Public event: Canada's Contribution to Global Security, 23-26 July
“Canada’s Contribution to Global Security” —the Canadian Pugwash Group's three-day public conference on the occasion of Canada’s 150th and Pugwash's 60th — is now underway in Halifax, featuring expert speakers and breakout discussions on the past, present and future. Share your views from a Canadian perspective. Download a poster or browse the program here.
Wednesday, July 26: day trip to Thinkers Lodge in Pugwash Village. While you are in the area, take in the Vern Theissen play Pugwash at Ships Company Theatre in Parrsboro. More information here.
“If War Goes On…”: The imperative of ‘joined-up thinking’ in the search for sustainable peace
Remarks in Response to Assigned Question: “Can International Security and Cooperative Security Be Combined?”
Sean Howard, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Cape Breton University
My title alludes to If the War Goes On, ‘Reflections on War and Politics’ by Hermann Hesse, from which I’d like to read two quotes, first from a December 1917 essay, Shall There Be Peace?: “The bigger, the bloodier, the more destructive these final battles of the World War prove to be, the less will be accomplished for the future, the less hope there will be of appeasing hatreds and rivalries, or of doing away with the idea that political aims can be attained by the criminal instrumentality of war.” And from a December 1918 article, The Path of Love: “Good ideas are in the air – the brotherhood of man, a League of Nations, friendly cooperation among all peoples, disarmament. There has been much talk of them both here and in the enemy countries, some of it not very serious. We must take these ideas seriously…[f]or never again must we revert to what we were: a powerful people with a great deal of money and many cannon, governed by money and cannon. … To do so would be to renounce everything which, prompted by deep affliction and desperate self-knowledge, we have done and begun...”
Not Destiny But Resilience: Achieving a Nuclear Weapons-Free World
Address by Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C. to Canadian Pugwash Conference, “Canada’s Contribution to Global Security,” commemorating Canada’s 150th and Pugwash’s 60th Anniversaries
Halifax, July 24, 2017
We are challenged to open this conference by considering “Nuclear Weapons and the Destiny of Humanity.” The title surely forces us to think anew about our work in nuclear disarmament. Since the human proclivity for the acquisition of power seems to have been ingrained in people since Adam and Eve, are we destined to have nuclear weapons forever? Or does the maturation of humanity, evident in virtually every field of human activity, lead inexorably to the universal outlawing of all weapons of mass destruction? Are we doomed or are we saved?
With a new nuclear weapons ban treaty, lines are drawn in the sand
By Paul Meyer | Published in OpenCanada.org on 5 July 2017
This Friday, July 7, should mark the conclusion of negotiations at United Nations headquarters on the world’s first treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. The 130 states engaged in the process have converged their positions over four weeks of negotiation this year in order to produce a concise agreement that fills the “legal gap” in the international nuclear order. That order is encapsulated in the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that forbids acquisition of nuclear weapons by non-nuclear states and commits the five nuclear weapon states — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — to eventual disarmament. The NPT however failed to prohibit possession or use of nuclear weapons and, despite its 47 years of existence, has been unable to bring about nuclear disarmament.
Good News Service #50
- Canada on the wrong side of the anti-nuke movement
- General Lee Butler: from Cold Warrior to Outspoken Disarmer
- What You can do today: Let your views be known by phone to: Global Affairs Canada. Ask to speak with Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Affairs Minister. 613.992.5234
- The 81-year-old woman inspiring a nation to recycle
- 110 recipients of the Order of Canada called on the Prime Minister to support UN negotiations to rid the world of nuclear weapons
- Afghanistan authorities make progress in fight against corruption
- UN Women's Executive Board visits Women's work in Rural India
- Mexican Senate approves new law on disappearances of women
- RWANU helps Ugandan women grab life by the horns
- Iranian President Rohani Wins Re-election in a Landslide - a Blow to Hardliners
Download issue #50 here (pdf)