Special Getting to Zero Update
30 June 2008
Another milestone to Zero:
UK Statesmen call for a World without Nuclear Weapons
In a breakthrough op-ed in the Times newspaper today, former long-serving
UK Foreign and Defence Secretaries are endorsing the vision
of a world free of nuclear weapons. Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Conservative),
Lord David Owen (Crossbencher), Lord Douglas Hurd (Conservative),
and Lord George Robertson (Labour), in an
article titled 'Start worrying and learn to ditch the
bomb', warn that the world is entering a dangerous new
phase "that combines widespread proliferation with extremism
and geopolitical tension". They argue that the only way to
deal with this danger is to work multilaterally towards complete
nuclear disarmament.
The article argues that nuclear weapons no longer have the
same role in security that they held during the Cold War.
Terrorists are unpersuaded by nuclear deterrence, and seek
to obtain nuclear material for "asymmetrical warfare and suicide
missions". Lord Robertson is also quoted
elsewhere in the paper as saying: "We can't lecture to non-nuclear
states if we don't fulfil our obligations under the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty to cut back on our weapons." The
Times itself, a Murdock-run paper and renowned as having
been highly skeptical of disarmament proposals in the past,
ran
an editorial in support of the initiative, that while
a little inaccurate in many of the facts, constructively called
for a US-Russian nuclear disarmament summit in 2009. The
New York Times, on the same day, ran
an editorial calling for moves towards disarmament.
The article
"This article is the transatlantic equivalent of the
ground-breaking January 2007 Wall
Street Journal op-ed by US statesmen George Shultz, William
Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn", said BASIC board member
and former arms control negotiator Ambassador Robert Barry.
"That article kicked off a serious US debate with an energy and
urgency not seen since the end of the Cold War."
Trevor McCrisken, BASIC's Chair, said that "The Times
article brings impeccable credentials to calls for nuclear
disarmament within Britain. It adds to the momentum of a serious
global movement calling for urgent moves towards zero nuclear
weapons."
The four UK statesmen call for a similar debate in Europe. They
appeal to the United Kingdom and France, as Europe's two nuclear
weapons powers, to take a lead in multilateral disarmament, calling
upon them, through international organizations to:
- secure unaccounted for stockpiles of nuclear material in the
former Soviet Union;
- bring the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty into force by
encouraging others, particularly the United States, to ratify the
treaty; and
- strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the
International Atomic Energy Agency, by improving monitoring and
compliance to verify that civilian nuclear programmes are not
weaponized.
The United States and Russia, as those with the most nuclear
weapons, have a unique responsibility to extend the provisions of
the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and dramatically reduce
their arsenals.
Background to the authors
The authors of the Times op-ed have a long history of
distinguished public service in the United Kingdom. Lord Douglas
Hurd served as Foreign Secretary under the Conservative Governments
of Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major; Sir Malcolm
Rifkind was Foreign and then Defence Secretary under Prime Minister
Major; Lord David Owen was Foreign Secretary under the Labour
Government of Prime Minister James Callaghan; and Lord George
Robertson was the UK Defence Secretary under the Labour Government
of Prime Minister Tony Blair 1997 to 1999 when he became the
Secretary General of NATO, where he led the transatlantic alliance
for five years. Debate over NATO's tactical nuclear weapons
re-emerged last week after news that US free-fall bombs had failed
safety tests and that those at Lakenheath in East Anglia had been
withdrawn.
The vision gathers momentum - BASIC
Senior members of the transatlantic foreign policy establishment
across the political mainstream have publicly endorsed the vision
of a world without nuclear weapons, proposing practical and
achievable steps to take the world in the right direction. Some
have joined BASIC as Board members or Advisers to lend their weight
and energy to the effort, including in the US former Secretary of
State (under George Bush senior) Lawrence Eagleburger, former arms
control negotiators and US Ambassadors Thomas Graham, James Goodby,
James Leonard, Robert Barry and Max Kampelman and in UK former
Ambassadors to the UN David Hannay and John Thomson, Senior Foreign
Office Adviser Malcolm Chalmers, MP Malcolm Savidge, as well as
musicians Brian Eno and Annie Lennox.
Further announcements and initiatives are expected from the UK
Government and the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in
the next few weeks and months that will build upon and strengthen
the political momentum behind disarmament. BASIC has played a key
role in fostering this. For example, in 2007 we hosted a visit to
London by Ambassador Max Kampelman, Reagan's top negotiator with
the Soviets, to discuss the "Hoover Group" proposal with key UK
policy makers and opinion shapers; and in February 2008 the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation,
clerked by BASIC, hosted a briefing for members of the UK
Parliament by former Secretary of State George Schultz and Senator
Sam Nunn, authors of the US call for nuclear abolition.
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