Were UN Plans to Ban Nukes Pre-empted by Trump?

• by Andy Hazel (united nations)
• Thursday, January 19, 2017
• Inter Press Service

In one of their final decisions of 2016, the UN General Assembly agreed to hold a conference in March 2017 to negotiate a "legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination."

123 the UN's 193 member states supported the General Assembly resolution which initiated the conference. Notable votes against the resolution included: France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Russia, The United Kingdom and the United States. Aside from China, which abstained, the no votes included all of the countries permitted to possess nuclear weapons under the current UN non-proliferation treaty which was adopted in 1968.

The 1968 treaty bans all UN member states except China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States from owning nuclear weapons and commits those states to eventually eliminating their atomic arsenals, pledges that have been ignored. Iraq, North Korea, Iran (and, unofficially, Israel) have all violated the treaty by developing nuclear weapons, and it is widely seen as requiring renegotiation to be effective. Should Donald Trump pursue his ambitions, it could put the treaty in jeopardy.

However the resolution - which was adopted on 23 December - was foreshadowed by a tweet by President-elect Donald Trump on 22 December where he stated: "United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes". Trump also mentioned that dismantling Obama's long-negotiated Iran nuclear agreement was his "number one priority".

Some have seen these comments as an act of assertion aimed at strengthening his negotiating position upon arriving in the Oval Office, as Trump has already reversed his position on issues to which he pledged support.

Beatrice Kihn, director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has described these statements as ‘nuclear-sabre rattling' and the challenge to implementing the treaty as imperative.

"The Obama administration was very hostile to the idea of a ban treaty," Kihn told IPS, despite Obama's comments to the contrary, "and there's no expectation that Trump will be more friendly. This treaty will be negotiated with or without US support, so I don't see Trump having a significant impact. However, his rhetoric should definitely serve as a motivation for all of us. It's a signal that the nuclear-armed states are not interested in real progress."

Chief among the issues that would comprise a treaty is the Iranian nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a long-negotiated tool many on the Security Council are seeking to protect.

Kihn and representatives from other non-proliferation organisations are awaiting clearer statements from Trump's administration before establishing their strategies, an approach that may have worked when dealing with previous administrations but may face unprecedented difficulty today. Trump has spoken before about the value of being unpredictable when it comes to nuclear weapons as a means to keep other leaders, both friends and enemies, keen to appease.

Unpredictability is also the hallmark of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un. In his New Year's address, Kim warned that North Korean engineers were in the "final stage" of preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile. Provoking a disbelieving response from Trump and more cautious tones from China and South Korea.

The most recent attempt at a nonproliferation review treaty in 2015 was unsuccessful, largely because of the failure of efforts to engage Iran and Israel. Both countries still absorb a disproportionate amount of the efforts to implement a treaty.

In an address to the IAEA Conference Commit to Further Strengthening Nuclear Security, Director General Yukiya Amano reinforced the socioeconomic value of nuclear technology as not remaining the preserve of wealthy countries. "Terrorists and criminals will try to exploit any vulnerability in the global nuclear security system, and any country could become the target of an attack. That is why effective international cooperation is vital."

According to the findings of a congressional study into international arms sales that found that the sale of global arms dropped in 2015 to $80bn from 2014's $89bn with the US responsible for around half of all sales.

Over the next decade, the United States is expected to spend around half a trillion dollars on maintenance and upkeep of delivery systems of its nuclear weapons armoury, considerably larger than the Department of Defence claims is required to deter a nuclear attack.

"The treaty needs a strong and clear prohibition on use and possession of nuclear weapons but it will be a challenge to make sure the prohibition will cover other relevant activities too," says Kihn, "such as assistance to other states not party to the treaty."

"It will also be a lot of work to get as many states as possible to engage in the negotiations and sign it. And of course a real challenge will be the implementation of the treaty, once it's in place - we need to make sure the treaty has a real impact."

The conference is scheduled to run from March 27-31.

© Inter Press Service (2017) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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