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Twin Threats: Nuclear Proliferation and Global Warming |
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Today at Take Back America I had the opportunity to hear a provocative presentation on the movement against nuclear proliferation by Joe Cirincione of Ploughshares Fund.
Cirincione made the compelling point that nuclear proliferation and global warming rank as the two greatest threats to America's national security and to the well-being of people in general. He believes that the movements on both of these issues should coordinate to reframe the entire national security debate away from the vague rhetoric of "terrorism" and "evil" to address real, frightening threats. By speaking out strongly on these two issues, in other words, progressives can demonstrate that they and not conservative reactionaries are at the forefront of the national security debate.
He continued to say that a powerful movement to eliminate nuclear weapons has already begun, led from an unlikely source: Henry Kissinger and other moderate and conservative politicians and statesmen. Based at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, this movement calls for a world free of nuclear weapons.
As Cirincione pointed out, these elite voices can only accomplish so much. Their efforts should be strengthened and amplified by a grassroots movement similar to the movement for a sane policy on climate change. Again, the two movements would benefit tremendously from dialogue and cooperation.
Cirincione added that he has never been more hopeful about the possibility for achieving an end to nuclear weapons. With what he called a "global transition in leadership," he noted that the G-8 Conference in 2009 may include only one leader (Canada's Stephen Harper) who attended the summit in 2006. Cirincione believes that if the anti-nuclear proliferation movement can seize the unique opportunities of the present political space - opportunities he says may last for at most two or three years - they have the power to achieve change.
Many would laugh at the thought, of course. Just as others believed that the Soviet Union would never fall, Germany would never be reunited, and the Red Sox would never again win the World Series, many believe an end to nuclear proliferation is impossible. Cirincione challenges us to think otherwise.
I would encourage you to consider what Cirincione says. If the activists calling for a nuclear weapons-free world have been joined by the likes of Henry Kissinger, clearly a powerful bipartisan consensus is possible on this issue. Placing it in the context of national security makes the message even more powerful, as we turn from the bogeymen conjured up by the Bush administration to the dangers that threaten our lives, our families, and our country.
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