Open Letter to President-elect Donald Trump on Nuclear Weapons
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 16 Jan 2017
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service
8 Jan 2017 – The text below is an Open Letter to the next American president urging complete nuclear disarmament as an urgent priority. The letter was prepared under the auspices of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and its current list of signatories is listed below. It is hoped that concerns with nuclear weapons policy will rise to the top of the global policy agenda and will engage people everywhere. It is our view that the elimination of nuclear weaponry is a matter of upholding the human interest of all peoples, as well as promoting the national interest of each country. https://www.wagingpeace.org/open-letter-trump/
Open Letter to President-elect Trump: Negotiate Nuclear Zero
As president of the United States, you will have the grave responsibility of assuring that nuclear weapons are not overtly threatened or used during your term of office.
The most certain way to fulfill this responsibility is to negotiate with the other possessors of nuclear weapons for their total elimination. The U.S. is obligated under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to engage in such negotiations in good faith for an end to the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament.
A nuclear war, any nuclear war, would be an act of insanity. Between nuclear weapons states, it would lead to the destruction of the attacking nation as well as the attacked. Between the U.S. and Russia, it would threaten the survival of humanity.
There are still more than 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world, of which the United States possesses more than 7,000. Some 1,000 of these remain on hair-trigger alert. A similar number remain on hair-trigger alert in Russia. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Even if nuclear weapons are not used intentionally, they could be used inadvertently by accident or miscalculation. Nuclear weapons and human fallibility are a dangerous mix.
Nuclear deterrence presupposes a certain view of human behavior. It depends on the willingness of political leaders to act rationally under all circumstances, even those of extreme stress. It provides no guarantees or physical protection. It could fail spectacularly and tragically.
You have suggested that more nations – such as Japan, South Korea and even Saudi Arabia – may need to develop their own nuclear arsenals because the U.S. spends too much money protecting other countries. This nuclear proliferation would make for a far more dangerous world. It is also worrisome that you have spoken of dismantling or reinterpreting the international agreement that places appropriate limitations on Iran’s nuclear program and has the support of all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany.
As other presidents have had, you will have at your disposal the power to end civilization as we know it. You will also have the opportunity, should you choose, to lead in ending the nuclear weapons era and achieving nuclear zero through negotiations on a treaty for the phased, verifiable, irreversible and transparent elimination of nuclear weapons.
We, the undersigned, urge you to choose the course of negotiations for a nuclear weapons-free world. It would be a great gift to all humanity and all future generations.
To add your name to the open letter, click here.
Initial signers:
David Krieger
President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Richard Falk
Senior Vice President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Daniel Ellsberg
Distinguished Fellow, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Noam Chomsky
Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Oliver Stone
Film director
Setsuko Thurlow
Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor
Anders Wijkman
Co-President, Club of Rome
Helen Caldicott
Founding President, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Ben Ferencz
Former Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor
Robert Jay Lifton
Columbia University
Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C.
Former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament
Martin Hellman
Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
Robert Laney
Chair, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Rick Wayman
Director of Programs, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Ruben Arvizu
Latin America Representative, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Jonathan Granoff
President, Global Security Institute
Medea Benjamin
Co-Founder, Code Pink
Peter Kuznick
Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute, American University
Barry Ladendorf
President, Veterans for Peace
Dr. Hafsat Abiola-Costello
Founder and President, Kudirat Initiative for Democracy
Marie Dennis
Co-President, Pax Christi International
Elaine Scarry
Professor, Harvard University
Richard Appelbaum
Board of Directors, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Sandy Jones
Director of Communications, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Joni Arends
Executive Director, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety
Sergio Grosjean
Instituto Mexicano de Ecologia Ciencia y Cultura
John Avery
Associate, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Leonard Eiger
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
April Brown
Marshallese Educational Initiative
Jill Dexter
Board of Directors, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Robert Aldridge
Associate, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Charles Genuardi
Board of Directors, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Bill Wickersham
Associate, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
John Hallam
People for Nuclear Disarmament
Mark Hamilton
Board of Directors, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Mary Becker
Former Board member, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Judith Lipton, M.D.
Security Committee, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Sherry Melchiorre
Board of Directors, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Elena Nicklasson
Director of Development, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Daniel Smith
Appellate Lawyer
Cletus Stein
The Peace Farm
Mario Fuentes
Sector Salud
Jim Knowlton
Blue Ocean Productions
Peter Low
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury
Jenny Maxwell
Hereford Peace Council
Rodrigo Navarro
Comunicar para Conservar
Sergio Rimola
National Hispanic Medical Association
Julian Rodriguez
#Revolucionando
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Richard Falk is a member of the TRANSCEND Network, an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author, co-author or editor of 40 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs. In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies, and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009).
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