A collection of essays that focuses on the US president as the source of our greatest dangerWhen Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2009 there were grumbles,later justified by an insider who admitted they had made the award in the hope of “strengthening” the modern US president. The prize was an inducement rather than an acknowledgement. Perhaps the same tactic has been used with the 2017 award, which went to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Is the prize being used to bestow hope on a chosen cause?Hope has no place in the nuclear debate: this dreadful issue is far beyond such intangibles. In trying to reduce the threat we need pragmatism, and not ceremony and celebration,but in these days of lurid (shocking; sensational) discourse and blunt opinions, cool, and tough pragmatism just doesn’t pull in the retweets. Related: Nuclear special: What did CND achieve? Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com