strategy

Campaigning for nuclear disarmament

Synonyms:

Working for elimination of nuclear weapons
Protesting nuclear arms
Eliminating nuclear arms
Eliminating all nuclear weapons
Abolishing nuclear weapons

Context:

The vast majority of the world's states have been committed to the elimination of nuclear weapons since the UN General Assembly first met in 1946. But this commitment, and much else on the agenda drawn up by the 1978 First Special Session on Disarmament, remain unfulfilled. It was estimated in 1993 that approximately 20,000 nuclear warheads, including non-strategic nuclear weapons, would still remain by the year 2003 – still enough to annihilate all life on Earth. Despite cuts in the nuclear weapons capability of the USA and former USSR, the UK and France plans are to expand their arsenals, and cuts in the Chinese arsenal are considered unlikely.

Implementation:

The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been calling for an international convention eliminating nuclear weapons for over 40 years. Draft texts have been drawn up by NGOs. The World Court Project, under formal request from the World Health Organization, aims to secure an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal status of the use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.

In 1999, three UK women boarded a trident nuclear submarine moored in a Scottish loch. Undetected, they located computers and other equipment, which they dumped into the sea or smashed with hammers. They were charged by military police and brought before a magistrate, accused of causing many thousands of pounds worth of damage. One of them decided to defend herself. She based her case on international law which states that it is illegal to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Therefore they were 'upholding the law'. The magistrate dismissed the case. The UK government is appealing.

Claim:

They are built to turn living things to dust. Their ongoing construction is polluting and destroying our environment. Accidents and danger levels are rarely reported. They are here to protect and uphold racist and capitalist agendas of exploitation and domination. Their existence goes against international law, yet nuclear weapons are here. This is despite lots of UN resolutions calling for nuclear disarmament. There are no UN inspectors calling to inspect the nuclear sites. In many countries, they are not even on the map. But they are here.

Broader:

Protesting
Promoting disarmament
Eliminating weapons of mass destruction
Campaigning against nuclear developments

Narrower:

Banning nuclear testing
Establishing nuclear-free zone
Identifying obstacles to unilateral nuclear disarmament

Constrains:

Using weapons

Constrained by:

Hiding weapons
Producing nuclear weapons
Limiting nuclear disarmament
Producing illegal nuclear weapons
Creating nuclear weapon technology

Facilitates:

Preventing nuclear proliferation
Negotiating convention for the elimination of nuclear weapons

Facilitated by:

Phasing out nuclear reprocessing
Researching global security issues
Providing security for nuclear weapon states
Reducing number of strategic nuclear weapons