by Cheryl Rofer
Events seem to be moving toward nuclear abolition faster than I ever could have imagined.
There's a new organization out there with some pretty impressive names behind it: Global Zero.
The rollout is in Paris today, and then the show travels to Moscow and Washington.
In recent months, the threat of proliferation and nuclear terrorism has led to a growing chorus of government leaders from across political lines calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. This new and unprecedented political support for getting to zero nuclear weapons from key governments around the world has made this goal – while still difficult – possible.Global Zero’s public outreach will occur through worldwide media, online communications and grassroots organizing. The Global Zero website (www.globalzero.org) unveiled today will give the public the opportunity to get involved, beginning with signing the same declaration the Global Zero leaders have signed.
Global Zero also announced new polling results showing that international public opinion strongly favors this goal.
Global Zero leaders emphasized that eliminating nuclear weapons will not happen overnight but instead must be done through phased and verified reductions over a period of years. Key steps include:
* Deep reductions to Russian-U.S. arsenals, which comprise 96% of the world’s 27,000 nuclear weapons.
* Russia and the United States, joined by other nuclear weapons states, cut arsenals to zero in phased reductions.
* Establishing verification systems and international management of the fuel cycle to prevent future development of nuclear weapons.
Signers include Margaret Beckett, Richard Branson, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Chuck Hagel, Max Kampelman, Robert McNamara, Jack Matlock, Her Majesty Queen Noor, David Owen, Thomas Pickering, Desmond Tutu, Muhammed Yunus, and Anthony Zinni. And that's just within the first hundred. Check out the others.
David Miliband, currently UK Foreign Secretary, hasn't signed up, but he has an op-ed in today's Guardian saying many of the same things.
I'm wondering about when Vladimir Putin said he was for getting to zero, but that's a small quibble.
Very exciting. Go add your name.