Policy:
Global Nuclear Disarmament

Let's start a campaign to eliminate all nuclear weapons everywhere.

In the 1950s, nuclear weapons protected the US from the Communists. Opposition to nuclear weapons threatened the US's sense of security. But now nuclear weapons threaten the US. A terrorist or a rogue state might well use them against us some day. Eliminating all nuclear weapons would make the US more secure. Plus, it would be a global feel-good moment of unprecedented proportions.

The US would gladly give up all its nuclear weapons if all the other countries verifiably did the same. Without nuclear "trump cards," resistance to US military might would be extremely difficult. Nuclear blackmail would be impossible. The last thing the US wants is more North Koreas out there.

One could imagine a global treaty stipulating staged reductions of nuclear arsenals. Some nations would oppose the ban and thereby identify themselves as the enemies of peace and of the US. Liberals would oppose military attacks on the holdouts but not strongly enough to prevent them.

The elimination of nuclear weapons would be like the elimination of smallpox: a significant victory for humanity, and a moral victory at that.

Now that the world's superpower and the world's peace movement share a common goal, what political force can stop them?

—JoT
September 2003
May 2004

Iran: the next North Korea?

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Disarmament in the News

October 2005

US Nixes Disarmament Clause
At the UN World Summit, John Bolton successfully opposed including the goal of nuclear disarmament in the outcome document.