Boston; Chazov was a cardiologist in Moscow.
As colleagues with shared interests, Lown and Chazov began collaborative research in 1960. They were particularly concerned about sudden cardiac death in young men.
Read more…The time to act is now
[The following presentation was made by Jasmine Owens, Lead Organizer and Policy Coordinator at Physicians for Social Responsibility (IPPNW’s US affiliate) at an event sponsored by the Peace and Planet network on 4 January. IPPNW is a member of the network, which has called on the postponed NPT Review Conference to “fulfill the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty’s promise of a nuclear weapons-free world.”]
Over the course of this pivotal tenth NPT Review Conference, when asked why the US has stalled on its Article VI commitments, you will hear the US delegates claim that we must “create the environment for nuclear disarmament,” and that such an environment does not yet exist. If we are to entertain this notion that there could be a perfect environment conducive to nuclear disarmament, what the US fails to take into account is that this environment will not magically appear out of thin air. It takes genuine and sustained effort to illustrate to adversaries– and the world– that we are fully committed to maintaining peace. The US has done no such thing. Instead, we have continued to modernize and upgrade our nuclear arsenal, something that is both a blatant disregard of our Article VI commitments and serves only to encourage other nations to do the same. We have continued to stoke hostilities with Russia and China instead of committing ourselves fully to diplomacy, transparency and confidence-building measures.
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