By Thalif Deen<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNITED NATIONS. 26 September 2023 (IDN) \u2014 When the United Nations commemorated the 10th anniversary of International Day for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons,<\/a> the President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis, was dead on target when he warned that the risk of nuclear annihilation \u201cis not a chapter from our past; it is a haunting reality of our present\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is only one path to avoid nuclear Armageddon: the complete and absolute elimination of nuclear weapons,\u201d he told delegates on September 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the UN, the world has over 12,500 nuclear weapons\u2014and rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview with IDN, Joseph Gerson, an American peace activist and president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security<\/a>, said the establishment of the International Day for the Complete Elimination of Nuclear Weapons reflects humanity\u2019s recognition of the continuing existential threat to human survival and civilization posed by nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Hibakusha, Japanese A- and H-Bomb survivors, teach us from their terrorized and excruciating experiences, \u201chuman beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also true that given the dictates of nuclear command and control, nuclear weapons and democracy cannot coexist, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday, the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW<\/a>) and continuing popular demands for nuclear disarmament serve as the most forceful but insufficient counterweight to continuing preparations by all nine nuclear weapons states to wage apocalyptic nuclear war,\u201d said Gerson, a former vice-president of the International Peace Bureau<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, \u201cas we see with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists\u2019 Doomsday Clock set at 90 seconds to midnight, the danger of nuclear war is far greater today than in 2013 when the International Day was established\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs I write, I have just heard a member of Russia\u2019s national security elite state that this is the most dangerous moment in international relations since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when President Kennedy\u2019s advisors thought the chances of nuclear war were between a third and a half.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat we are alive today is a function of luck and inspired diplomacy, the latter of which is dangerously absent today,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Addressing delegates on September 26, Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said: This is a matter of urgency. A worrisome new arms race is brewing. The number of nuclear weapons could rise for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He pointed out that hard-won norms to prevent their use, spread and testing are being undermined. The global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture is eroding. Nuclear arsenals are being modernized to make these weapons faster, more accurate and stealthier. Nuclear sabers are again being rattled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is madness. We must reverse course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First \u2014 nuclear-weapon States must lead the way. \u201cI call on them to meet their disarmament obligations and commit to never use nuclear weapons under any circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second \u2014 \u201cwe need to reinforce and re-commit to the nuclear-disarmament-and-non-proliferation regime built over the decades\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This includes the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT<\/a>) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also includes the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTB<\/a>T). Though not yet in force, the Treaty remains a powerful testament of humanity\u2019s will to lift the shadow of nuclear annihilation from our world once and for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the name of all victims of nuclear testing, I call on all countries that have not yet ratified the Treaty to do so without delay, and for those States that possess nuclear weapons to ensure a moratorium on all nuclear testing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And third \u2014 \u201cwe must redeploy the timeless tools of dialogue, diplomacy and negotiation to ease tensions and end the nuclear threat. This dialogue must extend to all categories of nuclear weapons, and it must address the increasing interplay between strategic and conventional weapons and the nexus between nuclear weapons and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans must always be in control of and responsible for any decision to use nuclear weapons, Guterres declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elaborating further, Gerson told IDN following a tradition practised by almost every U.S. president, Russian President Putin and his most senior advisors have threatened the first use of nuclear weapons, this time especially if Moscow\u2019s control of Crimea is threatened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Amidst the Ukraine War and growing tensions between the West and Russia, in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a new generation of U.S. nuclear weapons are being deployed to NATO allies while Russia is in the process of deploying nuclear weapons to Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In East Asia, the U.S. is again deploying nuclear armed ships to South Korean waters and ports, and tensions over Taiwan were a primary factor in the Biden Administration\u2019s refusal to adopt either a sole use or no first use nuclear doctrine in its National Security Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said planning for use of tactical nuclear weapons in a war for Taiwan is now common in policy circles in Washington, D.C. And the absence of strategic stability and arms control diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia and the U.S. and China greatly increase the dangers that an accident, incident, or miscalculation could trigger disastrous escalation to nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of the nuclear powers are either expanding or \u201cmodernizing\u201d their nuclear arsenals. Iran and Japan are near nuclear powers, and South Korea and Saudia Arabia face both domestic and international pressures to equalize what they perceive to be unjust imbalances of nuclear terror,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sculpture depicting St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missiles. UN Photo | Milton Grant<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons provides us with an opportunity to raise the alarm, to emphasize the centrality of Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty which calls for good faith negotiations for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd most importantly, the Day encourages us to increase our commitments, organizing. and advocacy for the nuclear weapons-free world that we and future generations deserve,\u201d Gerson declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, UNFOLD ZERO<\/a>*, a coalition of anti-nuclear activists, issued a Global Appeal to end the nuclear threat, abolish nuclear weapons and shift the weapons budgets and investments to support public health, COVID-19 recovery, the climate and sustainable development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe nuclear weapons possessed by nine countries threaten us all. Any use of these weapons by accident, miscalculation or malicious intent, would have catastrophic human, economic and environmental consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The use of just a small fraction of the 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world\u2019s stockpiles could end civilization as we know it. In addition, the $100 billion spent annually on nuclear weapons is sorely needed for environmental, economic and human needs, including addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the climate and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe, the undersigned, call on our cities, parliaments and governments to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Affirm that nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, and therefore the nuclear armed States should stand down their nuclear forces and affirm policies never to initiate a nuclear war (no-first-use policies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Commit to the elimination of nuclear weapons by 2045, the 100th anniversary of the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Cut nuclear weapons budgets (if they are a nuclear-weapon State), end investments in the nuclear weapons industry (all governments) and redirect these investments and budgets to support the United Nations, COVID-19 management and recovery, drastic reductions in carbon emissions to protect the climate, and financing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/strong>UNFOLD ZERO is a project of PragueVision<\/a>, PNND<\/a>, Basel Peace Office<\/a>, Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign<\/a>, Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace, World Future Council<\/a>, World Federalist Movement<\/a> and Global Security Institute.<\/a> [IDN-InDepthNews]<\/p>\n\n\n\n