Global Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

The founding goal of the Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) is the global abolition of nuclear weapons. While this goal may at first blush seem visionary and utopian, in fact it is the only way to prevent a nuclear holocaust.

There is much talk about keeping nuclear weapons out of the “wrong hands.” And certainly, keeping them from away terrorists and madmen does reduce the chance of their being used. Yet even in the hands of government, they will ultimately be used—as they were, twice, by the US in World War II.

History has proven that any weapon allowed to be kept in existence will be eventually be deployed, and whatever weapon is deployed will be used. Even now, over a decade after the end of the Cold War, the Bush Administration has officially issued a new nuclear doctrine that envisions the use of new nuclear weapons, such as the mini-nuke and the bunker-buster, in a wide variety of circumstances against at least seven countries.

Moreover, the world can’t forever endure a permanent double standard, where it’s legitimate for certain countries to possess nuclear weapons forever, but illegitimate for others ever to obtain them. Such a double standard is seen as hypocritical by the non-nuclear countries, and isn’t ethically or politically viable.

That is the reason that Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, which initially came into force in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995, obligates the nuclear “haves” to abolish their arsenals. At the five year Review Conference in 2000, the US and the other four nuclear weapon states party to the treaty (Russia, Britain, France, and China) reaffirmed a solemn legal commitment to negotiate the multi-lateral abolition of their arsenals.

So long as tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, and tons of nuclear weapon grade materials, continue to exist, it is inevitable that nuclear weapons will be eventually be used—by terrorists who obtain them, by accident, or by states who feel their ultimate national interests are threatened. Global nuclear weapons abolition under strict and effective international control is the only way to prevent their future use.

The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action
December 10, 2003

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