Nuclear weapons timeline. Source: Veterans For Peace.
The United Nations recently reached a significant milestone toward freeing the world of nuclear weapons: the signing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It came on July 7 after months of negotiations involving more than 130 countries and culminated in a final draft endorsed by 122 countries. Emphasizing “the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from any use of nuclear weapons,” the treaty says participating states may not “develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.”
Additionally, the treaty states that the complete elimination of nuclear weapons from international arsenals “remains the only way to guarantee that nuclear weapons are never used again under any circumstances.”
The United States refused to consider relinquishing its massive nuclear arsenal, and used its status as an international superpower to organize a boycott that deterred approximately forty countries from participating. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley defended this stance, stating, “There is nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear weapons, but we have to be realistic. Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?”
Our organization, Veterans For Peace, released a statement in response, noting that the discussions were a “series of missed opportunities by the United States to use its position as the world’s undisputed military power to change the course of history . . . and end the danger and peril that nuclear weapons pose to the world.”
The Doomsday Clock, maintained since 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, is now the closest to midnight it has been since 1953.
There have been multiple occasions since World War II when humanity has been at the brink of a nuclear exchange, including times when the decision to launch was just seconds from happening. An urgent question, then, is why did these close calls—as well as the brutal and unnecessary annihilation of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—fail to convince all governments that nuclear disarmament must be a top priority?
The Doomsday Clock, maintained since 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, represents the risk of a human-caused global catastrophe from climate change and a potential nuclear exchange. The clock now stands at two minutes and thirty seconds, the closest to midnight it has been since 1953, when it stood at two minutes to midnight, at the start of the arms race between the U.S. and former Soviet Union.
Certainly, the possibility of nuclear war has been heightened by the unpredictable brinksmanship of President Donald Trump, who, in reference to nuclear weapons, once asked, “If we have them, why can't we use them?”
This is the sort of irrational thinking that Albert Einstein, whose discoveries gave rise to the atomic bomb, may have been referring when, in 1946, a year after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he warned the world: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
Previous global action to prevent the use of nuclear weapons has included the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which curtailed nuclear testing but did not eliminate it. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1996 would have prohibited “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.” However, despite signing the treaty, the United States and other nations, such as India, North Korea, and Pakistan, never ratified it.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, which was signed by nearly all nations, including the United States, mandated that all participants pursue nuclear disarmament “in good faith.” Despite the relative effectiveness of that treaty, and the end the Cold War, an estimated fifteen thousand nuclear warheads are still held by nine nations. Two of these nations—the United States and Russia—possess over ninety percent of the total.
Now the world has the first-ever treaty to ban all nuclear weapons. But none of the world's nuclear-armed nations, including the United States and NATO members other than the Netherlands, joined the talks. The United States, United Kingdom, and France released a joint statement on the treaty, pronouncing that they “do not intend to sign, ratify or ever become party to it,” and alleging that “this initiative clearly disregards the realities of the international security environment.”
The most significant threat to human survival and the biodiversity of our shared planet, apart from climate change, is a world in which nuclear weapons continue to exist.
The most significant threat to human survival and the biodiversity of our shared planet, apart from climate change, is a world in which nuclear weapons continue to exist. Yet, instead of negotiating in good faith to reduce and eventually eliminate its nuclear arsenal, the United States continues to develop new, more accurate, and more lethal nuclear weapons, while deploying “missile defenses” that make a nuclear first strike more likely.
The ongoing U.S. wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East, particularly in Syria, along with the confrontational U.S. military posture toward Russia, China and North Korea, are creating conditions that could all too easily trigger a catastrophic nuclear war.
One of the founding principles of our organization Veterans For Peace is ending the arms race and the eventual complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Earlier this year, we endorsed the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, introduced by Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Representative Ted Lieu of California.
The next step is to get all remaining nations to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It will remain open for signatures through September 20, 2017, at the U.N. General Assembly and will go into effect within 90 days of ratification by 50 countries.
These are dangerous times indeed, but such dangers can focus the collective mind and create new possibilities for real change if activists and organizers are prepared to seize the moment.
Let this be the generation that finally bans nuclear weapons.
Brian Trautman and Gerry Condon serve on the board of directors of Veterans For Peace and Samantha Ferguson is program and event coordinator with the group’s national office.