The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
AMIDST the wider multipolar rebalancing of power with the rise of China, a series of major international events taking place in 2020 may mark the year out as a turning point in setting the agenda for the coming decade and for the rest of the 21st century.
As US-led global militarisation casts a cold-war shadow over historic opportunities for major powers to come together, now is the time for campaigns for peace, climate-change action and social justice to push together from below in a movement for international cooperation.
April-May and Sept: DEFENDER-Europe
The US and Nato will launch their new annual DEFENDER-Europe military exercises, involving the largest deployment of US-based forces to Europe in more than 25 years, to be followed later by DEFENDER-Pacific exercises.
From summit to summit, imperialist companies and governments cut, delay or water down their commitments, warn the Communist Parties of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain and the Workers Party of Belgium in a joint statement on Cop30
In a speech to the 12th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns of a growing historical revisionism to whitewash Germany and Japan’s role in WWII as part of a return to a cold war strategy from the West — but multipolarity will win out
JENNY CLEGG reports from a Chinese peace conference bringing together defence ministers, US think tanks and global South leaders, where speakers warned that the erosion of multilateralism risks regional hotspots exploding into wider war



