Resource Type:
Report-Paper
Posted On: Aug 06, 2008
Posted By: Hillary Eschenburg
URL:
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_security/Toward-True-Security_execsum.pdf
Description:
Organizations: Federation of American Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council, Union of Concerned Scientists
This document is a proposal of 10 beginning steps to take towards achieving the larger goal of establishing an international consensus on prohibition of nuclear weapons.
- Declare that the sole purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons is to deter and, if necessary, respond to the use of nuclear weapons by another country.
- Reject rapid-launch options by changing U.S. deployment practices to allow the launch of nuclear forces in days rather than minutes.
- Eliminate preset targeting plans, and replace them with the capability to promptly develop a response tailored to the situation if nuclear weapons are used against the United States, its armed forces, or its allies.
- Promptly and unilaterally reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to no more than 1,000 warheads, including deployed and reserve warheads.
- Halt all programs for developing and deploying new nuclear weapons, including the proposed Reliable Replacement Warhead.
- Promptly and unilaterally retire all U.S. nonstrategic nuclear weapons, dismantling them in a transparent manner, and take steps to induce Russia to do the same.
- Announce a U.S. commitment to reducing its number of nuclear weapons further, on a negotiated and verified bilateral or multilateral basis.
- Commit to not resume nuclear testing, and work with the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
- Halt further deployment of the Ground-Based Missile Defense system, and drop any plans for space-based missile defense.
- Reaffirm the U.S. commitment to pursue nuclear disarmament, and present a specific plan for moving toward that goal, in recognition of the fact that a universal and verifiable prohibition on nuclear weapons would enhance both national and international security.