NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
Stop Going Backwards: Reviving Nuclear And Spaced-Based Arms Control And Abolition Efforts Before It Is Simply Too Late. by Jack Lawlor
This essay is an effort to enhance understanding among ordinary Americans about the perils of nuclear weapons and a new nuclear arms race that will include space-based weaponry.
I have participated in organizing annual commemorations of the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the Chicago area for many years. There is now, after years of effort, growing interest in these subjects. For good reason.
Let me begin by describing what I find most troubling at this time. Unfortunately, the list is a bit lengthy:
- THE FAILURE OF THE U.S. AND RUSSIA TO EXTEND THE NEW START TREATY… Read More >>
We Are Now Morally Required to Finally Act. by David Borris
We must understand and recognize the disturbing and growing danger represented by the pending expiration of the LAST remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two most prolific possessors of these weapons of mass destruction.
Equally disturbing – there are ZERO, and I mean zero, active negotiations for what might replace New Start – and ZERO active negotiations with the Peoples Republic of China, who, understandably, after more than 60 years of not engaging, are now worried enough about the behaviors of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – that they are now embarked on a decade long plan to achieve some sort of parity in the madness.
And what rational head of state would not be worried hearing the irresponsible rhetoric and actions of the two world leaders that control nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons? … Read More >>
OUR GOALS
We believe an important space in the Nuclear abolition discourse has been opened by the coming into force of the landmark Treaty for The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on January 22, 2021. The opening has been further widened by the evident increase in risk from military escalations worldwide, many of them directly resulting from the harmful U.S. foreign policy of “full spectrum dominance.”
This combined with other destabilizing actions have enhanced the public’s recognition globally that, whether by design, miscalculation or accident, the probability of a nuclear weapon’s being detonated is no longer a statistical question of whether, but only of when. The presence of the nuclear arsenals, and the severely damaged treaty limits, mean that even with a more savvy president, unless major changes in the international, and especially the US, dialog occur immediately, such an event becomes inevitable.
We choose to begin the campaign with what we judge to be the most achievable public policy: a congressional resolution coupled with a presidential statement that the United States will never be a “First Strike” or First Use country.
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change.” — John Mecklin for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The most important international treaty on arms control in 50 years, the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons became international law on January 22, 2021. Panelists remark on this historic moment and call on the United States to take tangible steps to change its nuclear weapons policies.
People created nuclear weapons and designed the systems governing their use — and people can work to eliminate them.
As residents of, by far, the biggest military power in the world, we must continually press our leaders to take the actions necessary to ensure nuclear weapons are never used again, and to negotiate in good faith the global elimination of these most devastating weapons of mass destruction.
*To get involved with CAPA’s Nuclear Disarmament committee, contact David Borris at David@ChiPeaceAction.org. And check CAPA’s Events Page for our most recent Nuclear Disarmament events!
As the only country to use nuclear weapons in conflict, the United States has a moral obligation to lead the world in ending this threat and to remember all those who were harmed in their detonation, testing and development.
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