Dr. Rebecca Johnson was speaking from Britain to Britain
What she says speaks also to the USA
Excerpt, editing by
Carolyn Bennett
Global nuclear disarmament strategies are coalescing to lay the
groundwork for a multilateral treaty that will ban weapons of mass destruction
for good but Britain appears stuck in a time warp, says the director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy
and co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons.
Partisans' entrenched regress
Dr. Rebecca Johnson says Britain’s “Liberal Democrat MPs
have been hitched up to vain efforts to find a cheaper way to stay nuclear”;
and when Labour Party Leader Edward Miliband should be
demonstrating foresight and constructive alternatives for UK security without
nuclear weapons, “he seems scared to pull the parliamentary party out of (former
Prime Minister Tony) Blair’s short-sighted 2007 trap.”
 |
| U.S. Defense missile systems |
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) ─ It can be
argued, Johnson says, that despite its support by more than 180 nations, the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has not entered into force.
Obstruction
“That is because some of the nuclear-armed states placed the
structural bar for entry into force much higher than with any other comparable
treaty. Early in 1994, UK diplomats originated and then pushed
vociferously throughout the CTBT negotiations for the extraordinarily stringent
requirement that every possible nuclear-capable state must sign and ratify the
treaty before it could enter into force,” said Johnson.
Note: As of February 2012, 157
states had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); another
25 states had signed but not ratified it. The United States is among the signers/non-ratifiers.
The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2
of the treaty have ratified it.
“Unfortunately,” Johnson continues, “they were successful –
the last kick of Tory opposition to the treaty before they were ousted in 1997.”
However, the practical political fact is, she says, “that the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has already worked better than expected.
“It has established a worldwide verification regime and
turned nuclear testing from a high status demonstration of nuclear prowess into
a pariah activity that responsible states cannot pursue.…
“Among the English,” Johnson writes, “… the Green Party has a clear, rational policy on nuclear disarmament.”
Progress
Tough the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was not
designed to prevent nuclear proliferation, modernization, or other dangers of
nuclear weapons production and deployment; it “has undoubtedly constrained new nuclear
developments,” Johnson writes
“The next step – and one that presents Britain with
important choices for our future – is likely to be a new multilateral treaty to
comprehensively ban the use, deployment, production and transfer of all nuclear
weapons and provide for their verified elimination.
“This is the strategic objective of a growing number of
national and international campaign networks, and supported by more than 140 United
Nations member states.”
Sources and notes
“From banning nuclear tests to banning nuclear weapons ─ on
the 60th anniversary of Britain’s first atomic weapons test, we need to
consider the parallels between how the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was
achieved in the 1990s and today’s nuclear challenges. The British government
is, yet again, unable to read the writing on the wall” (Rebecca Johnson)
October 3, 2012, http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/rebecca-johnson/from-banning-nuclear-tests-to-banning-nuclear-weapons
Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D.
Dr Rebecca Johnson is author of Unfinished Business (published by the United Nations, 2009) and Trident and International Law: Scotland’s
Obligations (Luath Press, 2011). She is director of the Acronym Institute
for Disarmament Diplomacy and co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban
Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
Rebecca Johnson holds a doctorate in international diplomacy
from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is a
member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials and a vice president of Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
The
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) campaigns non-violently to achieve
British nuclear disarmament – for scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system
and preventing its replacement.
Recognizing
that Britain’s nuclear weapons are only a small part of the problem, CND also
works to secure an international Nuclear Weapons Convention which will ban
nuclear weapons globally, as chemical and biological weapons have been banned.
CND
works also to end Britain’s participation in the U.S. Missile Defense system
and – with other campaigns internationally – against missile defense and
weapons in space.
Other
CND campaigns include opposition to NATO and its nuclear policies and opposition
to nuclear power, and the prevention and
cessation of wars in which nuclear weapons may be used and the encouragement of
non-military solutions to conflict.
CND
is funded entirely by its members and supporters. Its policies are decided upon
by its annual national delegates’ conference at which its national leadership
is also elected.
Dr Rebecca Johnson has also served as senior advisor to the
International WMD (Blix) Commission (2004-06) and as vice chair of the Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists (2001-07).
She lived at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp for five
years (1982-87), co-founded the
Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp(aign) in 1985, and co-organized Faslane365
(2006-07). http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/rebecca-johnson
Wikipedia notes
UK’s Trident
Trident missiles are carried by fourteen active U.S. Navy
Ohio class submarines, with U.S. warheads, and four Royal Navy Vanguard class
submarines, with British warheads. The original prime contractor and developer
of the missile was Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic
missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles
(MIRV).
The Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) is armed with nuclear
warheads and is launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines
(SSBNs).
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
One hundred and fifty-seven (157) states as of February 2012
had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); another 25
states have signed but not ratified it. The treaty will enter into force 180
days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it.
The United States has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
Ratification proponents say the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty would:
Establish an international norm
that would push other nuclear-capable countries like North Korea, Pakistan, and
India to sign.
Constrain worldwide nuclear
proliferation by vastly limiting a country's ability to make nuclear
advancements that only testing can ensure.
Not compromise U.S. national
security because the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship Program serves as a
means for maintaining current US nuclear capabilities without physical
detonation.
Ratification opponents say:
The treaty is unverifiable and that
others nations could easily cheat.
The ability to enforce the treaty
was dubious
The U.S. nuclear stockpile would
not be as safe or reliable in the absence of testing.
The benefit to nuclear nonproliferation
was minimal.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly on September 10, 1996. It opened for signature in New York on September
24, 1996, when it was signed by 71 States, including five of the eight then
nuclear-capable states.
‘Annex 2 states’ are states that participated in the CTBT’s
negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or
research reactors at that time.
As of December 7, 2011, eight Annex 2 states have not
ratified the treaty:
China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the
United States have signed but not ratified;
India, North Korea and Pakistan
have not signed.
In 1998, India said it would only sign the treaty if the
United States presented a schedule for eliminating its nuclear stockpile, a
condition the United States rejected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_missile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Nuclear-Test-Ban_Treaty#US_ratification_of_the_CTBT
image: Building E of the Vienna International Centre houses
the offices of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), United
Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV), and United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO).
Images from Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, http://www.cnduk.org/home
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