What will it take to rid the world of the nuclear threat?

1. Renounce pressing the button
We live at a time when politicians in this country are expected to admit in public that they would commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale if called upon to do so. To even question this willingness is somehow considered a sign of ‘weakness’ and renders one ‘unfit for office.’

Pressing the nuclear button, no matter what the circumstances or supposed justification for doing so, would in the case of the UK, mean launching an entire submarine-load of nuclear warheads against a set of targets that would be guaranteed to kill millions of innocent civilians, whether or not they also destroyed the intended military targets.

Pressing the button would also mean almost certain retaliation against the UK, resulting in millions more deaths of UK citizens. And there is absolutely no knowing whether the launch of nuclear weapons, no matter who launches them or what the reason, would not lead to all-out nuclear war and the end of human civilisation as we know it, if not the end of all life on earth.

To rid the world of this existential danger requires, at the very outset, the courage of a political leader to renounce the whole idea of ‘pressing the button.’

2. Affirm existing obligation to disarm

The UK is a founding signatory and state party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, which commits all nuclear-armed states to negotiate “in good faith” and “at an early date” the complete elimination of their nuclear weapons.

In 1995, when other countries at the UN raised doubts about the nuclear-armed states ever fulfilling this commitment, the UK gave its “unequivocal undertaking” that it was committed to eliminating its nuclear weapons, but gave no timetable for doing so.

Since then, Britain, and the other 4 nuclear signatories to the NPT (US, France, Russia and China) have been playing games with the rest of the world, “pretending” to negotiate disarmament while all the while continuing to build up and “modernise” their nuclear arsenals for the long term.

3. Sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty

The 2017 Nuclear Ban Treaty, or “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)” calls for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons from all countries. Signing the new treaty as such is merely a re-affirmation of the commitment already made when signing the NPT over 50 years ago.

Implementation of the Nuclear Ban Treaty requires ratification of the treaty by parliament, and in between signing and ratifying the treaty there is ample time to see how other nuclear-armed states respond and to negotiate, as appropriate, the details of Britain’s disarmament.

4. Remove from operational status

The first commitment required of all states who ratify the Nuclear Ban Treaty is to remove their nuclear weapons from ‘operational’ status. Only four of the nine nuclear weapons states (UK, France, US and Russia) actually have nuclear weapons that are currently ‘operational’. China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have nuclear weapons in their stockpiles, but they are not ‘deployed’ on submarines or bombers or missile launchers, ready to use at a moment’s notice and threatening the entire world every minute of every hour of every day with potential extinction.

The Royal Navy is very proud of the fact that Britain’s nuclear weapons have been continuously ‘at sea’ and on patrol for decades now, ready to launch from at least one submarine at any moment. This is hugely dangerous and wholly unnecessary. An important step in ridding the world of the nuclear danger is to pull these submarines back to port and put the nuclear weapons into cold storage where they are less likely to be launched, whether on purpose or by accident.

5. Negotiate timetable to disarm

Once the UK’s nuclear weapons are safely out of harm’s way, they can be removed from missiles, disarmed, dismantled and disposed of. The actual steps to disarmament are well-known and have been done many times before as a result of other Cold War treaties.

Monitoring and verification of the disarmament process is also something that has been tried and tested very successfully over previous decades. The International Atomic Energy Agencies (IAEA) has ultimate responsibility, internationally, for ensuring that nuclear materials are rendered incapable of exploding, whether on purpose or by accident.

The highly radioactive nuclear material that remains, like the waste products of nuclear power stations, will need to be safely dispersed and protected for centuries to come. That again is an IAEA responsibility.

6. Dismantle weapons by 2030

There is no agreed deadline as yet for dismantling nuclear weapons and ridding the world of this existential threat. Britain could take the lead on this, as it has a relatively small nuclear arsenal and absolutely no need to hold onto any of it.

The longer nuclear weapons remain, the greater the risk that they will be used. So the sooner Britain dismantles its nuclear weapons, the better. Realistically, these things take time, and so long as the US and Russia continue to maintain much larger arsenals, it will be difficult to negotiate a timetable for eliminating all nuclear weapons in less than 10 years.

We are therefore setting a deadline of 10 years as the minimum time it will realistically take, and the maximum amount of time we can realistically continue with this danger. That means the process must be started as soon as possible!