ENDING U.S. RELIANCE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
AND ACHIEVING THEIR GLOBAL ELIMINATION:
WISE POLICY AND REQUIRED BY LAW
More than two decades after President Ronald Reagan and President Mikhail Gorbachev seriously discussed the abolition of nuclear weapons at Reykjavik, there is renewed, bipartisan attention to achievement of a “world free of nuclear weapons.” That is the objective set by George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn in their January 2007 and January 2008 op-eds in the Wall Street Journal.
This shift in the policy debate is sorely needed, indeed long overdue. But one dimension of the problem is being ignored: the fundamental unlawfulness of use of nuclear weapons, the threat of which is the foundation of the policy of deterrence still relied upon by the United States. Nuclear weapons cannot be used in compliance with rules of necessity, discrimination and proportionality recognized by the United States as requirements for lawful military operations.
Squarely facing this reality is the responsibility of the United States if it is to be a law-abiding nation. It would also greatly spur and facilitate good-faith negotiation and implementation of measures leading toward a nuclear-weapon-free world, as legally required by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And it would give a powerful boost to diplomatic, law-enforcement and other non-military efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries and their acquisition by terrorists.
* * * [Analysis] * * *
Conclusion
The use and threat of use of nuclear weapons are unlawful; their disastrous effects are morally unacceptable; and their possession by some nations but not others is inherently destabilizing. The time has long since come for the United States to end its policy of reliance on nuclear weapons and to take global leadership in eliminating them. It is time to achieve and implement a convention formally banning, worldwide, the possession, threat of use, and use of nuclear weapons.
John Burroughs, Executive Director
Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
675 Third Ave., Suite 315
New York, NY 10017-5704 USA
tel 212 818 1861; fax 212 818 1857
johnburroughs@lcnp.org; www.lcnp.org
