David Cortright Old thinking retains its grip at the Pentagon. The vested interests that profit from excessive military spending remain a formidable lobby. Congress sustains nuclear postures that are inherited from the Cold War and continues to fund unneeded weapons...
Cardinal Roger Mahony Few challenges are more urgent for Catholic teaching on war and peace than the awesome and unprecedented power of nuclear weapons. In evaluating nuclear deterrence, the U.S. bishops have proposed an “interim ethic” whereby nuclear deterrence...
Kelsey Davenport President Obama has declared that the United States is committed to creating “the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” but the policy debate in Washington often lags far behind this lofty vision. Some progress has been achieved in...
Mary Ellen O’Connell In early September 2011, President Sarkozy of France declared the NATO-led military intervention in Libya a success. I disagree with his assessment for four reasons: The known result of six months of fighting is thousands killed and even more...
David Cortright I supported the no-fly zone over Libya as a necessary measure to protect civilians from imminent threat of military attack. During the course of the intervention, however, many questions emerged. What began as a limited mission to prevent a massacre...
George A. Lopez I disagree with my colleagues David Cortright and Mary Ellen O’Connell regarding the scope and direction of the Libyan intervention of the Security Council and NATO. The essential dilemma faced by the international community, as manifest in Security...
Emad El-Din Shahin Of the several uprisings and pro-democracy revolutions sweeping through the Arab region, only two — Tunisia and Egypt — have been successful so far in toppling despotic rulers and embarking on a transitional process to establish a free democratic...
David Cortright The enormity of what the Egyptian people have accomplished is breathtaking. The Mubarak dictatorship was brought down in just 18 days through unarmed mass revolution. Estimates of the number of people actively involved range from a low of 7 million to...
Noha Tarek Noha Tarek Abbas is a 25-year old student at Cairo University. She was actively involved in Tahrir Square during the 18 days of the revolution. These comments are transcribed from an interview in Cairo on June 8, 2011. When we planned the actions that...
John Katunga Religious institutions, especially the Anglican and Catholic churches, have played a leading role in peacebuilding in Sudan for decades. Their role in the process leading to South Sudan’s independence is the most recent example. Through a process of...
Peter Quaranto The United States has been actively engaged in seeking to prevent a return of North-South war in Sudan. The U.S. worked with international partners to assure that the Southern Sudan referendum in January was on time and peaceful and that the results...
Kevin Dugan and Patrick McCormick Last fall a delegation representing the Sudan Conference of Catholic Bishops visited the University of Notre Dame to reach out to the Catholic community in the United States. They came to seek help in assuring a peaceful outcome for...
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite Four senior U.S. statesmen — George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn — captured world attention in January 2007 with their call for “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons” in the Wall Street Journal. Their premise is...
Kennette Benedict The end of the Cold War has made it possible to contemplate vast reductions in nuclear arsenals—and even their elimination. The United States and Russia already have reduced their nuclear weapons stocks from a high of nearly 70,000 in 1986 to fewer...
Stephen M. Colecchi Advocates for a world without nuclear weapons in the United States frequently lament the fact that the general public is not much interested in the issue of nuclear disarmament. People are legitimately concerned about more immediate issues like the...