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Essays
Twenty years ago in Iraq, ignoring the expert weapons inspectors proved to be a fatal mistake
Robert E. KelleyIn this SIPRI Essay, former nuclear inspector Robert Kelley describes how the case for invading Iraq in 2003 was built on false claims about weapons of mass destruction that had already been disproved by top US and international scientists.
Towards a more secure future through effective multilateralism based on facts, science and knowledge
Stefan LöfvenAs world leaders gather in New York for the opening of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, far too many security key indicators are heading in a dangerous direction. We can, and must, turn them around.
Looking beyond the NPT: Next steps in arms control and disarmament
Dr Wilfred Wan and Dr Tytti ErästöThe latest review cycle of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) reached an unsatisfactory conclusion on 26 August, when the Russian delegation blocked agreement on a final outcome document. Yet the challenges facing the NPT lie much deeper than the current tensions over Ukraine. Myriad obstacles to progress on disarmament will ultimately need to be addressed outside of NPT meetings.
We must strengthen multilateralism in a new era of risk
Stefan Löfven and Margot WallströmThere is an urgent need for the world to come together to address the intertwined environment and security crises, and to deal with the risks they create. This essay draws on research under SIPRI's Environment of Peace initiative and on the authors' own experience of international diplomacy to explore where international cooperation is most needed, and how it could be strengthened.
In a time of competing crises, environmental action matters more than ever
Dan Smith, Dr Geoffrey D. Dabelko , Caspar Trimmer , Hafsa Maalim, Richard Black, Cedric de Coning and Melvis NdilosehLast week saw the launch of SIPRI’s major policy report Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk, looking at how to manage the growing risks emerging at the nexus of environmental degradation, peace and security.
The logic of avoiding nuclear war
Dan Smith, Dr Sibylle Bauer and Dr Tytti ErästöOn 3 January, the leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA, the P5) jointly stated that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. It had never been affirmed simultaneously by all five.
Russia’s anti-satellite test should lead to a multilateral ban
Nivedita RajuOn 15 November, Russia conducted a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) test, destroying one of its own space objects, a defunct satellite, in low-earth orbit. The test captured international attention and was quickly and widely condemned as threatening and irresponsible—not least for the cloud of lethal, uncontrollable debris it created, which will endanger both space assets and human spaceflight for years to come.
Security, insecurity and the Anthropocene
Dr Malin Mobjörk and Eva LövbrandIn this essay, the volume editors present the key themes of their new book Anthropocene (In)securities: Reflections on Collective Survival 50 Years After the Stockholm Conference, published this week by SIPRI and Oxford University Press.
Why is Iran producing 60 per cent-enriched uranium?
Robert E. KelleyOn 13 April, Iran announced its intention to enrich uranium to 60 per cent U-235.
How much of a proliferation threat is Iran’s uranium enrichment?
Robert E. KelleyIran’s atomic energy agency announced last week that it had produced 55 kilograms of 20 per cent-enriched uranium in barely four months.