|
WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
||||
|
No.4/2001 |
Dateline: January 26, 2001 |
|||
This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner
CONTENTS of WNII No. 2/2001
International Peace Bureau Urges the U.S. to be a 'Gentle Giant'
"Geneva, January 19, 2001. On the eve of the Bush inauguration, the International Peace Bureau challenges the new Republican administration to reconsider its support for National Missile Defense and invest the resources in confidence-building measures, missile control and disarmament. At the same time, the IPB welcomes Bush's promise to reduce nuclear weapons stocks below the 3000-3500 level foreseen in START 2. This is an important step towards the fulfillment of the Non-Proliferation Treaty agreement of last May by all nuclear weapon states "for an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of nuclear arsenals". As IPB points out, it is impossible to both launch NMD and abide by this undertaking, as it will relaunch a nuclear arms race against enemies that either don't exist, or could be contained in less destabilising ways.
"The NMD program has many fatal flaws. There is the danger of a nuclear re-escalation when the world should be moving from the nuclear age to the solar age. There is the risk of seriously antagonizing both Russia and China at the same time, plus increased tensions with European allies. The program involves a colossal waste of money (at least $60bn) and of America's best brains in a scheme that remains unproven. Furthermore, it encourages the militarization of space, a 'new frontier' that should be devoted exclusively to peaceful activities. IPB urges Republican leaders to abandon the highly destabilising NMD policy, and instead invest in range of measures such as : the long-overdue ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ; the building of new bridges to old enemies such as N. Korea and Iraq ; the development of a global missile control regime ; and steps towards a verifiable ban on nuclear weapons. The threats which the NMD plan aims to counter would be more effectively addressed and world security enhanced.
"The more general foreign policy plans sketched out by the Bush administration suggest a desire to 'go it alone', despite the world's increasing interdependence. These include yet more military spending increases, cutbacks in US contributions to peacekeeping efforts, especially humanitarian missions where there is no 'national interest', and lack of support for the UN.
"IPB Board member Fredrik Heffermehl comments: "Through his handling of the Democrats in this protracted legal contest, Bush has given an alarming signal of the style and tactics (including bullying and manipulation of the law and the media) which the US will use towards the rest of the world - even more than in the past. We must watch what Bush does and not what he says".
"Hopefully the Bush Presidency will galvanize the citizens' movements. A central task in the years to come will be to build bridges with those sectors within the US who share our vision of a different America, one of a giant that has learned to be gentle, and who has understood the importance of sharing the planet with the other inhabitants, thus ensuring its security."
NOTE: In addition, IPB Secretary-General Colin Archer has disseminated an analytico-action-oriented paper entitled "Peace and the Bush Presidency: IPB Analysis and Suggestions for Action". Please email your request to the WNII editor, if you wish to receive this paper
USA: Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) of the Commonwealth Institute: New info source on US defense policy http://www.comw.org/pda
All updates are as of 23 January 2001.
Contact Project on Defense Alternatives: < >
CSD9: NGOs Dialogue Paper on Sustainable Energy and Transport
A Dialogue Paper for the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Segment on Sustainable Energy and Transport of CSD9 has been jointly prepared by the CSD NGO Energy & Climate Change Caucus and the CSD NGO Transport Caucus for the Ninth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, to be held on 16-27 April this year.
The Paper's structure reads as follows:
The Paper is available as an rtf-formatted email attachment from the WNII editor.
Financing for Development Forum Resources From Robert Pollard
I am happy to announce the launch of the initial web site for the Financing for Development Forum at: http://ffd-forum.net
and to invite you to participate in the Forum and to make use of the resources that are available on the site including a set of electronic mailing lists for dialogue and preparation of recommendations in most of the key areas on the FfD agenda - including areas that are not yet included in the Secretary- General's Report.
The Financing for Development Forum grew out of consultations that began at the NGO / Civil Society Hearings that were held at UN headquarters last November - continuing at the Business Hearings and through an extensive series of informal consultations since then.
These consultations have confirmed that there is a clear need for an accessible, participatory and transparent framework through which to enable more effective access to, and exchange of, information on the FfD process and to mobilize broad-based participation of the NGO community and global civil society in the consultations for for the FfD process.
The Secretary-General's Advance Report is available in html format at: http://ffd-forum.net/docs/sec-rpt-adv.htm
with an expanded table of contents that makes it easier to get an overview of the issues that are being addressed in the FfD process. The recommendations in the S-G's Report are available at: http://ffd-forum.net/docs/sec-rec.htm a substantially shorter document than the full report - again with an expanded Table of Contents.
Also available in html format are the three General Assembly Resolutions on Financing for Development - 52/179, 53/172 and 54/196 at: http://ffd-forum.net/docs/53-179.htm http://ffd-forum.net/docs/53-179.htm and http://ffd-forum.net/docs/54-196.htm respectively.
The Revised draft decision submitted by the Bureau - A/AC.257/L.2/Rev.1 - is also available in html format, at: http://ffd-forum.net/docs/a-ac-257-l2.htm
Access to the database of Policy documents of the official FfD site has been enhanced so that it is possible to access the full listing of topics covered in the database from a single web page: http://ffd-forum.net/access/topics.htm
Electronic mailing lists that have been set up - with instructions on how to subscribe - can be found at: http://ffd-forum.net/lists
WILPF: Why Jolt the Conference on Disarmament? http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/cd/cdindex.html
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is undertaking an effort to put pressure on this important disarmament negotiating body to actually achieve something in 2001. WILPF invites - in fact calls on - other organisations to join us in giving the opening of this years CD (January 22) and the entire 2001 session, a jolt.
If peace and disarmament NGOs don't pressure the world's only negotiation forum - who will? How long has it been since your organisation, or your affiliates held your government accountable to what it is doing (or not doing) in the CD?
Please - send letters to the people representing you - in Geneva, in your capital - visit your representatives on this subject - share this information with other NGOs and the press
The CD meets for three sessions per year, starting January 22 - March 30, May 14 - June 29, July 30 - September 14, 2001.
WILPF has produced an information pack containing:
Send a request to the WNII editor if you wish to receive this information pack by email.
International Day of Protest To Stop The Militarization Of Space From: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, USA http://www.space4peace.org
The Global Network is once again calling for an "International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space".
We are calling for decentralized actions all over the world on October 13, 2001.
We believe that it is more important than ever to hold local protests at key Space Command bases, aerospace corporation facilities, DoE laboratories, NASA installations, U.S. military bases, and U.S. embassies around the world. The Bush administration, and its corporate allies are pushing hard to deploy Star Wars (NMD, TMD, and the space-based laser.) The October 13 events will give the global peace movement a good opportunity to speak with one clear voice.
Last year we had Keep Space for Peace events at 65 locations in 16 countries and it is our hope to at least double that in 2001.
We are now inviting organizations to sign on as co-sponsors and organizers of the October 13 day of protest. Please let us know if you'd like your organization to be listed as a sponsor and the location of your planned event.
October 13 is a good time for us to remember that the U.N.'s Outer Space Treaty (which bans weapons of mass destruction in the heavens) became operative on October 10, 1967. The U.N. General Assembly has declared October 4-10 as "World Space Week" so our events should help focus international attention on the need to stop plans for Star Wars.
We look forward to hearing from you soon. Please help us by forwarding this message to your lists. Thank you.
"Ballistic Missile Defense" by John W. Hindes
John W. Hindes has recently disseminated his paper "Ballistic Missile Defense" in which he elaborates on a threefold thesis: "& first you cannot conclude from the public debate whether any NMD system is feasible or practical because the public debate is a propaganda orgy. Second, even if it was practical we could not develop it because we are firmly committed to an incompetent management system. Third the bottom line is that during Desert Storm all the occupants of a barracks near Dhahran were killed by a Scud impact -- the Patriot system may be legitimately blamed for that. If we deploy an "NMD" system (in any flavor) we'll lose a city the next time."
If you wish to receive this paper, contact John W. Hindes at:
or send a request to the WNII editor.
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
Policy Alternatives to the Sanctions on Iraq
The Conference will examine how the international community could feasibly lift economic sanctions without jeopardizing regional or international security. It will also inquire into the effects an end to economic sanctions would have on Iraq's internal humanitarian situation. While the Foreign Office claims that those of us opposing the continuation of economic sanctions can offer no coherent alternative, we are moving the debate forward to confront the real policy options facing the world's leaders. The final session will open a debate on how the current political stalemate between the major players in the UN can be broken.
The Conference will be addressed by experts from a variety of disciplinary and occupational backgrounds, including Hans von Sponeck, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, George Joffe, of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Kamil Mahdi, from the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, Abbas Al-Nasrawi, from the University of Vermont, Charles Tripp, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, Gareth Stansfield, from the Iraqi Kurdistan Research Programme, and Eric Herring, from Bristol University.
Up to date details of the conference will be maintained on CASI's website at: http://www.casi.org.uk/conf2001
Globalicities. A Conference on Issues Related to Globalization Michigan State University's 2001 Modern Literature Conference
We are interested in reflections on the anthropological, sociological, economic, legal, linguistic, and aesthetical ways in which the "global" has been thought and actualized during the last 500 years. We particularly are soliciting serious investigations of the rhetorics and practices of recent theories of the global, postcolonial, and international. We hope that our neologism, "globalicities," stands in relation to commonsense notions of the global in the same way that temporalities and historicities stand in relation to conventional time and history.
In other words, our invitation is to treat the concept of the "globe" not as something given, but rather as something which is politically fashioned posterior to our always endless relations.
CHANGE of email address: Chitralekha Marie Massey, INES EC member
This is to inform you that Chitralekha Marie Massey, member of the INES Executive Committee, has the following new email address:
All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
< < < < < end of No. 4/2001 what's new in ines < < < < <