Nuclear Arms Control Advocate and U.S. Senator Richard Lugar Dies
By Jason Sibert
Former Indiana Senator and Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar passed away on Sunday.
Reports stated he passed away of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Former President Barack Obama praised Lugar for his bipartisanship and for serving as his mentor on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he was an Illinois senator. Lugar served as mayor of Indianapolis from 1968 to 1976 and as a senator from 1977 to 2013.
Lugar, a Republican, was known for his interest in international relations and his promotion of arms control. He was influential in gaining ratification for treaties to reduce the number of chemical, biological and radiological weapons in the world. In 1991, he partnered with then Senate Foreign Relations Chairmen Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) to pass the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program to eliminate weapons of mass destruction from the former Soviet Union. To date, Nunn-Lugar has eliminated 7,500 nuclear weapons from the old Soviet Union. He was a central figure in the passing of Obama’s New Start Treaty, a key nuclear arms control treaty. In recent years, Nunn has become a very vocal supporter of the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Lugar also supported Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid in South Africa. The former Indiana senator received many awards over the years. Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, he was awarded the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. In 2005, he was awarded the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award from the American Foreign Service Association.
While Lugar’s work made an impact, much needs to be done. The nation-states that make up the international system are currently spending billions of dollars on nuclear arms. Global annual expenditure on nuclear weapons amounted to US$105 billion annually, or $12 million an hour, according to the Nuclear Weapons Cost Study released by Global Zero in 2011.
Nuclear force modernization in the U.S. will cost approximately $30 billion over the next 10 years, and the Trump administration is budgeting $10 billion more for nuclear interceptors designed to fly through space as part of its new U.S. Space Force. The United States’ nuclear weapons program has cost an estimated US$8.7 trillion (in inflation-adjusted 2010 dollars) since 1940, said Stephen Schwartz, author of Atomic Audit: The Cost and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons. The United Kingdom seems determined to keep its Trident submarines which are nuclear armed vessels. France is spending billions on its independent nuclear striking force. The country has the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Nuclear weapons don’t distinguish between military personnel and civilians and their use would bring destruction beyond comprehension. Given this facts, there is much more work to be done and Lugar’s work was just the tip of the iceberg.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project
