Global Security Institute

About GSI

Who We Are

What You Can Do

Documents

Press Releases | Op/Eds | Project Reports | Transcripts | GSI In The Media

GSI In The Media

Interviews, quotes and soundbytes from GSI leadership and programs

GSI Staff

GSI Advisory Board

GSI Board of Directors

MPI Steering Committee

BSG Experts

PNND Membership

GSI and its Staff... In The Media

March 15, 2008 - A Relatively Good Week for US-Iranian Relations - Foreign Policy Association "U.S. Diplomacy: A Great Decisions 2008 Blog"
"There have been rumors circulating (or for some hawks, wishful thinking) that the Bush administration has been considering a unilateral attack on Iran. The move would be aimed at halting the Iranian government’s nuclear enrichment program, which the US government believes will lead to the development of not just nuclear energy (as the Iranians claim) but nuclear weapons...Meanwhile, in the absence of official diplomatic relations between the two nations, some members of the American NGO community are engaging the Iranians in face to face diplomacy (that is not to say, though, that the State Department isn’t working tirelessly to foster a more positive relationship with Iran). Jonathan Granoff, President of the Pennsylvania-based Global Security Institute (GSI) tells of a recent trip he took to Tehran at the invitation of Iranian Foreign Ministry."

January/February 2008: Off Target - Mother Jones
"Linda Gallini, one of the State Department's leading experts on nuclear nonproliferation, stepped into an empty room at the International Atomic Energy Agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and placed a call to Washington. A senior delegate to teh IAEA, she'd spent the past week strategizing how to keep dangerous materials out of the hands of rogue states and terrorists. But a dusk setteld over teh Danube that evening in September 2005, Gallini was more worried about what was brewing back home... Despite paying lip service to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the United States has quietly backed away from it. In May 2005, 153 countries met at the U.N. for a routine review of the treaty. Many sent a foreign minister or a top diplomat; the United States dispatched a mid-level Bolton ally.
Fallout: "[Bush appointees] have undermined the institutional structures, so that we are increasingly left only with the alternative to use force." —Jonathan Granoff, Global Security Institute

December 18, 2007: Peace On Earth! Charter for a World Without Violence - The Huffington Post
"This past week I spent four glorious freezing cold days in Rome, under blue skies, listening and absorbing wisdom from a few of those "elders" on this planet who truly have something to teach all of us. The gathering at the 8th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates included his holiness, the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Yunus, Mainead Corrigan Maguire, Lech Walesa, Betty Williams, members from Amnesty International, the American Friends Service Committee, the International Peace Bureau, the Red Cross and many more individuals, significantly several youth groups from high schools around the world. This last group was the focus as the theme of the summit, "The Next Generation", sought to invite young people to actively participate in building a peaceful world. As Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute made clear, 'We are the first generation making ethical decisions that will determine whether we will be the last generation.'"

November, 2007: A pesar de avances, se ha fallado en hacer feliz a la gente: Sabios - El Semanario
"Monterrey N.L.-Ocho integrantes del Consejo de Sabios hablaron ante los medios de comunicación para transmitir las principales ideas que los sustentan, asimismo mantendrán una conferencia emblemática bajo la temática 'Creando una nueva civilización, la visión, el camino, la meta.'...Por su parte el estadounidense Jonathan Granoff añadió que una de las acciones que tiene este Consejo de Sabios es enfocarse en la niñez para crear conciencia en las nuevas generaciones sobre el cuidado del medio ambiente, como es el instar a la plantación de árboles."

November 7, 2007: Steven Starr of Columbia takes warning about nuclear bombs to UN - Columbia Tribune
"Several weeks ago, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, Steven Starr of Columbia rose to give a PowerPoint presentation warning of the risk of global nuclear winter...'Steve does have a strong science background, but some of his best skills are educative. He’s done a lot of these talks, and he understands the framework,' Alyn Ware of New Zealand, an international consultant and educator on nuclear policy who attended the lecture, said by phone from Switzerland."

August 13, 2007: The Challenges the IAEA Faces - PressTV
"An interview with Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute and senior advisor of the American Bar Association's Committee on Disarmament, on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the IAEA."

April 27, 2007: Condolence book for Itoh signed at U.N. - Japan Times
"NEW YORK (Kyodo) Various diplomats, U.N. staff and representatives from nongovernmental organizations signed a book of condolences at the United Nations this week for Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito, who was assassinated last week. The 61-year-old was known to many at the international body, particularly for his tireless work in trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons and his antinuclear stance. Some 65 people, including ranking diplomats from all corners of the world and the U.N. deputy chief of protocol who wrote a lengthy message on behalf of Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, as well as others expressed their sadness for Japan's loss in the black book that was open for signing Monday and Tuesday at the Japanese mission. Among the last to sign the book, Rhianna Tyson, a program officer for Global Security Institute, said she was 'totally shocked' upon hearing of his death. Ito was shot April 17 by a gangster who claimed to have a personal grudge against the city."

February 7, 2007: Activists Warn UN on Downgrading Disarmament - Interpress Service
"Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who last month acknowledged the positive role of civil society in the peace process in Africa, is facing the wrath of a formidable coalition of non-governmental organisations opposing his plans to restructure one of the politically sensitive departments in the world body: the Department for Disarmament Affairs (DDA)... In a separate letter to member states, Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, points out that downgrading the head of Disarmament Affairs -- regardless of the title -- places this person in a position junior to many of the principal officers with whom he or she must work..."

October 19, 2006: Dominating the final frontier - BBC News
"As the White House unveils a tough new policy aimed at protecting its interests in space - and denying access to hostile "adversaries" - the BBC's Matthew Davis considers the timing of and reaction to the move... Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute - which campaigns for the elimination of nuclear weapons - says weapons in space would be ‘crossing the threshold’..."

GSI Board of Advisors... In The Media

May 10, 2008 – Nuclear terrorism is a likely event – Knoxville News Sentinel
"At a Senate hearing recently, Undersecretary of Energy for Intelligence and Analysis Charles Allen testifi ed, "Al-Qaida wants a nuclear weapon to use." It is well known that al-Qaida considers it a religious duty to acquire a nuclear weapon, and its spokesperson has claimed the right to kill 4 million Americans. During the 2004 presidential election, both candidates agreed that the greatest threat to U.S. security is nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. Yet this threat is being dealt with as a routine matter…Of at least equal if not greater concern is what Princeton professor Frank von Hippel calls significant quantities of HEU in some 140 locations around the world in research and medical isotope production reactors and in associated fuel development and fabrication facilities, many with only minimum security..."

March 31, 2008: Gorbachev to Lecture in Santa Fe - Albuquerque Journal
"SANTA FE— The pro-green, anti-nuke message that Mikhail Gorbachev is expected to deliver during a speech in Santa Fe next month will come perhaps at a fitting time for northern New Mexico. While Gorbachev prefers to deliver his remarks from notes jotted down on a notepad, an associate said environmentalism and nuclear disarmament— both hot topics in the City Different— will likely be themes of a lecture he'll give during an April 14 visit, which is a fundraiser for the Santa Fe Institute..."

November 7, 2007: Veteran Sri Lankan diplomat offers advice to Lebanon - The Daily Star
"'I am an Asian, and I am proud that this place is part of Asia,' Sri Lanka diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala told the The Daily Star in an interview in Baabda on Tuesday. A former ambassador to Switzerland and the United States and United Nations undersecretary general for disarmament from 1998-2003, Dhanapala is in Lebanon for two weeks on a private visit. In an exclusive interview, he talked about his diplomatic experience, his international role as a disarmament expert and his vision as the new global president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs."

November 6, 2007: Putin Warns Russia Has Enemies - The Moscow Times
"President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that there were people in the world who wanted to split up Russia and, in a thinly veiled reference to the United States, were attempting 'to rule over mankind'... Putin also awarded the Pushkin Medal for promoting Russian culture abroad to a number of foreign academics. Past recipients of the award include Thomas Graham, a former senior official in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush."

September 21, 2007: Four New Messengers of Peace Designated to Raise Awareness on the UN’s Work and Ideals – UN News Service
"These four distinguished individuals join primatologist Jane Goodall of the United Kingdom, Academy Award-winning actor Michael Douglas, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and cellist Yo-Yo Ma as UN Messengers of Peace...'All these different problems that face us today – the environmental ones and the social ones and they’re all linked – and if we laid down our weapons tomorrow and had a moment of peace, this wouldn’t last very long unless we learn to conserve the natural world on which we depend,' Ms. Goodall, who champions environmental causes, said at today’s press briefing."

July 31, 2007: US-India Nuke Deal May Spark Asian Arms Race- Inter Press Service
"The development of a nuclear/strategic alliance between the United States and India may promote arms racing between India and Pakistan, and (between) India and China," says John Burroughs, executive director of the New York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy.
The deal, he told IPS, also undermines prospects for global agreements on nuclear restraint and disarmament. An equally negative reaction came from former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala: "It has the dangerous potential of triggering a nuclear arms race among India, Pakistan and China, with disastrous consequences for Asian peace and stability and Asia's emerging economic boom."

July 2, 2007: U.N.: Major Powers won't ratify anti-nuclear terrorism treaty - Inter Press Service
"A long-awaited international convention against nuclear terrorism will come into force next week, nine years after it was originally proposed by Russia. The convention was adopted about 10 months ago by the 192-member U.N. General Assembly. Most of the major powers, however, including those with nuclear weapons, are choosing not to ratify it, at least so far….'The entry into force of the Nuclear Terrorism Convention must of course be welcomed as a demonstration of the consensus within the international community that nuclear weapons must not be acquired by terrorist groups,' said a former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala."

May 25, 2007: More should be done to "clean out" excess weapons-grade nuclear materials, specialists say - States News Service
"Despite progress in reducing the worldwide supply of plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU), the essential ingredients for nuclear weapons, much needs to be done, including more attention to fuel from naval reactors and other reactors that have escaped general notice, according to a leading specialist on fissile materials. Frank von Hippel, a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University, discussed the status of the global effort to 'clean out' nuclear-weapon materials at a 25 May Capitol Hill seminar sponsored by AAAS's Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy.Reducing the amount of weapons-grade nuclear material and the number of locations where it can be found will reduce the threat that such material might fall into the hands of terrorist groups, von Hippel said. 'In the end, it's all about having less of it in the world,' he said. 'To the extent that we can accomplish that, we'll make the world a safer place.'"

June 2, 2007: Expert sees little concern with waste at Yucca - The Las Vegas Review
"Radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain is third on Frank von Hippel's list of nuclear fears, behind threats posed by nuclear weapons and safety of power reactors. 'The danger with radioactive waste doesn't register that much unless you do something totally irresponsible,' said von Hippel, a theoretical physicist who directs Princeton University's Center for Science and Global Security. Von Hippel discussed the issue Friday at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas symposium where he delivered the keynote address, 'When nuclear fears come into conflict: Fears of radioactive waste vs. the fear of nuclear-weapon proliferation.' He said the United States should store highly radioactive spent fuel in dry casks on concrete pads until better solutions to the problem surface."

MPI Steering Committee and Consultants... In The Media

May 5, 2008: A Treaty to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - History News Network
"Although few people are aware of it, there has been considerable progress over the past decade toward a treaty to abolish nuclear weapons... In 1997, like its predecessor, this updated convention for nuclear abolition was circulated within the United Nations, this time at the request of Costa Rica and Malaysia. In addition, it was presented at a number of international conclaves, including a March 2008 meeting of non-nuclear governments in Dublin, sponsored by the Middle Powers Initiative and by the government of Ireland."

March 31, 2008: Federal Senator Joins Green Party Leader, Liberal and NDP MPs to Discuss Canada's Role in Peacebuilding - Canadian Newswire
"TORONTO, March 31 /CNW/ - On April 4, 2008, a public forum will be held with Hon. Douglas Roche featuring Elizabeth May, Olivia Chow and BorysWrzesnewskyj, in a lively multi-party political roundtable discussion on how Canada can be a peacebuilder in the world and how Canadians can play apositive role in Afghanistan in peacebuilding and development efforts..."

March 28, 2008: Minister Urges Focus on Nuclear Weapons - The Irish Times
"FEAR OF international terrorism has distracted from the 'very great' threat of nuclear weapons, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said yesterday. Addressing a conference of nuclear disarmament experts at Dublin Castle, Mr Ahern said that the world's attention had been distracted by other crises. 'In the past number of years, and in the aftermath of the cold war, such threats as international terrorism and climate change have often been seen as demanding more urgent attention than nuclear weapons, but the risks indeed remain very great,' Mr Ahern told the conference of the Middle Powers Initiative. The initiative is an international body opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Mr Ahern said the debate about nuclear weapons was returning to the forefront. 'I therefore welcome the return over the past year of serious debate on nuclear disarmament, particularly in the nuclear weapons states.' Mr Ahern criticised the recent lack of action on nuclear disarmament. In 2000, he said, nuclear weapons states agreed to 13 steps to begin cutting their arsenals. 'It is a matter of great concern and disappointment that the intervening years have seen little advance in the implementation of these 13 steps and indeed that some of the nuclear weapon states have called this commitment into question.'"

February 18, 2008: Activists Demand UK Disarm Weapons- AOL
"Activists have accused the government of maintaining double standards on the issue of nuclear weapons. At the Global Summit for a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, speakers called on Gordon Brown to "make good" the promise to abolish nuclear weapons in the UK before advocating such measures abroad. Dr Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy said: "It is simply not enough to extol the vision of a nuclear free world while billions are already being spent on equipping AWE Aldermaston (the Atomic Weapons Establishment and home of Trident warhead production) with a new laser and supercomputer to design more warheads."

February 16, 2008: SNP group aims to dump Trident- Sunday Herald
"The Scottish government has set up an expert group to investigate how best to get rid of nuclear weapons, the Sunday Herald can reveal.The group, to be chaired by Bruce Crawford MSP, the minister for parliamentary business, is seen by many as a crucial step towards making Scotland a nuclear-free nation - and could trigger a confrontation with Westminster...The 13-strong group includes the Rev Dr David Sinclair from the Church of Scotland; John Deighan from the Roman Catholic Church; Osama Saeed from the Scottish Islamic Foundation; Professor William Walker from the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews and Dr Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy."

February 20, 2008: Experts suspicious of 'splatellite' plan: The US government's decision to shoot down its errant spy satellite has met with concern - Nature
"A plan by the US government to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite has been described as a cynical tit-for-tat move in response to China doing the same last year. Scientists and arms-control experts fear that the operation will create damaging debris and weaken international efforts to ban space weaponry...'It would reinforce people’s sense of the United States as being irresponsible,' says Rebecca Johnson, executive director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy in London. The United States has blocked a ban on space weapons for more than a decade on the grounds that it would interfere with its right to develop a missile-defence programme. Using that system to destroy an orbiting satellite would probably anger countries such as Russia.

February 7, 2008: Hibakusha: Breeding young anti-nuclear ambassadors for peace in the US- Mainichi Daily
"The rain has stopped, but the December sky over Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park is cold and dreary. Shuntaro Hida, 91, stands leaning on his cane. An illness in spring sapped the strength in his lower body. Generally he declines speaking invitations that take him far from his home in Saitama City, but this particular occasion is something he had long been looking forward to. He has come to Hiroshima to address visiting American university students from Chicago...Before returning home, the Chicago students met with Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba. Akiba handed them a letter, asking that they deliver it to his Chicago-area counterparts..."

January 28, 2008: U.S.: Congress Considers Bush's Nuclear Deal with India - InterPress Service
"The Democratic-led U.S. Congress is coming under heavy pressure from environmental and arms control lobbyists to reject the White House's move to sell U.S. nuclear technologies to India...Issacs said the deal would not only increase India's capability to produce nuclear weapons but would also send the wrong message to Pakistan in a time of crisis in that country. David Krieger, the president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which is also part of the coalition, agreed."

January 18 2008: U.S. must lead way by dumping nuclear arms- The Commercial Appeal"When Americans stop next week to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., most will recall his remarkable efforts in the struggle for civil rights, but fewer may remember his dream to free all of mankind from the threat of nuclear annihilation…Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba writes: 'Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced what felt like the end of the world. Whole families, neighborhoods, and communities vanished in seconds. The sheer magnitude of the destruction, horror, pain, and despair led to an understanding among the survivors that human beings can no longer resolve conflicts through contests of destructive power. Such contests can have no winners. They threaten our entire species. War is obsolete. Nuclear war is out of the question.' His words echo those of Martin Luther King over four decades ago.

January 17, 2008: U.S. Groups Band Together to Stop Nuclear Transfer to India - Yahoo!News
"NEW YORK, Jan 17 (OneWorld) - A diverse coalition of environmental and peace organizations in the United States is urging Congress to reject the Bush administration's move to send nuclear technologies to India...David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which is part of the campaign opposing the nuclear deal with India, agrees with Isaacs. '[This] deal will worsen nuclear dangers by undermining the nuclear nonproliferation regime, increasing India's nuclear weapons capacity, provoking Pakistan and possibly China,' he told OneWorld."

November 30, 2007: Ballistic Missile Defence: Where does Canada stand? - In View
"Fierce opposition from Russia has not stopped the United States from forging ahead with its plan to install a ballistic missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Amidst the controversy, Canada sits quietly on the sideline...Canada’s former Ambassador for disarmament Douglas Roche decried the U.S. plan to install a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, saying it will instigate an arms race and destabilize international relations.'The ballistic missile defence system is a fraud and it’s the beginning of the weaponization of space ... It’s a fraud because it is not proven technologically, and philosophically it undermines all efforts being made to create a cooperative security regime.'"

November 21, 2007: Canada edges toward deadly nuclear embrace - The Star
"The growing uncertainty over the status of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is another reminder that these weapons continue to threaten the world, and suggests why Canada should be pushing for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, worldwide...Our ambassador, on instructions from Ottawa, abstained on an important UN resolution 'calling on Nuclear Weapons States to lower the operating status of nuclear weapons.' This was the first time such a motion had made it to a vote. The intent of the motion, championed by retired Canadian senator Douglas Roche and his organization, the Middle Powers Initiative, was to lengthen the time required for a nuclear launch, reducing the risk of an accidental or premature launch."

November 19, 2007: Doug Roche revisits impact of Vatican II - Western Catholic Reporter
"Douglas Roche has challenged Newman Theological College to hold seminars and workshops to mark the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII convoking the Second Vatican Council...'Without voices like his we might let our vigilance wane and we do so at our peril,' Smith said of Roche's decades-long crusade for nuclear disarmament."

October 31, 2007: Doug Roche Adds Some Hope in the Fight Against War, Nukes and Poverty - Embassy Magazine
"It might seem like a stretch to consider that a man who is a four-time elected Conservative member of Parliament, a former ambassador and senator, has become a self-admitted counter-cultural figure. But that's where Doug Roche is today. What makes Mr. Roche counter-cultural is not his appearance or his demeanor. Outwardly he is the buttoned-down former member for Edmonton-Strathcona. He doesn't rage. He is, in fact, one of the gentlest people one can meet on Parliament Hill. Yet his uncompromising view of war, nuclear weapons and poverty make him a man apart."

October 25, 2007: Where are we on World War III? - The Globe and Mail
"This White House talk of World War III can't be happening. Not after the lessons of Iraq. Not possible.But it's happening, it's real, it's crazy - and there's hardly a peep from this country. "These guys are out of control," says Douglas Roche, our former disarmament ambassador, of the latest Bush-Cheney sabre-rattling on Iran - of their war-as-a-first-resort mentality. "Out of control."

October 11, 2007: Michael Byers brings attention to Canada’s leadership potential on the global stage- Ceasefire.ca
"On September 11, 2007, Dr. Michael Byers, distinguished foreign policy scholar and director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues, addressed a gathering of decision makers and opinion leaders on Parliament Hill to launch his book Intent for a Nation: What Is Canada For? and to bring attention to Canada’s leadership potential on the global stage...

"The book concludes by highlighting the need for Canadians to exercise global citizenship. He provides examples of Canadians contributing to international justice (including) Douglas Roche raising awareness of the urgent need for nuclear disarmament...”

September 28, 2007: Who Are Great Canadians? Five people who prove our nation's potential - The Tyee
"I'd like to introduce you to just a few remarkable Canadians, as exemplars of what this country is -- and could be... DOUGLAS ROCHE is a former member of Parliament from Edmonton who served as the Progressive Conservative Party's critic for external affairs during the late 1970s. In 1984, he was chosen by Brian Mulroney to be Canada's ambassador for disarmament to the United Nations. There, Roche served as chair of the Disarmament Commission, a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly that meets in New York City each spring. In 1998, Jean Chrétien appointed Roche to the Senate, where he chose to sit as an independent..."

September 25, 2007: Pursue Diplomacy, Not War, With Iran - Global Research
"As Bush and Cheney once again go through the motions of diplomacy as they did during the run-up to war with Iraq , they move steadily toward war. They would do well to heed the sentiments of the Bipartisan Security Group, which advocates the Middle Powers Initiative. That statement says, “Resolution of differences between the United States and Iran through diplomatic means has become imperative. The catastrophe of Iraq should inform us that the use of force under present circumstances will bring even greater tragedy to the war-torn Middle East. Any threat to unilaterally use overwhelming force is irresponsibly hazardous. There is no imminent threat posed by Iran. There is a practical, legal and moral obligation to obtain security through peaceful and law abiding means.”"

September 24, 2007: Global Problems Demand Global Democracy - Today's Zamman
"“World problems need world politics,” said Kofi Annan when he set about reforming the UN to meet the needs of a globalising world. Successive World Summits failed to rise to his challenge. A more democratic approach to global governance is now needed to enhance the UN’s capacity to act at global level... The UN is expected to deliver more services in more places, at greater cost, than ever before. Likewise trading bodies - which have no direct mandate to act in the interests of the world’s citizens - are increasingly invested with decision-making powers. This reflects Senator Douglas Roche’s observation that globalisation “has tended to increase the power of the executive branch while marginalising the legislative branch”.

September 22, 2007: Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors protest LDP politician's remarks over N. Korean nuclear test - Mainichi Daily News
HIROSHIMA -- "Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba has delivered a protest letter to top Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politician Taku Yamasaki after he described North Korea's nuclear test last year as a good thing because it revealed the country's nuclear weapons capability. The remarks were made by the former LDP vice president in a speech delivered in Tokyo on Tuesday. Responding quickly to Yamasaki's remarks, Mayor Akiba sent a protest letter to his office on Friday, according to city officials. 'The city of Hiroshima, which has been striving to abolish nuclear weapons, cannot accept these words,' the letter partly reads."

September 12, 2007: Senator Roche on the Need for Reslience on the Path to a Nuclear Weapon Free World - NukesOnaBlog
"This weekend, former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, OC, who advises the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations on issues related to nuclear disarmament, made a stand out presentation to a conference co-hosted by the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation."

August 19, 2007: First Holyrood, next stop the UN - The Sunday Herald
"...Dr Rebecca Johnson, who co-founded the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, said it was legally possible for Scotland to join the UN. 'Scotland's first application should be the formal one for observer status as a country of transition,' she said. "This might take time, so in the interim a fallback position would be for the Executive to create a formal identity under UN rules and apply that way.' In an article for the Sunday Herald, advocate John Mayer also backs calls for a UN application. 'Scotland ought to be applying to the UN for observer status as a prelude to full membership once independence is here,' he said."

August 6, 2007: Hiroshima marks 62nd anniversary of atomic bombing- Kyodo News
"Citizens of Hiroshima and peace wishers from across Japan and abroad observed a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m. Monday to mark the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima... Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba warned that proliferation of nuclear arms is gaining momentum because a ‘handful of old-fashioned leaders...are...turning their backs on the reality of the atomic bombings and the message of the hibakusha.’”

August 5, 2007: Hiroshima marks 62nd anniversary of atomic bombing- International Herald Tribune
"During the ceremony on Monday, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba urged the central government to stick to its war-renouncing Constitution. 'The Japanese government should comply with the nation's pacifist Constitution as it is and clearly say no to wrong and outdated policies of the United States," Akiba said."

August 2, 2007: Hiroshima mayor urges reconciliation in peace declaration- Kyodo News
"Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said Friday he will express the city's determination to oppose nuclear proliferation and request global reconciliation and understanding when he delivers a peace declaration next Tuesday marking the 57th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the western Japan city...Akiba said that in addition to mourning the victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, he will criticize the U.S. military action following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington last September and its repeated nuclear tests since then...'The prevailing belief in the right of the strongest and the right to retaliate will only create more victims, often the weakest in society, he said."

July 23, 2007: Retired general wants cuts to nuclear arsenal - Canadian Catholic News
"If NATO countries do not start reducing their nuclear arsenals, they lack the moral authority to stop terrorists or rogue states from acquiring them, says Senator Romeo Dallaire... Ridding the world of nuclear weapons became a priority in Senator Dallaire's life a year ago, when retired senator Douglas Roche, a veteran peace and anti-nuclear advocate, asked him to host the 50th anniversary of the Pugwash Conferences earlier this month."

June 6, 2007: Thinking nuclear weapons were a thing of the past? - The Globe and Mail
"The second nuclear age? If you thought the first one, the Cold War, was menacing, check in with Douglas Roche."

June 11, 2007: Dispatch from Hiroshima; New peace message, via an American - Los Angeles Times
"Dig down below the 3 feet of topsoil that was dumped atop the ruins of central Hiroshima to make a memorial Peace Park and you'll still turn up bones, remains of Japanese civilians incinerated when an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic fireball over this spot one August morning in 1945…'Hiroshima feels an urgent need to have more connection to the world,' says Leeper, 59, who spent long stretches in Japan as a child and an adult. He says his mandate from Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba is to find a way to turn Hiroshima's misfortune as the original victim of nuclear war into more than just a sentimental force for peace."

July 7, 2004: Retired senator brings message of peace to campus- Express News
"War must be replaced with tolerance and non-violent resolution, says Douglas Roche, a recently retired senator and former University of Alberta professor. Roche visited campus yesterday with a message of peace, lecturing from his 17th and latest book, The Human Right to Peace."

BSG Experts... In The Media

May 10, 2008: Nuclear terrorism is a likely event – Knoxville News Sentinel
"At a Senate hearing recently, Undersecretary of Energy for Intelligence and Analysis Charles Allen testifi ed, "Al-Qaida wants a nuclear weapon to use." It is well known that al-Qaida considers it a religious duty to acquire a nuclear weapon, and its spokesperson has claimed the right to kill 4 million Americans. During the 2004 presidential election, both candidates agreed that the greatest threat to U.S. security is nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. Yet this threat is being dealt with as a routine matter…Of at least equal if not greater concern is what Princeton professor Frank von Hippel calls significant quantities of HEU in some 140 locations around the world in research and medical isotope production reactors and in associated fuel development and fabrication facilities, many with only minimum security..."

May 8, 2008: Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime – Times Higher Education
" For 50 years, weapons of mass destruction were primarily of concern to the military in the context of the Cold War, with the primary focus on nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union's demise moved attention to chemical and biological weapons in the hands of rogue states such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which used chemicals against Iran…Should we be worried? If so, what should we do? Barry Kellman is convinced that the problem is real and can only increase because of the vital importance of the biosciences. He comes down firmly on the side of concerted international action..."

May 6, 2008: Russia, US sign civil nuclear pact – Yahoo! News
"Russian and U.S. officials signed a key agreement on civilian nuclear power Tuesday that could give Washington access to Russian technology and potentially hand Moscow lucrative deals on storing spent fuel…'This is a nod to the long and friendly relations between the Bush and the Putin administration and it sets the stage for some successful nuclear cooperation with the new administrations," in the Kremlin and the White House,' said Rose Gottemoeller, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center..."

April 22, 2008: US Race Advisers Sound Off on Russia - The Moscow Times
"Senator John McCain has called President Vladimir Putin's Russia revanchist and suggested that it be expelled from the G8. Senator Hillary Clinton famously quipped that the Russian president lacked a soul. And Senator Barack Obama has said, well, not very much at all…..Rose Gottemoeller, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said U.S.-Russian relations could be in for a 'rough ride' in the first two years of a McCain presidency, but McCain could then 'moderate his views over time.' Obama and Clinton, while both expressing concern about the 'course of reforms' in Russia, appear more inclined to develop a more wide-ranging relationship, Gottemoeller said."

April 17, 2008: Lost in Space - GreetingsEarthlings blog
"Outer space is a huge concept. Its sheer scope eludes our Earth-bound brains, hinting at innumerable unknowns speckled across enormous distance. It is, in a sense, our one great uncertainty, surpassing metaphysical questions with an unfathomable physical presence. That’s why we have the Outer Space Treaty, signed under United Nations auspices in 1967 at the height of Cold War tensions...Thomas Graham, a man deeply immersed in international arms control, used the same quote in an article on the military use of space a few years back..."

March 9, 2008: Preventing a Bioagent Great Escape - Blogjunkies
"Nuclear power is considered a non-starter and a radioactive-hot potato for Singapore. Official and popular thinking about nuclear power seems to conform the precepts of Normal Accident Theory, that is, it is such a complex technology that an accident is almost inevitable and the consequences will be devastating. On the other hand, the attitude of the authorities and populus towards biotechnology and 'life sciences' seems more in line with a group of Berkeley scholars' High Reliability Theory who argue that complex organizations can be 'astonishingly reliable' if they possess the correct prerequisites. However, the growing consensus among researchers and security analysts is closer to the predictions of NAT than HRT; a common thread in their warnings is that many biotechnologies are innately dual-use and proliferating at a high speed...It goes on to pose some questions about the agencies and systems in place to deal with the risks of accidental lab release and concludes by drawing on recent work by Prof Barry Kellman (above left, speaking at the IISS's 'Confronting the Threat of Bioviolence' seminar on 5 Dec 2007) and Prof Andreas Wenger on preventing a biological agent great escape..."

February 14, 2008: Lights, Camera and a different ending- The West and Russia- The Economist
"IT COULD all be a cold-war rerun. Japan complains of Russian military jets intruding on its airspace. Russian pilots reportedly buzz an American naval ship. Against this backdrop, and recently resumed Russian air and naval exercises in the Atlantic and Pacific, Vladimir Putin volunteered Russia proudly this week for a new arms race with America...Intriguingly Mr Putin's recent war of words (anyway one-sided, since Western leaders have studiedly refused to respond in kind) has also left undamaged extensive areas of co-operation: curbing the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea; counter-terrorism and the fight against drug smuggling, in Afghanistan and beyond. Work in other quite surprising areas is often overlooked, argues Rose Gottemoeller, who heads the Moscow office of the Carnegie Endowment, a Washington-based think-tank, simply because by now it has become routine."

January 31, 2008: The Necessity of Choice - Sound Off
"Ambassador Robert Grey says in a previous essay in this SWF Sound Off section: 'We have a choice.' We can craft a legal regime that would ban the weaponization of space, or we can live with the consequences of a new and destabilizing arms race. Just so. That’s the theme of my recent book, Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance. We have been here before. In August 1945, shortly after atomic bombs were used against the densely populated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Manhattan Engineer District published an amazing little book, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, usually called the Smyth Report after its author, Henry DeWolf Smyth, a Princeton physicist. Smyth outlined the history of the top-secret enterprise, although not in enough detail to show other countries how to build their own bombs straightaway..."

January 20, 2008: U.S. Arms Deal Concludes Middle East "Peace" Trip - ZSpace
"Just days after espousing delusions of grandeur regarding a peaceful end to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, President Bush announced the transfer of $123 million in precision-guided bomb kits (“smart” bombs) to Saudi Arabia; a transaction that is part of the much larger “Gulf Security Dialogue,” which plans to sell $20 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman...These statements come amidst renewed protest over the 'U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative,' which U.S. Ambassador (Ret.) Robert Grey, Jr., Director of the Bipartisan Security Group, has presciently clarified: 'It is ludicrous to characterize an agreement which would enable India to produce nuclear weapons as a step forward for non-proliferation.'"

January 17, 2008: 23 US organisations launch coalition to block N-deal - The Pioneer
"In a new move aimed at blocking the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, 23 different American organisations have got together and launched a coalition to work with the US Congress and groups in 24 countries on this issue…Advisors to the coalition include Robert Grey, former US Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Leonard Weiss, former staff director of the US Senate subcommittee on energy and nuclear proliferation, and Subrata Ghoshroy, Director, Promoting Nuclear Stability in South Asia Project, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

January 15, 2008: Diverse Coalition Launches Campaign to Stop U.S. Nuclear Deal with India-CNBC; reported in CNBC, AOL and Reuters
"Twenty-three organizations today launched a coalition to stop the Bush Administration's proposed nuclear trade agreement with India. The proposed agreement would exempt that nuclear-armed nation from longstanding U.S. and international restrictions on states that do not meet global standards to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons…Advisors to the coalition include Ambassador Robert Grey (Ret.), former U.S. Representative to the Conference on Disarmament and Director of the Bipartisan Security Group"

December 4, 2007: Interpol plans bioterrorism exercise - United Press International
"LYON, France-- Interpol announced plans for a two-day exercise simulating a global bioterrorism attack and its aftermath in France...Officials say law enforcement officials from nine countries and representatives from the European Council, Europol, several U.N. organizations among others will take part in the exercise. Barry Kellman, legal adviser to Interpol's bioterrorism prevention unit, will moderate the exercise."

November 21, 2007: Vladimir Putin's Political Future Remains a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery - World Politics Review
"A new Russian epic film that tells the story of the emergence of the Romanov czarist dynasty is widely seen as the latest move in the campaign to keep President Vladimir Putin in power after his second and final allowable term ends in May 2008. "1612," which is said to have been produced by a friend of Putin, recounts how the Russians "drafted" Mikhail Romanov to save the country during a dark period of its history, thus paving the way for imperial Russia...'To a certain extent [the United States and Russia] have failed each other over the past several years,' concludes Thomas Graham, another seasoned former U.S. negotiator with the Russians on nuclear arms. On the American side, one impediment to a better understanding, according to some Russian specialists, is that the Cold War is still the optic through which Americans see Russia. But Graham says many Russians don't really want the West to understand them, and that nobody believes Winston Churcill's famous line about Russia being "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" more than the Russians themselves."

November 11, 2007: The Life's Work of a Cold War Veteran - The Seattle Times
"Yes, I am flying the flag of the United States of America today. A few months ago, caught in the summer breezes, I wrote about the flag and was blistered by diligent readers who chided anyone who is a fair-weather patriot and takes the red, white and blue in for the winter. But today is Veterans Day, signified by the end of World War I, which came to its bloody end on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918... Ambassador Thomas Graham was truly a soldier and a veteran of that Cold War. At the University of Washington's Kane Hall Thursday night, Graham spoke for 45 minutes on the victories and the frightful uncertainties of the staging for nuclear war in the 1970s and 1980s..."

October 18, 2007: On the Nuclear Threat - Truthdig.com
"On a sultry day last summer as I walked along a narrow street in my Long Island village of Sag Harbor, I stopped to watch two boys not yet in their teens jousting with their bicycles, not astride them like knights but on foot, like antlered stags, thrusting their bikes at each other, parrying the blows by twisting their front wheels this way and that, their shirts drenched with sweat, their knees bloody, when they might more rationally have spent the day at the beach. On the curb stood two girls, transfixed, for whose sake this triumph of primal instinct over common sense—this mini-Iliad—was performed, a microcosm of our Hobbesian history and a warning to those who hope for a rational solution to the apocalyptic problem of nuclear proliferation...It was Richard Perle, the warmonger’s warmonger, who poisoned the chalice when he convinced Reagan at Reykjavik that Gorbachev’s demand that SDI experiments be confined to the laboratory rather than be performed in space would render the entire project impossible. Though Perle must have known, as many others did by this time, that SDI was a joke, he considered “his successful frustration of agreements at Reykjavik one of his most important achievements,” according to Thomas Graham, general counsel to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency at the time. Should worse come to worst, what’s left of humanity can thank Richard Perle for destroying their world."

October 8, 2007: Bioterror Book Warns of Hazards: What's Missing? - Middle East Times
"A recent review of Barry Kellman's presentation of his new book Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime at the Institute of World Affairs addressed the issue of bioterror, and the threat of terrorists using biological agents to attack the United States. The gravity of the issue preoccupies expert thinking, but our concerns are of conclusions still omitted. The greatest failure is a lack of acknowledgement that biological agents are already in massive use against the United States and other nations. What basic understanding is missing? None of the experts recall that terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden are regularly quoted as saying that plant-derived narcotics as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the West is a legitimate opportunity to infect and kill their enemies."

October 1, 2007: Science and Law Join Forces to Fight Biocrimes - Congressional Quarterly
"aced with the possibility of a wide-scale biological attack in the post 9-11 era, a new team of superheroes — comprising scientists, international lawyers and FBI agents — has banded together to fight crimes of bioterrorism, known as biocrimes...Because a disease has no sense of national boundaries and an attack could be international in nature, all three groups agreed that it is necessary to establish something like a international code of ethics to promote global standards and discussion among the countries of the world about the risk of attacks — which can be a touchy process, said Barry Kellman, director of the International Weapons Control Center at DePaul University College of Law."

October 1, 2007: Analysis: Bioterror book warns of hazards - UPI
"WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The threat of terrorists using biological agents to attack the United States has preoccupied Barry Kellman, a professor of international law and director of the International Weapons Control Center at the DePaul University College of Law for the past decade."

September 25, 2007: The South-North summit and US implications - Energy Publisher
"The surprise announcement of a second South-North Summit, to be held in Pyongyang, has revived speculation over the prospects for a historic peace declaration that could open the door to a new structure of peace on the Korean Peninsula....Growing inter-Korean economic and travel ties can be viewed as elements of an informal, piecemeal process, which, by accretion, may realize a de facto peace regime. But, as Ambassador James Goodby acknowledges, a peace regime of this sort "cannot advance beyond a certain point" and "is not the same as full reconciliation and peaceful reunification." That "certain point" is the commitment by governments to address the hard security issues of denuclearization and threat reduction."

September 16, 2007: Security, life threatened by space junk, weapons: report - Associated Press
"VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — Human security and technologies from cell phones to weather forecasts are more at risk than ever from anti-satellite weapons and space junk, said a research report released Friday. An anti-satellite test by China in January, and increased US opposition to restrictions on space weapons, were cited as two main global threats by 'Space Security 2007,' the fourth annual report by the Space Security Index.

"The dismantling of the space sanctuary for communications satellites, and weather satellites, and those other divides on which the modern economy depends so greatly, thereby making it impossible to utilize those devices, would be negative to every single person in the world," said report co-author Thomas Graham."

August 17, 2007: Summit raises hopes for progress in peace regime - The Korea Herald
"...The KIDA report says a declaration of the end of the war between the two Koreas, the United States and China will be the first step in the creation of a peace system. It will be followed by international discussions on the transformation of the security structure on the peninsula.

'The peace regime has been described as a peace treaty, but it is not to be confused with the task of liquidating the machinery of the 1953 Armistice Agreement. Rather, it involves a whole range of state to state and people to people relationships, all designed to promote security and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula,' James Goodby said."

July 27, 2007: The 50th Anniversary of the IAEA - Institute for Public Accuracy
"This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency.... John Holum served as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Jonathan Granoff is the president of the Global Security Institute and also senior advisor of the American Bar Association's Committee on Arms Control and National Security as well as vice president of the NGO Committee on Disarmament at the U.N.

Holum said today: "Last month, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the IAEA's board of directors that at current budget levels the agency cannot adequately carry out its mandate to ensure nuclear safety, prevent nuclear proliferation, and facilitate peaceful nuclear programs. ... We rely on the IAEA to safeguard that material in facilities all over the world. Yet the IAEA has never spent in excess of 120 million U.S. dollars in any year to administer its worldwide nuclear materials inspection regime. At less than what the U.S. spends per day in Iraq, the safety of the world is dramatically compromised."

June 29, 2007: No easy answers ahead of Bush-Putin meeting - Agence France Presse
"US President George Bush may once have claimed to see into the soul of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but as they meet this weekend they may need more than breathtaking views of the Atlantic to inspire a return to that cosy relationship. The Bush family seaside home at Kennebunkport, Maine, has been chosen as the venue for the July 1-2 meeting, a 'quintessentially atmospheric' place that could help raise the tone of US-Russian ties, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft predicted earlier. It is six years since Bush claimed that he had got 'a sense of' Putin's soul and found him 'deeply committed to... the best interests of his country.' …Things have changed greatly since Russia leapt to show solidarity with the United States after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, agrees Rose Gottemoeller, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, a research institution."

June 29, 2007: U.S./Russia: Hopes High, Expectations Low For Bush-Putin Summit - Radio Free Europe
"Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to become the first foreign leader hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush at the Bush family's oceanside retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine. It's hoped the sea air and informal atmosphere will rekindle warm ties between the two leaders. It's not clear, however, if that will translate into resolution of the issues that divide Moscow and Washington. Hopes are high the two-day summit will help Bush and Putin put their countries' differences aside.But experts attending a June 28 briefing in Washington said some expectations, by contrast, are low. Rose Gottemoeller, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a former deputy undersecretary for defense nuclear proliferation in the U.S. Department of Energy, said, 'What I’m hearing from the White House is that this is going to be another summit that does not emphasize deliverables.' Gottemoeller says the low expectations are due in large part to the icy rhetoric heard from Putin through much of this year -- particularly at the Munich security policy conference in February, when the Russian president lashed out the United States for 'overstepped its boundaries' in creating a 'unipolar' world."

June 24, 2007: Jeju Hub for Northeast Asian Peace - Korea Times
"World leaders Saturday called on South Korea to take the lead in organizing a multilateral regional mechanism for socioeconomic and security cooperation, taking a cue from European nations. At the end of the fourth Jeju Peace Forum, participants adopted a joint declaration calling for the formation of a regional consultative framework to promote peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia through wide-range cooperation among countries in the region, where many 'elements of conflict' remain….During the gathering, President Roh Moo-hyun and other participants including Ambassador James Goodby, a senior fellow of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, echoed the six-party talks over the North’s nuclear program should be transformed in the long term to a regional body to orchestrate cooperation in the field of social, economic and security sectors."

June 21, 2007: Helsinki Model Proposed for N-E Asian Security - Korea Times
"The creation of a multilateral security regime in Northeast Asia, similar to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will help promote socioeconomic exchanges as well as prevent the outbreak of regional conflicts, security experts said here Thursday… Ambassador James Goodby, a senior fellow of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said such a Northeast Asian security regime will also help resolve the long-standing deadlock with North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Goodby proposed that Northeast Asian nations including the two Koreas, China and Japan begin talks on the organization of the cooperative security framework in parallel with six-party disarmament talks aimed at abolishing Pyongyang's nuclear program. 'I think that they are mutually reinforcing,' said the former U.S. ambassador to Finland in 1980 and 1981. 'I have trouble thinking there would be a full agreement on the organization of security cooperation in Northeast Asia unless there is some progress on the nuclear issue. I think nothing is wrong beginning with talks about the organization of security cooperation in Northeast Asia, while still making progress on the nuclear issue,' he said. Gooodby, 78, played a key role in creating the CSCE and signing the 1975 Helsinki Final Act aimed at promoting cooperation in the economy and the environment among the EU members."

May 9, 2007: Former U.N. weapons chief advocates review of outer space treaty - International Herald Tribune
"VIENNA, Austria: The former chief U.N. weapons inspector on Wednesday spoke in favor of reviewing a treaty that provides the basic framework on international space law....Robert T. Grey, Jr., director of the Washington-based Bipartisan Security Group and former United States representative to the Conference on Disarmament, noted in his speech that space-related choices made today could be irreversible."My own view is that weaponization of outer space will, if implemented, decrease American security, world security, destabilize international relations and trigger another arms race of monumental proportions that will cost us all trillions and bring us nothing more than destabilization and insecurity in return," Grey said in written remarks."

PNND Members... In The Media

May 17, 2008:Food Aid Increase Merely a Band-Aid Solution to Bigger problems, Critics Say - The Embassy
"Despite the government's decision last week to step up its spending on food aid in response to the burgeoning global food crisis, experts are hungry for a more meaty response to a shortage they saw coming long ago... NDP International Development critic Alexa McDonough remembers the Liberal policy, and its $500 million target, and has been pushing the current government to re-instate it. Ms. McDonough wrote a letter to Ms. Oda in December calling for action..."

May 2, 2008: UK backtracks on aggressive rhetoric on nuclear weapons - eGov Monitor
"The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament today welcomed the UK government's reaffirmation, given at the ongoing NPT Conference in Geneva, that it will not use - or threaten to use - nuclear weapons against countries that don't have them. That commitment, made in 1995, appeared to be broken by then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon in 2002, when he indicated that Britain would be prepared to use nuclear weapons against Iraq. Opinion polls show that opposition to such a strike is overwhelming... The serious threat of renewed rounds of arms-upgrading amongst major powers, not addressed by the UK statement, were tackled in a CND-hosted meeting at the NPT PrepCom yesterday, entitled 'Preventing a new nuclear arms race: opposing Trident replacement and the US Missile Defence system'. Speakers included Marian Hobbs MP from New Zealand who is Assistant Speaker and Co-President of the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) and Alan Mackinnon, Chair of Scottish CND, who is working with the Scottish Government’s working group on the removal of Trident from Scotland."

April 12, 2008: CWC Debate in German Bundestag - cwc2008.org
"...Uta Zapf, chair of the Bundestag’s subcommittee on disarmament, arms control and nonproliferation, warned that against the background of peace-keeping operations, insurgencies and counter-terrorism operations, the temptation to develop new incapacitants is big. She said that the review conference must address this “hot topic” and define the CWC prohibitions in terms of which agents may be used under what cirumstances. This was echoed by Elke Hoff, arms control spokesperson of the Liberal Party who also emphasised the importance of national implementation measures..."

January 18, 2008: NDP demands that sale of Canadian aerospace company be halted - NDP.ca
"OTTAWA – NDP Industry Critic Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park) is demanding the Conservative government use the power of the Investment Canada Act to immediately halt sale of Canadian satellite company, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), to a major American arms company...NDP MP Alexa McDonough (Halifax) highlighted the origins of the problem. 'The previous Liberal government recklessly and knowingly opened the door to losing this key asset when it failed to support the NDP’s amendments to the original bill allowing MDA to own the RADARSAT-2 technology. This was a predictable result,' said McDonough.

December 3, 2007: North Korean policies stay out of limelight – Korea Herald
"The major UNDP's Chung Dong-young, the Democratic Labor Party's Kwon Young-ghil, the Democratic Party's Rhee In-je and Create Korea's Moon Kook-hyun stress the need to achieve a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula, and to work toward greater cooperation with North Korea… The DLP's Kwon Young-ghil has advocated a three-step roadmap for declaring the end of the war, signing a peace treaty and denuclearizing the Korean peninsula…"

October 28, 2007: Despite Political Control, German Arms Industry Rolls Ahead - Deutsche Welle
"October 24-30 is UN Disarmament Week, but that's of little interest to the flourishing German arms industry. Berlin has the last word on arms sales, and gives the go-ahead a bit too willingly, say human rights groups...These criteria were last agreed by the previous government. Social Democrat Uta Zapf has been a long-standing member of the German parliament's Defense Committee and helped draft the regulations. 'One criterion concerns flashpoints, another human rights,' explains Zapf. 'These two points are very decisive, and the way around them, as it were, is to cite German security interests.'"

October 24, 2007: Barred U.S. peace activists to test border policy again - CBC
"Two American peace activists who were denied entry into Canada because they had been arrested for taking part in anti-war events in the U.S. say they will try again to cross the border...Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin said they plan to fly to Ottawa on Thursday, where they are to be greeted by several New Democratic MPs, including former NDP leader Alexa McDonough."

October 16, 2007: Weltweit nukleare Abrüstung einfordern - SPD Fraktion
"Uta Zapf, stellvertretende außenpolitische Sprecherin der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion und Vorsitzende des Unterausschusses Abrüstung, Rüstungskontrolle und Nichtverbreitung wurde auf der Sitzung des Beirates des Netzwerkes am 12. Oktober 2007 in New York zur Ko-Präsidentin ins Präsidium des internationalen Parlamentariernetzwerkes für nukleare Abrüstung (Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament - PNND) berufen."

October 15, 2007: Vote 07 - The Contenders – SBS World News
“Victorian Senator Lyn Allison, formerly a secondary school teacher, became the Democrats leader in December 2004. A member of the Port Melbourne City Council, she was first elected to the Federal Parliament in 1996, and was re-elected in 2001.”

September 24, 2007: Near Stampede to Back Emission Control Scheme – Dominion Post"National Party leader John Key sniffed the way the wind was blowing when he did an about-turn earlier this year and pledged to honour New Zealand's commitments under the Kyoto protocol, and at the same time set a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. In that context, the offer by National's environment spokesman Nick Smith at the start of the year for a bi-partisan approach to climate change was clearly a genuine one."

August 17, 2007: Labor pledges to overturn India uranium deal - ABC News
"... The Government is also negotiating to sell the fuel to Russia and could sign a deal when Vladimir Putin is in Australia for APEC next month. Democrats leader Lyn Allison says Australia should not sell uranium to Russia. 'The reason [Russia]'s not needed uranium until now is that it's been using the uranium out of its weapons that it dismantled some time ago,' she said. 'Australia should at the very least be leveraging disarmament of Russia before even contemplating sending it uranium.'"

August 15, 2007: Minor parties attack Indian uranium deal - ABC News
"The Australian Democrats say the Government has missed an opportunity to make the region safer. The Government says the deal will include safeguard agreements to ensure Australian uranium is not used for nuclear weapons. But Democrats leader Lyn Allison says that should not have been the goal of the negotiations. 'We could have used our uranium to leverage change with those countries,' she said. 'We could have forced India into the Non-Proliferation Treaty and we chose not [to].'"

June 16, 2007: Democrats demand inquiry into uranium enrichment- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
"The Democrats say the Senate or an independent body should hold an inquiry into uranium enrichment and other nuclear issues. The ABC's investigative unit has been given details of a private company's plan to put an enrichment plant feasibility study to the Federal Government. A Prime Ministerial task force has already looked at the potential for uranium and nuclear industries in Australia, but Democrats Leader Lyn Allison says it is not enough. 'It seems to me that Australians are being swept into a nuclear fuel and possibly even a weapons cycle, with the people actually having no say,' she said.'What the Democrats will now discuss is how we might be able to broaden this debate. I think we need to consider options like referring it to an outside body that is at more of an arm's length.'"

GSI Board of Directors... In The Media

May, 2008: Christie Brinkley gets serious about her amazing second act - More Magazine
"It's awesome and just a little bit creepy, but up close in person Christie Brinkley still looks like a perfect giant Malibu Barbie...But her passion, surprisingly, is politics. Ask her about the upcoming elections and it's like opening the starting gate for Seabiscuit. 'We must demand that candidates reveal exactly what they plan to do about renewable energy and the abolishment of nuclear weapons,' she says. 'I attended the Nobel Laureate Peace Summit in Rome recently and was galvanized by the urgency of the nuclear weapons issue. We work awfully hard at war; if only we worked as hard at peace.'"

For the Press

To arrange an interview, or for comment, analysis or background on issues relating to nuclear weapons disarmament and nonproliferation, international law, or outer space security with any member of the Global Security Institute or its four integrated programs, contact our New York office:

general@gsinstitute.org
+1 (646) 289-5170