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Nuclear weapons, combined with the aggressive security
policies of the Bush Administration, pose an unequaled
danger to humanity and creation. Alternative U.S. nuclear
policies are required if there is to be any hope of building
a world free of war and the threat of war.
In the absence of a profound shift in global politics,
the threat of nuclear weapons will remain for at least
the next decade. While there is not much hope for abolishing
nuclear weapons in the short-term, there are many policy
options available that overtime could reduce the threats
outlined in this report.
The U.S. should utilize its position as the strongest
military and political power in the world and take unilateral
steps that would lead to a more secure world. The global
community has declared its desire for a nuclear-free world
on numerous occasions. Transparent unilateral disarmament
measures by the U.S. will likely be reciprocated by other
nuclear states. If other states feel confident that the
U.S. is lowering its reliance on nuclear weapons, they
will likely follow suit.
The U.S. should continue to work with Russia to reduce
the threat posed by its crumbling nuclear weapons infrastructure
through threat reduction programs or other bilateral measures.
There may also be opportunities for the U.S. to work bilaterally
with other nations to safeguard existing nuclear weapons
stockpiles or to prevent other nations from acquiring
nuclear weapons and materials.
The Iraq war was the first application of the Bush Administration's
preventive war policy, a policy promoting war to prevent
the spread of unconventional weapons. The U.S. should
discard the policy of preventive war and instead adopt
a new national security strategy based on international
cooperation, international law, and the prevention of
war. The concept of "human security" should be the overarching
norm. The international nonproliferation regime provides
the U.S. with important tools to curb proliferation. The
U.S. government should fully support this regime and its
implementing organizations, both politically and financially,
as the first line of defense against proliferation.
In addition to strengthening the traditional nonproliferation
tools, the U.S. should begin to think about additional
ways to prevent proliferation. An effective policy of
preventing proliferation would mean vigorously supporting
the use of preventive diplomacy, such as the use of mediation,
arbitration, and confidence-building measures to de-escalate
tensions and resolve conflicts.15
Specifically, the U.S. should consider the motivating
factors driving proliferation and then look to eliminate
these motives.
Reducing incentives for proliferation would entail active
involvement to resolve regional disputes throughout the
world, especially the Indian-Pakistani conflict.
Specific Policy Recommendations
Unilateral steps - practicing self-restraint
- Formally reaffirm commitment to nuclear disarmament.
- Renounce the first use of nuclear weapons.
- Take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert status.
- Retire all tactical nuclear weapons.
- Abandon programs to build new nuclear weapons.
- Continue testing moratorium and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
- Abandon missile shield programs.
Cooperative steps
- Increase support--both financial and political--for cooperative threat reduction programs.
- Support the use of bilateral diplomacy when appropriate.
- Strongly support--both politically and financially--the global nonproliferation regime.
- Abandon the policy of preventive war.
- Negotiate and enact a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.
- Strengthen the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions.
- Support the use of preventive diplomacy.
- Address roots of insecurity and instability.
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To stem proliferation
of nuclear weapons, the U.S. must address the chronic
disputes that create the greatest incentives for
acquiring such weapons. Such engagement would include
significant amounts of time and money, but it is
a small price compared to the potential loss of
human life that would result from a nuclear war
and the ongoing cost of maintaining a nuclear arsenal
and building missile shields.
Finally, the U.S. must begin to address the root
causes of insecurity and instability that give rise
to violent extremist groups, including economic
inequality, the chronic lack of good governance
and human rights, and the increasing divide between
cultures and civilizations. Nuclear weapons will
do nothing to address the systemic violence that
is at the root of global instability and insecurity.
It will only aggravate these problems. |
The ever increasing military budgets
of the world are taking resources away from meeting
essential human needs. Peace in the 21st century demands
a shift from the 20th century's expenditures on the
military to civilian programs that safeguard human
welfare and security. |
15 For more
examples of preventive diplomacy, see "If
War Is Not the Answer,What Is? The Peaceful Prevention
of Deadly Conflict"
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