Ploughshares Monitor articles from March 1996

Ploughshares Monitor archives from March 1996

Too important to be left to the generals.
March 1, 1996... In the Somalia scandal, Ottawa is reaping the harvest of decades of failing to provide proper political supervision over the Department of National Defence. For far too long, Canadian defence ministers have acted more as champions of their...

Project Ploughshares turns 20.
March 1, 1996... Project Ploughshares began official life on July 1, 1976 as a "working group on militarism and under-development," reflecting the experiences of its co-founders, Ernie Regehr and Murray Thomson. During the early 1970s, both had witnessed the...

Personal reminiscence: Ploughshares 20 years on --.
March 1, 1996... Things were normal at the CUSO office, that first day of March 1976. There were the usual events and concerns: work was proceeding on a Food Brief to Parliament. A Volunteer in Nigeria suffering from deadly lassa fever had to be repatriated in...

Cuts continue while DND drifts: 1996-97 military spending.
March 1, 1996... The latest round of reductions in Canada's military budget will, if carried out, almost completely remove the massive military budget buildup that took place during the 1980s. The government continues to miss the opportunity for much more...

Star wars revisited: an updated North American Aerospace Defence Agreement (NORAD) has Canadian defence officials extolling the merits of ballistic missile defence.
March 1, 1996... The new NORAD agreement, to go into effect this May, is described as allowing for but not requiring Canada/US co-operation in pursuing ballistic missile defence (BMD) for North America. Foreign Affairs officials keep pointing out there is...

1996 armed conflicts report: world at war.
March 1, 1996... The forthcoming third annual Ploughshares Armed Conflicts Report shows no decline in the number of serious armed conflicts over the past year, confirming the tragic reality of a post-Cold War world steeped in persistent, devastating warfare....

Morartoriums declared (landmine ban).
March 1, 1996... In a January announcement welcomed by Project Ploughshares and many other organizations working for an international landmines ban, the Canadian government declared "comprehensive unilateral moratoriums on the production, export and operational...

French tests end.
March 1, 1996... France detonated its sixth and final nuclear test on January 27th. Two days later, France's president, Jacques Chirac, announced the "definitive end" of French nuclear testing. Chirac's decision last June to cancel the testing moratorium begun...

Keep watching the skies.
March 1, 1996... The Innu people aren't alone in being concerned about the warplanes in Canadian skies. Lockheed Martin, the giant American defence conglomerate, recently claimed that the US Air Force needs the F-22, its latest generation fighter aircraft, to...

Rewriting Canada's military export controls.
March 1, 1996... While it is tempting simply to call for an outright ban on military exports, it is clear that most States, even those guided by "common security" ideals, will continue to operate and equip military forces - to monitor and patrol national...

Industry at the crossroads: Canada's top arms contractors.
March 1, 1996... The latest ranking of Canada's largest military contractors illustrates the shift in markets for Canadian arms since the end of the Cold War. Although US orders were significant during fiscal year 1993-94, Canada's military export market was no...