This is a 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 < >

INES Congress 2000

''Challenges for Science and Engineering in the 21st Century''

Stockholm, 14-18 June 2000

http://www.ines2000.org

 INES 2000 Conference Secretariat: mailto:

CONTENTS of WNII No. 40/1999

• Member Organisations' + Project Groups' News:

  • David Krieger: Failure to Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

  • INES Regional Contact for Japan

•  Nuclear Weapons:

  • US Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

  • Russia: New military doctrine allows nuclear arms use in critical situations

• Sustainable Development:

  • A 'Call For Papers' on 'Environmental Agreements: Process, Practice, and Future Trends'

• Briefings:

  • Iraq: Recent books on sanctions

  • New VERTIC publications available

• Conferences, Meetings, Seminars:

  • The WTO and the Global War System. Forum on peace and disarmament

• INES Web- and Email Service:

  • Japanese mirrorpage of INES

MEMBER ORGANISATIONS' AND PROJECT GROUPS' NEWS

David Krieger: Failure to Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (see also related item elsewhere in this issue)

Statement by David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Santa Barbara, California, October 14, 1999. Also, Krieger is Vice-Chair of INES.

    "In voting down the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the U.S. Senate acted with irresponsible disregard for the security of the American people and the people of the world. It is an act unbecoming of a great nation. The Senate sent a message to the more than 185 countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the United States is not prepared to lead the global effort for non-proliferation nor to keep its promises to the international community. I urge the American people to send a strong message of disapproval to the Senators who voted against this treaty, and demand
that the United States resume a leadership role in supporting the CTBT and preventing further nuclear tests by any country at any time and at any place.
    The American people should take heart that the Treaty is not dead, and this setback should be viewed as temporary -- until they have made their voices reverberate in the halls of the Senate."

INES Regional Contact for Japan

Please note that INES Regional Contact for Japan is now vacant because Dr Friedemann Greulich who used to be this contact is moving back to Germany.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org

Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/  

US Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

On 14 October, the US Senate rejected the CTBT by a vote of 51 to 48.  The final vote fell a long way short of the two-thirds majority - 67 votes - required to ratify the pact. The vote closely followed party lines, with only four Republicans breaking ranks to endorse the treaty.

For some selected up-to-date information, please note the following references:

• "Test Ban News" of the U.S. Bureau of Arms Control (formerly ACDA) CTBT:  http://www.acda.gov/ctbtpage/tbn_pg.htm
• CTBT website: http://www.acda.gov/ctbtpage/ntbpage.htm  
• U.S. Mission to NATO "Security Issue Digest":  http://usa.grmbl.com/ 
• White House Fact Sheet on CTBT http://www.clw.org/coalition/whsafeg.htm
• "CTBT: What You Should Know About the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty": http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/CTBT/  

Also, the WNII editor can make available the following newspaper articles:

• For U.S., Fallout Will Be Fading Influence (by Steven Mufson; Washington Post, October 14, 1999)
• A Damaging Arms Control Defeat (Editorial, New York Times, 14 Oct 1999)
• America: selfish, foolish and endangering the world (The Guardian, London, October 15, 1999)

Russia: New military doctrine allows nuclear arms use in critical situations
[Source: Interfax, 7 October 1999; quoted from: NEWS-Press-Report 99.35, 15 October 1999]

The draft of the new Russian military doctrine allows Russia to use nuclear arms in critical situations. The draft completed by the Defense Ministry will soon be discussed by the Russian Security Council. The preamble of the doctrine which Interfax received states that it has purely defense purposes. Nevertheless, it speaks for "protecting national interests, guaranteeing the military security of Russia and its allies."

The document has three sections: the political, strategic and economic foundations of military security. Compared with others, political foundations are decisive. The section on the current military-political situation states that it is marked by "a conflict of
two tendencies," on the one hand, attempts to establish a unipolar world based on the domination of one super power and to settle key problems in world politics by armed force, on the other, the formation of a multipolar world. The doctrine names 10 basic features of the military-political situation, such as the declining threat of a world war, the appearance and strengthening of regional centers of force, growing national and religious extremism, the escalation of local wars and armed conflicts, the aggravation of propaganda confrontation.

The doctrine names among the key factors of military-political instability support for extremist, nationalist, religious, separatist
and terrorist movements and organizations. The declining effectiveness of existing international security mechanisms, primarily the U.N. and OSCE are one more factor. There is a separate paragraph on key security threats, both international and local. The 13 foreign threats include territorial claims to Russia, a military buildup changing the balance near the borders of Russia and its allies and in the seas washing them.   Military threats are posed by the expansion of military alliances to the detriment of Russian military security, by international terrorism and media campaigns hostile to Russia and its allies. The draft doctrine names six fundamental domestic threats, such as attempts to overthrow the constitutional system, the unlawful operations of extremist, nationalist, religious, separatist and terrorist movements and organizations, the formation, equipment, training and operation of unlawful armed groups, organized crime, terrorism, smuggling and other illegal activities on a scale threatening military security.

The doctrine regards nuclear arms "as an effective factor of deterrence, guaranteeing the military security of the Russian Federation and its allies, supporting international stability and peace." Nuclear arms as a deterrence potential should be capable "of guaranteeing calculated damage" to any aggressor - one country or a coalition - under any circumstances, the draft says. The section on nuclear weapons says that Russia "will not use nuclear arms against non-nuclear members of the nonproliferation treaty except for cases of an invasion or any other attack" on Russia or a country with which it has recorded security commitments. However, the concept says that "the Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear or other mass destruction weapons against it or its allies, and also in response to large-scale aggression involving conventional arms in situations critical for the national security of Russia and its allies."

The section on the strategic foundations of military security describes the nature of modern wars and their main features. It defines the notions of a world, regional and local war and armed conflict. Unlike a war, an armed conflict may be caused by attempts "to settle national, religious and some other nonfundamental differences" through a limited armed operation. The doctrine allows Russia "to deploy on agreement limited armed contingents (military bases) in strategic areas of the world." The purpose of the basis is to promote the formation and maintenance of a stable military-strategic balance of forces. The doctrine also speaks of the need to concentrate financial and other resources to carry out key military security tasks. It says the supplies of the defense industry should be on par with military security needs. The draft doctrine will soon be published in full in Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

A 'Call For Papers' on 'Environmental Agreements: Process, Practice, and Future Trends'
Greenleaf Publishing invites papers for a book project in the area of Environmental Agreements: Process, Practice and Future Trends

Environmental Agreements (EA's) between government authorities and industry, unions and NGO's, to address particular environmental challenges are increasingly being looked to as a new, low-cost and potentially effective means of solving environmental concerns. They have become a commonly used environmental policy tool and take many forms, for example, as agreements between central and local governments and industry in the Netherlands and as association-wide gentleman's
agreements in Germany. Some are focused on supporting the implementation of particular directives (Packaging waste in Sweden and Denmark), and others focused on particular sectors (cement in France, pulp paper in Portugal, and chemicals in the Netherlands).

Their most original component lies in multi-stakeholder collaboration: from the negotiation of choosing an EA to address the particular environmental concern; to negotiation over the design and structure of the EA; to implementation, development and review. The EA offers a potential route for the sharing of responsibility across stakeholder groups.

While many criticisms of the performance of EA's are valid, historically, stakeholders have often lacked both experience of the practical steps necessary to ensure the success of an EA, and process insights into stakeholder collaboration which would allow such practical steps to be implemented. To broaden the debate on the practical and process issues on EA's, Greenleaf Publishing invites contributions on this fast-developing topic that include, but are not limited to:
   

• Stakeholder perspectives on why an EA may be an appropriate tool
• Stakeholder insights into how to launch EA's - steps, problems and solutions
• The process of stakeholder collaboration within an EA
• The appropriate sharing of responsibilities in EA's
• Pros and Cons, Risks and Rewards of EA's and how to optimize performance
• The trade-off and complementarity of EA's with other policy instruments
• The appropriate design of an EA and the monitoring of progress
• The process of development of EA's
• Legal limitations and possibilities of EA's
• How to ensure that targets are appropriately set and reached?
• How to ensure company and stakeholder commitment and involvement?
• Incentives, sanctions and their implementation
• Assessment tools
• Tools to support the success of EA's

• Specific Issues
  • Insights on NGO and Trade Union involvement in EA's
  • EA's in developing and transitional economies
  • Local communities, sustainable development and EA's
  • In what areas are EA's appropriate to deal with key environmental challenges?
  • EA's as appropriate transition measures
  • EA's as appropriate long-term measures
  • Drivers for the future use of EA's
  • Case studies of new measures in EA's

The contributions to the book should be forward looking, rather than simply a retrospective analysis of existing EA's. The aim of this book is to offer industry, governments, NGO's, and trade unions advice and support on how to launch EA's and how to improve existing models. It is also intended that the book will offer valuable insights into how this policy instrument can be developed over the next decade to help fulfil its potential.

• Schedule
  • Potential authors are requested to submit 200-300 word abstracts to the Editor by December 15, 1999.
  • Contributors informed of acceptance decision: January 30, 2000
  • Full paper submissions: May 31, 2000
  • Revision requests sent to contributors: July 15, 2000
  • Final papers deadline: September 1, 2000.
  • It is intended that the book will be published in November, 2000.

For further details, or to discuss a potential contribution, please contact:
Patrick ten Brink, Editor, ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd
13 Avenue de Tervuren, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel:+322 743 89 39, Fax: +322 732 71 11
E-mail:  

Contributor guidelines can be obtained from:
Samantha Self, Greenleaf Publishing, Aizlewood Business Centre,
Aizlewood's Mill, Nursery Street, Sheffield S3 8GG, UK
Tel: +44 114 2823475, Fax: +44 114 2823476
E-mail:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com  

Fifth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

The UNFCCC COP 5, which is to take place at Bonn/Germany, from 25 October to 5 November 1999, has now its own website:  http://cop5.unfccc.de 

For more information, contact Kevin Grose: < >

BRIEFINGS

Iraq: Recent books on sanctions

• Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga (New York: Random House, 1999)
  Apparently contains some revelations about US strategy in negotiations designed to implement oil-for-food, from the former Secretary-General of the UN. May resolve the recent discuss-list exchange on whether OFF was designed to be rejected?
• Geoffrey Leslie Simons, Imposing economic sanctions: legal remedy or genocidal tool? (London: Pluto Press, 1999)
  A review of the misuse of economic sanctions worldwide, but with particular emphasis on Iraq, making the case that sanctions on Iraq constitute genocide.
• Sarah Graham-Brown, Sanctioning Saddam : The Politics of Intervention in Iraq (London: I.B.Tauris, 1999)
  Focuses on international aid to the Iraqi population, suffering under economic sanctions, as well as other forms of Western interventions into Iraq since 1991.
• Daniel W. Drezner, The Sanctions Paradox : Economic Statecraft and International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
  On the ineffectiveness of economic sanctions as a means to secure political or strategic ends.
• Anthony H. Cordesman, Iraq and the War of Sanctions : Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Praeger Publishers, 1999)
  Although is largely an analysis of what the author sees as the continuing military threat from Iraq, touches on the ineffectiveness of economic sanctions in eliminating this threat.

Thanks to Glen Rangwala < > of the UK-based Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI) who is working on a CASI on-line bibliography (at: http://www.ex-parrot.com/casi/info/biblio.html ).

New VERTIC publications available

Two new VERTIC Briefing Papers are available at: http://www.fhit.org/vertic/briefing/briefing.html  

• Verification Mechanisms in International Environmental Agreements.
  Not Quite Ready and Waiting: The CTBT Verification System
• VERTIC Research Report no. 5 Monitoring the Landmine Convention:
  Ratification and National Implementation Legislation is now also available. Read the Executive Summary at
  http://www.fhit.org/vertic/verification/verification.html  

Paper copies can be ordered via http://www.fhit.org/vertic/ordering.html and by email   or by fax +44 20 7242 3266

CONFERENCES - MEETINGS - SEMINARS

Events listed here are being published only once due to limited space. Changes, however, will be taken into account (marked with ''UPDATE'')

The WTO and the Global War System. Forum on peace and disarmament to coincide with the Seattle WTO ministerial

• Date: 28 November 1999
• Venue: Seattle (Hildebrand Hall, Plymouth Congregational Church), USA
• Organized by peace groups from the U.S. and Canada; sponsored by the Northwest Disarmament Committee (USA) and End the Arms Race (Canada), Abolition 2000 Working Group on Corporate Issues and The International Network on Globalization and Disarmament

The forum will examine these areas:
1. WTO and economic globalization
2. Weapons corporations and economic conversion
3. Nuclear weapons and their abolition

For more details, mailto:  

INES WEB AND E-MAIL SERVICE

All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from: 

Japanese mirrorpage of INES

The Japanese mirrorpage has been cancelled.

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