Citizen Works - Issues

Nuclear Disarmament

The Cold War has been over for eleven years, but the United States and Russia are still engaged in a tense standoff that has the potential to lead to global destruction. Both countries are on high alert and maintain “launch on warning” policies, and many experts believe that the danger of accidental nuclear war is greater now than at any time during the past, and will increase as Russia’s military infrastructure continues to deteriorate. In a January 1995 “misunderstanding”, President Yeltsin’s nuclear suitcase was activated, and he was given four minutes to decide whether to attack the United States. It is imperative that we avoid further close brushes with unimaginable catastrophe by canceling high-alert status immediately. This can safely be done unilaterally, because of submarine-based weapons. There are over 3,000 nuclear warheads on American submarines. Enough are at sea and on alert at any time to assure sufficient retaliation capacity even after a massive first strike.

There is no possible moral justification for using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, except as a deterrent to nuclear threats. Nonetheless, the United States (along with Russia) has refused to adopt a no-first-use policy. More broadly, as the first country to use nuclear weapons, and the perennial leader in new technologies for these horrifying weapons of mass destruction, the United States has a moral obligation to take the lead in working for their elimination. The 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty gives us a legal obligation to work for elimination, as well.

We should:

· Take all nuclear missiles off ‘hair-trigger’ high-alert status, and urge the Russian President to do the same.

· Adopt a no-first-use policy, and urge other nuclear powers to do the same.

· Immediately end all nuclear test explosions, make the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) one of my top legislative priorities, and halt all research into improving existing types or designing new types of nuclear weapons. The U.S. has all the nuclear weapons that it will ever need. Further research can only destabilize our position.

· Prohibit the deployment of land-based U.S. nuclear weapons outside the United States.

· Push for the ratification of the START II treaty and the ABM treaty amendments, which Russia has already ratified, work for a unilateral reduction to 1500 warheads within a year, urging Russia to follow suit, and begin negotiating a START III agreement that will bring warhead levels below 1,000. There is no risk to this unilateral reduction, as our deterrent capability would remain ample.

· Begin talks with all nuclear nations to develop a framework and a final date for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

· Work towards a global ban on the production of weapons-usable fissile materials, which should be the cornerstone of a nuclear-terror prevention policy.