ABSTRACT The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is a significant international achievement, although it faces opposition from the nuclear-armed states and some of their allies because it is intended to create impetus for a transition away from nuclear weapons, on which they rely for security. Now that the TPNW has entered into force internationally, its stakeholders face a range

ABSTRACT How might the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) help prevent the use of nuclear weapons? Since the adoption of the TPNW in 2017, much has been said about the Treaty’s impact on nuclear disarmament. Less has been said about how the Treaty’s international humanitarian law (IHL)-based prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons may be best leveraged to further strengthen the long-standing

ABSTRACT Satellites in Earth’s orbit fulfill important functions in support of NC3 – nuclear command, control, and communication infrastructures of nuclear-armed states. Yet high confidence placed in those satellites’ uninterrupted availability is based on shaky grounds and potentially dangerous. Ever since the placing in orbit of the first satellites, state and non-state actors have persistently pursued

ABSTRACT Experience in implementing both other WMD treaties and other humanitarian disarmament treaties suggests that the TPNW regime can be effective in building and sustaining a global norm against nuclear weapons, even if no nuclear-armed state joins the treaty. Success will depend on the development of an active and diverse practitioner community focused on the core humanitarian aims of the treaty

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons provides a nuclear-armed state that joins the treaty with two options. One is to join after eliminating its weapons and nuclear-weapon program. Alternatively, the state can join the treaty while still possessing nuclear weapons. In this case it must eliminate its weapons in accordance with a time-bound plan approved by the state parties. This

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is a landmark agreement in the history of the nuclear disarmament movement. It was negotiated against the wishes of the nuclear-armed states and many of their supporters and this context defines the challenges and opportunities for its universalisation. We argue that universalisation should be understood as a strategy for maximising the

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force on 22 January 2021. What can be expected in the years following (TPNW)? In the first few years, we can expect that states parties will start to implement the treaty’s positive obligations, and that entities within states outside the treaty will begin to adhere to the new norm set by the treaty. Within the next decade, we can

(2021). Introduction to 75th Anniversary of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Supplement Issue on the Nuclear-Pandemic Nexus Scenarios. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament: Vol. 4, No. sup1, pp. 1-5.

ABSTRACT This report is an outcome document of the Nagasaki 75th Anniversary Pandemic-Nuclear Nexus Scenarios Project, an international initiative aimed at exploring how the far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (and future pandemics) could alter the landscape for nuclear risk and disarmament. The project was convened as a series of online workshops in October-November 2020, and co-sponsored

ABSTRACT In October–November 2020, RECNA-Nagasaki University and Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN) with the support of Nautilus Institute convened the Nagasaki 75th Anniversary scenario workshop to address the pandemic-nuclear nexus. About fifty participants of diverse background explored the future of nuclear war and nuclear disarmament in light of the uncertainty created by the global coronavirus

ABSTRACT A pandemic is defined as an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people. Pandemics have occurred throughout human history and appear to be increasing because of rising emergence of viral diseases from animals (zoonoses). The risk of a pandemic arises from the combined effects of the Spark Risk (e.g

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to discuss the role of urban governments in the future, including intercity network construction, by reviewing cases of responding to COVID-19 in Seoul amid changes in the international situation caused by COVID-19. This paper is organized into four sections. First, this paper described the outbreak of COVID-19 in Seoul from January to August 2020 and the responses

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated families and communities and disrupted society and the economy. The prompt availability of effective and affordable vaccines offers the most promising path out of the pandemic. Global solidarity was reflected in the early publication of the genome sequence and the sharing of protocols for the PCR test. However, WHO’s proposed “solidarity vaccine trial”

ABSTRACT The COVID19 pandemic has reinforced two of the main contributing factors to the current age of disruption: the tendency of national leaders to act unilaterally; and the global decline in trust. Rather than acting collaboratively, national leaders everywhere, particularly in Europe and North America, have pursued a “go it alone” policy towards both containing and managing the virus. Some might

ABSTRACT Building on the existing political momentum, this article seeks to deepen the international discussion on nuclear risk reduction through track 1.5 and track 2.0 dialogues. Various initiatives have recently acknowledged the need for reducing the risk of nuclear weapon use, such as the P5 process, the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament, and the US initiative on Creating the Environment

ABSTRACT The severity of climatic effects of a regional nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, involving the use of a hundred Hiroshima-scale nuclear weapons, is contested between two groups; Mills et al. from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), University of Colorado, and Rutgers University conclude that a global Nuclear Winter would occur; Reisner et al. from Los Alamos National

ABSTRACT Soviet and American leaders learned during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 that inadequate communication raised perilous risks and dangers in the nuclear age. The US–Soviet Hotline was created soon thereafter, in 1963, and has operated continuously ever since. It was intended to provide a quick, reliable, confidential, ever-ready communications between heads of state in the event

ABSTRACT The Korean conflict has been one of the most protracted in the world, lasting more than 70 years. Despite the heightened tension, there was no channel of communication between the North and the South. It was only on 22 September 1971, that the first hotline between the two Koreas was installed at the Panmunjom – 26 years after the telephone line between Seoul and Haeju was cut off by the former

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force on January 2021, but has a long way to go towards institutionalisation and its intended impact on the dominant presumption of the legitimacy of nuclear weapons. Dialogue on the treaty in the Asia-Pacific region faces a suite of issues regarding movement of the treaty towards institutionalisation as a regime. The effectiveness

ABSTRACT Soon after the second atomic bombing in 1945, hibakusha in Nagasaki saw the dawn of the Cold War, along with the Soviet Union’s possession of atomic bombs. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 created a real fear of nuclear war capable of destroying all of humanity. The Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 were a good sign of hope. The Intermediate-Range

ABSTRACT On 25 January 2020, the DPRK shut down its border, switched to a state-run emergency quarantine system, organized a pan-ministerial organization, the Central People’s Committee for Health (CPCH), and established emergency command centers for epidemic response (ECCER) in provincial, county, and Ri-levels. Until now, it has continued to take the strongest Covid-19 quarantine measures in the

ABSTRACT This article provides an Asia-Pacific perspective on biological weapons and their relevance to nuclear deterrence in the pandemic era. The entire class of biological weapons is banned by international law; however, biological weapons are generally less costly and less technically challenging to develop than nuclear weapons. Conversely, nuclear weapons are openly possessed by multiple countries

ABSTRACT How does the United States develop plans to prevent, prepare for, and/or mitigate disasters? I first discuss planning for the possible: preparedness programs to deal with terror attacks and environmental disasters. I then consider planning for the impossible, or at least, planning for a disaster beyond history: nuclear war. I ask how military planners avoid focusing on the civilizational consequences

ABSTRACT In the past, states have underestimated the effort required to implement WMD-related treaties. Yet effective national implementation is a prerequisite to upholding agreements and building confidence in compliance with these treaty regimes. Drawing on experience from other arms control and disarmament agreements, this article lays out the most relevant measures for national implementation of

ABSTRACT How will the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) shape the broader pursuit of nuclear abolition? TPNW critics have argued that the new agreement is likely to fuel divisions between nuclear and non-nuclear-weapon sates, undermining consensus and hampering existing efforts at reducing and eliminating nuclear arms. In this commentary, I argue that one of the TPNW’s key strengths

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the current uncertain status of the NPT Review Conference, originally scheduled for 2020. When the Conference is eventually held, three principal issues likely to be examined are the continued failure to bring the CTBT into force; the lack of progress leading to an international conference on the importance of promptly negotiating a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone

ABSTRACT So far nuclear-armed states failed to create a global security framework that could improve global security and reduce the role of nuclear threat in relations between nuclear-armed states. All nine nuclear-armed states are engaged in nuclear weapons development and modernization aiming at diversity, precision, rapid mobilization and survivability, thereby increasing the probability of swift

(2021). Sri Lankan Son: Global Diplomat - Writings and Statements of Former Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament. Ahead of Print.

ABSTRACT When compared to the bombast of nuclear tests, nuclear submarines come with the relatively quiet fantasy of victory-to-come against neighbouring nuclear adversaries. Such political expressions are making their mark in Indian popular culture that hitherto had little commentary to offer on submarines. Outlets such as film and digital media on submarines rest on an aporia that resonates across

ABSTRACT The current nuclear deadlock with North Korea remains unresolved as the initially promising 2018–2019 three-way diplomacy between the DPRK, US and ROK stalls. More widely in Northeast Asia, nuclear confrontation between China and the US is mounting, with increased deployment of nuclear-weapon-capable forces in and around the region, including land and sea-based missiles, missile defence systems

ABSTRACT The achievements in nuclear reductions during the Obama Administration were modest, in part because of waning public pressure. But the nuclear deal with Iran was important. Thanks in part to a former senior Iranian diplomat, Hossein Mousavian, joining Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security in 2010, the Program was able to make two significant technical contributions to that deal

ABSTRACT The Fukushima accident of 2011 pulled von Hippel back into the reactor-safety world. He was invited to join a Congressionally-mandated four-year study of the lessons that could be learned from the Fukushima accident to improve the safety of US nuclear plants. During that study he learned more about both a much worse accident that almost happened at Fukushima, and about how the US Nuclear Regulatory

ABSTRACT In this part, von Hippel discusses how his focus shifted in the first decade of the 21st century to a set of new concerns evoked by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and the G.W. Bush administration’s retrograde policies with regard to nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. During this period, he co-founded the International Panel on Fissile Materials so that policy activists

ABSTRACT Von Hippel describes his introduction to the ways of the government bureaucracy as an assistant director in the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP). He describes providing White House support to the lab-to-lab program through which the US helped Russia strengthen the security of its nuclear materials and his visits to the Kurchatov Institute and Russia’s first plutonium city

ABSTRACT In this interview carried out by two staff writers of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev recalls how he engaged in dialogues with the United States in the final years of the Cold War. But the “peace dividend” brought by the initiatives of Gorbachev and his US counterpart has been largely eclipsed by renewed arms race between the United States

ABSTRACT Horizontal nuclear proliferation presents what is sometimes referred to as the “Nth country problem,” or identifying which state could be next to acquire nuclear weapons. Nuclear fuel cycle technologies can contribute to both nuclear power generation and weapons development. Consequently, observers often view civilian nuclear programs with suspicion even as research on nuclear latency and

ABSTRACT Great care was taken during the negotiations of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to secure its full compatibility with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). This goal has been accomplished. The TPNW strengthens and supports the NPT which has always anticipated further legal norms to achieve its purposes. Like in the other pillars of the NPT, reaching

ABSTRACT The DPRK is unique in that it has voluntarily suggested to work on the denuclearization even though still disputing the exact meaning of denuclearization. Since the political regime of the DPRK will remain stable, the entire denuclearization processes are different from those after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even though the denuclearization of the DPRK is a difficult issue, it is the

ABSTRACT If nuclear war occurs, non-belligerents want the conductors to take responsibility for providing assistance to deal with harm imposed on them. This harm could take the form of radioactive fallout, climatic change that causes global food shortages and refugee crises. But states and experts preoccupied with winning (or at least not losing) wars that could go nuclear have largely ignored questions

ABSTRACT On June 1 and 2, 2019, Joint ROK-Japan Workshop “From Peace on Korean Peninsula to North East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone” was held in Seongnam, South Korea. In this article, an executive summary of the policy proposal made as an outcome of the workshop is given.

ABSTRACT On 24 May 2018, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres launched his new “disarmament agenda” in an address at the University of Geneva. The UN’s Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) simultaneously released a 73-page “non-paper” that elaborated this new agenda. In October 2018, UNODA issued the agenda’s implementation plan. This article will describe the key themes and specific

ABSTRACT Despite long-standing debate about the challenges of establishing command and control of India’s nuclear weapons, few details about the structure and organization of such a system exist in the public domain. Objectives for effective command and control have been laid out in India’s Draft Nuclear Doctrine of 1999, which was followed by the more official statement from 2003 that described some

ABSTRACT For the European Union, nuclear weapons are a taboo. But the more the EU takes steps towards defense integration, the closer the moment comes that the role of the French nuclear weapons has to be discussed. This article hopes to clarify that debate. The first part of this article outlines the debate between those who regard nuclear weapons as powerful and legitimate defense instruments and

ABSTRACT Arms control treaties have served admirably to control and limit nuclear weapons for several decades. The provisions and limits, however, have proven to be inflexible, often limited in scope to specific systems and countries, and difficult and time-consuming to negotiate. It is time for the nuclear weapons states to consider a new paradigm to incentivize reductions while building security

ABSTRACT In this part, von Hippel starts by briefly describing his family background, his education and his pursuit of a career in theoretical physics. He then describes the beginning of his engagement with policy issues as a result of the student protests and activism while he was an assistant professor at Stanford University and a fellow at the University of California Berkeley during 1966-70. This

ABSTRACT This section covers von Hippel’s first engagement with nuclear-weapons issues, starting with a review of a US Secretary of Defense’s claim that a Soviet nuclear first strike on US nuclear weapons would kill only 15,000–25,000 people, through his efforts to revive the proposal for a treaty to ban the production of more plutonium and highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, and ending with

ABSTRACT Von Hippel describes his collaboration with a group advising Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, as they devised strategies, including “glasnost” (openness and transparency) to end the nuclear arms race with the United States as part of a larger effort to reform the Soviet Union and integrate it into the global economy.

ABSTRACT Seventy-four years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately 210,000 victims died, and another 210,000 people survived. The damage to their health has continued, consisting of three phases of late effects: the appearance of leukemia, the first malignant disease, in 1949; an intermediate phase entailing the development of many types of cancer; and a final

ABSTRACT After the golden age of arms control, Russia and the United States are no longer engaged in arms control negotiations. The landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was officially terminated on 2 August 2019, and the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in February 2021. The continued political alienation between Russia and the West, combined with new military-technological

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons requires nuclear-armed states that join the treaty while still possessing “nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices” to “destroy them as soon as possible but not later than a deadline to be determined by the first meeting of States Parties.” This article examines technical issues that can inform this deadline decision. It outlines

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons requires States Parties to designate a “competent international authority or authorities” for negotiating and verifying the irreversible elimination of nuclear-weapons programs. Ensuring that such an authority or authorities is able to be fit for purpose when required to meet these tasks will be crucial for both the future implementation and

AbstractThis paper summarizes the history of what is known about uranium mining in the DPRK; describes the major uncertainties regarding DPRK uranium production; notes some of the key techniques, a...

ABSTRACT Thomas Countryman was a member of the US Foreign Service for 35 years, retiring in January 2017. He took office as assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation in September 2011 and held that position until January 2017. From October 2016, he simultaneously served as acting undersecretary of state. He was one of the key figures in formulating the Obama administration’s

ABSTRACT Adopted by 122 non-nuclear-weapon states in July 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was promoted by a transnational network of government agencies, international organizations, and civil society actors. Now, as the agreement creeps towards entry into force, a debate about the history of the TPNW has begun. While supporters of the TPNW argue that the adoption of the

ABSTRACT In the expert and diplomatic communities, it is generally considered that disarmament verification should be undertaken as far as possible on a multilateral basis. Partly this reflects experience with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s safeguards system, and partly it reflects the view of non-nuclear-weapon states that international participation is required to ensure transparency and

ABSTRACT The world is at the start of a new nuclear arms race, with the demise of important arms control agreements and increasingly robust nuclear weapons modernization and expansion plans by multiple countries. As such, the international community is searching for ideas that could change this trajectory and reinvigorate arms control. This article explores one of these ideas: to limit and eliminate

ABSTRACT The South Asian nuclear race is moving to sea, with India’s government announcing that it has successfully put nuclear weapons at sea, and evidence suggesting that Pakistan is preparing to do so. This article traces India’s decision to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, some armed with nuclear weapons, and the debate in Pakistan on the utility of nuclear-armed submarines and the possible acquisition

ABSTRACT Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a US citizen who was born in Japan, has taught in both countries. Applying his specialized knowledge of Russian history to an analysis of the US decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, he challenges the prevailing American view that the US decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified. The prevailing view is based on two premises: first, the use