Exploring the Conditions for Global Nuclear Disarmament

Almost since the use of two atomic bombs in Japan at the end of World War II in the 1940s, there has been a push for the elimination of nuclear weapons, as called for in the preamble and Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. While the level of public and governmental support has varied over the years, the idea of total nuclear disarmament has experienced a renaissance in the United States, incited by the so-called Four Horsemen article in The Wall Street Journal. The pursuit of global nuclear disarmament has been fully embraced by US President Barack Obama and his administration; shortly after being elected, he gave a speech in Prague in 2009 that committed the United States to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” through a series of concrete steps while maintaining a “safe, secure, and effective arsenal” until such a day arrives. Many of the ideas contained in this speech were later reflected in the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a document that outlined current US nuclear weapon policy. The 2010 NPR is noteworthy in that it clearly states the long-term goal of the United States is the global elimination of all nuclear weapons, but with the caution that the necessary conditions for such actions do not currently exist and therefore must be created. Upon examination of the 2010 NPR, it becomes clear that one of the key conditions for global zero is strategic stability, defined by James Acton to be a security environment where states enjoy peaceful relations with one another. In order to achieve such an environment, strategic stability must be preserved, created, and reinforced in order to build a world free from nuclear weapons. Therefore, it is important to examine the tenets of the NPR, review the conditions necessary to achieve total nuclear disarmament, and propose steps that could be taken to make such conditions more likely and, in principle, allow for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Work examining such a process will offer a methodical and logical approach toward the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, as well as ensure that such a world can be preserved and sustained.