With the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States in the headlines, it's hard to think about other pressing peace/foreign policy issues.
It's also hard to find much good writing on something we've lived with since World War II - nuclear weapons. However, Daryl Kimball's story "The NPT System Hangs in the Balance" shows how important the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty really is and how the world's main powers are not living up to the treaty's promise to use law as a weapon against nuclear proliferation and nuclear war.
The treaty incorporates the concept of law on an international scale to slow the development of nuclear weapons. All signees of the treaty must try to limit the number of nuclear weapons in the world to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons, or engage in "negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date to nuclear disarmament," according to Article VI of the treaty. Of course, it's an idea that exists on paper, like any domestic or international law. Does it have an enforcement mechanism? No.
Why does Kimball think the treaty has been weakened? There's a lack of cooperation on the part of the world's great powers. For the first time since 1972, there are no binding limits on the arsenals of the US and Russia. Both countries could increase the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons for the first time in 35 years. China, another one of the world's top three powers, is expanding the size and diversity of its nuclear arsenal, and France, a minor power, is doing the same.
Are the world's leading powers lawbreakers? Yes, technically, as there are currently no arms-control talks among the five nuclear-armed states that are parties to the NPT. Kimball pointed out another dangerous trends - the willingness of nuclear-armed states to engage in actions which could lead to using mass terror weapons if provoked, and the illegal attacks by the US and Israel (Israel is not an NPT member) on Iran that have made any efforts to return International Atomic Energy Inspectors to Iran and help bring about new efforts to block pathways to bomb-grade material.
Kimball outlined positive actions that NPT states could take, such as immediately initiating bilateral and multilateral disarmament talks. A start would be all nuclear-armed states freezing the number of strategic launchers they have, and also a global moratorium on nuclear test explosions and an agreement on confidence-building measures to verify compliance before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which seeks to end all military and civilian test explosions. In addition, all NPT countries should promise to refrain from using nuclear weapons.
As stated earlier, all that holds the NPT together is law based on faith, specifically, a faith that states that states will behave in a certain manner. Has it worked so far? In a way, it has, and that's because there have been no nuclear wars. Is there a problem with states continuing to behave correctly? Yes, and that's the geopolitical tensions between the US and the Russia/China orbit. A portion of this story criticized all those powers for being unwilling to pursue arms control. Is there anything that works in favor of arms control? Yes, the post-heroic society diagnosed by historian Ed Luttwak. What is the post-heroic society? It's the idea that societies, including authoritarian ones, no longer consider war heroic. This, in turn, means that politicians must settle disputes in other ways. Arms control fits into the post-heroic mode. A movement pushing for arms control, perhaps modeled on the nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s, advances the process.
Keeping the current Cold War military spending at a minimum, something the Donald Trump Administration has failed at, is also important to address the economic security needs of the American people. What can be done with cost savings on traditional security? Our country can expand Social Security to provide better retirement benefits, expand Medicare to age 55, expand Affordable Care Act subsidies, and institute paid family leave, sick leave, guaranteed personal days, and guaranteed vacations.
Jason Sibert is the Lead Writer of the Peace Economy Project
