Envisioning a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Though it is a subject far from business and entrepreneurship, this week I want to focus on the pressing need for nuclear disarmament. The world has faced this challenge throughout my life, and the issue has become even more urgent in today’s world of terrorism and loose nukes. We would be completely powerless if these destructive weapons fell into the wrong hands.

One of my early memories involves nuclear proliferation: the 1962 Cuban missile crisis – the closest the world has come to nuclear war. I remember how terrified people were during the standoff between the former Soviet Union and the United States over missile bases in Cuba, and though Soviet ships eventually turned around after a U.S. blockade of Cuba, the end of that crisis did not mark the end of our nuclear worries. The Cold War between the United States and USSR kept tensions high for decades, while today North Korea and Iran spread fear with their boasts about their bomb-making capabilities.

Especially during the Cold War, the arms debate was a polarizing one, with hawks claiming the need to keep these weapons of mass destruction as a deterrent, and with doves insisting on unilateral global disarmament. And there was a dark logic to maintaining stockpiles of nuclear weapons: Mutually assured annihilation kept the nuclear peace between the superpowers.

Last week, “Countdown to Zero,” a compelling documentary on this topic, was released in the United States. The film was produced by Oscar nominee Lawrence Bender, who brought us “Pulp Fiction,” “An Inconvenient Truth” and, more recently, “Inglourious Basterds.” This compelling film makes for scary viewing. The consensus among former cold warriors on both sides seems to be that the deterrent value nuclear weapons once provided is now outweighed by the dangers of arms proliferation and nuclear terrorism. The film’s narrative also shreds the idea that maintaining a nuclear arsenal equals security in today’s world.

That is why I am a founding member of the Global Zero movement, which believes that the only way to eliminate the nuclear threat is to stop the spread of weapons, secure all nuclear materials and ultimately eliminate all nuclear weapons. Signatories include former heads of state, foreign and defense ministers, national security advisers and top military commanders, as well as hundreds of thousands of activists worldwide. I believe, as they do, that the only way to protect our future is through the phased elimination of these weapons. The doom-mongers are wrong; it isn’t too late to tame the nuclear beast.

Common sense needs to prevail; no possible good can come from several dozen countries’ having weapons-grade nuclear materials – enough for upward of 200,000 bombs. You don’t need to be a defense expert to understand that some of the material could go missing and could end up in the hands of a person or group with evil intent. My experience in business through the years has shown me that what can happen eventually does happen. Applied to nuclear devices, this thought is deeply troubling.

It is not unheard of that a nation would dismantle its nuclear arsenal. South Africa did it in 1991 – and it is still the only country to voluntarily do so. With that example before us, we need not be fatalistic about the spread of nuclear weapons. As U.S. President Barack Obama passionately put it in a speech in Prague last April: “Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.” He is right, and it is not a cheerful thought.

Thankfully, the dialogue recently changed at a high level when President Obama and Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev began work in 2009 toward the reduction of nuclear weapons. Their leadership is essential on this issue as we move toward a new START treaty that makes serious cuts in the vast American and Russian weapons cache, which comprise most of the world’s total. This updated treaty comes almost two decades after the signing of the original in 1991; shortly after that agreement was inked, the Soviet Union dissolved into independent states that are now in possession of their very own nuclear arsenals.

Another advance came this year: the nuclear security summit hosted by President Obama in April that had, as its goal, securing all weapons-useable nuclear material within four years. This summit follows the historic (though nonbinding) United Nations Security Council resolution in 2009, which proposed the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.

With global leaders focusing this year on a nuclear weapons-free world, the elimination of arsenals is surely an idea whose time has come – in the 21st century, a nation’s standing should no longer be measured in nuclear terms. Popular support can only bolster these efforts and encourage the search for innovative and practical solutions to the complex challenges of a world without nukes. If you feel as I do, sign up at globalzero.org. Every voice is critical to this cause.

Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate