I found this article from the Guardian to be quite interesting given we are discussing nuclear weapon ands related topics in class at the moment. What really drew my attention to this article is the entity which is supporting the UN Anti Nuclear Treaty and its perhaps what who we least expect to get involved in things such as this.
In the United Kingdom, the leadership of the Church of England is calling for the UK to join other 50 nations in the international treaty that seeks to ban nuclear weapons in hopes that it would bring about a peaceful future for all of humankind. The treaty is scheduled to be initiated in January 22 of the new year as 50 nations have approved of it. However the major nuclear powers of the world have gotten on board including the United States as they described this a “strategic error.” Also worth nothing in the article that my current employer the International Committee of the Red Cross was mentioned in the article as the President of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, praised this moment as “a victory for humanity, and a promise of a safer future.”
The treaty is poised to play a pivotal role deterrent effect on the proliferation of nuclear arms. The bishops of the church of England stated “For so many of the nations of the world to speak clearly of the need to ban these weapons of mass destruction is an encouraging and hopeful sign.” They have called on the UK to join this effort as well as the UK has yet to sign it as a means of “to give hope to all people of goodwill who seek a peaceful future.” While they do that nuclear weapons will not go away overnight, they see this as a step “on the journey towards becoming a nuclear-free world.”
While reading this article, I think back to Isaiah Wall of the United Nations that is right across the street from UNHQ. I pass it all the time going to UNHQ to take care of work tasks and the wall quotes the passage from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 2, verse 4: “”They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” While the dream of a nuclear weapons free world is still fresh in the minds of nations around the world and the UN, it is still far from reach given that all nations are yet to come on board with this concept. Who knows what significance this anti nuclear treaty will bring to the world, only time will tell. But just because of nuclear weapon free world is far from reach at the moment, does not mean its impossible to achieve and to have hope in it, just ask the clergy of the Church of England.
Jordan,
Great blog post! And I especially liked the inclusion of the Biblical quote from Isaiah! While reading your post, I was trying to recall what position the Church of England took back in the early 1980s when the “Nuclear Freeze” movement was active. The focus of the Nuclear Freeze movement was to get the US and the (then) Soviet Union to stop producing nuclear weapons, and hopefully roll them back. There were a lot of protests at the time in the UK, demanding that the British government do likewise. Unfortunately, despite wide popularity, the Freeze movement did not achieve its objective, though it may have laid the predicate for the progress on arms control that was made a decade later after the end of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, I do not think that the opposition of the Church is going to change the position of the UK government.
–Professor Wallerstein