PEC Statement: Nuclear Weapons Treaties

On Feb. 5, the last remaining treaty limiting the two largest nuclear arsenals, the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), will expire. It verifiably restricted each side to no more than 1,550 deployed warheads and no more than 700 deployed long-range missiles and bombers, a thirty-percent reduction below the limits set by the previous bilateral arms control agreement. In September, Putin offered to extend the New START for one year while they negotiated a longer agreement. Trump has failed to engage the offer.

This comes as the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists changed the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, closer to catastrophe than ever before due to the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, and the potential threat of AI.

The U.S., as the only nation ever to use a nuclear weapon, has stated it may once again start testing nuclear weapons in defiance of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and is planning to invest more than $1 trillion in its nuclear arsenal in the coming years, pouring a perilous accelerant on the global nuclear arms race. Russia has recently threatened use of nuclear weapons and China is preparing to enhance its own nuclear arsenal in response to the absence of diplomatic talks to reduce the threat of nuclear annihilation.

The Lansing Area Peace Education Center urges members of Congress to speak out and affirm the value of arms control and diplomatic engagement as well as pressure the administration to pursue a follow-on agreement to New START and negotiations with China in reducing the arms race. We object vigorously to investing any funds in feeding the nuclear arms race, which ultimately robs us all of opportunities for providing health care for all, access to affordable housing, and other real security concerns that most desire. We urge our elected officials to vote to support H.Res.100 and S.Res.61 to:

• • Publicly affirm the continued value of arms control, including limits and verification measures on U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenal.
  • Encourage the Administration to begin immediate negotiations on a New START follow-on agreement that maintains or strengthens existing limits.
  • Support diplomatic engagement with Russia and other nuclear-armed states to reduce nuclear risks and build pathways toward a safer world.

We recently recognized the fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The end of nuclear arms diplomacy that our government has walked away from is a significant reason that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer after the U.S. incinerated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock closer than it has ever been earlier this week. Nuclear Weapons are now illegal. We should abolish them, not build more.