1 February 2010
Dear Reaching Critical Will friends and advisors:
2010 is shaping up to be a busy year with many seminars, conferences, and publications ahead of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May. Reaching Critical Will is contributing to the wealth of information and analysis by hosting an International Women’s Day seminar in Geneva during the last week of February to focus on challenges to and recommendations for the NPT. Email RCW Project Associate Beatrice Fihn for details: [email protected]. We are also publishing a book on the same subject, which will be launched at this seminar and circulated widely (details to follow in the next edition of the E-News).
Of course, Reaching Critical Will is also facilitating and supporting the activities of many other NGOs, and this E-News is full of information about such initiatives and on how you can get involved. Please note: information on the accreditation process for the Review Conference will be available soon through Reaching Critical Will—a special announcement will be sent out through the E-News listserv and posted on the website when it becomes available. In the meantime, you can find below some important information about NGO access to official meetings of the RevCon, side events, and presentations.
Unfortunately, 2010 has also seen its share of bad news already. In a third op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the “four horsemen”—Schultz, Perry, Kissinger, and Nunn (SPKN)—advocated for increased spending on nuclear weapons. In a blog post, Reaching Critical Will points out that the institutional loyalties of SPKN and their larger political agendas reflect a political economy that is not only fundamentally at odds with nuclear abolition, but is anathema to peace and justice. Others have also responded to this op-ed (see “US elite push for increased nuclear weapon funding” below). In addition, in another WSJ op-ed, US Vice President Joe Biden called for a boost of $5 billion for nuclear weapons over the next five years, arguing, “Even in a time of tough budget decisions, these are investments we must make for our security.”
Reaching Critical Will looks forward to working with its colleagues to articulate a vision of security that does not include increased investments in nuclear weapons and that cuts through the lies of those who proclaim armament as disarmament. We hope you find ways to get involved below; please contact us to share your initiatives!
In peace,
Ray Acheson, Project Director
1) NPT logistics
Access to official meetings
NGOs will have access to many of the official Review Conference meetings. However, do to very limited seating, NGOs will have about 100–200 spots during the first four days of the Conference, which will be held in the UN General Assembly. For the rest of the Conference, held in the Temporary North Lawn Building, we will have about 80 seats. For this reason, all NGOs who wish to attend the official meetings must designate ONE representative per organization to attend the meetings. This designation can rotate to different people within the organization throughout the Conference, but please make sure that only one person from your group is at any given meeting.
Side events
NGOs will be granted the use of one room in the new UN facility, the Temporary North Lawn Building, for the duration of the Review Conference from 9:00 AM–6:00 PM each day. This room, with a capacity of 75 people, is available for booking through Reaching Critical Will. You can book the room from 10:00 AM–1:00PM, 1:15–2:45 PM, or 3:00–6:00PM. Check the calendar to see what slots are available and email [email protected] with your preference. The room is fully booked during the first week and is almost fully booked for the second week. If you require a greater capacity than 75 people, please contact Ms. Soo-hyun Kim at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs by emailing [email protected]. The deadline to book events through RCW or the UN is 28 March 2010. If you require any equipment, such as projector or screen, please let me by then as well.
NGO presentations
There’s still time to get involved in preparing NGO presentations to the Review Conference! If you’re interested in participating, we invite you to join the NPT Presentations listserv by sending an email to [email protected] or by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/npt_presentations/.
2) ICAN strategy for a Nuclear Weapons Convention
Background
Since the NPT PrepCom this year, a number of people have been discussing the potential great value of a clear, unified strategy for next year’s NPT Review Conference which as many civil society organizations as possible could coalesce around, find useful for their work, and give strength and focus to the voice of civil society. The proposed strategy is being put forward by ICAN, Acronym Institute, IPPNW, and WILPF. We believe that this can be taken up by many NGOs and would amplify and complement the work and strategies that they are already or individually pursuing.
Our objective is to build momentum for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In practical terms, we aim for a Nuclear Weapons Convention by 2020.
Rationale
The current focus for many governments and NGOs is the 2010 NPT Review Conference, scheduled for 3-28 May in New York next year. So our strategy needs to recognise the importance of the NPT RevCon politically, but go beyond it. In addition to supporting NGO actions in New York we want to encourage civil society groups all over the world to lobby and act locally, with international coordination and impact both before and after the Review Conference. This is especially important to ensure that NGOs are strongly positioned to keep building for nuclear abolition after the NPT, and that we avoid the dangers of becoming hostage to the NPT’s outcome (whether good or bad). And since government positions are largely set before such Conferences, the major work of influencing government policies and their marching orders to their diplomats needs to be undertaken in the months ahead of the Conference.
Our proposed strategy comprises two phases focussing around the 2010 NPT Review Conference. The first important task is to get the goal of a nuclear weapon convention (NWC) into the mainstream, ie. to gain recognition of an NWC as a realistic and reasonable concept even among those who think they disagree with it. We have largely won the moral and security arguments for why nuclear weapons should be abolished. By putting the NWC onto the negotiating agenda we will shift the debate to when and how.
We want governments to move decisively away from dismissing the NWC as impossible or premature. We want to engage them in discussion of what the legal, technical, political and verification framework for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons should entail.
This strategy engages with the NPT but seeks to avoid NGO resources and energy becoming swamped by it. Many NGOs, including Mayors for Peace and Abolition 2000, have plans to get people to New York for the RevCon. We support these efforts and want to do something that complements them, while recognising that it is expensive and difficult for many to get to NY. Moreover, access to diplomats is likely to be quite restricted due to the negotiating nature of the Conference, and the extensive renovations which will be underway at the UN. And government polices will be determined before the diplomats get to New York.
Strategy Phase 1: From now to the May 2010 NPT Review Conference
The aim of the first phase is to get governments to identify the need for some kind of nuclear weapons prohibition treaty in their statements, whether or not they refer explicitly to a NWC by name. As many non-aligned countries and also Australia and Austria have done, we want consideration of a NWC to be mentioned in government statements and working papers to the NPT, with the aim of getting formal recognition into a final NPT document.
To implement this strategy, supporters must first try to get language into their own country’s statements and working papers. In addition to direct governmental approaches, we should work on elected representatives including parliamentarians and mayors, to persuade them to advocate this position.
In addition, groups should link with advocates in other countries to push for as many key governments to include NWC language, prioritising where they have regional or political links. It is especially important that we assist and work with small as well as large states in our regions, especially the over-110 NPT parties in the Non-Aligned Movement who are likely to support the NWC but may not have thought to include it in their statements and position papers for the NPT. So we can help them in capacity-building by providing them with positive language on the need for a NWC by 2010. The aim is not to promote the model NWC as such or get identical language into all the statements, but to build up an accumulation of proposals that mention a nuclear weapon treaty in some form.
For those governments that don’t feel comfortable with explicit reference to a nuclear weapon convention, the NGOs could suggest the government endorse the UN Secretary General’s five-point disarmament plan (put forward 24 October 2008), the first point of which referred to consideration of a nuclear weapons convention or other legal framework. Failing that, they could consider phrasing along
the lines of the 2009 Chair’s (first) draft recommendations eg. to consider “ways and means to commence negotiations in accordance with article VI, on a convention or framework of agreements to achieve global nuclear disarmament, and to engage non-parties to the NPT”. The point is to get the concept of a comprehensive abolition treaty into the mainstream, not to advocate for a specific version.
However, when governments agree to include reference to the need for a nuclear weapon convention, NGOs should then lobby to take them two further steps forward:
1. to advocate that negotiations on an NWC (or similar) should commence before the next NPT RevCon in 2015; and
2. that an NWC should be concluded by 2020 (recognizing that its full implementation may well take longer).
Strategy Phase 2: From the end of the May 2010 NPT Conference to the end of 2010 and beyond
The second phase starts with a day of internationally coordinated, locally implemented actions after the
end of the RevCon, to inspire and keep up the momentum for a NWC, with messages tailored to build on (or parachute over) the NPT outcome, whether it is deemed a success or a failure.
The aim of the second phase is to build civil-society + government partnerships to get the conditions and steps for a NWC on track. This part of our action plan begins with internationally coordinated actions all over the world some time over Saturday 5 June 2010, the weekend after the RevCon ends (scheduled for 28 May). Each national or local group or network will organise a demonstration or other action or event; for example either at a key governmental location or, if in a nuclear weapon state, a nuclear weapon-related facility. NGOs are locally responsible for choosing the locations, timing and type of actions or demonstrations they want to undertake. For example, UK NGOs are discussing holding events at Faslane, Aldermaston and maybe in London as well.
Though we are calling 5 June 2010 “Global Nuclear Abolition Action Day”, the date 5 June has for some time been established World Environment Day, so groups may want to network with local environmental groups to link and amplify both messages on this day.
Though events are local, a consistent message will be worked out at the end of the Review Conference, regardless of whether it ends as a ‘success’ or ‘failure’. Working with partners, ICAN will be responsible for hosting the action website, reviewing the outcome of the RevCon and developing a strong and inspiring message that as many civil society organizations as possible can agree on.
We plan to set up a website linked with ICAN which will provide information and show what is happening with the NPT and also (with clickable maps) where the various actions are going to happen, with information, photos and messages. We hope that it will be possible for groups to be autonomously
responsible for the content of their own action pages before, during and after the Review Conference
and June 5 demonstrations (we will need to work out the ground-rules and practical implementation of
this).
The inspiring, unified messages about the need for a Nuclear Weapon Convention will play an important role in how the movement is able to move forward after the 2010 Review Conference.
Whether the NPT RevCon is viewed as a success (able to adopt important decisions) or a failure (deadlock, or no or inadequate agreements), we need to be ready with a strong and positive message that inspires and encourages: that now is the time to push for a nuclear weapon treaty. If politics and diplomatic tactics cause the RevCon to fail, it could leave current disarmament objectives and
aspirations in tatters even if the reasons for failure were structural and political. In that case we will need to energise ourselves and our movements with really good positive actions calling for nuclear abolition.
Even if the RevCon is regarded as a success, the disarmament agreements are likely to be incremental steps that at best may not go much beyond the 2000 agreements (and may possibly roll them backwards). Depending on the outcome, there is a risk that the disarmament movement becomes deflated, demoralised or marginalised (or else people think the job’s done). A positive action can use the NPT outcome as a springboard to inspire people and invigorate mobilising for a NWC.
We would appreciate hearing thoughts and suggestions on smart slogans for use through the day. For example, one we have played with is “NWC – Now We Can!” Ideas and suggestions welcome. We would also welcome comments on this strategy – please forward comments to Dimity Hawkins, ICAN Australia Campaign Director on [email protected] and she will share this with the others. If you like it, please run with it!
3) Nuclear Weapons Convention simulation
The Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Centre for Science and Peace Research (University of Hamburg) and IANUS (TU Darmstadt) would like to invite you to a simulation conference that is going to negotiate the Nuclear Weapons Convention. The event will take place alongside the 2010 NPT Review Conference in New York so you will get both the possibility to act in the simulated conference as well as in the real NPT RevCon. You will get accredited through the NGO “International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation (INESAP)” and will be able to observe the RevCon negotiations as well as meet diplomats.The simulation conference will take place on May 11/12. A preparation phase will take place in Princeton during May 8/9. Most students will arrive on May 1, but this is no obligation. Beforehand, there will be a seminar at the University of Hamburg during April 16/17. Participants will be able to participate interactively via internet tools.
Requirements for participants:
· Between 20 and 30 years old
· Student or completed degree
· Ability to obtain visa for US
Financial support can unfortunately not be granted.
Please write to Malte Göttsche at [email protected] if you are interested in participating. Briefly state your motivation for participation and your background/experience.
4) New website for abolishing nuclear weapons
For Peace and Human Needs: Nuclear Disarmament Now! is a website dedicated to rebuilding the grassroots movement for nuclear disarmament and abolition! We need a nuclear disarmament movement to build momentum to cut the military budget for war to fund peace, jobs and justice in our communities. Hundreds of organizations from the US and around the globe are taking new steps, together, to renew the commitment to a nuclear free world. For Peace and Human Needs: Nuclear Disarmament Now! is a source for the mostcurrent writings and resources to take the grassroots movement for peace onto the new terrain of getting rid of all weapons of mass destruction.
Go to For Peace and Human Needs: Nuclear Disarmament Now! to get involved in a massive international petition drive. Let President Obama know that we want the administration to initiate good faith multilateral negotiations on an international agreement to abolish nuclear weapons, within our lifetimes! Yes, we can!
5) Aldermaston Women’s Gate
Mark your calendar for 15 February 2010! The plan is to impede work on the UK’s planned new warhead for the Trident nuclear missile system by closing down all seven gates of the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston simultaneously. This is an invitation to come to Aldermaston, in rural Berkshire, to share in a women’s action as part of the Big Blockade.
Who’s organizing? The Big Blockade is being organized by Trident Ploughshares and supported by CND, Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp and other groups. The women’s gate blockade is being organised by Women from AWPC, Women in Black against War, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Women against NATO and the London Feminist Network. We, among other groups, are already mobilizing members. We hope that over the next few weeks many more groups and individual women will commit themselves to join the blockade.
What’s the aim? As women, our plan is to close, for as long as we can, one of the gates of AWE. Known as the ‘Home Office Gate’, it is one of two entrances used by 50% of Aldermaston’s workers. Other gates will be blockaded by groups of men and women from Scotland, Wales, England and other countries; by students, cyclists and ‘faith’ groups.
Why Aldermaston? Aldermaston houses the facilities that produce Britain’s nuclear warhead. The UK government plan to spend a billion pounds each year for the next three years on modernizing its dangerous, illegal weapon of mass destruction. Greenpeace have estimated a £97-billion pound price tag for the renewal plan for the Trident submarine-borne nuclear weapons system to the year 2050. But although massive building work on facilities to test, design and build new warheads is already well under way at Aldermaston, the final decision about whether to go ahead with the new warheads has not yet been taken by Parliament. Trident renewal is current policy, but it is not irreversible.
Why now? The blockade is timed to take place three months before the international Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference. The new US administration is a touch more committed to international cooperation to reduce nuclear arsenals than the one it replaced. Here in Britain, with the present financial crisis dictating cuts in public expenditure, and a general election coming up, this is a critical moment when we have just a chance of persuading politicians to think again. We aim to help convince the parties that spending scarce resources on Trident while cutting needed services won’t win votes.
What do I have to do? That’s entirely up to you. There is a role for everyone to play. The blockade will start at 7 am promptly on the morning of Monday 15 February. We want to start the blockade with as many women as possible sitting in front of the gate, to clearly show women’s opposition to Britian’s plans to build new nuclear weapons. You can sit for a long or a short time as you want. We also need women to stand around the blockade holding banners and placards to get our message across. You do not have to risk arrest: the police will typically give warning before they arrest anyone, which will give women who do not wish to be arrested ample time to join supporters at the side of the blockade.
Planning. Thirteen women from the groups mentioned above came together in London this week to plan for the Women’s Gate on February 15. We discussed ways of blockading effectively, nonviolently and safely. We shared out roles: legal support, transport, police liaison, coordination, care, first aid, media work etc.
Thinking through the message. We decided that Women’s Gate messages will express our feminist critique of nuclear weapons and the militaries that deploy them, of the UK government’s irrational notion of ‘security’, and of NATO with its ever-growing, nuclear-tipped ambitions. We want to contrast this with the lack of government support for women suffering violence whether it’s cuts in funding for rape crisis centres, or the lack of funds for women’s refuges, or the ever declining conviction rate for rape. We want to let the government know what we mean by security. As women we’ll refuse violence in every aspect of our lives, from home to street, from nation to the international arena. Let’s say no to violence - whether from fists, boots and knives, or from guns and fighter jets and a resounding NO to nuclear weapons.
Bringing our message to Aldermaston. We hope all of you will bring your own placards and fence decorations with powerful messages, make colourful banners, bring musical instruments and songs (and any other magic to close down 'our' gate).
HOW TO JOIN IN… If you’d like to join the Women’s Gate blockade, it would be helpful (though not essential) if you could to let us know in advance, by contacting Andrée at [email protected] or Tel. 020 8248 0763.We shall hold a planning meeting for our women’s action at a nearby location from 5 pm on the evening of Sunday 14 Febrary. You will also be able to stay the night (floorpsace only - bring a bed-roll and sleeping bag). There will be a hot meal available, bring food to share. Please contact Andrée (as above) to book a space, and for access and other details.
Otherwise, just turn up a little before 7 am on Monday morning at the gate, dressed in warm and waterproof clothes, prepared for darkness, and for bitter or rainy weather.
Getting information. You will find maps, routes and addresses, where to leave cars, advice concerning safety and risk, legal considerations and a mass of other useful information on the Trident Ploughshares website. For information about AWE Aldermaston and resources for action visit the website of the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign).
So come along and bring your friends. There is a role for everyone in this diverse, creative, and important protest. Numbers matter. Every woman counts.
6) Toolkit for local US resolutions on nuclear disarmament
Mass Peace Action, in partnership with the United for Justice with Peace Coalition's Nuclear Abolition Working Group and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, is working for the passage of local resolutions in support of a nuclear weapons free world. People around the United States are urging city councils and boards of aldermen to pass the resolutions and need your help to make this happen in your community!
Use the links below to download resources for this campaign:
Click here for a letter to you explaining the steps you can take to participate in this initiative. Click here for a sample letter to adapt and send to your municipal officials. Click here to learn why now is the time to work for a nuclear weapons free world. Click here to read the resolution. Download Side A and Side B of the educational brochure (pdf).
For more information, see http://www.masspeaceaction.org/nonukes2010.html.
7) Report on Vandenberg missile “defence” launch and protest
by Jim Haber, Coordinator, Nevada Desert Experience and Member of the War Resisters League National Committee
A small group of demonstrators were not allowed to stand outside of Vanbenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in Lompoc, California around 1 pm on Sunday, January 31. They came to voice opposition to a U.S. test of part of an anti-ballistic missile system. In the first test of its kind involving Vandenberg, an ICBM launched from the Marshall Islands was aimed at southern California. The Ground-Based Interceptor launched from VAFB, about 60 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, lifted off at around 3:45 pm, but it did not succeed in shooting down the target which was launched six minutes earlier from the other end of the Ronald Reagan Test Range. One of the “anti-testers” required ambulance transport before processing after being injured by the military police. No one crossed the line outside of the main gate, and people were not allowed to stay, even in the designated protest area.
8 of ll participants were arrested. First to be cited were two people with existing “ban-and-bar” notices from previous arrests and detainments. MacGregor Eddy of Salinas and Dennis Apel of Santa Maria, were cited immediately, even though they didn't cross onto base property, were in the designated protest area and identified themselves as instructed.
The eight were cited for a “Violation of Security Regulation.” Apel and Eddy were additionally cited for trespassing even though they didn't cross the base's painted line. When asked why she was given two tickets, Ms. Eddy was told by one of the the arresting officers, “One is for showing up and one is for being here.”
A woman in her 80s, Jude Evered of Goleta, CA was held on the ground by two security guards with one soldier's knee in her back. Her booking was interrupted because she had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance for a shoulder injury she sustained after she was already in custody. Evered, is with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and is a frequent participant in weekly vigils there. She was later released, unprocessed by authorities, nor had she been escorted by police or Mps to the hospital. Dennis Apel commented, “What they did to Bud (Boothe, another octogenarian and longtime Vandenberg Action Coalition member from Los Olivos) in November was also harsh.” At the time MPs spun Bud around by his handcuffed arms, cutting him in three places.
Jorge Manly-Gil of Guadalupe, CA refused to give any information. He was last known to be held at the Lompoc City Police holding cell.
“They completely dismantled the demonstration,” said long-time organizer MacGregor Eddy. She went onto reiterate that the base was told well in advance of the demonstration which was initially scheduled for January 21, as was the interceptor test, both of which were grounded due to large southern California storms at the time.
Anyone not arrested were given their own ban-and-bar letters even though they were in compliance with base policy. The question that no court has been able to hear, much less decide is whether or not such notices can legally be applied outside of the fenced area of the base. The reason is that the prosecutor has never prosecuted any such cases for a court to decide. For many years, the southern California ACLU has refused to assist long-standing peace vigilers in the past. A lawyer and legal observer was on site on Sunday, and there is renewed determination for base protest policies and questions of jurisdiction to be resolved in court, even if private attorneys need to be retained and the southern California ACLU remains seemingly indifferent to a clear violation of the First Ammendment rights to speak and gather.
Since November, the new base commander has decided to require I.D.s from demonstrators. No one else on the public side of the “green line” is required to show anything. Showing I.D.s on Sunday did not grant the ability to demonstrate, but rather resulted in the issuance of ban-and-bar notices.
International opposition to U.S. missile tests is building, whether they're testing ICBMs or interceptors. Demonstrators were carrying letters of opposition to this test from six different international organizations.
The following letter from the Western States Legal FoundationDirector Jacqueline Cabasso provides a concise summation of the issues being raised by the demonstrators:
Western States Legal Foundation calls for cancellation of the planned January 31 test launch of an interceptor missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base at a simulated incoming Iranian missile launched from the Marshall Islands.
The premise of this test is preposterous propaganda. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, nor is there any convincing evidence that it has an active nuclear weapons program. The test will only serve to exacerbate tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
Further, U.S. development of missile defenses endangers prospects for deeper U.S. and Russian nuclear arms reductions and threatens to scuttle agreement on a follow-on to the START treaty. To add insult to injury, every U.S. test launch from the Marshall Islands causes tremendous environmental damage to surrounding land and water areas and compounds the historical injustice to the indigenous Marshallese people.
This is not a launch by Iran aimed at California, but rather a launch by the U.S. military- industrial complex aimed at Congress and the February 2010 Defense budget rollout.
The U.S. should pursue diplomatic efforts to normalize relations with Iran. This test should be cancelled and it’s estimated $150 million price tag redirected to humanitarian aid for Haiti.Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director [email protected]
Links:
Vandenberg Witness
Western States Legal Foundation
VAFB Protest Advisory
VAFB Press Release about the test
8) US elite push for increased nuclear weapon funding
In a third op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the “four horsemen”—Schultz, Perry, Kissinger, and Nunn (SPKN)—advocated for increased spending on nuclear weapons. In addition, in another WSJ op-ed, US Vice President Joe Biden called for a boost of $5 billion for nuclear weapons over the next five years, arguing, “Even in a time of tough budget decisions, these are investments we must make for our security.” And then on 1 February, the Obama administration released its budget request for FY2011. In it, the administration requests $7.01 billion, a $626 million increase over FY2010.
In a blog post, Reaching Critical Will pointed out that the arguments made by the four horsemen, Biden, and the administration at large are misleading. They ignore the fact that while the US nuclear weapons budget has been reduced by about $1 billion over the past five years, this followed an increase over a decade (1995–2005) of about $3 billion. They also assume that the United States relies on, and will indefinitely continue to rely on, nuclear weapons for its security. They does not explain whose security nuclear weapons protect in the United States. Its citizens? Or its technocratic elite—the same people who work at the labs that SPKN and others who are part of that elite structure so vigorously defend? “National security,” as it is typically invoked in this sense, does not refer to the well-being of the general population but of those managing the military-industrial-academic complex.
Greg Mello of the
argues that, if funded, the Obama administration’s budget request “would have dramatically negative effects on our national security. We are entering a period where mistakes as this will have profound consequences—as quickly as in the elections later this year, which will not go well for the party in power without far different funding priorities.” He further notes, “This budget request is a complete surrender to Senate Republicans. President George W. Bush never requested such huge nuclear weapons spending. These huge spending numbers are not motivated by national security. They are motivated by an attempt to get a rather humdrum treaty—the START follow-on, not yet completed—through the Senate. Whether this political tribute will be sufficient remains to be seen.”
Darwin BondGraham, Will Parrish, and Nicholas Ian Robinson, the authors of a December article in Z Magazine on SPKN, have written a new piece to be published in a forthcoming edition of Z. They note:
The Hoover quartet’s very public, and very pro-nuclear about-face has been strategically timed, just as their earlier feel-good words in praise of disarmament were calculated to elicit a specific political response from the military establishment, Obama administration, and pesky anti-nuclear and arms control organizations. For the latter their earlier essays were mostly designed to outflank and neutralize groups working to reduce spending on nuclear weapons.
The White House’s Nuclear Posture Review -the nation's guiding framework on the role of nuclear weapons in its overall military strategy- is now in the midst of being drafted. Due for release in March, the document will affirm the nuclear weapons complex's activities for the remainder of Obama's term in office. Additionally there are three major treaties concerning nuclear weapons currently being negotiated, considered for ratification, or reviewed for further implementation. Many disarmament-inclined government officials and activists who are trying to shape a less militarized and costly US nuclear weapons policy have mistakenly assumed that the NPR document and arms control treaties will create a policy trajectory to guide spending and infrastructure costs in the nuclear weapons complex. Disarmament and demilitarization, in other words, are thought of as occurring at the level of presidential declaration and international diplomacy.
The reality of nuclear weapons policy formation is much more complex and political, however. Rather than allowing a neat policy process carried out at the executive level to determine the future of the nuclear weapons complex, forces with financial and political stakes in nuclear weaponry, working through think tanks like Hoover, or corporate entities like Bechtel and the University of California, are actively attempting to lock in a de-facto set of policies by building a new research, design, and production infrastructure that will ensure nuclear weapons are a centerpiece of the US military empire far into the future. Their ability to accomplish this is dependent on the anti-nuclear nuclearist strategy concocted by Shultz, Perry, Kissinger and Nunn. In turn, this strategy is being ably served by naïve embraces of disarmament rhetoric, as well as the illusion, strongly held among arms controllers, disarmament activists, and allies in foreign governments, that the future will ultimately be shaped by what the Nuclear Posture Review says, and whether negotiation of arms control and nonproliferation treaties result in reducing arsenal counts.
Stay tuned to Z Magazine for the article.
9) Featured News
American historian, playwright and social activist Howard Zinn died 27 January 2010, aged 87.
In his most recent book, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, Zinn writes, “I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.” Providing inspiration for those who might feel burnt out, resigned, cynical, or socially disengaged, he goes on to explain:
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, it energizes us to act, and raises at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
Pax Christi Britain and France speak out against nukes
In a joint statement issued 22 January 2010, Pax Christi in Britain and France affirmed that the nuclear weapons held by both countries ought to be abolished as soon as possible. A readiness by Britain and France to renounce their own weapons would constitute a major boost to the success of the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. For more information, see www.paxchristi.net.
Japanese foreign minister called for stronger negative security assurances
On 29 January 2010, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada made his Foreign Policy Speech to the Diet session. In the part of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, he focused on stronger negative security assurance and “sole purpose”:
I find worthy of attention such ideas as prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states, or making deterring others from using such weapons as a sole purpose of retaining nuclear weapons, as the concrete means to take a first step toward the “world without nuclear weapons.” This government will deepen discussions with countries such as Australia and the United States on these and other issues.
10) Recommended Reading
Howard Zinn, “A Marvelous Victory,” excerpt from A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.
Zia Mian, “A Path to Peace in South Asia,” Huffington Post, 7 January 2010.
Alexander Glaser, Zia Mian, and Frank N. von Hippel, “Time to Ban Production of Nuclear Weapons Material,” Scientific American, 13 January 2010.