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UK can lead the world to nuclear disarmament

States will have to review and change their security strategies, and recognise the dependence of their security on the health of the international system.

 And they will need to understand the complex trade-off between national capabilities and the need to reduce arsenals worldwide – to everyone’s benefit. 

Nuclear disarmament – the UK can lead the world, Ecologist,  Paul Ingram 23rd May 2014  The belief that unilateral reductions in the UK’s nuclear weapons arsenal would bring no international benefits is deeply engrained in officialdom, writes Paul Ingram. Deeply engrained – and profoundly mistaken. The very quiet failure of this year’s Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee to agree any final document, and the daunting challenge of the treaty Review Conference next year, mean that frustration is growing about the pace of progress by the nuclear-weapons states to disarm.

In fact, progress is so slow it feels like we are going backward. Austria has announced that it will host the next conference on the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons in mid-December. Many states had been hoping this process would translate into pressure on the nuclear-weapons states to speed up but so far there is little sign of it.

In New York earlier this month the Arab League threatened to reassess the 1995 decision to extend the treaty indefinitely, as a protest against the failure to advance proposals for a Middle East free from all weapons of mass destruction. But quite how this could be done remained a mystery.

The Marshall Islands, site of 67 atmospheric tests between 1946 and 1958, have taken the nuclear weapons states to the International Court of Justice over their failure to implement their commitment to negotiate disarmament, as article VI of the treaty requires. However this seems unlikely to go far either.

It may appear to some that the only real leverage states have, beyond fiery speeches and symbolic protests at NPT meetings, is to block non-proliferation measures or threaten exit from the treaty.

The danger is that states will over time simply lose heart in the project and could come to consider that their security is best assured through other means.

The UK bears a major responsibility

The UK is one of the five nuclear-weapons states and bears a major responsibility for this very worrying situation. Its attempts to convince fellow nuclear-weapons states to disarm – calling for a world free of nuclear weapons and setting up the ‘P5 process‘ – have failed.

Should it not now consider independent moves? To insist that any initiative depends on multilateral action by all five states (not to mention those nuclear-armed states outside the treaty) could be seen as hiding behind the group.

A golden opportunity is offered by the final decision, slated for 2016, on whether to begin construction of the next generation of strategic ballistic-missile submarines to carry the UK’s nuclear missiles, replacing the current Trident system.

Between then and now, in May next year, coinciding with the NPT Review Conference, there will be a Westminster election.

History shows – unilateral disarmament brings results………

The UK has a key role

Disarmament and non-proliferation are linked. And the UK plays a key role. This is not to say that global disarmament would be just around the corner were it to forsake nuclear weapons tomorrow.

But as perhaps the most progressive nuclear weapons state closest to considering disarmament, what more can the UK do to move the others on?

In the summer BASIC will be publishing the final report of the cross-party Trident Commission – co-chaired by Malcolm Rifkind (Conservative), Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrat) and Des Browne (Labour) – set up to consider UK nuclear-weapons policy in the light of Trident renewal.

Among other things it will set out the need for the UK to inject new life into the global disarmament agenda. At BASIC we believe it should stop hiding behind the requirement that other states move first, and make a start by outlining the steps each nuclear-weapons state needs to take to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world – and how they can best collaborate to create the necessary conditions.

This will not come about through wishful thinking or grand speeches alone. States will have to review and change their security strategies, and recognise the dependence of their security on the health of the international system.

 And they will need to understand the complex trade-off between national capabilities and the need to reduce arsenals worldwide – to everyone’s benefit. http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2402496/nuclear_disarmament_the_uk_can_lead_the_world.htm

May 24, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, UK, weapons and war