Eighty years on from the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima, the UK and Europe are rearming at breakneck pace, including with more US nuclear weapons. Kirsten Bayes reflects on the waning of arms controls and the rise of the politics of distraction and demonization, suggesting three crucial responses. During my teenage years in 1980s rural Essex, … Continue reading Drawing Circles: Reflections on Hiroshima Day and European rearmament
Making a Noise about the Quiet Return of Arms Fairs
After a year of cancellations due to the COVID pandemic, thousands of arms dealers and military representatives from across the world once again travelled to the UK to attend a string of arms fairs in the autumn. Kirsten Bayes from CAAT, was part of supporting the resistance to them and argues that now more than ever we need to highlight the insecurity they breed.
Trading in Misery: The arms trade, empire and international law
Kirsten Bayes argues that the UK’s addiction to arms trading is a vestige of empire and great power politics that continues to empower despots and immiserate the world’s most vulnerable people.