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Getting to Zero History

 

The growing threat from nuclear weapons has revived the idea of their complete elimination. Below is a reverse chronology of key documents and statements related to Getting to Zero; as well as a list of links to publications and videos, which provide background relevant to this effort.

 

Dr. Trevor McCrisken, BASIC Chair, talks about progress on Getting to Zero nuclear weapons

BASIC Chair Dr. Trevor McCrisken
How are we doing on the road to zero?
Click here to watch his interview with NPT TV on Vimeo.

 

Chronology: Key Documents and Statements

Links for Further Reading, Viewing

Chronology: Key Documents and Statements

[2011]  [2010]  [2009]  [2008]  [2007-2006]

 

 

2011

 

July 1, 2011: Joint Statement on First P-5 Follow-Up Meeting to the NPT Review Conference.


June 29, 2011: The United Kingdom announces the commencement of its program to reduce the number of warheads on each of its four Trident submarines. The Ministry of Defence stipulates that “the number of warheads on board each submarine would be reduced from a  maximum of 48 to a maximum of 40, the number of operational missiles on the Vanguard Class submarines would be reduced to no more than eight, and the number of operational warheads reduced from fewer than 160 to no more than 120” with a reduction of the total stockpile to reach no more than 180 warheads by the mid-2020s.
 

February 5, 2011: New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) enters into force. Treaty duration: 10 years, with option for renewal. Treaty documents and full timeline available on the State Department’s website.

 

January 28, 2011: Russia completes ratification process for  New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

 

2010

 

December 22, 2010: U.S. Senate approves New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
 

May 28, 2010: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference 2010 adopts consensus Final Document (PDF), available online via Reaching Critical Will.


May 26, 2010: The United Kingdom releases nuclear warhead numbers: “Foreign Secretary William Hague stated that the UK’s overall stockpile of nuclear warheads will not exceed 225 warheads, and the UK will retain up to 160 operationally available warheads.” See the full summary by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.


May 13, 2010: The New START Treaty Sent to the Senate, White House blog post by Brian McKeon, senior adviser to the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) and Deputy National Security Adviser to the Vice President.

 

May 3, 2010: The United States releases figures on nuclear warhead stockpile. “As of September 30, 2009, the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons consisted of 5,113 warheads.” The Fact Sheet by the U.S. Defense Department also notes that “several thousand additional nuclear warheads are retired and awaiting dismantlement.”

 

April 13, 2010: Nuclear Security Summit

 

April 8, 2010: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama sign the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Prague. (For main text of the Treaty, associated Protocol, and Annexes and Unilateral Statements, visit this page on the website of the US Department of State.)

 

April 6, 2010: Obama Administration releases the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review Report (PDF), U.S. Department of Defense.

 

March 16, 2010: Speech by David Lidington MP, Shadow Minister for foreign affairs, at the Nuclear Policy Lab at the Royal Society, “Conservative policy on nuclear proliferation and deterrence.”
 

March 3, 2010: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announces that nuclear arms control is firmly on the Alliance’s agenda: “Again, without anticipating the outcome of our discussions I’ve already today indicated what I would call a pragmatic and realistic approach while keeping the vision clear, the vision of nuclear zero which I think all people could and should embrace.” See text of full press conference, Brussels.

 

February 26, 2010: Foreign Ministers from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Norway send letter to NATO Secretary General, calling for the Alliance to seize non-proliferation and disarmament opportunities.

 

February 23, 2010: U.S. to retire nuclear Tomahawk missiles
Kyodo News, via The Japan Times.

 

February 22, 2010: Five NATO states to urge removal of US nuclear arms in Europe, Julian Borger, The Guardian.

 

February 19, 2010: Belgian statesmen call for removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, in support of broader agenda for nuclear weapons-free world, in Vers un monde sans armes nucleaires (De Standaard).

  • Authors of the op-ed include: Willy Claes, former minister of Foreign Affairs, former NATO secretary general; Jean-Luc Dehaene, former prime minister of Belgium, member of the European Parliament; Louis Michel, former minister of Foreign Affairs, former member of EU Commission, member of the European Parliament; and, Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, chairman liberal fraction European Parliament.

The Belgian Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, followed the op-ed with a press release on the same day, affirming that his government supports the overall nuclear weapons-free vision. He also noted that Belgium will work with a number of other NATO countries to take the nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation agenda forward during the review of the Alliance’s Strategic Concept.

 

February 2, 2010: Presidents Medvedev and Obama offer support at beginning of Global Zero summit in Paris.

  • See statements by US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the opening day of the Global Zero Summit.
     

February 1, 2010: Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, and Radek Sikorski, Foreign Minister of Poland, write an op-ed in The New York Times, calling for the United States and Russia to remove tactical nuclear weapons from Europe, in Next, the Tactical Nukes.

 

January 27, 2010: In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed his agenda on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Key excerpts:

“Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people – the threat of nuclear weapons. I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades. And at April’s Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring 44 nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.”

“These diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of these weapons. That is why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions – sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That is why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences. That is a promise.”

 

2009

 

December 2009: International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) publishes final report: Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers, Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi, Co-Chairs, International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

 

November 23, 2009: Op naar een kernwapenvrije wereld (“Toward a nuclear weapon free world,” English translation available via Pax Christi.)
Ruud Lubbers, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands; Max van der Stoel, former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Hans van Mierlo, former Minister of Defense and of Foreign Affairs; and Frits Korthals Altes, former Minister of Justice, opinion in NRC Handelsblad.

 

October 25, 2009: New German government to seek removal of US nuclear weapons, Deutsche Welle.
 

October 21, 2009: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC. (Speech on “preventing nuclear terrorism” as “fourth pillar” of non-proliferation regime.)
 

October 14, 2009: Pour un désarmement nucléaire mondial, seule réponse à la prolifération anarchique
Alain Juppé, former Prime Minister of France; Bernard Norlain, retired Air Force General; Alain Richard, former Minister of Defense; Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister, opinion in Le Monde.

 

September 24, 2009:

 

September 23, 2009: Remarks by the President to the United Nations General Assembly (US President Barack Obama’s “Four Pillars” speech), UN Headquarters, New York, NY.

 

September 9, 2009: Nuclear-free world ultimate aim of new cross-party pressure group, Julian Borger, The Guardian.

 

July 17, 2009: Trident submarine deal delayed
Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian.

 

July 16, 2009: Road to 2010: Addressing the nuclear question in the 21st century, (UK) Cabinet Office, Presented by the Prime Minister to Parliament.

 

July 13, 2009: Voters want Britain to scrap all nuclear weapons, ICM poll shows, Julian Glover, The Guardian.

 

July 8, 2009: L’Aquila Statement on Non-Proliferation
Official website of the G8 Summit.

  • “We are all committed to seeking a safer world for all and to creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, in accordance with the goals of the NPT.” (paragraph 6)

 

July 6, 2009: The Joint Understanding for the START Follow-on Treaty Office of the Press Secretary, White House Fact Sheet.

 

June 11, 2009: Putin Talks of Giving Up Nukes
The Associated Press via The Moscow Times.

 

June 4, 2009: US President Barack Obama calls for world free of nuclear weapons during tour of the Middle East
Text of full speech delivered at Cairo University, The New York Times.

 

June 3, 2009: Obama praises McCain’s commitment to abolishing nukes, Eric Zimmerman, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

 

May 1, 2009: Tories cast doubt on £21 billion Trident nuclear missile upgrade, Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt, The Guardian.

 

April 17, 2009: Ex-US Sec State urges Republicans to back test ban, Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press via the Washington Post.

 

April 10, 2009: Foreign Minister Wants US Nukes out of Germany, Der Spiegel.

 

April 5, 2009: President Barack Obama delivers landmark speech in Prague: US President calls for a world free of nuclear weapons. Also available on C-SPAN video.

 

March 17, 2009: Brown pushes for world reduction in nuclear weapons as he makes Iran offer, Allegra Stratton and agencies, Guardian.co.uk. (Read the Prime Minister’s speech.)
 

March 3, 2009: Nuclear Disarmament on Italian G8 Presidency’s List of Priorities
G8 Summit 2009 Official Website.

 

February 4, 2009: David Miliband sets out six-point plan to rid world of nuclear weapons, The Guardian. (Text of plan.)

 

January 9, 2009: Four German statesmen declare their support for the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view in the International Herald Tribune.

Authors: Helmut Schmidt (Social Democrat), Chancellor 1974-1982; Richard von Weizsdcker (Christian Democrat), President 1984-1994; Egon Bahr, Minister in Social Democratic governments and an architect of “ostpolitik;” Hans-Dietrich Genscher (Free Democrats), Foreign Minister 1974-1992.

 

2008

 

November 23, 2008: UN Secretary General recommends Five steps to a nuclear-free world, Ban Ki-moon, Guardian.co.uk. Also see the text of the UN Secretary General’s statement from 24 October 2008, in which he proposes his five-point agenda for disarmament. The speech was made during Seizing the Moment: Breakthrough Measures to Build a New East West Consensus on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament, an EastWest Institute event co-sponsored with BASIC and other NGOs.

 

July 24, 2008: Four prominent Italian political figures and one well-respected physicist came together to write an op-ed to endorse the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. The article, “For A World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” was published in Italy’s leading newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera. The authors include: Massimo D’Alema, former Prime Minister and recent Minister of Foreign Affairs; Gianfranco Fini, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and current Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies; Giorgio La Malfa, former Minister of European Affairs; Arturo Parisi, former Minister of Defense and Francesco Calogero, Professor of Physics, University of Rome and former Secretary General of the Pugwash Conference. For more information, see Laura Spagnuolo’s GTZ blogpost.

 

July 23, 2008: “Preventing a new age of nuclear insecurity”
Presentation by The Rt. Hon. William Hague, MP, International Institute of Strategic Studies, London.

 

July 16, 2008: Addressing an audience at Purdue University in Indiana, US presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama declared, “It’s time to send a clear message to the world: America seeks a world with no nuclear weapons.”

 

July 15, 2008: U.S. presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama highlighted the dangers of nuclear weapons in a major foreign policy speech in Washington, DC, stating:

“We need to work with Russia to take US and Russian ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert; to dramatically reduce the stockpiles of our nuclear weapons and material; to seek a global ban on the production of fissile material for weapons; and to expand the US-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global. By keeping our commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we’ll be in a better position to press nations like North Korea and Iran to keep theirs. In particular, it will give us more credibility and leverage in dealing with Iran.”


June 30, 2008: In a ground-breaking op-ed in the Times (London), former UK Foreign and Defence Secretaries endorsed 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’, warned that the world is entering a dangerous new phase “that combines widespread proliferation with extremism and geopolitical tension”. They argued that the only way to deal with this danger is to work multilaterally towards complete nuclear disarmament. See the related Times article, Former rivals join forces in nuclear plea: Weapon stocks must be cut, say ex-Cabinet ministers and BASIC’s Media Advisory: Another milestone to Zero: UK Statesmen Call for a World without Nuclear Weapons.

 

  • The Times (London) op-ed is partly the inspiration behind an Early Day Motion (Parliamentary petition) opened for signature. The Motion is sponsored by recent Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, recent Conservative Party Leader Michael Howard, recent Defence Secretary John Reid, serving and former Chairs of the Commons Defence Committee James Arbuthnot and Michael Ancram and recent Liberal Democrat Leader and foreign affairs luminary Menzies Campbell. The Motion welcomes the previous calls by Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, William Perry and Sam Nunn for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation measures and the subsequent endorsement by the four UK Statesmen in the Times.

Related Times (London) editorial: Disarming Ideas: It is time to start negotiating reductions in nuclear stockpiles.

 

April 6, 2008: U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Sochi in south-western Russia. The meeting resulted in a Strategic Framework Declaration. The Declaration included references to nuclear and conventional arms control, most notably stating that the two countries would “continue development of a legally binding post-START arrangement”. Previous indications from the Bush Administration had placed in doubt whether US officials would pursue such a binding agreement.

 

February 26-27, 2008: official website of the international conference on nuclear disarmament in Oslo: Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.

 

February 5, 2008: Speech by the UK Secretary of State for Defence, Rt. Hon. Des Browne, MP, “Laying the Foundations for Multilateral Disarmament.”

 

January 21, 2008: Gordon Brown, in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Delhi, India on January 21, renews the UK government’s commitment to move toward a nuclear-weapon free world. He said: “I pledge that in the run-up to the Non Proliferation Treaty review conference in 2010 we will be at the forefront of the international campaign to accelerate disarmament amongst possessor states, to prevent proliferation to new states, and to ultimately achieve a world that is freer from nuclear weapons.”

 

January 15, 2008: The ‘Hoover Group’ - George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn and William Perry - publish a renewed call to action in the Wall Street Journal, sparking off another flurry of debate. This came a year after their original letter in the Journal triggered a series of responses from governments and civil society around the vision of a nuclear-weapon free world. The growing and impressive list of elite US supporters include seven secretaries of state, seven national security advisors and five former secretaries of defense.

 

2007-2006

 

December 20, 2007: U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, Christopher Ford, spoke at the UK Foreign Office Wilton Park conference about the goal of zero nuclear weapons:

“So this is where we are today, with the United States engaged in broad diplomatic outreach efforts and ongoing dialogue not just about numbers, doctrine, and treaty interpretation, but also about our vision for the future - and about how one might actually hope to achieve nuclear disarmament. The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to disarmament, offered a vision of a zero-weapons future, and engaged in unprecedented discussion of how actually to achieve this.” [emphasis added]

The full text of Ford’s presentation may be found here. He also delivered a presentation on “Nuclear Disarmament and the ‘Legalization’ of Policy Discourse in the NPT Regime,” at an event hosted by The Nonproliferation Review on November 29 in Washington, DC.

 

December 19, 2007: U.S. President George Bush announces a reduction by 15 percent in the active US nuclear weapons arsenal, which is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

 

December 5, 2007: U.N. General Assembly adopts numerous resolutions related to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. One resolution calls for the Conference on Disarmament to begin negotiations toward a ban on the production of military fissile materials and also calls on members to make deep cuts to nuclear weapons arsenals, with the overall goal of elimination. Another resolution calls on members to decrease the operational readiness of their nuclear weapons.

 

November 9, 2007: A new poll, conducted in the United States and Russia, finds robust support for a series of cooperative steps to reduce nuclear dangers and move toward the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

 

November 1, 2007: U.N. General Assembly’s disarmament committee approved a resolution calling for all nuclear weapons to be taken off high alert, despite objections from the United States, Britain and France.

 

October 28, 2007: Russia and the United States urge all countries to destroy medium range nuclear-capable missiles, in a joint declaration published by the Russian foreign ministry.

 

October 24, 2007: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Nuclear Disarmament Remarks, Hoover Institution, California.

 

June 25, 2007: Keynote Address: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons?, Remarks by Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, United Kingdom, Carnegie International Nonproliferation Conference.

 

January 31, 2007: The Nuclear Threat, Mikhail Gorbachev, Wall Street Journal

 

January 4, 2007: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons, George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, Wall Street Journal.

 

April 24, 2006: We Should, So We Can: Life Without the Bomb, Max M. Kampelman, International Herald Tribune.


 

Links for Further Reading, Viewing

Earlier Detailed Proposals for Nuclear Disarmament

  • Report of the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms, (“Blix Report”), June 2006
  • Japan Institute of International Affairs, the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Japanese Government, Report of the Tokyo Forum on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, 1999
  • Committee on International Security and Arms Control, National Academy of Sciences, The Future of US Nuclear Weapons Policy, 1997
  • The Stimson Center, An American Legacy: Building a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, 1997
  • Report of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Canberra: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), 1996

Further Reading

Nuclear disarmament

  • Ban the Bomb. Really. Michael Krepon, Henry L. Stimson Center. Article appears in The American Interest, Winter (January/February) 2008.

U.S. strategic policy

Proliferation

Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)

Nuclear material

  • Global Fissile Material Report 2007: Second report of the International Panel on Fissile Materials: Developing the technical basis for policy initiatives to secure and irreversibly reduce stocks of nuclear weapons and fissile materials.

Videos/Films