We must stop arming Israel
By Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader (THE GUARDIAN, 07/01/09):
The world watched in horror yesterday as the conflict in Gaza claimed its latest innocent victims in the rubble of a UN school. Any hopes of reconciliation are being snuffed out as anger spills into protests around the world.
The past two weeks have been a telling indictment of the international community. We have an outgoing US president sanctioning Israel’s military response and an aching silence from the president-elect. We have a European Union encumbered by clumsy decision-making and confused messages.
And at home we have a prime minister talking like an accountant about aid…
US-Taiwan arms plan highlights tensions with China
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 07/10/08):
China cancelled a visit to Washington by a senior general, slapped an indefinite ban on port calls by US naval vessels, and cancelled low-level diplomatic exchanges with the US today, in angry retaliation to a US plan to sell $6.5bn in advanced weaponry to Taiwan.
A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry in Beijing, Qin Gang, said the US move broke international law and would cast a shadow over bilateral relations. The proposed sale “has contaminated the sound atmosphere for our military relations and gravely jeopardised China’s national security”, Qin said.
China regards Taiwan, which has enjoyed de facto…
The US missile defence system is the magic pudding that will never run out
By George Monbiot (THE GUARDIAN, 19/08/08):
It’s a novel way to take your own life. Just as Russia demonstrates what happens to former minions that annoy it, Poland agrees to host a US missile defence base. The Russians, as Poland expected, respond to this proposal by offering to turn the country into a parking lot. This proves that the missile defence system is necessary after all: it will stop the missiles Russia will now aim at Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK in response to, er, their involvement in the missile defence system.
The American government insists that the interceptors, which will…
A New Chance to Curb Gun Violence
By Glenn F. Ivey, state’s attorney for Prince George’s County. He was a prosecutor in Washington from 1990 to 1994 and joined the amicus brief with 17 elected prosecutors in District of Columbia v. Heller (THE WASHINGTON POST, 17/07/08):
The Supreme Court decision last month overturning the District’s handgun ban, though controversial, may have ended a long-standing political logjam. As a local law enforcement official, I hope this decision will allow a working coalition to transcend partisan disagreements and support strategies proven to reduce gun violence.
The ruling left almost entirely intact the gun restrictions in Maryland and most other jurisdictions. Still permitted…
Armas, independencia y justicia constitucional
Por Rafael Domingo, catedrático de la Universidad de Navarra y director para Europa del Gertrude Ryan Law Observatory (EL MUNDO, 08/07/08):
El 26 de junio de 2008 ha marcado un hito en la Historia Constitucional de Estados Unidos. Tras muchos años de intenso debate judicial, académico y político sobre el uso de armas regulado en la segunda enmienda de la Constitución de EEUU, el Tribunal Supremo ha zanjado la cuestión en su reciente sentencia sobre el caso Distrito de Columbia versus Heller. El más alto tribunal estadounidense ha declarado inconstitucional una disposición de la legislación sobre uso de armas en el…
Shoot to Stun
By Paul H. Robinson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the author, most recently, of Law Without Justice: Why Criminal Law Doesn’t Give People What They Deserve (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 02/07/08):
A narrowly divided Supreme Court ruled last week that the Second Amendment gives Americans the right to keep a loaded gun at home for their personal use. Presumably, citizens can use these weapons to defend themselves from intruders. But given the growing effectiveness and availability of less lethal weapons, it is likely that state laws will increasingly keep people from actually using their guns for self-defense.
The…
Deadly Consequences — But the Right Call
By Eugene Robinson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 27/06/08):
Few landmark Supreme Court rulings have been so widely predicted as yesterday’s decision striking down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. The mere fact that the court agreed to hear the case was a pretty good indication that the justices were itching to make some kind of big statement about the Second Amendment. Questions from the bench during oral arguments in March left little doubt as to which way the wind was blowing.
This case, for me, is one of those uncomfortable situations in which my honest opinion is not the one I’d desperately like…
Contra las bombas de racimo
Por Eugeni Barquero, coordinador de Campañas de la Fundació per la Pau (EL PERIÓDICO, 30/05/08):
Si al final de la década de los 90 veía la luz el Tratado de Ottawa por el cual se prohibían el uso, la fabricación, la venta y el almacenaje de las minas antipersona, hoy y ahora hemos logrado reforzar el derecho internacional humanitario con un nuevo tratado para prohibir las bombas de racimo. En Dublín, se ha celebrado la conferencia diplomática que acabó ayer con la aprobación de esta nueva convención internacional. Gobiernos, organizaciones internacionales y sociedad civil, todos hemos unido esfuerzos para conseguir poner…
Dublín y las bombas de racimo: un paso vital para su prohibición
Por Enrique Figaredo (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 27/05/08):
Desde el 19 de mayo más de 100 países, entre ellos España, se reúnen en Dublín para negociar un nuevo tratado internacional cuyo objetivo es la prohibición de las bombas racimo, un armamento que ‘produce un daño inaceptable’. El mayor peligro que representan es que son armas de saturación área con un efecto indiscriminado; es decir, están formadas por una bomba ‘contenedor’ que se abre en el aire dispersando cientos de submuniciones que, al caer, no distinguen entre los objetivos, alcanzando, en un 98% de las ocasiones, a civiles. Pero esto no es lo peor:…
Doing their dirty work
By Jody Williams. She was the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and received the 1997 Nobel peace prize. She is also the founding chair of the Nobel Women’s Initiative (THE GUARDIAN, 27/05/08):
A decade after the signing of a treaty to eliminate landmines, representatives from more than 100 countries are meeting in Dublin this week to ban an equally indiscriminate killer of innocent people - the cluster bomb.
There are billions of cluster bomblets stockpiled, ready for use by 75 countries. These bombs are responsible for killing or maiming countless civilians as their mini-bombs explode months - or…
Cast off the cloak
By Eric Avebury, a Liberal Democrat spokesman on foreign affairs and vice-chair of the parliamentary human rights group and Susan Hawley, an analyst for The Corner House, an anti-corruption campaign group (THE GUARDIAN, 11/04/08):
When Tony Blair intervened to get the Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAE’s alleged corruption in Saudi Arabia stopped on grounds of national security, few people believed a legal challenge could succeed. When it comes to protecting the lives and security of the nation, the courts allow the executive “an especially wide margin of discretion”, noted the judges in this case. Yesterday’s judgment that the SFO director…
The Arms Race Myth, Again
By Richard N. Perle, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He had responsibility for the Strategic Defense Initiative as assistant secretary of state in the Reagan administration (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/03/08):
With a stridency reminiscent of the Cold War, outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin charged last month that with U.S. plans for a limited defense against ballistic missiles, “a new arms race has been unleashed in the world.” He vowed to field new weapons, which have been under development for years, “in response.” The same day, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he anticipated “hundreds of thousands of missile interceptors all over the world…
Bombas que matan sin cesar
Por Tahar Ben Jelloun, escritor. Premio Goncourt 1987. Traducción: José María Puig de la Bellacasa (LA VANGUARDIA, 16/01/08):
El ingenio y la inventiva aplicadas al mal no sólo son capaces de inventar armas de destrucción masiva, armas muy sofisticadas, denominadas “limpias” o “inteligentes”, sino que también puede fabricar armas carentes de artificio pero arteras y de diabólica eficacia. Por ejemplo, las bombas de racimo que liberan una miríada de bombas más pequeñas, ambas letales por igual.
Era menester inventarlas, es una cuestión de economía: un único ingenio tiene un efecto multiplicador de forma que sus vástagos horadan el suelo donde los niños…
Voltios sin control
Por Esteban Beltrán, director de Amnistía Internacional España (EL PAÍS, 28/09/07):
¿Qué tienen en común los policías locales de los Ayuntamientos canarios de Arona, Telde o Santa Brígida, los de la Generalitat Valenciana, los agentes del Grupo de Intervención Especial de los Mossos d’Esquadra, o un guardia civil de Roquetas de Mar, en Almería? Respuesta: la posibilidad de usar armas que descargan 50.000 voltios contra detenidos.
Para reducir al agricultor Juan Martínez Galdeano, que se presentó el 24 de julio de 2005 en el cuartel de la Guardia Civil de Roquetas presa de una fuerte excitación, los agentes usaron medios reglamentarios y…
Oh well. At least losing all those AK-47s builds a market
By Marina Hyde (THE GUARDIAN, 11/08/07):
At times it seems that no statistic to emerge from Iraq cannot be looked at in a glass-half-full kind of way. Last year, when the civilian death toll was having one of its moments in the spotlight, Iowan Republican Senator Steve King claimed: “My wife’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington DC than an average civilian in Iraq.” He explained that there were 45 violent deaths per 100,000 people in Washington in 2003 and 27.51 per 100,000 in Iraq as a whole. As it turned out, the source of his Iraq statistic was…
Brown’s contempt for democracy has dragged Britain into a new cold war
By George Monbiot (THE GUARDIAN, 31/07/07):
In one short statement to parliament last week the defence secretary, Des Browne, broke the promises of two prime ministers, potentially misled the house, helped bury an international treaty and dragged Britain into a new cold war. Pretty good going for three stodgy paragraphs.You probably missed it, but it’s not your fault. In the 48 hours before parliament broke up for the summer, the government made 46 policy announcements. It’s a long-standing British tradition: as the MPs and lobby correspondents are packing their bags for the long summer break (they don’t return until October), the government…
Rusia vuelve a ‘enseñar los dientes’
Por Araceli Mangas Martín, catedrática de Derecho Internacional Público y Relaciones Internacionales de la Universidad de Salamanca (EL MUNDO, 23/07/07):
No fue una sorpresa. El mismo presidente de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, venía avisando en varios discursos oficiales que «la Guerra Fría había dejado munición que aún no ha explosionado», primero en Berlín, el pasado 10 de febrero, y, de nuevo, en junio pasado, en el seno mismo de la Conferencia de Viena sobre Fuerzas Convencionales, convocada con carácter extraordinario a petición rusa. El 14 de julio anunció unilateralmente la suspensión del Tratado sobre Fuerzas Convencionales en Europa (FCE) de 1990 y…
A Ring Around Iran
By Theodore Postol, a professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 11/07/07):
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN of Russia has made an offer that President Bush cannot refuse — not if Mr. Bush truly wants substantive international cooperation on missile defense. Last month, Mr. Putin offered to give America access to data from a Russian early-warning radar unit in Azerbaijan that can observe the launching and flight of any long-range ballistic missiles from Iran. The offer was part of Mr. Putin’s effort to keep the United States from setting up its own…
Let’s talk about arms
By Hilary Benn, secretary of state for international development (THE GUARDIAN, 19/06/07):
Small arms kill one person every minute. I believe this is neither inevitable nor acceptable. So today I am calling on the world to take action to stop weapons getting into the wrong hands and to prevent thousands of brutal, unnecessary and unjust deaths.There is an opportunity - for the first time - for a global deal to control the movement of small arms, such as AK47s and anti-aircraft rocket launchers, as well as heavier weapons like battle tanks. Next year, the United Nations will examine the case for…
Chill descends on US-China relations
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 12/06/07):
Even as the US struggles to stop relations with Russia plunging into deep freeze, a distinct chill has descended over its dealings with Beijing following a new Pentagon report on China’s military build-up. Richard Nixon knew better than to antagonise both superpower rivals at once. No such wisdom troubles George Bush.
Noting China’s “rapid rise as a regional political and economic power with global aspirations”, the Pentagon complained of uncertainty surrounding its expanding military might and how it may be used. Beijing’s short-term focus was “military contingencies in the Taiwan Strait”, it said. But it was also planning…
