Archive News & Announcements - 2024

  States may be about to miss a vital opportunity to include military emissions in national climate commitments. Read more from the Conflict and Environment Observatory. Article published 4 June 2024.   Image: Evgeniyqw/shutterstock.com

  The theme of the 3rd RECNA essay competition is: “What would you say to the leaders of countries that currently rely on nuclear weapons?” The Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA), with the support of the Nagasaki Shimbun, invites youth between the ages of 16 and 29 to submit an essay on a “Nuclear Weapons Free Future.” The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza show no signs of abating, and the specter of nuclear war persists in various regions. Against this backdrop, the year 2024 has emerged as an international “election year” with potentially significant implications for nuclear policy. The presidential elections in the United States and Russia are the most prominent, but Japan is also grappling with the prospect of a general election. If you were to send a letter to a single leader of one nuclear weapons state, or the leaders of several or all of the nuclear weapons states, considering the worsening situation surrounding nuclear weapons, what would you ask them to do? We would like you to compose such a message, that you may address to the leader of one nuclear weapons state, or a state under the nuclear umbrella of a nuclear weapons state, like Japan, or the leaders of all or some of the nuclear weapons states and umbrella states. The grand prize winner and second prize winner will receive a commemorative plaque and prize money. 【SUBMISSION DEADLINE: July 31, 2024】 For more details, please click here.

  A new article by Toda Peace institute author Professor Tom Sauer, The Impact of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: The Crucial Role of the European NATO Allies can be accessed in Peace Review. The abstract is reproduced below: This article makes the argument that the role of the European NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies, and especially the non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), may and should play a key role in the future of nuclear disarmament. Once the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is signed and ratified by more or less 100 NNWS, mostly from the Global South, it will be up to the allied NNWS to make up their mind about their role vis-à-vis nuclear disarmament. Will they continue to behave as protégés by (and in some way also protectors of) the nuclear-armed states and break the disarmament process further, or will they shake off the nuclear “protection” in the interest of making progress toward a world without nuclear weapons? This article zooms in on the European NATO allies in particular. The TPNW can and will be used to put pressure on the European NATO allies to switch sides, and it can, on its turn, be used by the European NATO allies to stigmatize the nuclear-armed states in order to make progress in the direction of nuclear elimination. The article starts by reviewing the origins and objectives of the TPNW. In the next section, its impact will be scrutinized. We then turn to the current and possible future role of the European NATO allies.    

    The Hans Günter Brauch Foundation (HGBS) for Peace and Ecology in the Anthropocene awards annually an international science prize (ISP).  The theme for its ISP 2024 is: Ecocide: Impacts of Wars and/or Climate Change on Food Security Since 1945. The prize is open to scholars with a PhD from all disciplines and countries for an original, innovative and substantial research contribution and offers a prize of 3000 Euro. Any scholar may apply or be nominated until 31 May 2024 by submitting an original single-authored text in English that was published as a book or is an unpublished manuscript (e.g. a PhD, advanced PhD or habilitation) that was approved since 2020. In 2023, the first award was made to Dr Tobias Ide. For further details, please refer to the full press release which can be found here.  

  Toda Peace Institute Director, Kevin Clements, will be a speaker at a webinar hosted by the Flemish Peace Institute to mark the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace on Wednesday 24 April.  The topic of the webinar is Implementing the New Agenda for Peace: Exploring Inventive Approaches.  Other speakers include Laura Pistarini from Patrir, and Nils Duquet and Merel Selleslach from the Flemish Peace Institute.  For more information and to register, please visit the Flemish Peace Institute website here. The webinar will run from 9:30 - 10:30 CEST.