Social movements – appealing to public concerns and ethics – have an essential role to play in halting the rebuilding and expansion of nuclear weapons systems today. They can fundamentally shape the public and political conversation around these issues. By reflecting on the impacts of past disarmament movements, nuclear arms control activists can draw important lessons, principles, and inspiration for their current efforts.
In the history of the atomic age, progress toward nuclear arms limitation has usually been the result of social protest and organized political advocacy. Examples include the campaign of the atomic scientists in the 1940s for civilian control of atomic energy, the movements of the late 1950s and early 1960s to stop atmospheric nuclear testing, and the nuclear freeze and disarmament campaigns of the 1980s that helped to end the arms race.
The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign was remarkably successful in attracting mass support. On June 12, 1982, nearly a million people gathered in New York’s Central Park for the rally to freeze and reverse the arms race. Ten states and dozens of major cities held non-binding ballot initiatives on the nuclear freeze. More than 18 million citizens voted on the freeze proposition that year, 60 percent in favor.
President Ronald Reagan attacked the freeze proposal, but the movement was too popular to ignore. The administration toned down its bellicose rhetoric about the possible use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear saber rattling gave way to messages of moderation and support for arms control. All of this occurred before Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and changed the Soviet Union’s posture toward negotiations. Sustained public pressure created a political climate conducive to arms reduction. Reagan and Gorbachev ultimately engaged in unprecedented nuclear weapons negotiations that eventually led to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, reducing weapons levels by about 80 percent.
The disarmament movement had other impacts in those years. The stop MX campaign contributed to the cancellation of the mobile missile basing plan in Utah and Nevada and whittled down the missile system itself from 200 to 50 missiles. The multi-year campaign to stop nuclear testing, sparked by American Peace Test, successfully convinced Congress in 1992 to cut off funding for any further nuclear tests. A de facto nuclear test ban has remained in place ever since.
History shows that movements are able to shape policy if they employ wise strategies and are persistent in applying pressure for change. The following are key principles for effective activism that I have gleaned from my experience in disarmament campaigns and from the writings of scholars Sid Tarrow, Charles Tilly, Erica Chenoweth, and Gene Sharp, among others:
- Movements succeed when they attract mass participation, especially grassroots support.
- Movements need visionary goals, such as a world without nuclear weapons, but also practical, achievable policy objectives, such as halting the development of new nuclear weapons.
- The power of movements depends on building broad and diverse coalitions. For the peace movement, the religious
community is an important strategic ally. - Media communications and the effective framing of messages are essential.
- It is necessary to engage in institutional politics to exert direct influence on policy.
Activists can apply these principles today as they work to build a renewed nuclear arms control movement that influences political leaders. A wide range of organizations, former government officials, academics, and concerned cultural figures have recently signed on to “a new call to halt and reverse the arms race.” This coalition is unifying around the message that more nuclear weapons do not make us safer. Importantly, they are connecting this message with specific policy proposals, including urging the United States and Russia to maintain current New START treaty limits on nuclear weapons and open up talks for a new more durable agreement.
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David Cortright is professor emeritus of the practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and its Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is the author or co-editor of 23 books and has a long history of public advocacy for disarmament and the prevention of war.
