This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility

Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:   
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office   
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner   

CONTENTS of WNII No. 25/2000

• Member Organisations' and Project Groups' News:
  • USA: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), The Sunflower, No. 40, September 2000
  • USA: Project on Defense Alternatives of The Commonwealth Institute
• Nuclear Weapons:
  • UNIDIR research project on tactical nuclear weapons
• Sustainable Development
  • Selected web references
  • The Millenium Project: Global Challenges Indicators
• Briefings:
  • UNIDIR "disarmament forum" three/2000
• Conferences, Meetings, Seminars:
  • GLOBE conference on environmental security in Africa
  • International Conference on Biotechnology in the Global Economy Science and the Precautionary Principle
  • UNECE Working Group on Environmental Impact Assessment
  • International Conference on Forests and Sustainable Development
• INES Web- and Email Service

MEMBER ORGANISATIONS' AND PROJECT GROUPS' NEWS

USA: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), The Sunflower, No. 40, September 2000
Back issues: http://www.wagingpeace.org/sf/index.html
Events for the year 2000 are now listed at: http://www.wagingpeace.org/calendar/events_current.html  

The September issue of The Sunflower covers the following:

• Nuclear Matters:
  • Letter from Commander-in-Chief Pacific Admiral Noel Gayler to NAPF President David Krieger
  • The Kursk: A Russian Tragedy
  • Uranium Auction on the Internet (by the New York Nuclear Corporation: http://www.UraniumOnLine.com )
  • India Refuses to Sign Test Ban Treaty
  • Nuclear Sites Contaminated (National Academy of Sciences Report: http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9949.html )
• Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems:
  • Clinton Dodges NMD Decision
  • Russia Calls Clinton's NMD Decision a "False-Bottomed Suitcase"
  • Raytheon Vows to Develop Anti-Missile System
• Nuclear Disarmament:
  • Abolition 2000 Millennium Statement
  • Russia Calls for Further Arms Reductions
  • Japan To Submit Anti-nuclear Bill to General Assembly
  • Independent Commission on the Verifiability of the CTBT Established
  • US and Russia Reach Agreement on Plutonium Disposal
• Action Alert:
  • International Day of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space on 7 October 2000
• Nuclear Insanity:
  • Taste Test Finds Negligible Difference (only 60 billion) on NMD in Political Platforms
• NAPF Happenings:
  • "A Message of Peace" Exhibit Opens in Santa Barbara, California
• Resources [edited]:
  • Randolph Bourne's analysis of the interconnection of war and the state now online at: http://www.slip.net/~knabb/CF/bourne.htm
  • "Eliminating the Roots of War and Crime": http://www.slip.net/~knabb/PS/joyrev4.htm
  • Public Citizen and the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment ": A Citizen's Guide to Fighting Food Irradiation" now available from: Public Citizen, Item #C3363, 1600 20th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA
  • Senator Douglas Roche: "Bread not Bombs: A Political Agenda for Social Justice"; available through:
  • Appeal from the Venue of the G8 Summit Conference: "Damage and Crime Caused by US Military Bases in Japan." To order, please contact the Organizing Committee of the 2000 Japan Peace Conference:  

USA: Project on Defense Alternatives of The Commonwealth Institute

Aaron Katz, Communications Director of the Project on Defense Alternatives, has sent the following information to WNII:

We are pleased to inform you of major updates to two new internet gateways to full-text security studies resources on the Web:

The Chinese Military Power page < http://www.comw.org/cmp >, and The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) Debate page < http://www.comw.org/rma >.

Both pages link users to hundreds of online full-text articles and a dozen books, categorized by subtopic. The pages are comprehensive and regularly updated, drawing together material from across the policy spectrum.

Access is unlimited and free -- in the traditional sense!

This service is sponsored by the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) at Commonwealth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA. Also of interest: the PDA Web site < http://www.comw.org/pda >, which features dozens of full-text reports and articles by PDA staff and guests on US defense policy and global security issues.

I hope you find these resources useful. We would appreciate your comments and suggestions.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org  Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/  

UNIDIR research project on tactical nuclear weapons

The UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), in cooperation with the Monterey institute of International Studies and Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, has launched a research project on the urgent issue of tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs). The project addresses such topics as the definition of TNWs, numbers, the roles of TNWs in various military and political doctrines, and future measures to address the TNW problem. The project will be carried out over a period of nine months at UNIDIR. The Institute has commissioned papers from experts and has coordinated the research and a research meeting. The preliminary findings of the study were circulated at the May NPT Review Conference. The project will result in the publication of a Research Report in the UNIDIR series and a "UNIDIR Brief" setting out the main findings of the study in succinct form for broad distribution.

For more information please contact Jackie Seck, UNIDIR Research Programme Manager: < >

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Selected web references

The following web references are compiled from "/linkages/journal/", Vol 5, No 81, September 2000, published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). A pdf version of this issue is available at:

http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/journal/link0508e.pdf  

• Second Session of the UN Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for Development, New York, 14-25 August 2000: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000825.enr9.doc.html
• "Water Security for the 21st Century - Innovative Approaches" 10th Stockholm Water Symposium, 14-17 August 2000: http://www.siwi.org/news/news.html
• First Cleaner Production Roundtable for Africa, and: Workshop on Sustainable Consumption: For more information contact: UNEP < > http://www.unep.org
• First International Symposium on Deep-Water Corals, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 29 July - 4 August 2000: For more information, contact: < >
• Comprehensive review of the effects of globalization. Study carried out by the State of the World Forum, a non-profit organization concerned with achieving sustainable globalization: http://www.worldforum.org/resources/releases/globalpace.html
• New website of a coalition of 16 environmental organizations, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and WWF, aimed at mobilizing public support to encourage Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to take concrete action during the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) in November this year: http://www.climatevoice.org
• Countries' recent outline of contrasting positions on using carbon sinks such as forests to meet commitments on greenhouse gases under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The positions were outlined in countries' submissions on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), 1 August 2000: http://www.unfccc.int/wnew/lulucf/index.html      See also the New York Times news report, 2 August 2000: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/080200sci-environ-warm.html  
• "The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Globalization and its Impact on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights". Report by the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. (Among other things, this report has heavily criticized the World Trade Organization (WTO), calling it a "veritable nightmare" for developing countries.)   Full Report (UN document number E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/13): http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/    See also the CBS news service report, 11 August 2000: http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,224028-412,00.shtml
• "Food for Thought: the Utilization of Wild Meat in Eastern and Southern Africa". Report released by TRAFFIC, the joint wildlife trade monitoring programme of WWF and IUCN (the World Conservation Union): http://www.traffic.org/bushmeat/
• Readings
  • "Bringing social analysis into a multilateral environmental agreement: social impact assessment and the biosafety protocol." Journal of Environment & Development, September 2000, Vol. 9, no. 3; pp.260-283. In this article, author Doreen Stabinsky considers the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, evaluating the rationale for including socioeconomic considerations in evaluation of living modified organisms (LMOs) for import, as well as the suggestion that such provisions would not be WTO legal
  • "Should monitoring be compulsory within voluntary environmental agreements?" Sustainable Development, August 2000, Vol. 8, no. 3; p.146-154. Julia Walton examines voluntary environmental agreements in the industry and business sector that incorporate monitoring mechanisms. The author suggests that monitoring mechanisms operating via various cost-effective communications media - such as the Internet - provide a useful and flexible mechanism that could improve the credibility of the voluntary environmental agreement mechanism.
  • "Beyond environmental moralism and policy incrementalism in the global sustainability debate: case studies and an alternative framework." Sustainable Development, August 2000, Vol. 8, no.3; pp.123-134. In this article, Ernest Yanarella and Horace Bartilow argue that that global strategies to achieve sustainable development are caught between environmental moralism - demonstrated by numerous international declarations on sustainability - and policy incrementalism - which is evidenced by local programmes in which the goal of sustainability is often not clearly enunciated. The authors suggest that such a dual process is fraught with difficulties and risks. They evaluate efforts to promote Local Agenda 21 at the community level, and compare and contrast this work with the Aalborg Charter, which they refer to as a competing model for urban sustainability.
  • Bryan Randolph Bruns and Ruth Meinzen-Dick (eds.): Negotiating Water Rights; Vistar and Intermediate Technology Publications, June 2000 For more information, visit: http://www.ifpri.cgiar.org/pressrel/2000/072000.htm  
  • Hulme et al.: Using a Climate Scenario Generator for Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments: MAGICC and SCENGEN; workbook by the National Communications Support Programme This workbook is available online at: http://www.undp.org/cc/whatsnew.htm
  • The Clean Development Mechanism: Building International Public-Private Partnerships under the Kyoto Protocol - Technical, Financial and Institutional Issues. UNCTAD Report (which examines issues and options relating to project approval and implementation and recognition of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs).) The report will be available online from early September at: http://www.unctad.org/en/subsites/etrade/publications.htm  

The Millenium Project: Global Challenges Indicators

The Global Lookout Panels of the Millennium Project report for FY 00 have concentrated on regional perspectives of global challenges and indicators to measure progress on issues such as; Sustainable Development, Women, Water, Population and Resources, Democratization, Globalization of Information Technology, Peace and Conflict, Transnational Crime, Energy, Science & Technology etc. Over 700 futurists, scholars, business planners, scientists, and decision makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities in over fifty countries have participated on this Millennium Project's Global Lookout Panels since the beginning of the project in 1996 and identified challenges, regional perspectives, actions to address each, indicators to measure progress, and related analyses.

As of 1 September, Jerome Glenn of the American Council of the United Nations University has made available the outcome of this effort on Energy and Science & Technology. If you wish to obtain this part of the report, you can get it either from the WNII editor or from Jerome Glenn: < >

BRIEFINGS

UNIDIR "disarmament forum" three/2000

"Peacekeeping: evolution or extinction?" is the subject of the latest issue of "disarmament forum" which is published by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. Introduced by a Special Comment by UN Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari, Adviser for Special Assignments in Africa, the third edition of this year carries the following articles:

• International Peacekeeping, Disarmament and International Force: A Circular Proposal (Stephen Kinloch Pichat)
• Keeping the Peace in Africa (Eric G. Berman & Katie E. Sams)
• Partners Apart: Managing Civil-Military Co-operation in Humanitarian Interventions (Catriona Gourlay)
• The Verification and Monitoring of Peace Accords (Jane Boulden)
• The Privatization of Peacekeeping: Prospects and Realities (Damian Lilly)
• Summing up Disarmament and Conversion Events (The Bonn International Centre for Conversion)
• Building confidence in a fissile materials production moratorium using commercial satellite imagery (Hui Zhang & Frank von Hippel)

Also, "disarmament forum" three/2000 has a very useful section called "UNIDIR activities", from which the following selected items are compiled:

• "The Costs of Disarmament" Project In order to present the cost-benefit analysis of disarmament, UNIDIR proposes to take key countries as examples and carefully research what their commitments to disarmament treaties means to them in terms of financial and resource costs. The aim of the project is to achieve a better understanding of the costs and benefits of disarmament agreements with a view to assisting policy-makers decide how money is spent on such commitments, which budget lines are best structured to handle such spending and how states could approach this aspect of negotiations in the future. If would like more information, please contact Susan Willett, Senior Research Fellow: 
• UNIDIR Handbook on Arms Control This publication will explain the major concepts and terms relating to arms control. The handbook will be used as both a primer for an audience with limited familiarity with arms control and as a reference for students, scholars, diplomats and journalists who are more experienced in arms control matters. The handbook will be organized as a thematically structured glossary of approximately 400 terms relating to arms control. Each term is situated within its wider context so that, on the one hand, a specific term can be looked up quickly, and on the other hand, an entire issue can be covered. Cross-references to to other terms and concepts will point the reader to relevant related issues. For more information, please contact Steve Tulliu, Editor: < >
• DATARIs In cooperation with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), UNIDIR has developed an online database of disarmament, arms control, security and peace research institutes and projects (DATARIs) around the world. The database can be accessed through UNIDIR's website http://www.unog.ch/UNIDIR  and institutes can update their information via a password. If you would like for your institute to be included in DATARIs, please contact Anita Blétry, Publications Secretary: < >

Articles are published in English: http://www.unog.ch/UNIDIR/e-df0-3.htm
and French: http://www.unog.ch/UNIDIR/f-df00-3.htm  

For a copy, contact: < >

CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS

GLOBE conference on environmental security in Africa

• Date: 21-22 September 2000
• Venue: Cape Town, South Africa
• Organized by Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment - Southern Africa

For more details, visit: http://www.globesa.org/envsecurity.htm  

International Conference on Biotechnology in the Global Economy Science and the Precautionary Principle

• Date: 22-23 September 2000
• Venue: Cambridge/Massachusetts, USA

For more details, visit: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidbiotech/bioconfpp/  

UNECE Working Group on Environmental Impact Assessment

• Date: 9-11 October 2000
• Venue: Geneva, Switzerland
• Organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

For more details, visit: http://www.unece.org/meetings/meetgen.htm

International Conference on Forests and Sustainable Development

• Date: 12-13 October 2000
• Venue: Tokyo, Japan
• Organized by the United Nations University (UNU)

For more details, visit: http://www.geic.or.jp/forest/ 

INES WEB AND E-MAIL SERVICE

No new or changed email or web addresses in  this issue.  All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:  

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