Saturday, July 8, 2017

Bullies on the Block Declar Eternal Opposition to Nuclear Weapons-Free World



Over 120 nations recently signed a treaty banning nuclear weapons. However, the bullies on the block - US, Britain, and France (among others!) - refused to sign it and declared their eternal opposition to a nuclear-weapons free world:
Over 120 nations adopt first treaty banning nuclear weapons (July 18, 2017). The Mainichi, https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170708/p2g/00m/0in/001000c
More than 120 countries approved the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons Friday at a U.N. meeting boycotted by all nuclear-armed nations….

None of the nine countries known or believed to possess nuclear weapons -- the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel -- is supporting the treaty. Many of their allies also did not attend the meeting….
 
In a joint statement, the U.N. ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France said their countries don't intend to ever become party to the treaty....
The article notes that nations with nuclear weapons want non-nuclear weapons nations to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which disallows proliferation while strongly encouraging signatories to purchase costly nuclear energy infrastructures:
That pact sought to prevent the spread of atomic arms beyond the five original weapons powers -- the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China. It requires non-nuclear signatory nations to not pursue atomic weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five powers to move toward nuclear disarmament and to guarantee non-nuclear states' access to peaceful nuclear technology for producing energy.
India was among, if not the first, to use their civilian nuclear energy facilities to produce an atomic weapon (although its worth pointing out that India did not sign the NPT, see here). In my opinion, there is no such thing as "peaceful atomic energy."

That said, I think the larger existential question concerns the Hobbesian world-view that dominates international relations.

It is a world-view wherein security is defined ultimately by the presence or absence of nuclear weapons. Nuclear sovereignty reigns supreme.

It is a feudal world where non-nuclear nations align with nuclear sovereigns and/or strive toward independence with their own nuclear weapons programs.

The 120 nations that signed the first treaty to ban nuclear weapons offer an antidote to this dystopic reign of nuclear sovereignty.

The people who live under the reign of nuclear sovereignty should demand dis-mantling of all weapons of mass destruction before the seductions of their use destroy us all.




1 comment:

  1. Whether true or not were there "dis-mantling of all weapons of mass destruction" would we not then be faced with more destructive if conventional wars? My own position is that very little can be done by anyone to change anything about the world--and that is both a good and a not good. Europe is virtually gun free but clearly as Hamburg has demonstrated people there cleverly find ways to injure others. A young Canadian woman, a reporter, was spotted as the enemy and had to flee Hamburg to save her life. Of course all of Europe is descending into barbarity which supposedly the EU was to prevent. A case of the cure being worse than the ailment. It may well be the case that humans are destined to destroy themselves or perhaps an asteroid will intercept that intention and do the job itself. Or Yellowstone will explode. We seem to be surrounded by death threats. But this is nothing new and has happened repeatedly in the past. We may well be on the verge of another ice age. One is over due they say. However, given all the above probably humans are designed to live in that sort of psychological reality. We have even a whole inventory now of drugs to help out. I think it is a minority of people who want peace and quiet. A great many really want war and violence. The same goes for wealth and poverty. These extremes make life interesting for the masses which can not entertain themselves and need strong stimulants in order to function smoothly. Se la vie.

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