Which Countries Have the Right to Possess Nuclear Weapons?

Which Countries Have the Right to Possess Nuclear Weapons?

by Jerry Tetalman

712 words

Humanity has a serious nuclear weapons problem. We have created a weapon that is so powerful that it poses an existential threat to us as a species. Not surprisingly, the use of nuclear weapons in war has been a redline, not crossed since they obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Nuclear weapons are now in the hands of nine countries: the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Iran has recently been prevented from building nuclear weapons, at least for now. But the likelihood of using nuclear weapons increases as the number of countries possessing them increases.

In a sane system of international relations, no country would have the right to possess nuclear weapons. But, unfortunately, a rules-based order does not exist at the international level. Instead of living in a system of effective international law, we live in a state of relative anarchy based on military force. As things now stand, nations draw upon military force and nuclear weapons to provide protection in a lawless world. 

Therefore, the way to get rid of nuclear weapons and war is to make them obsolete by replacing the increasingly dangerous protection they provide with a system of law and justice that is enforceable at the international level.

Such a system has been successful within smaller geographical areas. We now have regional governments, such as the European Union, that have brought peace to countries that were fighting for centuries, including two world wars. Germany and France, for example, that previously sacrificed their citizens in nightmarish wars, now settle their disputes in the courts and the parliament of the European Union.

Why not strengthen our international system of governance to the point that it replaces the very perilous system provided by military and nuclear might?

The United Nations is the world’s largest peace, justice and environmental organization. Although the UN has had success in improving international relations, in preventing and ending conflicts, and has most likely prevented World War III, it has not, unfortunately, fulfilled its central mission of ridding the world of the “scourge of war.”  

This lack of success is attributable to weaknesses in the UN structure, such as the fact that international law, while important for establishing civilized global guidelines, lacks effective enforcement. Furthermore, international law is based on voluntary treaties among fully sovereign nation states (sovereign until another sovereign nation bombs them to deny them “rights,” such as the US bombing Iran to prevent them building nuclear weapons, while the US arrogates the “right” to its own nuclear weapons). Allegiance and power remain with these nation states, and each of them maintains the right to its own independent military forces. 

The purpose of law is to resolve disputes without violence and to protect people. Whether among individuals with a dispute or among nations, law is what separates us from our barbaric past. If we are to create a civilized world and abolish war, we must bring the rule of law to the global level. We need to replace a system based on war with a system based on government and enforceable law. 

One way to do this is to invoke article 109 of the UN Charter to call for a meeting of all UN member nations to revise the world organization’s charter. The goal should be to create enforceable international law through courts and a world parliament. If adopted, this charter reform would transform the UN into a limited world government?one dealing strictly with international issues.

Ultimately, either we create a rules-based system at the global level or we just wait for the mushroom clouds that are coming for all of us. Like the Montreal Protocol, a successful global treaty to stop ruining the ozone layer that protects life, enforcement can be completely nonmilitary, through economic carrots and sticks.

Groups like Citizens for Global Solutions are committed to creating a better future for humanity. They are looking for people who understand that the challenge of our time is to apply rules, laws, and democratic institutions to the job of ending the chaos of international relations. This work, of course, will not build a utopia. But it could avert an apocalypse. Please stand with us to spread a new story of peace, justice, and sustainability through global law.

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Jerry Tetalman is a board member of Citizens for Global Solutions Education Fund.