Another milestone to Zero:
UK Statesmen Call for a World without Nuclear Weapons
BASIC Media Advisory
Monday, 30 June 2008 - IMMEDIATE RELEASE
In a breakthrough op-ed in the Times newspaper today,
former long-serving UK Foreign and Defence Secretaries are
endorsing the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. Sir
Malcolm Rifkind, Lord David Owen, Lord Douglas Hurd, and Lord
George Robertson, in an article
titled Start worrying and learn to ditch the bomb, warn that
the world is entering a dangerous new phase "that combines
widespread proliferation with extremism and geopolitical tension."
Paul Ingram, Executive Director of the independent transatlantic
research and analysis group, BASIC, welcomed the news. "The
four echo the concerns central to BASIC's "Getting
to Zero" project. The only way to deal with this
danger is to work urgently and multilaterally towards complete
global nuclear disarmament."
The article
The article argues that nuclear weapons no longer have the
same role in security that they held during the Cold War.
Terrorists are unpersuaded by nuclear deterrence, and seek
to obtain nuclear material for "asymmetrical warfare
and suicide missions".
"This article is the transatlantic equivalent of
the ground-breaking January 2007 Wall
Street Journal op-ed by US statesmen George Shultz,
William Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn", said
BASIC board member and former arms control negotiator Ambassador
Robert Barry. "That article kicked off a serious US
debate with an energy and urgency not seen since the end of
the Cold War."
Trevor McCrisken, BASIC's Chair, said that "The
Times article brings impeccable credentials to calls for
nuclear disarmament within Britain. It adds to the momentum
of a serious global movement calling for urgent moves towards
zero nuclear weapons."
The four UK statesmen call for a similar debate in Europe.
They appeal to the United Kingdom and France, as Europe's
two nuclear weapons powers, to take a lead in multilateral
disarmament, calling upon them, through international organizations
to:
- secure unaccounted for stockpiles of nuclear material
in the former Soviet Union;
- bring the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty into force by
encouraging others, particularly the United States, to ratify
the treaty; and
- strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the
International Atomic Energy Agency, by improving monitoring
and compliance to verify that civilian nuclear programmes
are not weaponized.
The United States and Russia, as those with the most nuclear
weapons, have a unique responsibility to extend the provisions
of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and dramatically
reduce their arsenals.
Background to the authors
The authors of the Times op-ed have a long history
of distinguished public service in the United Kingdom. Lord
Douglas Hurd served as Foreign Secretary under the Conservative
Governments of Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John
Major; Sir Malcolm Rifkind was Foreign and then Defence Secretary
under Prime Minister Major; Lord David Owen was Foreign Secretary
under the Labour Government of Prime Minister James Callaghan;
and Lord George Robertson was the UK Defence Secretary under
the Labour Government of Prime Minister Tony Blair 1997 to
1999 when he became the Secretary General of NATO, where he
led the transatlantic alliance for five years. Debate over
NATO's tactical nuclear weapons re-emerged last week after
news that US free-fall bombs had failed safety tests and that
those at Lakenheath in East Anglia had been withdrawn.
The vision gathers momentum - BASIC
Senior members of the transatlantic foreign policy establishment
across the political mainstream have publicly endorsed the
vision of a world without nuclear weapons, proposing practical
and achievable steps to take the world in the right direction.
Some have joined BASIC as Board members or Advisers to lend
their weight and energy to the effort, including in the US
former Secretary of State (under George Bush senior) Lawrence
Eagleburger, former arms control negotiators and US Ambassadors
Thomas Graham, James Goodby, James Leonard, Robert Barry and
Max Kampelman and in UK former Ambassadors to the UN David
Hannay and John Thomson, Senior Foreign Office Adviser Malcolm
Chalmers, MP Malcolm Savidge, as well as musicians Brian Eno
and Annie Lennox.
BASIC has played a key role in fostering this transatlantic
debate. In 2007 it hosted a visit to London by Ambassador
Max Kampelman, Reagan's top negotiator with the Soviets, to
discuss the "Hoover Group" proposal with key UK
policy makers and opinion shapers. In February 2008 the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation,
clerked by BASIC, hosted a briefing for members of the UK
Parliament by former Secretary of State George Schultz and
Senator Sam Nunn, authors of the US call for nuclear abolition.
BASIC is unique as a transatlantic think-tank advocating
nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. We engage with
decision-shapers in a constructively critical manner, and
disseminate analysis of upcoming critical decisions on disarmament
and modernization of arsenals.
For further information please contact:
Paul Ingram,
Co-Executive Director
+44 (0)20 7324-4680
pingram at basicint.org
or Kim Waller +44 (0)20 7324 4680
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