January 21, 2008
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Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.
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On January 15, former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Senator Sam Nunn published their second widely-circulated op/ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for the control and abolition of nuclear weapons. As a former US administration official who participated in the Hoover Institute conferences that produced these op/eds, I am happy to share these newest of these two remarkable pieces with you:
» Read “Toward a Nuclear-Free World,” January 15, 2008 op/ed
» Read “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” January 4, 2007 op/ed
Support for the goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons by these senior statesmen put to rest the notion that those who advocate the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons are radical idealists or, at worst, anti-American.
Even more useful, they articulated a path for how we will achieve nuclear abolition, a path that many of us in the arms control community have helped to identify through our own respective institutions and projects, such as the Middle Powers Initiative’s Article VI Forum. Having worked on these issues for the past 30 years, it is heartening to see these measures—such as extending key provisions of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, increasing the warning and decision times for the launch of nuclear weapons, and bringing the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty into force—gaining serious traction in Washington and elsewhere.
It is important to recognize the myriad of ways in which all of us have contributed to this growing momentum for nuclear disarmament. I myself am fortified by the efforts of the Hoover group, and am pleased with how these efforts are buttressing the ongoing work of groups like the Global Security Institute, and I look forward to continuing to advocate, through the Bipartisan Security Group and elsewhere, for a safer, saner world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.
Sincerely,
Ambassador (Ret.) Thomas Graham, Jr.
Chairman, Bipartisan Security Group
» Click here for a PDF version of the 2008 op/ed
» Click here for a PDF version of the 2007 op/ed
» Click here to read “Towards 2010,” a briefing paper from the Middle Powers Initiative’s Article VI Forum process
Jonathan Granoff is the President of the Global Security Institute, a representative to United Nations of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates, a former Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law, and Senior Advisor to the Committee on National Security American Bar Association International Law Section.
