Winter 2010 - Project Ploughshares

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22Invest inpeaceIn advance of the G8 Summit in Muskoka, 80 leaders ofthe world’s religions and faith-based organizations convenedin Winnipeg and issued a closing statement. Here isan excerpt. (For the full statement, go to www.faithchallengeg8.com.)The well-being and shared security of all can only be realizedwhen grounded in justice. Shared security focuses onthe fundamental inter-relatedness of all persons and theenvironment (World Religions Summit, Sapporo 2008).Civilians in the world’s poorest countries are the primaryvictims of war, insurgencies, criminal activities and otherforms of armed violence. At the same time, we are collectivelyaffected and implicated in global turmoil throughour common humanity and through the priorities we set.One clear example of misplaced priorities is globalmilitary spending, estimated to be US$1,464 billion for2008, while support for United Nations peace-keepingoperations is only US$9 billion. NATO countries accountfor over two-thirds of this global military spending;these payments for military services are more than 20times the annual world financial contributions to OfficialDevelopment Assistance. Another example of misplacedpriorities is the continuing threat of nuclear weapons andother weapons of mass destruction that represent a moralaffront to human dignity and a grave danger to life.We are aware that there are those who use religion tojustify violent acts against others, and thereby offend thetrue spirit of their faith and the long-standing values oftheir faith communities. We condemn religiously motivatedterrorism and extremism and commit to stop theteaching and justification of the use of violence betweenand among our faith communities.In 2010, we expect inspired leadership and actionsthat invest in peace!• We call on governments to halt the arms race, makenew and greater investments in supporting a culture ofpeace, strengthen the rule of law, stop ethnic cleansingand the suppression of minorities, build peace throughnegotiation, mediation, and humanitarian supportto peace processes, including the control and reductionof small arms that every year are the cause of over300,000 deaths globally.• We call on states with nuclear weapons to make immediateand substantial cuts in the number of nuclearweapons and to cease the practice of having nuclearweapons on hair-trigger alert. Let these be the initialsteps in a defined process leading to the complete andpermanent elimination of nuclear weapons.• We call for the establishment of transparent and effectivedialogue mechanisms between international organizationsand faith communities that takes advantage of thepeace-making potential of religion.Binalakshmi Nepramreceives Sean MacBridePeace PrizeBinalakshmi Nepram, founder of Manipur Women GunSurvivors Network and Secretary-General of ControlArms Foundation of India (CAFI), has been awardedthe Sean MacBride Peace Prize for 2010. During 2009and 2010 Nepram and CAFI partnered with ProjectPloughshares to advance support for the Arms TradeTreaty in India with funding from the UK Foreign andCommonwealth Office.The prize, awarded annually by the InternationalPeace Bureau, was given to Nepram in recognition of her“pioneering work,” which has demonstrated, in particular,“the linkage between disarmament and development.” Inher acceptance speech, Nepram called upon people, organizations,and nations around the world to rally for peaceand justice in some of the world’s forgotten areas.Canadian Schoolof Peacebuilding:Courses for 2011Details of the courses to be offered by the CanadianSchool of Peacebuilding in June 2011 are nowavailable. A brochure can be downloaded by goingto http://www.cmu.ca/csop/pdfs/csopbooklet.final.pdf.CSOP is housed at the Canadian MennoniteUniversity in Winnipeg. Courses are available forprofessional development or academic credit andare open to members of all faith groups.The Ploughshares Monitor I Winter 2010
ResourcesCountdownto Zero, a newfilm by documentarianLucyWalker (Devil’sPlayground,Blindsight),traces thehistory of theatomic bomb from its origins toa present in which nine nationspossess nuclear weaponscapabilities while others raceto join them. It explores thedangers of these weapons,exposing a variety of currentthreats and featuring insightsfrom a host of internationalexperts and world leaders whoadvocate total nuclear disarmament.The documentary, aMagnolia Pictures release, isnow available in Blu-Ray andDVD formats.Ending Wars,ConsolidatingPeace:EconomicPerspectives,edited byMats Berdaland AchimWennmann,Routledge, 2010, ISBN 978-0-415-61387-3, paperback, 258pages, $19.95.Ending Wars, ConsolidatingPeace presents a series ofeconomic perspectives onconflict resolution to show howpeacebuilding can be moreeffectively tackled. It considershow economic factors canpositively shape and drive peaceprocesses.Among its 10 chapters are thefollowing:• “Stabilising Fragile States andthe Humanitarian Space” byRobert Muggah• “Assessing Linkages BetweenDiplomatic Peacemaking andDevelopmental PeacebuildingEfforts” by Ashraf Ghani, ClareLockhart, and Blair Glencorse• “Valuable Natural Resourcesin Conflict-Affected States” byPäivi Lujala, Siri Aas Rustad,and Philippe Le Billon• “Crime, Corruption andViolent Economies” by JamesCockayne.Mats Berdal is Professor ofSecurity and Development in theDepartment of War Studies atKing’s College, London. AchimWennmann is a Researcherat the Centre on Conflict,Development and Peacebuildingof the Graduate Institute ofInternational DevelopmentStudies in Geneva.StrategicSurvey 2010:The AnnualReview ofWorld Affairs,by InternationalInstitute forStrategicStudies,Routledge, 2010, ISBN 978-1-85743-563-4, paperback, 400pages, $205.00.The Strategic Survey is theannual review of world affairsfrom the International Institutefor Strategic Studies. Its key elementsare Events-at-a-Glancechronology; “Perspectives,”an assessment of the effectof major events and trends onthe strategic landscape; andregional and thematic chaptersthat examine particular strategicpolicy issues, such as terrorismand weapons of mass destruction,missile defence, and thefuture of peacekeeping.Strategic Survey 2010 featuresthree specially commissionedessays for 2010:• US Nuclear Policy Transformed• US Defence Policy: Preparingfor Change• Europe’s Evolving SecurityArchitecture.The Strategic Survey concludeswith “Prospectives,” an essaysetting forth strategic prioritiesfor the coming year. Alsoincluded are 32 pages of maps.TowardsNuclear Zero, byDavid Cortrightand RaimoVäyrynen,Routledge2010, ISBN978-0-415-59528-5,paperback, 182 pages, $19.95.Towards Nuclear Zero examinespractical steps for achievingprogress toward disarmament.The current debate over nuclearabolition is placed in the contextof urgent non-proliferation prioritiesand the need to preventnuclear weapons from fallinginto the hands of extremistregimes and terrorists. It examinesthe reasons why more thantwo dozen states have given upnuclear programs over the yearsand distills lessons from the endof the Cold War to offer policyrecommendations for movingtoward lessened global relianceon nuclear weapons.The book concludes witha detailed roadmap to globalnuclear zero. It proposes anew international securityregime based on shared missiledefences, nonweaponizeddeterrence, and greaterefforts to enhance transnationalcooperation.David Cortright is Directorof Policy Studies at the KrocInstitute for International PeaceStudies at the University ofNotre Dame and chair of theFourth Freedom Forum. RaimoVäyrynen is former Directorof the Finnish Institute ofInternational Affairs.SIPRIYearbook 2010:Armaments,DisarmamentandInternationalSecurity, byStockholmInternationalPeace Research Institute,Oxford University Press, 2010,ISBN 978-0-19-958112-2, hardback,580 pages, $185. For thefirst time, full text is availableonline; see www.sipriyearbook.org to order online or printeditions.The 41st edition of the SIPRIYearbook analyzes developmentsin 2009 in• Security and conflicts• Military spending andarmaments• Nonproliferation, arms control,and disarmament.It contains extensive annexeson the implementation of armscontrol and disarmamentagreements and a chronologyof events during the year inthe area of security and armscontrol.This year’s highlights include:• an assessment of the practicalsteps that states must take ifthey are serious about nucleardisarmament by former USdiplomat and disarmamentexpert James E. Goodby• an expanded analysis of datareleased earlier in the year onthe top 100 arms-producingcompanies (excluding Chinesecompanies) and the latesttrends in international armstransfers• extensive appendices andannexes that provide furtherdata and documentation onmajor armed conflict andmultilateral peace operations,arms control andnon-proliferation.The Stockholm InternationalPeace Research Institute is anindependent international institutededicated to research intoconflict, armaments, arms controland disarmament.ClusterMunitionMonitor2010, ClusterMunitionCoalition, reportsupervisedby editorialboard fromMines ActionCanada (lead agency), Actionon Armed Violence, HandicapInternational, Human RightsWatch, and Norwegian People’sAid, ISBN: 978-0-9738955-6-8,236 pages, available at www.themonitor.org.The first Cluster MunitionMonitor was released November1, 2010. This new publicationcovers cluster munition banpolicy, use, production, trade,and stockpiling for every countryin the world. It also includesinformation on cluster munitioncontamination, casualties, clearance,and victim assistance.Definition of cluster munitionsfrom the Preface:Cluster munitions consist ofcontainers and submunitions.Launched from the groundor dropped from the air, thecontainers open and dispersesubmunitions indiscriminatelyover a wide area. Many fail toexplode on impact, but remaindangerous, functioning like defacto antipersonnel landmines.Thus, cluster munitions putcivilians at risk both duringattacks due to their wide areaeffect and after attacks due tounexploded ordnance.Project Ploughshares is a memberof Cluster Munition Coalitionand Mines Action Canada.23The Ploughshares Monitor I Winter 2010
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Winter 2010 - Project Ploughshares

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