Ploughshares Monitor articles from December 1997

Ploughshares Monitor archives from December 1997

"People's treaty" to ban landmines: Ottawa Process delivers prompt results.
December 1, 1997... Amidst cheers and tears, on December 3 Canada became the first country both to sign and to ratify the new international treaty banning anti-personnel mines. Watched by an estimated 1700 delegates representing non-governmental organizations...

Welcome to the 21st century.
December 1, 1997... The historian Eric Hobsbawm describes the years 1914 to 1991 - the years between the start of the First World War and collapse of the Soviet Union - as the "short twentieth century," the age of extremes. But if the 20th century "ended" six...

Return of the SDI: ballistic missile defence for North America.
December 1, 1997... Is Star Wars back? The Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) is long dead, but support for the deployment of ballistic missile defences is growing in the United States, and under the Clinton Administration's National Missile Defense...

NATO expansion and European security.
December 1, 1997... A "fateful error"? Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many academics, policy makers, and politicians concluded that NATO was irrelevant. In a new decade where security was understood as...

Military work climbs as R&D spending falls.
December 1, 1997... Spending on science and technology research and development work for the Department of National Defence rose last year while the total for all Canadian government departments fell, according to the government's latest program figures. The...

CDPA (Canadian Defence Preparedness Association) wants you.
December 1, 1997... The "voice of the Canadian defence industry," the Canadian Defence Preparedness Association, has decided it needs a grassroots network to restore public support for Canada's military (and its budget). "A grassroots effort," notes the CDPA...

Politics of small arms.
December 1, 1997... Militarizing despair The conference facilitator was going through the usual plenary ground rules. With an assembly of 300, interventions should be short, focused, and avoid repetition. The purpose of the gathering was to air grievances...

Canada's aerospace tradeshow goes continental: Airshow Canada/Aerospace North America.
December 1, 1997... It is increasingly clear that two major recent events-the end of the Cold War and the 1991 Persian Gulf War-played a large role not only in helping transform the Canadian and international arms industry, but also in drastically enlarging the...

Building future peacebuilders: Ploughshares International Peace and Security Internship Program.
December 1, 1997... In August, Project Ploughshares began sponsoring ten Canadian interns to work with peace NGOs around the world. Grant Birks explains the origins of the program and reports on the interns' progress. Early in 1997 the Canadian government...

Don't waste money on submarines.
December 1, 1997... Canada does not need and should not purchase the four used Upholder-class submarines that Britain is still trying to sell. Canada does not need the Upholders. Conventional submarines can perform a wide variety of functions, but the real...