Cranes for our future – Disarmament and non-proliferation for a nuclear-free future
Published 5 August 2022
6 August marks the seventy-seventh anniversary of the first atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima. Three days later the United States detonated a second bomb Nagasaki leading a total of between 129,000 and 266,000 deaths, mostly civilians. Today, the Asser Institute joins the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace (HOPe) in the #CranesForOurFuture campaign and describes a vision for a nuclear-free future.
Activists and civil society are a critical part of arms control. Thilo Marauhn, Special Chair of Arms Control Law at the Asser Institute, has highlighted the importance of civil society in driving the peace movement in his interview earlier this year. He refers to the importance of Bertha von Suttner in the late 19th century in laying the ground work for an international order based on law rather than war and the role of civil society in banning landmines through the Ottawa Convention of 1997. The ongoing Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT Review Conference) will provide a crucial moment to build new consensus on arms control processes for the future.
The importance of civil society to nuclear non-proliferation
“[A]rms control law continues to be relevant, not because we as lawyers can solve the problem of arms control, but because we can provide the instruments that politicians can use to solve these problems.” - Thilo Marauhn
Thea Coventry, co-coordinator of the training programme on Disarmament and non-proliferation of WMD 2022 shared her vision on a future without nuclear weapons:
“A future without nuclear weapons requires many small steps by activists, academics, and governments to change our current reality (deterrence) into a safer one (disarmament). Each single action plays a part in achieving and maintaining that future, as the recent elaboration of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has shown. While codifying legal norms does not prevent nuclear war, it works towards creating a world where the development, possession and use of nuclear weapons is unthinkable.”
The dangers of a new nuclear era
The war in Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin’s frequent reminders of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, have highlighted the dangers of a new nuclear era and the Asser Institute is aiming to play a key part in arms control education with a series of doctoral seminars in 2022.
Chemical and nuclear weapons can have tragic, long-term consequences for civilians and survivors. Homeyra Karimivahed speaks about the effects of the chemical attack on her birthplace Sardasht during the Iraq-Iran war and her experience participating in the Asser Institute training programme on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction organised in partnership with the OPCW.
Gain a comprehensive overview of non-proliferation and disarmament efforts regarding WMD
The challenges posed to international security by nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons have recently reached levels of urgency not seen since the Cold War. There is an increasing demand for professionals in the field of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to tackle the challenges of today’s non-proliferation and disarmament agenda with a more integrated understanding of these issues. From 19 to 23 September, the Asser Institute in The Hague will host the thirteenth training programme on disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, co-organized with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).