"We thought that the taboo was so firm that no one ever would even dare think of using anti-personnel mines," one source told me. "Much like chemical weapons or biological weapons.”

I usually cover environmental policy, but here's my first piece on global disarmament — and how one celebrated disarmament treaty that has protected countless civilian lives is now under threat.

The story — written by journalist @emmaanne.bsky.social — raises tough questions about the perverse incentives at play in mine action.

Emma reached out @thehalotrust.bsky.social for comment. They declined.

Read the full story: spoileralerts.substack.com/p/questionab...

I, for one, chuckled in delight at this title, Alex!

Thanks to @dpcressey.bsky.social and @dialogueearth.bsky.social for regularly making space for coverage on this fraught and fascinating topic, and @gridarendal.bsky.social for the funding to report from Busan!

The Busan talks were a disappointment for many. Yet some feel that they marked a turning point on the road to an ambitious global treaty. It's a mixed picture, but it's not over. And looking out to 2025, I wonder where all that optimism, energy, and raw emotion will take the process.

That collective hope also means that for those who have now dedicated years to the process, the lows feel really low - as one negotiator explained to me in Busan, beginning to cry as he contemplated returning to his island nation, whose shores are often awash with plastic, without a treaty in hand.

When countries first officially agreed to write a plastics treaty in 2022, I spoke with people who said they had literally wept with joy as that gavel came down!

The talks reached a stalemate and were not agreed by the December deadline, so the process will continue in 2025. It's been described as a 'failure'. But something that doesn't always get its due is the enormous optimism that is required to propel these multilateral processes into existence.