Football, the modern-day opiate of the masses, is a simple passionate game of two teams and one simple, generally zero-sum result. We have a winner and loser; even drawn matches contribute to victory and defeat in the tournament. In attempting to make meaning out of the complexity of regional and sub-regional conflict by reducing it to the binaries of the football pitch, we often make monumental errors.
Analysis
NATO: Slipping Into Confrontation
NATO defense ministers met in Brussels to discuss the Afghanistan withdrawal and Russia’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine. There are calls for stronger security assurances within the alliance, especially from countries near Russia. President Obama has pledged increased US military presence in Europe. However, NATO’s role remains focused on military rather than cooperative security strategies, which heightens tensions with Russia. This approach risks moving towards a competitive relationship rather than fostering mutual security.
A Glance at the Ukraine Crisis’s Impact on Nuclear Weapons Considerations
This week, eyes are on Ukraine to see whether the presidential election held on Sunday will soon lead to more stability; while many Ukrainians look ahead to the challenge of grappling with the problems that led to the crisis – both internal and external. The crisis intensified dynamics of a deteriorating relationship between NATO and Russia, where prospects had already been bleak for nuclear arms control. The crisis has even led some to call for re-emphasizing the role of nuclear weapons in transatlantic security.
Is UK disarmament quite so irrelevant?
The very quiet failure of this year’s Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee to agree any final document and the daunting challenge of the treaty Review Conference next year mean frustration is growing about the pace of progress by the nuclear-weapons states to disarm—so slow it feels like we are going backward.
Multilateral Frustrations Generate Challenges for Disarmament Diplomacy
This week the Conference on Disarmament begins its second session of the year in Geneva, on the back of the two weeks of multilateralism in New York City at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty’s third Preparatory Committee Meeting (PrepCom).
How Do We Change the Global Nuclear Order?
Whenever diplomats get together to address the really big global issues of our time, the already daunting challenges of co-ordination are made more complex by their governments’ competing policy commitments—to economic growth (simplistically conceived), special-interest groups, “national security” and prestige.
Can the P5 process deliver on disarmament?
The five NPT-recognised nuclear weapon states (NWS) meet in Beijing for the so-called (though misnamed) ‘P5 process’ this week, prior to the NPT Preparatory Committee in New York that starts at the end of the month. China is the last of the five to host the process, kicked off by the British in September 2009 after a speech at the Conference on Disarmament by the UK Defence Secretary, Des Browne, in February 2008.
The Scottish referendum: a chance to challenge our nuclear assumptions?
With just under six months to go until the referendum on Scottish independence, there is still little clarity about how any independence agreement would shape up in practice. A myriad of issues remains on the table, ranging from the everyday – Will there be border control? How will the postal system function? Which television stations will be available? – right up to the most complex strategic questions over currency and economic independence, membership of international organisations, and the future of the UK and Scotland’s defense policies.