Category Archives: DISARMAMENT & SECURITY

International stability, human security and the nuclear challenge: Yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Introduction to the Yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (abridged)

In 2025 the world marks the 80th anniversary of the only times that nuclear weapons have been used in war—the bombings of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki three days later. In those eight decades, a great deal of death and destruction has been meted out in war but the taboo against using nuclear weapons has survived and grown stronger. This is, as the Nobel Peace Prize Committee noted when awarding the 2024 Peace Prize to the movement of Japanese nuclear survivors (hibakusha), Nihon Hidankyo, ‘an encouraging fact’. Nonetheless, new risks mean it is worth reviewing today’s nuclear challenge.

Nuclear weapons pose existential risk for the world population, as does ecological disruption, the impact of which on peace and stability is starting to be felt in a context in which insecurity is already on the rise for other reasons. The 2020s have so far seen more numerous armed conflicts compared to the previous three decades, with higher war fatalities and increased displacement of people. Great power confrontation has returned to levels of intensity not experienced since the end of the cold war in 1989–91, including the articulation of nuclear threats.

It can therefore be no surprise that, in 2024, global security showed no overall improvement and some deterioration compared to the previous year. Several armed conflicts—not least in Ethiopia, Gaza, Myanmar and Sudan— continued to escalate. Though the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria in December 2024 offered the prospect of an end to the country’s civil wars, a sustainably peaceful outcome was far from certain. Overall, the international capacity for peaceful conflict management continued to seem not quite up to its extraordinarily challenging tasks. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continued, confrontation over Taiwan deepened, tensions on the Korean peninsula sharpened, and global politics were marked by increasing divisiveness and polarization sown by, among other causes of disputation, Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza. . .

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Question related to this article:
 
Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

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New uncertainties originated in the November 2024 election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. These played out in the first quarter of 2025 once he had taken office and quickly came to occupy the foreground in discussion of world affairs . . .

The president made explicit territorial claims for Greenland, for Canada (though the degree of seriousness of this was hard to gauge), for control of the Panama Canal, and for Gaza, as a US-owned holiday resort after expelling all Palestinians. He evinced apparent acceptance of Russia retaining territory it controlled due to its illegal invasion of Ukraine, while demanding access to Ukraine’s mineral resources, and refused to back two United Nations resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion. . . .

The second Trump administration rolled back US policy on climate change, encouraging the fossil fuel companies to turn away from any plan for an energy transition. Financial oversight came under attack with the firing of more than 12 inspectors-general responsible for fiscal propriety in federal government agencies and departments. This was part of a broader attack on the federal bureaucracy .

In the first quarter of 2025, therefore, both allies and adversaries of the USA and all those in between found themselves navigating uncharted geopolitical and economic waters. The policies and stances of the Trump administration in its first weeks may not all endure for its full four years. But some will likely persist and embed themselves deep enough in American policy that the next administration, even if it is not cut from Trumpian cloth, will find it hard to do away with them entirely. This is the complex background to discussing the nuclear challenge in the coming years. This chapter first looks at the current state of arms control (section II), then at the prospects of a new nuclear arms race (section III), before returning to the context of a world order in crisis (section IV), in order to discuss how the nuclear challenge might be addressed (section V).

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global

The Challenge of Making a Culture of Peace an Official Heritage in Africa

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

Excerpts from an announcement by Juste Joris Tindy-Poaty

ABSTRACT
This is a call for contributions to a collective work on the theme of making a culture of peace an officla heritage in Africa. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this work aims to explore and highlight the various processes by which traditional and contemporary African societies have made and continue to make peace, and therefore the culture of peace, a heritage to be preserved and transmitted.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Report

Using a multidisciplinary approach, this collaborative book project aims to explore and highlight the various processes by which traditional and contemporary African societies have made and continue to make peace, and therefore the culture of peace, a heritage to be preserved and transmitted.

The expected contributions, including theoretical reflections, field research, case studies, and examples of best practices, will be organized into two parts: (i) Sources, foundations, and endogenous resources of the culture of peace; (ii) Impacts of external influences, hybridizations and resilience of endogenous practices, challenges, and issues of the culture of peace in contemporary African societies.

I – Sources, Foundations, and Endogenous Resources of a Culture of Peace

This first part will bring together contributions that examine and highlight not only the sources and endogenous foundations of a culture of peace, but also the resources through which African societies have, throughout the centuries, been able to embody and transmit, from generation to generation, the almost innate human disposition toward mutual aid and sociability; and also the meaning of a non-violent relationship and peaceful, symbiotic coexistence between humankind and nature.

The main themes of this first part of the book are as follows:

Theme 1: Culture of Peace: Endogenous Sources and Foundations

Inspired by UNESCO, the concept of a culture of peace is defined by the United Nations as consisting of “values, attitudes and behaviors which reflect and promote conviviality and sharing based on the principles of freedom, justice and democracy, all human rights, tolerance and solidarity, which reject violence and incline towards preventing conflicts by addressing their root causes and resolving problems through dialogue and negotiation, and which guarantee to all the full enjoyment of all rights and the means to participate fully in the development process of their society” (cf. UN General Assembly Resolution 52/13 of 15 January 1998).

How can this concept, as defined, be rooted in traditional African societies? What can be understood by “culture of peace” in the specific context of traditional African societies?

Theme 2: Culture of Peace, Oral Literary Heritage, and Social Practices/Customs/Prohibitions

African oral literary heritage is diverse and rich in tales, epics, songs, rituals, and short genres or proverbs (proverbs, maxims, sayings, etc.). All these constituent elements of African literary heritage, which fall under the art of storytelling, the “oral verbal art” (Ursula Baumgardt), are vehicles of our cultures and, at the same time, of our understanding of living together and peace. What are the elements of oral literatures and what are the practices, customs, and social prohibitions that, on a daily basis, contributed and continue to contribute, in these traditional and contemporary societies, to the prevention of antisocial behavior, the transmission of a prosocial culture, and the promotion of better living together in peace?

Theme 3: Culture of Peace and Endogenous Mechanisms for Conflict Transformation

What mechanisms were conceived and implemented in our traditional societies for conflict resolution and violence prevention, and for conflict transformation? And when violence was unavoidable, how did our traditional societies work towards restoring peace? What symbolic objects, songs, dances, or rituals were used for conflict prevention, reconciliation, and peacebuilding?

Theme 4: Culture of Peace and Traditional Ecology or Ethnoecology

Given that a culture of peace includes harmonious relationships between humans and their natural environment, what knowledge and practices, falling under the umbrella of “traditional ecology” or “ethnoecology” (P. Mouguiama-Daouda and A. Moussirou Mouyama, 2020), did our traditional societies use to preserve biodiversity and protect nature? Can this knowledge and these practices still contribute to environmental preservation and the fight against climate change today?

Theme 5: Institutions and Actors Custodians of the Endogenous Resources of a Culture of Peace

Given that peace is both an intangible and tangible heritage, what institutions and actors in our traditional societies were responsible for safeguarding, preserving, and transmitting a culture of peace? What was the place and role of women, guardians of traditions, in safeguarding, preserving and transmitting the culture of peace in traditional Africa?

II – Impacts of External Influences, Hybridization and Resilience of Endogenous Practices, Challenges and Issues of a Culture of Peace in Contemporary African Societies

Considering the impact of colonization, among other things, there are no longer any strictly traditional African societies. While contemporary African societies are heirs to traditional societies, they have been and continue to be built upon numerous exogenous contributions, such as imported religions (like Islam and Christianity). Consequently, it is clear that “current African identities are now being forged at the interface of cosmopolitanism and indigeneity.”

The themes that will constitute this second part of the book are as follows:

Theme 1: Endogenous Mechanisms and Practices of Peace Culture and Exogenous Influences

How effective and legitimate are endogenous mechanisms and practices of peace culture (such as traditional dialogue, mediation by elders, reconciliation rituals, chieftaincy systems, etc.) in pre-colonial and post-colonial contexts? What is the impact of exogenous models on these endogenous mechanisms and practices? Does this impact lead to the integration of these endogenous mechanisms and practices into formal judicial systems? How do endogenous mechanisms and practices of peace culture coexist with exogenous models? Are endogenous mechanisms and practices and exogenous models complementary, or must a choice be made between them? Are we witnessing resilient mechanisms and practices, or the creation of hybrid mechanisms and practices for conflict transformation?

Theme 2: Culture of Peace and the Challenges of Transitional Justice and Reconciliation

… Under what conditions can transitional justice be an effective and legitimate mechanism for restoring social cohesion and building lasting peace? In practical terms, how has this mechanism reconciled, and how can it reconcile, the opposition between formal and restorative justice and address the challenge of impunity? What is the role of collective memory and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in collective healing and the prevention of future conflicts and violence?

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(Click here for the original version in French

Questions related to this article:

Can a culture of peace be achieved in Africa through local indigenous training and participation?

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Theme 3: Culture of Peace and the Democratic Challenge

… Conceived in its essence as a means of peaceful conflict resolution, is democracy in Africa doomed to foster a culture of violence and political instability? What solutions exist in Africa for effective and legitimate electoral mechanisms and systems? How can we initiate democratization processes in Africa that truly aim to consolidate political stability and establish a lasting culture of peace? What alternative systems to pluralist democracy exist to end the culture of violence and political instability in Africa?

Theme 4: Culture of Peace, Public Policies, and Development

… To speak of good governance as “the competence […] to effectively develop policies and ensure their implementation and the delivery of services” is undoubtedly to raise the issue of public policymaking for development. What place do the various political and institutional ecosystems give to the issue of developing and evaluating public policies? Is the creation of effective public policies a priority of national development agendas and a shared culture? Do science and its practitioners benefit, in all African states, from public recognition of their legitimacy to contribute to political decision-making? What is the role of endogenous public scientific research in public policymaking? Does each African state have a “science ecosystem for informing public policy” for sustainable development and peace? Are sustainable development and peace in African states objectives based on the prior construction of a long-term vision and the implementation of coherent and harmonized public policies?

Theme 5: Culture of Peace, Status and Role of Youth and Women

With young people representing 60% of the population in 2020, Africa was already the youngest continent in the world and will remain so until at least 2070 (AFD, 2020, p. 16). This youth demographic certainly poses challenges in terms of meeting social needs, but it is also potentially a lever for transformation and development. Women in Africa are also a potential lever for transformation and development. What is the status of young people and women, and what role do they already play in Africa in promoting and building a culture of peace (in its broadest sense: conflict and violence prevention and management, combating climate change, creating businesses and jobs, etc.)? How is Africa appropriating and implementing UN resolutions 1325 on the rights of women, peace and security, and 2250 on youth, peace and security? With regard to the rights of women and girls in particular, can we truly speak of peace and development without concrete achievements, or even significant progress, in gender equality? Where do African states stand with the implementation of SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls)?

Theme 6: Culture of Peace, Mental Health, and Individual Well-being

Before discussing peaceful relationships with other people or the natural environment, a culture of peace is first and foremost about inner peace. Being at peace with oneself means, in particular, being in good mental health, that is, being in “a state of well-being in which [one] can realize one’s own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and make a contribution to one’s community” (WHO, 2022, p. 2). With, according to the WHO, “about one in eight people worldwide [living] with a mental disorder” (2022), mental health is a global concern. Anxiety and depression, the most common mental health disorders, are the second leading cause of long-term disability. What is the state of mental health and well-being in Africa, within families (for children and parents), in schools and universities (for students), and in the workplace for all working individuals? What are the major challenges, consequences, and impacts of mental health in Africa for individuals and societies? What are the potential solutions for optimal mental well-being for individuals in the context of peaceful communities?

Theme 7: Culture of Peace, Education, Culture, Sport, and Media

If “peace is learned” (T. D’Ansembourg and D. Van Reybrouck, 2016), what role do the educational systems of contemporary African societies play in education for a culture of peace, considering both endogenous traditions and external influences? How is, or can, a culture of peace be taught or transmitted to younger generations, in formal and/or informal settings? Are there educational programs or community initiatives in this area? How can culture, sport and the media be involved in this requirement for education in a culture of peace in Africa?

Submission Guidelines

Proposals for contributions in French should be sent to the following addresses: jjtindypoaty@yahoo.fr; jrdoutsona@yahoo.fr; bbdndombi@gmail.com; celestineboupo2@yahoo.fr; nzamickaledamien@gmail.com before March 31, 2026.
Submitted as an abstract (in French and English) not exceeding 300 words with a maximum of 5 keywords, proposals will be reviewed by the Coordination and Editorial Committee, and responses will be sent to contributors according to the schedule below.
The final texts of the contributions will be reviewed by the Scientific and Reading Committee.
The proposal must indicate the relevant section and theme.

Contribution Submission Guidelines

Each contribution must adhere to the structure of a scientific article and be written in 12-point font, 1.5 line spacing (Times New Roman) for the main text and 10-point font (Times New Roman) for footnotes. The complete text of the contribution must not exceed 20 pages (including the bibliography).

Section headings should be numbered as follows:

1. First level, first title (Times 12 bold)
1.1. Second level (Times 12 bold italic)
1.2.1. Third level (Times 11 bold italic)
Below the title of the contribution, please include the author’s full name(s), affiliation(s), city, country, and email address.

References should be formatted according to APA style.

Each contribution must be accompanied by a bio-bibliography of no more than 200 words.

Call for contributions launched: November 10, 2025
Deadline for submitting the abstract of the proposed contribution: March 31, 2026
Deadline for notification of acceptance of the proposed contribution: May 31, 2026
Deadline for submitting the final text of the contribution: July 31, 2026
Publication date: December 2026

Coordination and Editorial Committee

General Coordinator: Dr. Juste Joris TINDY-POATY (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, École Normale Supérieure/Gabon; email address: jjtindypoaty@yahoo.fr; tel.: +241 74 24 44 80)

(Editor’s Note: For members of the Coordination Committee and the Scientific and Reading Committee, and for the bibliography, please consult the original here.)

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Africa, DISARMAMENT & SECURITY

When Maria Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “Peace” Has Lost Its Meaning

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Michelle Ellner from Codepink

When I saw the headline Maria Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.

If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents.


If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents.

She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.

Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help “liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of “freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.

Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty and denying its people the right to live with dignity.

This is who Maria Corina Machado really is:

° She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.

° She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.

° She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.

° She pushed for the U.S. sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class. 

° She helped construct the so-called “interim government” a Washington backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.

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Question related to this article:
 
The Nobel Peace Prize: Does it go to the right people?

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° She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.

° Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.

Machado was also one of the political architects of La Salida, the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t “peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it “resistance.”

She praises Trump’s “decisive action” against what she calls a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by U.S. migration policies.

Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.

If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “compassion under occupation.”

Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.

But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under U.S. ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.

Tell the Nobel Committee: The Peace Prize belongs to Gaza’s journalists, not María Corina Machado!

And Join our Venezuela Rapid Response Team!

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, Latin America,

Hiroshima Peace Declaration on 80th anniversary of atomic bombing

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article from Mainichi Japan

The following is the full text of the Peace Declaration read on Aug. 6 by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui at a ceremony to mark 80 years since the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.


Visitors hold their hands together in prayer in front of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward on Aug. 6, 2025. (Mainichi/Kenjiro Sato)

Eighty years ago, Hiroshima was strewn with bodies too damaged to identify even their sex. One hibakusha (survivor) ignored the many glass shards piercing her body to cremate her father with her own hands. Elsewhere, a young woman begged, “I don’t care if I die. Please! Give me water!” Decades later, a woman who heard that plea still regretted not giving the young woman water. She told herself that fighting for the elimination of nuclear weapons was the best she could do for those who died. Another hibakusha spent his life alone because the parents of the woman he loved refused to let her marry anyone exposed to the bomb.

One hibakusha leader frequently reminded younger audiences, “Building a peaceful world without nuclear weapons will demand our never-give-up spirit. We have to talk and keep talking to people who hold opposing views.” Today, conveying the ardent pleas for peace derived from hibakusha experiences is more crucial than ever.

The United States and Russia still possess about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East are accelerating military buildups around the world. Feeling the pressure of this situation, policymakers in some countries even accept the idea that “nuclear weapons are essential for national defense.” These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history. They threaten to topple the peacebuilding frameworks so many have worked so hard to construct.

Despite the current turmoil at the nation-state level, we, the people, must never give up. Instead, we must work even harder to build civil society consensus that nuclear weapons must be abolished for a genuinely peaceful world. Our youth, the leaders of future generations, must recognize that misguided policies regarding military spending, national security, and nuclear weapons could bring utterly inhumane consequences. We urge them to step forward with this understanding and lead civil society toward consensus through expanded participation at the grassroots level. In this process, we must all remember to think less about ourselves and more about each other. Thinking of others is how humanity has resolved much conflict and turmoil on our path to the present day. Clearly, nations, too, must look beyond narrow self-interest to consider the circumstances of other nations.

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Question related to this article:
 
Can we abolish all nuclear weapons?

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In expanding grassroots initiatives, solidarity will be indispensable. Cultural arts and sports exchanges contribute enormously to the culture of peace we seek. And in fostering that culture of peace, young people can easily take the lead. All they need to do is conceive and initiate projects they can carry out in the course of daily life, such as peace-centered art and music projects or planting seeds and saplings from atomic-bombed trees. The City of Hiroshima continuously offers opportunities to experience the culture of peace built by Hiroshima’s hibakusha and other predecessors in their spirit of mutual support. The more our peace culture transcends national borders, the more it will pressure policymakers now relying on nuclear deterrence to revise their policies.

Policymakers around the world, can you not see that security policies derived from narrow self-interest are fomenting international conflict? Nations now strengthening their military forces, some including nuclear arsenals, must engage constructively in talks aimed at abandoning reliance on nuclear weapons. Please, visit Hiroshima. Witness with your own eyes what an atomic bombing does. Take to heart the peace-loving spirit of Hiroshima, then begin immediately discussing a security framework based on trust through dialogue.

Japan is the only nation that has suffered an atomic bombing in war. The Japanese government represents a people who aspire for genuine and lasting peace. Hiroshima demands that our government lead toward unification of our divided international community. As president of Mayors for Peace, already the world’s largest network of peace cities and still growing, the City of Hiroshima will collaborate with our more than 8,500 member cities worldwide to instill the culture of peace, which stands in firm opposition to military force. We will call on policymakers to revise their policies. We call on Japan, for example, to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Doing so would manifest the spirit of Hiroshima and begin to answer the supplications of our hibakusha, represented by Nihon Hidankyo, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is on the brink of dysfunctionality. The TPNW should serve as strong support for that treaty, helping it remain the cornerstone of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. We demand that Japan at least participate as an observer during the first TPNW Review Conference next year. Furthermore, in light of the intensified global challenges of coping with radiation damage due to nuclear testing, we demand that our government strengthen measures of support for all hibakusha, including those living abroad. With their average age now exceeding 86, they still face myriad hardships caused by radiation damage to their minds and bodies.

At this Peace Memorial Ceremony marking 80 years since the atomic bombing, we offer our heartfelt condolences to the souls of the victims of the atomic bombings. We renew our determination to work together with Nagasaki and with likeminded people around the world to reach humanity’s long-sought goal — the abolition of nuclear weapons leading to lasting world peace.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, East Asia

CPNN in the Peace Wave 2025

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

Here at CPNN we have contributed to the Peace Wave 2025 with a video based on last month’s CPNN bulletin and concluding with the Peace Manifesto 2025..

Click on the following image to see our contribution:




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Question related to this article:

The Peace Wave: Its history and effects

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And here are the links for the full 24 hours of the Peace Wave:

Peace Wave Part 1

Peace Wave Part 2

Peace Wave Part 3

Peace Wave Part 4

Peace Wave Part 5

Peace Wave Part 6

Peace Wave Part 7

Peace Wave Part 8

Peace Wave Part 9

Peace Wave Part 10

Peace Wave Part 11

Peace Wave Part 12

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global

The damage foreign military bases do in 2025

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

A report from World Beyond War

A new report by World BEYOND War finds that military bases used by foreign militaries are growing in number, as are public protests and advocacy against those bases. Of 1,247 foreign military bases in the world, 877 of them, by latest count, are U.S. bases outside of the United States. Eighteen other nations, combined, have 370 bases outside their borders.

The full report is available below or as a PDF here.

While U.S. bases are in 95 foreign countries all over the globe and virtually encircling the borders of Russia and China, the nation with the second-most foreign bases, Türkiye, has them all near Türkiye, with the exception of one base in Somalia, and the majority of them in Syria and Iraq where Türkiye has been waging wars. During U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States added, and later closed, hundreds of bases. Türkiye and the U.S. are allied members of NATO and weapons traders, and the United States maintains a military presence at nine bases within Türkiye, at one of which it keeps nuclear weapons. The only other nation on Earth with even a tenth as many foreign military bases as the United States is the United States’ very closest military ally, the United Kingdom, some of whose bases are joint U.S.-UK operations.

The combined foreign military bases of the top three nations on the list, NATO members all, total 1,127. The fourth nation on the list, NATO’s raison d’être, Russia, has 29 foreign military bases. These are all found in 10 countries, all of which are near Russia, apart from one base in Sudan.

Foreign bases are catching on in a minor way with other nations. And governments like that of Djibouti that host bases for numerous nations for a fee increase the risk of sparking conflict. But foreign bases remain primarily and uniquely a U.S. enterprise, with no other foreign basing approaching in scale that of U.S. basing in nations such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The biggest change in U.S. bases in the past three years is the creation of dozens of new bases in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The U.S. has also opened new bases in Western Asia, Somalia, South Africa, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Peru, and significantly in the parts of the world southeast of China: Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.

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Question related to this article:

Can foreign military bases be shut down?

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People have built popular movements to prevent planned bases and to close existing bases at many locations around the world, and increasingly they are in touch with each other. On February 23, 2025, and surrounding days, individuals and organizations around the world took coordinated action to call for the closure of all military bases as part of the Global Day of Action to Close Bases. In over 60 locations people protested the foreign bases of various countries, including the United States, the UK, and Russia. See https://DayToCloseBases.org

Bases are often on stolen land and often perpetuate systems of segregation and colonialism. They do incredible environmental damage, tend to increase sexual violence and drunkenness, cost a financial fortune, prop up brutal governments, and facilitate drone attacks and wars.

In some places, movements against bases have achieved official support. The Governor of Okinawa has repeatedly visited the United States to insist that military bases be closed. Almost 20 years ago, the Government of Ecuador evicted the U.S. military and banned foreign bases. More recently, the Ecuadorian government has violated its Constitution to allow foreign bases in the Galapagos Islands and proposed to do the same on the mainland, despite opposition from members of Parliament.

In some places, bases have been prevented or closed. In 2024, after years of struggle, supported by World BEYOND War and others, the Save Sinjajevina campaign met with the Prime Minister of Montenegro and gained his promise that there would be no military training ground built at Sinjajevina in Montenegro. This was to have been a massive and destructive project for the benefit of NATO and the U.S. military. In 2006, people in the Czech Republic learned of plans to create U.S. bases in their country. They organized and prevented those bases from being built. In 2007 localities in the Czech Republic held referenda that matched national opinion polls and demonstrations; their opposition moved their government to refuse to host a U.S. base. In Colombia, a popular movement has prevented construction of a base for use by the U.S. military on Providencia Island, and a new movement to prevent such a base on Gorgona Island is drawing on the lessons from that success.

As shown in the new report, complaints against foreign military bases are numerous. Bases deny sovereignty, make nations into targets, make wars more likely, support unpopular governments, do extensive environmental damage, proliferate nuclear weapons, provide criminal immunity to occupying troops, and create a segregated structure in which people do not all have the same rights.

The U.S. public, and as far as can be determined, every other public whose government has foreign bases, has never been asked to decide on creating or closing such bases, and very rarely if ever even been surveyed in an opinion poll on the matter.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, North America,

Fourth Annual 24-Hour Peace Wave

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

An announcement from World Beyond War

Easy way to get to this page: http://24hourpeacewave.org

The Fourth Annual 24-Hour Peace Wave is coming on July 12, 2025.

Contact us to participate.

The peace wave is a 24-hour-long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. The peace wave visits dozens of locations around the globe and includes rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installation of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety.

In 2025 we are encouraging participants to address the need to abolish nuclear weapons.

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Question related to this article:

The Peace Wave: Its history and effects

(article continued from left column)

All parts will have machine-translated captions in Zoom. Some parts will have human voice interpretation.

Organized by: International Peace Bureau, Stop the War Coalition Philippines, Gensuikyo, and World BEYOND War.

The Peace Wave will happen on July 12, 2025, from 0:00 to 24:00 UTC. In Japan that is 9 a.m. July 12 to 9 a.m. July 13. In Europe that is 2 a.m. July 12 to 2 a.m. July 13. In U.S. and Canada Eastern Time that is 8 p.m. July 11 to 8 p.m. July 12.

Get the Zoom Link to Watch the Peace Wave
Host Contact Info: David, david@worldbeyondwar.org

Embed the Registration Form on Your Own Website

See Past Years’ Peace Waves.
https://worldbeyondwar.org/wavesofpast/

(Click here for this article in French or here for the article in Spanish).

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal (28 May 2025)

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

An article by Richard Falk from the Transcend Media Service

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal, a consensus document prepared in conjunction with participants in the first of two Public Sessions of the Gaza Tribunal, was released on 28 May 2025. The second session of the tribunal is scheduled for late October. The proceedings in Sarajevo consisted of survivor testimony from Gaza, invited expert speakers, a round-table on media complicity, and the reports of three chambers tasked with documenting evidence and consequences of alleged genocide and crimes associated with forcible application of the Settler Colonial Project to Gaza following 7 Oct, as well as the failure of the UN, growing public protests, and of leading governments to bring the genocide to an end in accordance with international law and hold the perpetrators accountable.

The Sarajevo Declaration is a comprehensive text intended to convey the orientation, broad scope of the goals of civil society solidarity activation and reflecting the diversity of concerns among members of the Gaza Tribunal community. Sarajevo was our chosen site to express symbolic solidarity with an earlier genocide at Srebrenica that occurred 30 years ago. Encourage wide sharing of the Sarajevo Declaration. It is my honor to serve as president of the GTP in concert with dedicated scholars, witnesses, and activists from around the world, including the inspiring participation of our Palestinian sisters and brothers.

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal

28 May We, the members of the Gaza Tribunal, having gathered in Sarajevo from 25 to 29 May 2025, declare our collective moral outrage at the continuing genocide in Palestine, our solidarity with the people of Palestine, and our commitment to working with partners across global civil society to end the genocide and to ensure accountability for perpetrators and enablers, redress for victims and survivors, the building of a more just international order, and a free Palestine.

We condemn the Israeli regime, its perpetration of genocide, and its decades-long policies and practices of settler colonialism, ethno-supremacism, apartheid, racial segregation, persecution, unlawful settlements, the denial of the right to return, collective punishment, mass detention, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment, extrajudicial executions, systematic sexual violence, demolitions, forced displacement and expulsions, ethnic purges and forced demographic change, forced starvation, the systematic denial of all economic and social rights, and extermination.

We are horrified by the Israeli regime’s systematic devastation of Palestinian lives, lands, and livelihoods, including its intentional destruction of all sources and systems for food, water, healthcare, education, housing, culture, as well as mosques, churches, aid facilities, and refugee shelters, and its targeting of medical personnel, journalists, aid workers, and United Nations staff, and its direct targeting of civilians, including children and older persons, women and men,  girls and boys, persons with disabilities and those with medical conditions.

We demand an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the genocide, to all Israeli military action, to forced displacement and expulsions, to settlement activities, to the siege of Gaza and restrictions on movement in the West Bank. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners, including the thousands of Palestinian women, men and children held in abusive Israeli detention facilities. We insist on the immediate resumption of massive humanitarian aid to all of Gaza without restriction or interference, including food, water, shelter, medical supplies and equipment, sanitary equipment, rescue equipment, and construction materials and equipment. We call as well for a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from all Lebanese and Syrian territory.

We call for an end of the smearing of UNRWA and other humanitarian workers, for the free and unhindered access of UNRWA and all other United Nations and humanitarian organizations in all areas of Gaza and the West Bank, for full compensation by the Israeli regime for damage caused to UN and humanitarian facilities, alongside full compensation and reparations to the Palestinian people, and for full accountability for the harassment, abduction, torture, and murder of UNRWA and other humanitarian workers and their families.

We call on all governments and on regional and international organizations to end the historic scandal of inaction that has characterized the past nineteen months, to urgently respond with all means at their disposal to end the Israeli assault and siege, to uphold international law, to hold perpetrators to account, and to provide immediate relief and protection to the people of Palestine.

We denounce the continued complicity of governments in the perpetration of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine, and the shameful role of many media corporations in covering up the genocide, dehumanizing Palestinians, and in the dissemination of propaganda fueling anti-Palestinian racism, war crimes, and genocide.

We equally denounce the wave of persecution and crackdowns on human rights defenders, peace activists, students, academics, workers, professionals, and others, perpetrated by Western governments, police agencies, the private sector, and educational institutions. We honor those who, despite this persecution, have had the courage and moral convictions to stand up and speak out against these historic horrors, and we insist on the full protection of the human rights of free expression, opinion, assembly, and association, as well as the right to defend human rights without harassment, retaliation, or persecution.

We reject the unjust tactic of smearing as “antisemites” or “supporters of terrorism” all those who dare to speak up and act to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to condemn the injustices and atrocities of the Israeli regime and its perpetration of apartheid and genocide, or those who criticize the ideology of political Zionism. We stand in solidarity with all those who have been smeared or punished in this way.

We are convinced that the struggle against all forms of racism, bigotry, and discrimination necessarily includes the equal rejection of Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism, and antisemitism. It also includes an acknowledgment of the horrific effects that Zionism, apartheid, and settler-colonialism have had and continue to have on the Palestinian people. We commit to fighting all such scourges.

We also reject the destructive ideology of political Zionism, as the official state ideology of the Israeli regime, of the forces that colonized Palestine and established the Israeli state on its ruins, and of pro-Israel organizations and proxies today. We insist, in the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and that there are no exceptions to this rule. We call for decolonization across the land, an end to the ethno-supremacist order, and the replacement of political Zionism with a dispensation founded on equal human rights for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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We are inspired by the courageous resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of over a century of persecution, and by the growing movement of millions standing in solidarity with them around the world, including the principled advocacy and nonviolent action of thousands of Jewish activists who have rejected the Israeli regime and its ethnonationalist ideology, and have declared that the Israeli regime neither represents them nor acts in their name.

We recognize the right of the Palestinian people to resist foreign occupation, colonial domination, apartheid, subjugation by a racist regime, and aggression, including through the use of armed struggle, in accordance with and as recognized in international law and as affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly.

We recall that the Palestinian right to self-determination is jus cogens and erga omnes (a universal rule not subject to exception and binding on all states) and is non-negotiable and axiomatic. We recognize that this right includes political, economic, social, and cultural self-determination, the right to return and full compensation for all harms suffered in a century of persecution, to permanent sovereignty over natural resources, and to non-aggression and non-intervention. We respect Palestinian aspirations and full Palestinian agency and leadership over all decisions affecting their lives, and we stand in solidarity with them.

We are gravely concerned at the direction of international relations, international politics, and international institutions, and by attacks on those international institutions that have challenged genocide and apartheid in Palestine. We believe that the normative foundations of the global order, grounded in human rights, the self-determination of peoples, peace, and the international rule of law, are being sacrificed at the altar of ruthless political realism and obsequious deference to power, with the people of Palestine left undefended and vulnerable on the front lines. We insist that another world is possible and intend to fight to bring it about.

We fear that the nascent and flawed international normative order, built up since the Second World War, with human rights at its center, is at risk of collapse as a result of the sustained attack waged on the system by the Israeli regime’s Western allies in their quest to buttress Israeli impunity. We pledge to oppose this attack and to work to protect and advance the project of building a world in which human rights are governed by the rule of law, beginning with the struggle for Palestinian freedom. And we believe that the weaknesses and inequities hard-wired into the international system from the start, including the geopolitical right of exception codified in the United Nations Security Council veto, the disempowerment of the General Assembly, and the structural obstacles that mitigate against the enforceability of International Court of Justice (ICJ) decisions, must be reformed and rectified.

We demand immediate action to isolate, contain, and hold accountable the Israeli regime through universal boycott, divestment, sanctions, a military embargo, suspension from International organizations, and the prosecution of its perpetrators, and we commit ourselves to this cause. We equally demand individual criminal accountability for all Israeli political and military leaders, soldiers, and settlers implicated in war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, or gross violations of human rights, as well as accountability for all persons and organizational actors guilty of complicity in the regime’s crimes, including external proxies of the Israeli regime, government officials, corporations, arms manufacturers, energy companies, technology firms, and financial institutions.

We applaud the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its ongoing historic genocide case against the Israeli regime and for its landmark advisory opinion findings on the illegality of the Israeli occupation, of the apartheid wall, and of the Israeli practice of apartheid and racial segregation, and its findings that the rights of the Palestinian people are not dependent upon or subject to negotiation with their oppressor and that all states are obliged to abstain from treaty, economic, trade, investment, or diplomatic relations with Israel’s occupation regime. We celebrate the principled action of South Africa in bringing to the ICJ the historic genocide case against the Israeli regime.

We call on all states to ensure the implementation of all provisional measures adopted by the ICJ in the genocide case against Israel, to fully respect the findings of the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2024, to comply with all elements of the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 13 September 2024 (A/ES-10/L.31/Rev.1), ending all arms trade with and implementing sanctions on the Israeli regime, and to support accountability for all Israeli perpetrators.  We urge civil society organizations and social movements around the world to initiate and strengthen campaigns to support the ICJ’s decisions and opinions on Palestine, and to press their own governments to abide by them.

We similarly applaud the International Criminal Court for (albeit belatedly) issuing arrest warrants for two senior Israeli regime leaders and call on the ICC to both expedite action on these cases and to issue further warrants for other Israeli perpetrators, both civilian and military.  We call on all ICC State Parties to urgently act on their obligations to arrest these perpetrators and hand them over for trial, and we demand that the United States lift all ICC sanctions and cease all obstruction of justice.

We express our gratitude and admiration to the independent special procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council for their expert contributions and for their strong and principled voices in holding the Israeli regime to account and defending the human rights of the Palestinian people. They have shown themselves to be the conscience of the organization, and we call on the United Nations and all member states to defend and support these mandate holders without fail. We applaud, as well, the principled action of those United Nations agencies that have acted to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to provide aid and relief to the survivors of genocide in Palestine in the face of unprecedented risks and obstacles, foremost among them, UNRWA.

We believe that the world is approaching a dangerous precipice, the front edge of which is in Palestine. Dangerous forces in both the public and private spheres are pushing us toward the abyss. The events of the past nineteen months, and our own deliberations, have convinced us that both key international organizations and most countries of the world, whether acting individually or collectively, have failed in defending the human rights of the Palestinian people and in responding to the Israeli regime’s genocide in Palestine.

We are convinced that the challenge of justice now falls to people of conscience everywhere, to civil society and to social movements, to all of us. As such, our work in the coming months will be dedicated to meeting this challenge. Palestinian lives are at stake. The international moral and legal order is at stake. We must not fail. We will not relent.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, Mideast,

100,000 Documented Deserters from Ukraine and Russia — and the Invisible Army for Peace

. DISARMAMENT & SECURITY.

An article received at CPNN from Olga Karatch* published on the no-to-nato riseup list.

Dear friends,

Yesterday, an important update came from the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection. They shared a striking article from Belgian national radio RTBF:

Guerre en Ukraine: près de 50.000 personnes arrêtées pour avoir tenté de fuir le pays depuis 2022

This means that 50,000 Ukrainian men have been arrested for trying to flee the country — in other words, 50,000 Ukrainian deserters.

When we add the 49,000 documented deserters from the Russian army (as reported earlier), we arrive at a staggering total: 100,000 named and documented individuals who have refused to fight in this war from both sides (+including Belarusian men).


Frame from video of soldiers who refused to fight for Russia – See article from 2023 here.

As someone who has spent years building databases of victims of political repression, I can tell you: compiling verified lists of names is no easy task. The fact that 100,000 names are now on record means the real number is much higher — possibly five, eight, or even ten times more.

That would mean up to a million Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian men who are actively trying to avoid participating in war, who do not want to take up arms, who are looking for a different path. That is, quite literally, a massive army for peace — and yet, no one is paying attention.

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Question related to this article:

“Put down the gun and take up the pen”, What are some other examples?

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Worse: many of these men are being systematically criminalized. Across the region — including in EU countries like Lithuania — conscientious objectors and deserters are often labeled as “national security threats” and sent back to the countries they fled. Even men who have refused to commit war crimes and openly rejected violence are treated as criminals.

This is not just a tragedy. It is Orwellian. Everything is reversed.

Those who choose peace are punished — those who choose violence are armed.

We are talking about an enormous, invisible force of men across three countries who are resisting this war — not by force, but through refusal. And yet they are completely ignored.

There is hope in these numbers. But it will mean nothing unless we recognize, protect, and support this invisible army of conscience.
 
Our coalition and our work together — small but dedicated — is doing what we can. But we are few, compared to the scale of this humanitarian and moral crisis.

We need recognition. We need protection. And above all, we need to make these people visible again.

Warmly and with determination,

Olga
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* Olga Karatch is one of the most active Belarusian dissidents and is the founder and director of the civil rights movement “Nash Dom”, or “ Our House.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe

Turkey: Peace Mothers to mothers of soldiers and police officers: “Let there be no tears on either side”

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Bianet

Following the PKK’s decision to disband and lay down arms, the Mothers for Peace Assembly issued a statement regarding the “Peace and Democratic Society Process.”

The announcement, made at the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), was attended by numerous lawyers and human rights defenders alongside the Peace Mothers.


Photo: Diyarbakır İHD / X

Who are the Peace Mothers?

The Peace Mothers are a women’s civil rights group in Turkey, mainly Kurdish women, who advocate for peace between Turkey’s different ethnic groups, especially regarding the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Many of these mothers have lost children or other relatives in the conflict, or have children in prison, and they use non-violent means like protests and vigils to call for an end to the fighting.

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Questions related to this article:

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

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“No more dead bodies”

Havva Kıran, spokesperson for the Mothers for Peace Assembly, called for a bilateral ceasefire: “A ceasefire cannot be one-sided – it must involve both parties. As mothers, we appeal to the state, the president, and leaders – everyone must act. This process has given hope to both Kurds and Turks. Let their planes stop bombing Kurdish lands. No more dead bodies. Let the tears of Turkish and Kurdish mothers cease.”

“Let there be no tears on either side”

Kıran noted that “the state has yet to take a promising step” and addressed mothers of soldiers and police, urging them to join hands for peace:

“Only the Kurdish side has taken steps. They’ve laid down their arms, held their congresses. They’re ready for peace. As Peace Mothers, we call on the mothers of soldiers and police – hold hands with us. Let no more mothers’ hearts ache. Let us hold hands and bring peace.  Let there be no tears on either side. Let us bring peace to Turkey and live together. Let us strengthen those who are willing to shoulder the responsibility for peace.”

“You too must take a step”

“The end of war is now peace. War leads nowhere. There’s no alternative – peace must prevail. A grieving mother doesn’t say, ‘I’ve given one child, I’ll give another.’ Let us live freely and in peace in this country. Everyone has the right to live and speak their own language – but Kurds are denied this right. We opened the path for this process – now you must take a step. We want not war, but calm and peace.”

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, Europe, WOMEN'S EQUALITY