Social Context and Political Change

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Social Context and Political Change

Editor’s Introduction

This section addresses the context and consequences of the nuclear age, indicating conceptual changes necessary for nuclear disarmament. They raise questions about political, economic, environmental, and psychological aspects of current and past policies regarding nuclear weapons.

The comments that follow point to the need for increased awareness of the causes and effects of the nuclear age — the special vulnerabilities it has created, the societal damage it has done, and the more subtle type of change that a Nuclear Weapons Convention implies. Inherent in the idea of a Nuclear Weapons Convention is a shift from security based on military strength and expressed along national lines, to one based on recognition of collective interests.

The current state of flux in the national security policies of the nuclear weapon states (see Section 1) has reverberations at the individual and communal levels as well. Movement on the social and environmental fronts is also likely to reinforce a shift in thinking about security, sovereignty, and long term survival. Part of this process will be realizing the peculiar political, social, and economic harm and risk created by nuclear weapons, beyond the obvious danger of destruction.

In this section, John Kenneth Galbraith points out the extreme vulnerability that even one nuclear weapon poses to the American economic system. Lorraine Rekmans describes what one aspect of the nuclear weapons industry — its need for uranium — has done to a community. Stephanie Fraser examines how the minutiae of nuclear disarmament relate to the global picture. Felicity Hill discusses the psychosocial aspects of living with nuclear weapons.

These contributions point to damage and danger that cannot be remedied by non-proliferation, arms control, or incremental disarmament measures. They can only be addressed by the abolition of nuclear weapons.