Nuclear Weapons, the Military and the Law: Reflections on the World Court Decision

"cannot be disinvented." Yet the present policy of the declared nuclear weapon states of trying to impose nuclear apartheid by force provokes the spread of nuclear weapons, rather than supporting the stated goal of non-proliferation. The only way out of this lethal spiral is to accept global nuclear disarmament by consistent use of the law -as the world is already doing with chemical and biological weapons. For the British pronuclear establishment, the belief in the role of nuclear weapons is as much a matter of theology as it is a political creed -a kind of nuclear fundamentalism. This may help to explain the deep taboo against challenging nuclear weapons in the British military, which is very conservative and very tribal. Nevertheless, we need to think carefully about how we approach the military in the nuclear weapon states because, particularly in the U.S. and the UK, military leaders may hold the key to whether we are going to get rid of nuclear weapons within the next ten years.