Stepping Stones to Nuclear Disarmament
By Jason Sibert
The goals of nonproliferation and disarmament are sacred to all of those who advocate security through fewer arms around the world.
The state of Sweden has long played a role in these movements. In 1995, the country sought to bridge the divide between nuclear and non-nuclear states for the extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1998, Sweden co-authored a declaration calling for a new agenda for nuclear disarmament. The country was one of 16 countries involved in the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament endorsed 22 measures, or “stepping stones,” to reinforce the disarmament goals of the NPT, a treaty essential to all of those who care about nuclear non-proliferation.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in a report that the Stockholm Initiative can help facilitate the goal of nuclear disarmament. Linde realizes the global security situation is deteriorating and that disarmament politics is polarized. The “stepping stones” call for nuclear armed states to open or deepen discussions on things such as nuclear doctrine or strategic stability, although the trend goes in the opposite direction with geopolitical tensions between the United States, Russia, and China making any sense of order difficult.
Linde does consider the extension of the New START Treaty by the Joe Biden administration to be a positive point. She advocates more talks with Russia, and she also wants China’s arsenal to be on the table. The U.S. and Russian arsenal combined makes up 92 percent of the nuclear weapons in the world. She advocates a process by which negotiators are ambitious and set out to do the following: seek further reductions in the strategic arsenals; for the first time, regulate arsenals of tactical nuclear weapons; seek effective ways of mitigating the consequences of the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty; and enhance awareness of how emerging technology, including space-related technology, could impact future arms control.
Linde said in reports that she has spoken with current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about the problem of nuclear proliferation and encouraged him to adopt the “stepping stones.” She acknowledged that the U.S. was a critical partner. Linde also regretted that the United Kingdom is set to increase the cap on its nuclear arsenal and no longer provide public figures on operational stockpiles, deployed warheads, and deployed missiles.
On the good news front, U.S. officials launched the Creating an Environment for Nuclear Disarmament (CEND) initiative in 2019 which is an effort to overcome obstacles to and create conditions for furthering nuclear disarmament. Almost all members of the Stockholm Initiative are also members of the CEND initiative.
Linde supports the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which no nuclear armed state signed. One of the critiques of the TPNW, and leading countries like Sweden, is that they have nothing to lose by signing the treaty because they have no nuclear weapons. The “stepping stones” represent and honorable path forward, but they are meaningless if one really understands the distribution of power in the world.
In order for nuclear arms control to work to a greater extent that it already does, the world’s primary powers must back the concept. Until that time, the whole project will be stalled.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project
