Summary:
The Biden administration has finished a confidential version of its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). The NPR outlines the administration’s stance on nuclear weapons during a global crisis. No government has seriously addressed nuclear weapons’ human and environmental costs or whether they genuinely make people safer. An NPR for the people would consider the actual cost of developing and sustaining nuclear weapons and the damage they cause to people, communities, and the environment. Restorative justice measures would give impacted communities the funding, resources, and assistance they require to survive.
An NPR for the People would represent the security concerns of everyone, not just a privileged few. It would highlight how undemocratic nuclear weapons are, removing the option to accept mass murder as a “sane” atomic policy. An NPR is not required by US law, and there is no set procedure for developing one.
The stakes of nuclear weapons strategy in 2022 will reach unseen levels since the Cold War due to Russia’s conflict in Ukraine. The Biden administration has finished a confidential version of its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which outlines the administration’s stance on nuclear weapons in the middle of the current global crisis. It is currently anticipated that the unclassified version will be available this fall. No government has seriously addressed the human and environmental costs of nuclear weapons or whether they genuinely make people safer since the first NPR in the 1990s. Additionally, the government has not addressed the fact that these weapons are fundamentally patriarchal, imperialist, and pro-white, perpetuating an obvious power imbalance not only between the government and its constituents but also between the nuclear powers and the rest of the globe.
Develop a People’s Nuclear Weapons Policy: How is that possible?
How is that even possible? How is it that the administration of a lawfully elected president can so flagrantly disregard, with no apparent repercussion, the security worries of the majority of the population? In essence, our democracy is in disarray. The NPR’s development is a covert and exclusive procedure by design. A tiny, unelected group produces an ideologically homogeneous paper, often not representative of the nation, under the leadership of the secretary of defence to maintain nuclear posturing. There is no public or voter accountability. Dissidents are put down.
- The People’s NPR may be President Biden’s NPR.
- It might offer a more thorough and encompassing understanding of absolute security.
- It might acknowledge the damage that US nuclear weapons have caused to people both at home and abroad.
- It might require a thorough analysis of the actual costs and alleged advantages of atomic weapons, which cost the US millions of dollars every hour.
- An NPR for everyone should be the standard, given the indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons, even though this may sound like a romantic ideal for determining policy. Furthermore, it is neither “practical” nor “logical” to maintain and update a sizable arsenal of weapons that may cause catastrophic global hunger and the reemergence of the Ice Age.
Whatever the case, all indications point to a Biden NPR that upholds an undemocratic status quo, disregards the dangers of nuclear weapons, and fails to enhance proper human security significantly.
Without ever detonating a bomb, the simple development and maintenance of nuclear weapons results in severe disease and environmental degradation. The effects are also most likely felt by black, brown, and indigenous people, treated as radioactive pollution dumping grounds, and women and children, disproportionately affected by radiation exposure.
How to Develop a People’s Nuclear Weapons Policy with the indigenous people’s problem?
For Indigenous people like the Diné (Navajo) and Hopi in the southwest, the mining of uranium for nuclear weapons contaminated groundwater, leaving them without safe drinking water and resulting in generations of cancers and other health problems. Without the required safety equipment, Diné workers in the mines were exposed to fatal radiation levels for many years.
With generational repercussions, the United States forcefully performed over 1,000 nuclear tests inside its boundaries and in foreign nations, such as the Marshall Islands. Due to persistent radioactivity, many Marshallese cannot travel back to their native countries. It means pleading with the US government to do its job and extend and expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which is now set to expire in two years after Congress recently passed a short-term extension. “Downwinders” are Americans who were exposed to radiation due to living downwind of nuclear tests.
An NPR for people would consider the cost of developing and sustaining nuclear weapons and the damage they cause to people, communities, and the environment. Restorative justice measures would be designed to give impacted communities the funding, resources, and assistance they require to survive and flourish as human beings.
Despite his audacious campaign pledges, President Biden’s National Policy Review is starting to resemble a document from the Trump administration rather than one that reflects the wants and aspirations of the people he represents. While underinvesting in solutions to the genuine security concerns of those taxpayers, such as access to food and water, economic security, and safety from the numerous forms of violence that nuclear weapons cannot address, Biden is spending more taxpayer money on nuclear weapons than his two most recent predecessors. The Biden 2022 budget maintains the United States on schedule to spend more than $1.5 trillion on nuclear weapons over the next three decades while funding new nuclear weapons suggested by the Trump administration and retiring older weapons as planned by the Obama administration. The nuclear bomb is the bet the Biden administration has made on everyone’s lives.
Other hurdles to Develop a People’s Nuclear Weapons Policy
A broader, more representative (diverse), and more accountable collection of contributors would be necessary for an NPR for the people. A policy that represents the security concerns of everyone, not just of a privileged few, would require opportunities for public involvement.
What if an NPR for the People suggested that there shouldn’t be any nuclear weapons? Both now and in the past, nuclear weapons have caused devastation. The majority of people’s legitimate security worries go unaddressed. These facts should be acknowledged in an NPR for the people, and it should be clear that abolition is the ultimate objective. This would be in keeping with the US’s obligations to make sincere efforts toward total disarmament under Article VI of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Additionally, it would highlight how undemocratic nuclear weapons are, removing the option to decide whether or not to accept the doctrine of mass murder presented as a “sane” atomic policy.
An NPR is not required by US law, and there is no set procedure for developing one. An NPR may be changed, a new one may be requested, or the composition of those included may be altered at any moment by the president. A National Public Radio for the People would be demanded by a president who represents the people.
Analysis by: Advocacy Unified Network
