If psychosis is a loss of contact with reality, the current status of nuclear disarmament can best be described as psychotic.
U.S. policy on nuclear disarmament is at best a mixed bag; that of the other eight nuclear armed powers is not much better.
On the plus side, we have a president of the United States, which is central to the problem, who has spoken out repeatedly on the subject, albeit in a decelerating mode. In a speech at Purdue University on Jun. 16, 2008, he said, "It's time to send a clear message to the world: America seeks a world without nuclear weapons ... we'll make the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons a central element in our nuclear policy."
There was no reference to how long it might take. A year later, in the famous Prague speech of May 6, 2009, Obama said, "I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," but he added, "This goal will not be reached quickly -- perhaps not in my lifetime."
He was 48 at the time. Four years later, on Jun. 19, 2013, in Berlin, Obama said, "Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons -- no matter how distant that dream may be."
The Assessment of Nuclear Monitoring and Verification Technologies, released by the Defense Science Board in January 2014, concedes that for the first time since the beginning of the nuclear age the United States needs to be concerned not only with horizontal proliferation, i.e. to countries not possessing nuclear weapons, but also with vertical proliferation, i.e. in nuclear weapons countries.
On Feb. 6, in an apparent violation of at least the spirit if not the letter of the Nonproliferation Treaty, the U.S. announced that it had conducted a successful impact test (not involving an explosion) of the B-61 nuclear bomb. Donald Cook, deputy administrator for defense at DOE, said that engineering on the new bomb had commenced and that this would make it possible to replace older models "by the mid or late 2020s."
• In February the Foreign Ministry of Germany, a member of NATO, hosted a Forum on Creating the Conditions and Building a Framework for a Nuclear Weapons Free World.convened by the Middle Powers Initiative. It was attended by 26 governments and a number of civil society organizations.
• In March, the Foreign Ministry of Norway, another NATO country, convened in Oslo a Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, attended by 128 governments, and numerous civil society organizations.
• On Oct. 21, Ambassador Dell Higgie of New Zealand delivered to the First Committee of the U.N. the statement adopted by 125 countries, many of whom had attended the Oslo conference. It declared that the only way to guarantee that nuclear weapons will never be used again is through their total elimination.
• Finally, and most importantly, during the follow up conference to Oslo held in Nayarit, Mexico, Feb. 13 and 14, Sebastian Kurz, the foreign minister of Austria, announced that he would convene a conference in Vienna later this year because "the international nuclear disarmament efforts require an urgent paradigm shift."
The Nonproliferation Treaty, to which the nuclear powers pay lip service, requires good faith efforts by all states to achieve a nuclear weapons free world. This is a good time to remind the nuclear states, and particularly the big five, of that all important obligation.
This piece originally appeared as an op-ed in the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency.
Peter Weiss is President Emeritus of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. He is the keynote speaker at "Law's Imperative: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons" on April 2 in New York. Register and find out more here.