“We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices,” warned the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in the January/February 2007 issue of its magazine of the same name.
Climate change and nuclear disarmament are two legacy issues for Pope Francis. Like the prophets of old, on each issue he has been characteristically outspoken in his blunt, provocative moral judgements.
Maryann Cusimano Love The nuclear weapons ban is the latest example of resurrection politics. Peace advocates, scientists, and churches have been trying to ban the bomb for over 70 years, with few successes. Resurrection politics takes issues thought previously “dead...
Gerard Powers The Vatican has long supported nuclear arms reduction and is seeking to build on the disarmament momentum generated by the United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons. The Holy See’s efforts, like those of other pro-ban states, might seem quixotic...
David Cortright Critics of the UN treaty banning the bomb argue that nuclear weapons have helped to prevent World War III and are essential for international security. A world without nuclear weapons, they say, would be a world of greater war and military aggression....
Clara Portela is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Singapore Management University and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe. When the Iran nuclear deal was signed, it was celebrated as a diplomatic success, especially for the United States. Media...
Kelsey Davenport is Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association. Donald Trump faces a tough array of foreign policy challenges, but noticeably absent from that list is the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. If Trump plays his cards right, he can...
George Lopez is the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Since the election of Donald Trump, members of the arms control community have argued that the new administration must...
Mary Ellen O'Connell Mary Ellen O’Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Opponents of the Iran nuclear deal...
Michael C. Desch Michael C. Desch is Professor of Political Science and Co-director of the Notre Dame International Security Program. Winston Churchill famously said of democracy that it was the worst form of government except for all the others. The same could be...
David Cortright David Cortright is Director of Policy Studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The Iran nuclear deal resulted in part from the effective use of multilateral sanctions to apply persuasive pressure...
Gerard F. Powers Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Catholic bishops and other religious leaders have given much greater attention to the moral imperative of nuclear disarmament. But a gap exists in the ethical analysis needed to sustain this moral imperative....
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. Fifty-one years ago, Pope John XXIII issued his encyclical Pacem in Terris, which declared that “the arms race should cease” and urged that “all come to an agreement on a fitting program of disarmament.” In revitalizing the Catholic voice...
Margaret Pfeil Over the last 30 years, the Catholic Church’s teaching on the morality of nuclear deterrence has developed in response to post-Cold War conditions, appealing to a vibrant, traditional value system. In their 1983 pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace,...
Ellen Laipson The election of President Hassan Rouhani has augured in a wave of hopefulness that conflict between Iran and the U.S. could be avoided. But the escalating crisis in Syria has cast a shadow over prospects for improvement. The August 21 use of chemical...
Seyed Hossein Mousavian With the victory of a moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, in Iran, there is renewed hope for a diplomatic breakthrough in the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program. There also are encouraging signs at the White House. President Obama in his...
George A. Lopez and David Cortright In light of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration and his declared intention to enhance transparency and improve relations with the international community, a new and significant opportunity exists to end the nuclear...
Stephen W. Bosworth I have been dealing with North Korea since the 1990s, when we tried to implement the Agreed Framework, and later when I served as the U.S. Ambassador in Seoul. When I returned to active service as the Special Representative to North Korea in...
George A. Lopez The new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has come to power in a fledgling nuclear state that thus far has resisted pressures from the West and the Security Council to denuclearize. As he scans the political horizon, Kim may arrive at several conclusions...
David Cortright and Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf The history of nonproliferation teaches that nations must be persuaded rather than forced to give up nuclear weapons capability. This is a difficult challenge with a regime as truculent as North Korea, where the primary...