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Reaching Critical Will
E-News, November 2025 |
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There
is a direct
correlation
between the
decades of rising
military spending,
nuclear arms
racing, and
development of new
technologies of
violence on the
one hand, and the
levels of war,
genocide, and
armed conflict we
are experiencing
today on the
other. Relentless
investments in
militarism have
been made by the
world’s biggest
economies at the
expense of human
security and
wellbeing, at the
expense of
mitigating climate
change and
protecting our
ecosystems, at the
expense of
diplomacy and
multilateral
cooperation. We
reap what we sow:
the horrors around
the world from
multiple
genocides,
occupations, and
invasions are
aided and abetted
by the major
weapon producers
and the war and
reconstruction
profiteers.
And
still, it’s
apparently not
enough—so, the
United States is
trying to
manufacture
consent for war
and occupation
throughout Latin
America. It has
already been
conducting
extrajudicial
killings that some
of even its
staunchest allies
have recognised as
unlawful, and has
made threats to
once again assert
its dominance over
what it claims as
its
“neighbourhood”.
Organised
resistance—by
states and civil
society alike—is
essential to stand
up to, disrupt,
and dismantle the
militarism that
underpins the
reckless and
violent path of
the world's most
heavily
militarised
states.
Disarmament and
demilitarisation
are the only paths
to peace, and the
world has a
responsibility and
a right to achieve
both. Our latest
E-News offers some
thoughts on recent
developments and
highlights
meaningful action
for change.
Solidarity to all
who struggle for a
better world! (Photo
credit: Egor
Myznik,
Unsplash)
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The
Second International Conference of the
Political
Declaration on
Strengthening the
Protection of
Civilians from the
Humanitarian
Consequences Arising
from the Use of
Explosive Weapons in
Populated Areas will
be held in San José,
Costa Rica on 19–20
November 2025. The International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW)
will hold a
Protection Forum
together with SEHLAC
and FUNPADEM on 18
November 2025.
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- This
year’s UN General
Assembly high-level debate at the UN General Assembly
reflected a world on
the cusp of profound
geopolitical
transformation. While
there is still a long
way to go to mounting
an effective
collective resistance
at the state level, it
is significant that
most governments
categorially denounced
genocide, war
profiteering, and the
rule of force being
imposed over the rule
of law. During the
general debate, RCW tracked all references to disarmament,
weapons, and war and
wrote a report on key themes and important
reflections. RCW also
monitored and reported
on the high-level
meetings for the International Day on the Total Elimination of
Nuclear Weapons
and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
 The UN General Assembly First Committee on
Disarmament and
International
Security met
from 8 October to 7
November. The
discussions and
resolutions showed
that multilateralism
and peace are under
extreme threat from
the most militarised
states in the world,
which are ramping up
arms races and
engaging in open
conflict and genocide
to the detriment of
humanity, the
environment, and
international
security. But most
governments still
maintain that
international law is a
shield, and used the
First Committee to
demand disarmament,
demilitarisation,
diplomacy, and
dialogue.
During the First
Committee, RCW
coordinated and
published the weekly First Committee Monitor, with key insights
from experts across
issues, and archived
statements, documents,
and more. RCW’s
Director Ray Acheson
also spoke at two side
events, on the legal and humanitarian implications of bias in
the military use of
artificial
intelligence (AI)
and on recent initiatives to bring the Women, Peace, and
Security (WPS)
agenda into
disarmament. RCW
also advocated for the
adoption of
resolutions aiming to
keep AI out of nuclear
command and control
systems, to achieve
nuclear abolition, and
to uphold
international law on
landmines and cluster
munitions. The RCW
team also urged states
to stop arming Israel
and end the genocide
of Palestinians, and
to stand up
skyrocketing military
spending and new
belligerent military
actions like the US
government’s
extrajudicial killings
in the Caribbean. For
more, see our weekly Monitors and our First Committee Briefing Book.
- On
12 November 2025,
delegations met in
Geneva for the Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the
Convention on
Certain Conventional
Weapons (CCW).
The meeting lasted a
total of 31 minutes.
Delegations skipped
the general debate and
jumped to the
consideration and
adoption of the draft final report. States parties decided to
hold the next sessions
of the Group of
Governmental Experts
(GGE) on Lethal
Autonomous Weapons
Systems (LAWS) from
2–6 March 2026 and
from 31 August–4
September 2026. The
meeting also decided
that the Seventh
Review Conference of
the High Contracting
Parties to the
Convention will be
held from 16-20
November 2026.
During the most recent
GGE session, held last
September, a joint statement delivered by Brazil on behalf
of 42 states affirmed
that they are ready to
move ahead towards
negotiations of an
instrument on lethal
autonomous weapon
systems on the basis
of the rolling text. Hopefully, delegations will
heed the call from
these 42 states and
conclude the work of
the GGE with a strong
recommendation towards
this goal. Find out
more about the Meeting
of High Contracting
Parties with our full report.
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Stop
Arming Israel
On
20 October 2025,
Francesca Albanese, the
Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human
rights in the occupied
Palestinian territories,
released her latest
report. She posits
that the ongoing
genocide in Gaza is a
collective crime,
sustained by the
complicity of
influential third states
that have enabled
longstanding systemic
violations of
international law by
Israel. “Framed by
colonial narratives that
dehumanize the
Palestinians,” she
argues, “this
live-streamed atrocity
has been facilitated
through Third States’
direct support, material
aid, diplomatic
protection and, in some
cases, active
participation.” This
“has exposed an
unprecedented chasm
between peoples and
their governments,
betraying the trust on
which global peace and
security rest. The world
now stands on a
knife-edge between the
collapse of the
international rule of
law and hope for
renewal. Renewal is only
possible if complicity
is confronted,
responsibilities are met
and justice is upheld.”
In
response to Albanese’s
presentation of this
report in the UN General
Assembly Third Committee
on Social, Humanitarian,
and Cultural Issues, the
Israeli delegation
accused Albanese of
being a witch. Albanese
responded
by noting that it is
“grotesque and frankly
delusional that a
genocidal state can’t
respond to the substance
of my findings” and
instead resorts to
calling her a witch. She
said, “If I had the
power to make spells, I
would use it not for
vengeance, I would use
it to stop your crimes
once and for all.” The
implicit violence of
this accusation cannot
be overstated.
Throughout history, the
UN Office of the High
Commissioner of Human
Rights explains,
“witchcraft related
beliefs and practices
have resulted in serious
violations of human
rights, including,
beatings, banishment,
cutting of body parts,
and amputation of limbs,
torture and murder.”
Moreover, many women
throughout history who
have spoken truth to
power have been accused
of witchcraft and
subjected to this
violence. To have a
representative of a
state currently
committing genocide make
such hostile, gendered
accusations, in the
United Nations no less,
is chilling and
unacceptable.
Meanwhile,
Israel has continued
its genocide despite the
“ceasefire” with Hamas.
Israel has killed
hundreds of civilians in
Gaza and is refusing to
allow the agreed amount
of humanitarian aid into
the besieged strip.
UNICEF says
that Israel is blocking
the medical supplies
necessary to carry out
its childhood
vaccination campaign in
the Gaza Strip. Tents
being used by displaced
people in Gaza are collapsing
in heavy rains.
Meanwhile, Israel has
also been attacking
and arresting people in
the West Bank and settlers
have assaulted
Palestinians, torched
a mosque, and destroyed
Palestinian olive
groves. The genocide
continues.
 Thus,
the work to stop arming
Israel must continue.
Activists with the
Palestinian Youth
Movement and other
organisations have
launched a new campaign
for a People’s
Embargo for Palestine
to coordinate pressure
on governments,
corporations, and
institutions to stop
arming Israel. The
campaign notes, “Spain
has enforced an arms
embargo, Italian
dockworkers took it into
their own hands to block
Israeli weapons
shipments, Moroccans in
Tangier and Casablanca
mobilized mass protests
against ships carrying
Israeli military cargo,
Colombia ended coal
shipments to Israel, and
Oakland launched a
campaign against the use
of public infrastructure
for the transport of
military cargo. We have
significantly pressured
Maersk since the launch
of the #MaskOffMaersk
campaign,
resulting in the loss of
two ports and the end of
its trade with
settlements-- the first
time a logistics company
drops settlements in
history.” Thus, a
people’s embargo for
Palestine is “a
concrete, enforceable
and necessary step to
end the flow of weapons
and weapons components
used in Israel’s
genocide on Gaza and
continued occupation of
Palestine. To
effectively organize for
a comprehensive, two-way
arms embargo, we must
bring together
supply-chain pressure,
union actions, legal and
political pressure.”
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Renouncing
the possibility of
renewed nuclear
testing
RCW
rejects the possible
resumption of nuclear
weapon testing announced
by the US president, who
instructed
the Department of War
(formerly Department of
Defense) to resume
nuclear testing on an
“equal basis” with China
and Russia. Neither
China nor Russia are
testing nuclear weapons.
If he meant testing
nuclear weapon delivery
systems like missiles,
then the US already
regularly does that.
And, in the US, it is
the Department of
Energy, not the
Department of War, that
is responsible for
nuclear weapons. While
it is thus unclear what
the order is, it is very
clear that any
resumption of explosive
nuclear testing would
mean a return to an era
of devastating
humanitarian
consequences and
heighten risks of
nuclear war even
further. Russia has
already said
that it would take
“reciprocal measures” if
the US resumes nuclear
testing.
Nuclear
testing has a
disproportionate
catastrophic impact on
Indigenous populations
globally. In the United
States, the Western
Shoshone, on whose lands
the Nevada Nuclear Test
Site is situated, is
already known as the
“most bombed nation on
Earth” and must not be
subjected to any further
unlawful radioactive
attacks, above or below
ground. The US is a
signatory of the
Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
(CTBT). While it hasn't
ratified the treaty, it
is still legally bound
to uphold its
provisions, which means
no explosive nuclear
testing. Resuming
nuclear testing would be
reckless and dangerous
for global and national
regional security.
Testing means using a
nuclear weapon and must
be opposed by all who
want to prevent nuclear
war and any further
radioactive
devastation.
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No to
war in Latin America
and the Caribbean
The
US government is trying
to manufacture
consent for war in
Venezuela, and possibly
also Colombia and Mexico
and others in Latin
America. In recent
weeks, the US military
has launched several
attacks against boats in
the Caribbean, killing
dozens of Venezuelan,
Colombian, and
Trinidadian citizens in
a series of
extrajudicial killings.
The United States is using
the pretext of its
“war on drugs” to
justify these actions,
and for sending B-52
bombers and an aircraft
carrier to the region
and threatening a ground
invasion. The US
Secretary of War last
week announced
“Operation Southern
Spear” aimed at
targeting
“narco-terrorists” in
the Western Hemisphere.
However, most of the
world understands that
this is about regime
change and control of
Venezuelan oil. The US
government is also escalating
its threats against
Colombia, which has been
a leader in the Hague
Group’s efforts to end
Israel’s genocide. And
it has said
it will send ground
troops and the CIA into
Mexico to fight drug
cartels.
RCW
opposes the mounting
militarism, threats of
invasion, unlawful
military attacks, and
extrajudicial killing in
Latin America and the
Caribbean. The “war on
drugs,” like the “war on
terror” and “war on
communism” before it, is
simply a pretext
for US imperialism. As a
joint
statement of Latin
American and Caribbean
leaders has said, “We
have lived this
nightmare before. US
military interventions
of the 20th century
brought dictatorships,
disappearances, and
decades of trauma to our
nations. We know the
terrible cost of
allowing foreign powers
to wage war on our
continent. We cannot—we
will not—allow history
to repeat itself.”
All
states must object to US
military intervention
and extrajudicial
killings in Latin
America and the
Caribbean, and work to
prevent such attacks,
including through arms
embargoes and ending
intelligence sharing.
The US attacks have been
facilitated by
Canadian-made weapon
systems; an investigation
by Project Ploughshares
found that at least two
of the attacks relied on
advanced
electro-optical/infrared
sensor systems built in
Hamilton, Ontario, by
L3Harris WESCAM. The
Canadian government must
stop the transfer of
weapons, parts, and
components to the US, as
they are being used to
violate international
law. The United Kingdom
has recognised this, stopping
some of its intelligence
sharing with the US
because it does not want
to be complicit in
unlawful US military
strikes. All US allies
must pressure it to stop
its unlawful attacks and
threats and refrain from
further military or CIA
action in the region.
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 Our recommendation of the month is the factsheet on gender and the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT)
from the
International
Campaign to Ban
Landmines. It aims
to provide the
mine action sector
with insights into
key trends on the
gendered impact of
mines and
explosive remnants
of war, informing
inclusive and
gender-sensitive
responses. This
information is
vital ahead of the
upcoming Meeting
of States Parties
to the MBT,
particularly as
some states are
recklessly
withdrawing from
the Treaty.
The Gender and Disarmament Database, created and
maintained by
Reaching Critical
Will, features a
wide range of
resources such as
reports, articles,
books and book
chapters, policy
documents,
podcasts,
legislation, and
UN documents. The
database allows
the exploration of
relevant resources
based on their
references to
distinctive gender
aspects in
disarmament, such
as gender-based
violence, gender
norms, or gender
diversity, and
different related
topics or types of
weapon systems. It
currently contains
more than 800
resources.
Suggestions of new
additions can be
sent to
disarm[at]WILPF[dot]com.
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Russia
tests new
nuclear-powered
cruise missile and
nuclear-capable
torpedo.
In October 2025,
Russia tested its new nuclear-powered cruise missile
Burevestnik and its
new nuclear-capable
super torpedo
Poseidon. The
military claimed
both tests were
successful, raising
concerns among some
states during the
First Committee.
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US
Department of War
seeks to buy
weapons faster.
The US Secretary of
War announced that the Pentagon is changing how
the US military buys
weapons, “shifting
the focus away from
producing advanced
and complex
technology and
toward products that
can be made and
delivered quickly.”
He said the
“objective is
simple: transform
the entire
acquisition system
to operate on a
wartime footing, to
rapidly accelerate
the fielding of
capabilities and
focus on results.”
-
Russia
attacks
Zaporizhzhia,
damaging nuclear
power substations.
In early November,
Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on
Ukraine’s
Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv,
Poltava, and Kharkiv
regions, killing
seven people and
damaging nuclear
power substations.
The drone attacks also hit an apartment building and
other facilities in
Dnipro, leaving
thousands without
water and power.
-
The
Israeli military
conducted heavy
airstrikes on
southern Lebanon
earlier this
month. As
Drop Site News reports, “Since the ceasefire went into
effect a year ago,
Israeli military
attacks in Lebanon
have killed over 270
people and wounded
850, according to
Lebanon’s health
ministry. No
Israelis have been
killed since the
ceasefire.” Israel
has also built walls inside Lebanon that cross an
unofficial
UN-created “border,”
which UN
peacekeepers have
asked Israel to
move.
-
The
United States
pushes UN Security
Council to adopt
resolution giving
it occupying power
over Gaza.
The US mission to
the UN circulated its draft resolution to the 15
Security Council
members last week.
According to a draft
of the text seen by
the AFP news agency,
it would authorise a
two-year mandate
running until the
end of 2027 for a
transitional
governance body in
Gaza—known as the
“Board of
Peace”—that US
President Trump
would chair. It
would also authorise
member states to
form a “temporary
International
Stabilization Force”
that would work on
the “permanent
decommissioning of
weapons from
non-state armed
groups” in Gaza and
secure humanitarian
aid corridors.
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Genocide
continues in Sudan
with massacre at
El-Fasher.
At least 1500 people
were killed in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces
(RSF) during their
capture of the city
of el-Fasher in
Sudan’s western
Darfur region,
according to a
medical group and
researchers.
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DRC
and M23 sign
framework deal for
peace.
Representatives from
the government of
the Democratic
Republic of the
Congo (DRC) and the
Rwandan-backed M23
armed group have signed a deal in Qatar that mediators hope
will lead to a
comprehensive peace
agreement.
-
People
of Ecuador reject
amending the
constitution to
allow foreign
military bases. In
a vote of 61 per
cent to 39 per cent,
Ecuadoreans rejected the government’s proposal to allow a
US military base.
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Ashley
Gate and William D.
Hartung, “Doomed,
Not Domed?” TomDispatch,
16 November 2026
Christopher
Ketcham, “How
to Monkeywrench a
Genocide,” Drop
Site News, 15
November 2025
Ana
Calderón & Constanza
Carrasco, “Pushing
back on militarism in
Mexico,” ojalá,
14 November 2026
William
D. Hartung and Ben
Freeman, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway
Military Spending
Drives America Into
Foreign Wars and
Bankrupts Us at Home
(New York: Bold Type
Books, 11 November
2026)
Ian
Davis, Nordic Defence Cooperation Agreements with the
United States
Implications for the
Arctic, nuclear
weapons policy,
sovereignty and the
future of Greenland,
NATO Watch, 11 November
2025
Webinar:
“#NoWar2025:
Panel: Making the Case
for Abolition,”
World BEYOND War, 24
October 2025
Marwa
Fatafta, “AI
for War: Big Tech
Empowering Israel’s
Crimes and Occupation,”
Al-Shabaka, 26 October
2025
Webinar:
“The
Human and Financial
Costs of the Post-10/7
Wars, Two Years Later,”
Watson School of
International and Public
Affairs, 24 October
2025
Anna
Stavrianakis, “Why
the UK Government was
Taken to Court Over
Arms Sales to Israel,”
The Political Quarterly,
16 October 2025
Timothy
Barnes, “Is
Europe turning its
back on arming Israel?”
Action on Armed
Violence, 16 October
2025
"Two
Years Since October 7:
Gaza Genocide and
Geopolitics,”
Al-Shabaka, 7 October
2025
William
D. Hartung, "U.S.
Military Aid and Arms
Transfers to Israel,
October 2023 –
September 2025,”
Cots of War, 7 October
2025
Neta
C. Crawford, "The
Human Toll of the Gaza
War: Direct and
Indirect Death from 7
October 2023 to 3
October 2025,”
Costs of War, 7 October
2025
David
Vine, "Mass
Displacement since
October 7, 2023:
Flight from War,
Genocide, and
Expulsion in Gaza,
Iran, Israel, Lebanon,
and the West Bank,”
Costs of War, 7 October
2025
Dr.
Alice Jill Edwards, “Torture
weapons are being used
on Europe’s streets to
put down protests,”
EUobserver, 2
October 2026
Panel
discussion: “Which
Risks? What Threat?
Nuclear Weapons 80
years after Hiroshima
and Nagasaki,”
College of the Holy
Cross, 23 September
2025
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