Ploughshares Monitor articles from September 1996

Ploughshares Monitor archives from September 1996

Arms trade control as conflict resolution.
September 1, 1996... While world military spending is down significantly from the peak of the late 1980s, in excess of $775-billion is still spent annually on military forces and equipment. (1) The impact of this annual confiscation of scarce resources is of course...

Per ardua as astra (DND participation in Star Wars).
September 1, 1996... As CTV News reported on September 8th, the Department of National Defence (DND) is quietly laying the groundwork for Canadian participation in Star Wars through the joint US-Canada North American Aerospace Defence Command, NORAD. Throughout the...

Selling surplus arms (CF-5 fighter/trainer aircraft).
September 1, 1996... Recent government efforts to unload surplus CF-5 fighter/trainer aircraft have lowered the bar for Canadian weapons export standards. Not only have the sales and proposed sales of the government-owned aircraft run counter to proclaimed...

Trading places (Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade).
September 1, 1996... Ottawa's Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) will hold a symposium in November on "Canada's Military Exports and the Need for Conversion" in response to a concurrent Financial Post conference on the Canadian defence industry. The...

Dollars to Doenitz (Upholder submarines).
September 1, 1996... Britain is having a difficult time selling its used Upholder-class submarines, despite their reputation as the "bargain of the century." The current leading contender for the subs is South Africa, but Chile is also in the contest, Portugal is...

Nuclear milestones (Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp; Mordechai Vanunu).
September 1, 1996... The Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, one of the main rallying points for Euromissile protests during the first half of the 1980s, celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in September. Started in 1981, the peace camp remains active in opposing...

Finishing the job: Canada and nuclear abolition.
September 1, 1996... In the past year, a number of remarkable developments have taken place concerning the future of nuclear weapons: * In 1995, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was indefinitely extended on the basis of a set of principles, including...

Canberra Commission calls for nuclear abolition.
September 1, 1996... In November 1995 the Australian government established an independent commission of prominent individuals from throughout the world with the mandate "to develop ideas and proposals for a concrete and realistic program to achieve a world totally...

Century of progress, conflict, and deprivation (World military and social expenditures 1996).
September 1, 1996... Overview As the 20th century races to a close, it already stands out as the most productive and destructive century on record. No other comes close to it in terms of social progress - in the education, health, and wealth it has provided...

Threats to use nuclear weapons: the sixteen known nuclear crises of the Cold War, 1946-1985.
September 1, 1996... The Cuban Missile Crisis was not the only occasion when the Cold War came close to turning white hot. Threats to Use Nuclear Weapons provides a sobering overview of the many nuclear crises that happened during the Cold War. Author David Morgan,...

Eliminating nuclear weapons.
September 1, 1996... Eliminating Nuclear Weapons is a half-hour video making the case for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Originally produced in 1995, the video was recently updated to include mention of the July 1996 World Court ruling. A 22-minute segment of...

Canada's unrecorded military trade: export controls loophole.
September 1, 1996... The 1994 sale of Quebec-built Bell 212 helicopters to the Colombian armed forces drew attention to a major loophole in the Canadian export control system. In spite of concerns that Colombian troops would use the transport helicopters in...

20-minute peace workout.
September 1, 1996... The topic for fall 1996 Nuclear weapons abolition: A window of opportunity Recent months have seen a number of encouraging steps towards nuclear abolition, including the release in July of the World Court's ruling on the legality of...