Ingram, Paul

I lead BASIC, an organisation that has been working for nuclear disarmament for almost 30 years, and that on 1 July published the report of the Trident Commission that BASIC convened in February 2011. The commission has recommended that Britain retain its nuclear deterrent (along with other recommendations the government might find a little more challenging).

Some people have been asking whether BASIC has gone over to the ‘dark side’.

Pluralistic thinking

I…

On 16 July, the government published its international strategy in the lead-up to the NPT Review Conference next May. Called “Road to 2010”, the document was overshadowed in the media by an informal briefing given by cabinet office officials later that afternoon suggesting the government was to delay the next development step for the new Trident nuclear missile submarines until after the NPT review conference.

There had always been a suspicion that the rush into this project was…

Iran stands accused by the US of developing nuclear weapons, supporting global terrorism and insurgents and Afghanistan, and occasionally of suppressing democracy and human rights at home. How important are these in US policy do they genuinely drive Dick Cheney's manoeuvrings? What of Iran's new alliances with Russia and China, which have a significance far beyond Central Asia?
Iran's nuclear programme is a genuine source of concern, a potential threat to the aims of non-proliferation…

The Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi) is the highly-visible tip of a very large murky iceberg of UK government financial support for arms exports. Two years ago, in July 2001, the Oxford Research Group teamed up with Saferworld to publish The Subsidy Trap, which outlined how £420m of taxpayers' money was being used directly and indirectly annually to support the export of arms from Britain. That amounted to £4,600 for every job supported in defence…