19/09 • NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY

The 9th of August marked 79 years since a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States. The nuclear bomb that detonated on Nagasaki during World War 2 is estimated to have immediately killed between 50,000 and 100,000 people. 

Aside from the initial death toll, those that survived the blast became ill with radiation poisoning; severe burns, hair loss, nausea and bleeding were only the first symptoms of a much longer journey of suffering. Future generations of Nagasaki for years to come have lived with increased chances of small brain sizes, ongoing genetic defects, blindness and increased susceptibility to leukaemia and other cancers. 

In recent years there has been a significant escalation in nuclear weapons production by the globe’s superpowers.

The Pentagon is in the midst of a massive $2 trillion multiyear plan to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines. The Head of the US Air Mobility Command has sent a memo to all military personnel that he expects war with China to occur in 2025. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that if elected to the Presidency, her administration ensure that the country always has the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world. 

NATO is continuing to expand its global military buildup with a wider alliance of Western countries (including New Zealand), who has announced strengthening links ‘to help the United States in its new strategy to expand the weapons-making defence industrial base across the Indo-Pacific region.’

These actions, when taken in the context of nuclear armament (and irrespective of who is right or wrong) could well end with devastating global impact. General Robert Kehler, former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen that "...in a nuclear war scenario, the world could end in the next couple of hours.”

There appears few genuine diplomatic attempts to stop the escalation of tension and existing wars. This includes the breakdown of numerous peace proposals regarding the wars in the Ukraine and Gaza, with both having the potential to escalate into regional, and possibly global conflict.   

There is an urgent need for diplomacy and agreements to stop the escalation in military threats and capability.

Diplomacy doesn't necessarily mean each side gets what it wants. However, diplomatic agreements contain decisions that each party can live with. More importantly, diplomatic agreement indicates that we are all global citizens who wish to live a peaceful, safe and optimistic future for ourselves, our children and grandchildren.

This requires compromise, possibly even deep and significant compromises, in order to achieve lasting peace. 

If we continue to demonise each other as an excuse to ratchet up the potential for a global war, we may end up in a situation we cannot control. The fragile nature of relations involving Russia and Ukraine has the potential for devastating consequences if we fail our duty of diplomacy.

There are ways to eliminate the massive buildup of nuclear weapons to help avoid a nuclear conflict.  

These include a commitment by the US and Russia to engage on the negotiation and implementation of a new strategic arms control treaty, and a general commitment to work together to pursue verifiable and sustainable nuclear arms reduction globally.

Investigative journalist, Presbyterian minister and Pulitzer prize winning journalist  Chris Hedges put it best when he said:

“...you don’t control war, war controls you”. 

We must never turn away from what the horror of war can do to those caught up in it. Humankind is at a crossroads. We cannot continue to treat warfare as a primary aim to get what we want, or impose our will on other countries to settle our differences.  

As global citizens, we can be agents of advocacy.

We can promote global peace by numerous actions, no matter how small, like learning more about nuclear arms and talking to friends. We can write to the mainstream media, our political leaders and government ministers, urging them to be global advocates for peace rather than being an active participant in the global buildup of military capability, nuclear weapons and forever wars.