Newsletter July 2025
SCRAP Blog
In light of the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Project Assistant Mila King’s article titled “Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Golden Dome”, examines President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defence system — not just in terms of its feasibility, but its potential to destabilise global nuclear deterrence and reignite a Cold War-style arms race.
“Trump’s golden dome offers the promise to protect the US from any Hiroshima and Nagasaki on its soil. But what is the reality? Is Trump’s Golden Dome more than a nickname for his hair? The term he uses is supposedly a US-wide version of the Iron Dome that is intended to protect Israel and has had some success. Initially mentioned at his inauguration in January 2025 and later confirmed in a large-scale briefing to the American public in May 2025, what are the realities?”
Read the full blog here: https://scrapweapons.com/hiroshima-nagasaki-and-the-golden-dome/
Arms and Arguments: JULY EDITION
“…Ammunition has long been overlooked in discussions central to understanding and addressing the lethality of small arms and light weapons (SALW). In his paper, Alley highlights the critical deficiencies in the international arms control framework, particularly the lack of explicit restraint on SALW ammunition and persisting disagreements on supply to non-state actors. He also highlighted the dangers posed by continued ammunition supplies reaching non-state actors and conflict zones.
…Alley’s critique that ammunition has historically not received the same regulatory attention as the weapons themselves was echoed in the preparatory meetings, where states highlighted the urgent need to integrate ammunition explicitly in disarmament instruments. The need for detailed measures on stockpile management, marking and tracing, and robust end-user verification to prevent diversion was reaffirmed by member states, where they deliberated on a path toward meaningful implementation of these long-standing recommendations.”
Read the review here: https://scrapweapons.com/arms-and-arguments/
SCRAP Around the World
On July 8, SCRAP Weapons Director Prof. Dan Plesch attended the “70th Anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto” event organised by The Royal Society and Pugwash.
This event provided an important opportunity to remember the success of the Pugwash conferences in creating dialogue that led to the major powers taking important steps away from nuclear war, and towards sustainable security, during the second half of the twentieth century.
On 14-16 July, SCRAP Weapons Director, Prof. Dan Plesch, and Military Analyst, Manuel Galileo, attended the 23rd Annual Conference of the Transatlantic Studies Association in Lisbon, where they delivered talks on nuclear weapons and strategic defence. Prof. Plesch spoke on ‘Nuclear Weapons and Europe: Twenty-First Century Options’, and Manuel Galileo on the ‘US-EU Ongoing Defence Bifurcation and Implications for European Strategic Balance Vis-à-Vis Russia’.