Political Minefields » Cluster Munition Convention

Unlikely Bedfellows: US and Iran on the Laws of War

Matthew Bolton — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:27:37 +0000

In a post on Global Policy’s blog today I try to puzzle through how two very different countries — the USA and Iran — end up with similar positions on the Arms Trade Treaty process, the landmine ban, cluster munition ban, 1977 Additional Protocols and Rome Statute.

Read it here.

Tagged: 1977 Additional Protocols, Arms Trade Treaty, ATT, Cluster Munition Convention, Geneva Conventions, Global Policy, ICC, International Criminal Court, Iran, Mine Ban Treaty, Oslo Convention, Ottawa Convention, Rome Statute, USA

Victory for Norm Against Cluster Munitions!

Matthew Bolton — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:26:11 +0000

The campaign against cluster munitions successfully defeated an attempt to undermine the Cluster Munition Ban at a conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons last week. Over 50 states, led by Norway, Austria and Mexico, rejected the US proposal, backed by Russia and China, which would have opened up new loopholes in the norm against these indiscriminate weapons. A major civil society mobilization coordinated by the Cluster Munition Campaign and the International Committee of the Red Cross raised international awareness of the threat to the treaty, culminating in a global petition signed by almost 600,000 people.

“The message from the failed efforts today is clear – cluster bombs are indiscriminate, kill long after they are dropped and are illegal,” said Amy Little of the Cluster Munition Coalition. “Countries like China, India, Israel, Russia and the US who say they are seriously concerned about the humanitarian impact, should go home and immediately begin destroying their stockpiles.”

For more details on the campaign against cluster munitions and what it means for international politics, read this article I co-wrote with Thomas Nash in Global Policy. For Nash’s thoughts on this latest victory for the campaign, click here.

Tagged: Amy Little, Article 36, Austria, CCW, China, cluster bombs, Cluster Munition Coalition, Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, Convention on Conventional Weapons, humanitarian law, ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Thomas Nash, United States of America, USA

Threats to the Global Norms on Landmines and Cluster Munitions

Matthew Bolton — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:12:17 +0000

In this recent article for The Examiner (Independence, MO), I warn against becoming complacent in the struggle to rid the world of landmines and cluster munitions. I point to recent reported violations of the norms against landmine and cluster munition use in Libya, Sudan the Thai/Cambodian border. I call on the US to reinvigorate these norms by joining the landmine and cluster munition treaties.

Tagged: Cambodia, Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, landmine treaty, landmines, Libya, Mine Ban Treaty, norms, Ottawa Convention, Sudan, Thailand, USA

NY Times Cites Allegations of US Cluster Munition Use in Yemen

Matthew Bolton — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:47:01 +0000

This week the New York Times cited Amnesty International’s allegations that the US used cluster munitions in a strike in Yemen in December 2009. The article also references a Yemeni parliamentary committee inquiry, which found that the strike, that claimed to target militants, killed over 40 civilians at the time. The inquiry claimed an additional 12 casualties (three killed, nine injured) were caused by unexploded ordnance after the strike. The Yemeni government has denied the allegations.

“Amnesty International is gravely concerned by evidence that cluster munitions appear to have been used in Yemen, when most states around the world have committed to comprehensively ban these weapons,” said Mike Lewis, Amnesty International’s arms control researcher.

The use of cluster munitions by the US is highly disappointing. Obama voted in favor of restrictions on cluster munitions as a senator and in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech argued that:

“Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct…. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe that the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war.”

Anti-cluster munition campaigners in the US are currently trying to get on-the-record comment from the White House or Defense Department as to the truth of these allegations.

Neither the USA nor Yemen are among the over 100 countries that have signed the Cluster Munition Convention, which entered into force this month. The Convention bans the use, transfer or sale of cluster munitions, which are widely seen as inherently indiscriminate weapons that disproportionately affect civilians in current and former war zones.

Tagged: Amnesty International, Barack Obama, Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, New York Times, Nobel Peace Prize, US Campaign to Ban Landmines, USA, Yemen

Op-Ed Celebrating Cluster Bomb Ban Entry into Force

Matthew Bolton — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 14:13:41 +0000

Last Sunday, the global ban on cluster munitions came into force, establishing a clear international standard that these weapons, that cause such horrific harm to civilians in current and former war zones, are unacceptable and inhumane.

I published an editorial this weekend celebrating this momentous occasion in The Examiner (Independence, MO, USA). Read it here.

Tagged: cluster bomb, cluster bomb ban, Cluster Munition Coalition, Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, Lynn Bradach, Obama, The Examiner, Thomas Nash, US Campaign to Ban Landmines, Zach Hudson

The Role of Middle Power–NGO Coalitions in Global Policy: The Case of the Cluster Munitions Ban

Matthew Bolton — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 22:50:57 +0000

Thomas Nash, over at the Cluster Munition Campaign, and I published an article in the most recent issue of Global Policy looking at how the Cluster Munition Ban illustrated increasing levels of cooperation between ‘middle powers‘ (like Norway, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Chile) and international NGOs in the development of international law.

Here is an abstract of our article:

Medium-sized wealthy states – middle powers – and global civil society networks are increasingly joining forces to influence the global policy agenda on issues of international law, justice, humanitarianism and development. These middle power–NGO coalitions use the comparative advantages of both state and nonstate actors in synergistic partnerships. States represent the coalitions’ interests in international negotiations and conferences, provide donor funding and offer diplomatic support. For their part, NGOs gather on-the-ground research, provide technical expertise, lobby governments, mobilise public opinion and generate media publicity. This article uses the case of the campaign to ban cluster munitions, culminating in the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, to examine the organisation, efforts and impact of such middle power–NGO coalitions.

To read the whole article, click here.

Tagged: Cluster Munition Coalition, Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, Global Policy, international humanitarian law, international law, International NGOs, Matthew Bolton, Middle Power-NGO Coalitions, middle powers, network diplomacy, NGOs, Norway, Thomas Nash

Op-Ed: Obama’s landmine stance doesn’t match Nobel rhetoric

Matthew Bolton — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:53:28 +0000

In this Op-Ed in The Examiner (Independence, MO, USA), I argue that joining the landmine and cluster munitions bans would be a way for President Obama to live up to the rhetoric in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Click here to read more.

For my earlier opinion editorials in The Guardian, click here for an examination of Obama’s landmine policy, and here for a call on him to join the cluster munitions ban.

Tagged: Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, landmines, Mine Ban Treaty, Nobel, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama, Ottawa Convention, Peace Prize, The Examiner, The Guardian

My Op-Ed in The Guardian on Obama’s Refusal to Sign the Landmine Ban

Matthew Bolton — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:47:55 +0000

The Guardian, a UK daily newspaper, ran an opinion editorial of mine decrying the Obama Administration’s decision not to sign the international landmine ban.

Click here to read it.

To read a previous article of mine in The Guardian, calling on Obama to sign the cluster munitions ban, click here.

Tagged: Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, Landmine, Mine Ban Treaty, Obama, Ottawa Convention, The Guardian

US Bans Export of Nearly All Cluster Munitions!

Matthew Bolton — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:38:57 +0000

Obama will today sign legislation banning the export of any cluster munitions with more than a 1% failure rate (i.e. that leave behind dangerously explosive ‘dud’ bomblets more than 1% of the time). This covers nearly all current US cluster munitions stocks and production. Export to countries that cannot assure that such weapons will not be used in civilian areas will also be prohibited. Click here to read more.

“This permanent export ban is a major turnaround in US policy,” said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch. “It brings Washington into closer alignment with international opinion on this terrible weapon.”

Indeed, this is a crucial first step. However the US has still not joined the Cluster Munitions Convention that banned the export, transfer, stockpiling and use of all cluster munitions. Over 100 countries have signed the treaty, including most NATO members.

According to Human Rights Watch the US has exported ‘hundreds of thousands’ of cluster munitions to over 25 countries. US cluster munitions have been used in Lebanon, Iraq, Kosovo and Western Sahara.

Click here to read my article in the Guardian calling on Obama to join the cluster bomb ban.

Click here to learn how US residents can take action.

Tagged: cluster bombs, Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munition export ban, cluster munitions, Cluster Munitions Convention, Human Rights Watch, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, NATO, Obama, omnibus, Steve Goose, US Campaign to Ban Landmines, USA, USCBL, Western Sahara

USCBL: ‘Tell Obama to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions’

Matthew Bolton — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:59:14 +0000

The US Campaign to Ban Landmines is urging campaigners to email the Obama administration and call for the US to accede to the Mine Ban and Cluster Munitions Ban treaties. Click here to read their action alert.

USCBL points out that the US has not used landmines since 1992 nor cluster munitions since 2003. Indeed, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has recognized that cluster munitions are a weapon of “grave humanitarian concern” and ordered the beginning of US cluster bomb stockpiles in 2018. Thus the US has already acknowledged the problem, and thus would require only relatively small steps to fully enter the international bans.

Moreover, the campaign highlights the casualties, both civilian and military (including US troops), caused by US cluster munitions in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Click on the video above to hear the story of Lynn Bradach, whose son Travis, a US Marine, was killed by a US cluster submunition in Iraq. Read more of her story here.

Tagged: Cluster Munition Convention, cluster munitions, landmines, Lynn Bradach, Ottawa Convention, Robert Gates, Travis Bradach-Nall, US Campaign to Ban Landmines, USA, USCBL