Nuclear disarmament

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Nuclear disarmament is the proposed undeployment and dismantling of nuclear weapons, particularly those of the United States and the Soviet Union (later Russia) targeted on each other.

Proponents of nuclear disarmament said that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war occurring, especially accidentally. Critics of nuclear disarmament said that it would undermine the theory of deterrence, which has possibly kept the world free of nuclear war.

1 History
2 Organizations
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The movement for disarmament has varied from nation to nation over time.

In the United States, where nuclear weapons were first created, the movement for disarmament had a few prominent proponents in the earliest days of the Cold War who argued that the creation of an international watchdog organization could be used to enforce a ban against the creation of nuclear weapons. During the 1960s, a much stronger popular movement against nuclear weapons began to develop, rallying primarily around the fear of nuclear fallout from nuclear testing. After the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), which prohibited atmospheric testing, the movement against nuclear weapons somewhat subsided by the 1970s (and was replaced in part by a movement against nuclear power). In the 1980s, though, a popular movement for nuclear disarmament again gained strength in the light of the weapons build-up and rhetoric of President Ronald Reagan. After the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, though, the momentum would again fade.

In the USSR, voices against nuclear weapons were few and far between as there was no "public" to speak of as a political factor. Certain citizens who had become prominent enough to safely criticize the Soviet government, such as Andrei Sakharov, did speak out against nuclear weapons to little effect.

Only one country has been known to ever dismantle their nuclear arsenal completely—the apartheid government of South Africa apparently developed half a dozen crude fission weapons during the 1980s, but they were dismantled in the early 1990s. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a number of former Soviet republics (Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan) found themselves in possession of Soviet nuclear weapons, but they were apparently given to Russia (who took responsibility and ownership of the Soviet arsenal), though due to a clerical error it has been reported that Ukraine may still be in possession of some number of nuclear missiles.^{[citation needed]} As part of an effort to reduce nuclear tensions between US and Russia after the end of the Cold War, a Russian delegation from the Russian Ministry of Defence led by US-Russian national Alexander M. Dokychuk during their official visit to US in 1992 have stated in a live televised program that Russian nuclear missiles will never again be pointed at US cities. A number of nations have aborted nuclear weapons programs that were not successful as well. For a full list, see: List of countries with nuclear weapons.

[edit] Organizations

Many organizations and networks exist which distribute information and put pressure on governments, e.g. the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which advocated a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament in the United Kingdom together with the Labour Left, leading it to become Labour Party policy in 1960-61 and again in 1980-89. There was also a strong peace camp movement. Public opinion however accepted the need for a nuclear deterrent, especially since the Cold War was not yet over, and this policy is believed to have been a major cause of Labour's defeat in the 1983 election.

In 1955, 11 leading scientists and intellectuals signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, warning of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and calling on world leaders to find peaceful solutions to international tensions. This was followed in 1957 by the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

The 1985 Nobel peace prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) advocates abolition of all nuclear weapons.