Making more peace

Something I found almost unexpected -- and good -- happened last week. And no, I don't just mean the inauguration of Biden and Harris; that we had reason to hope for. I mean that on Thursday the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) came into force. 

What? Yes. This international agreement is a legally binding pact to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. Passed at the United Nations in 2017 by 122 nations (with all the nations that currently have the bombs abstaining), it now has collected the fifty national signatories to enter into force among them. Thirty-five additional nations are in the process of ratifying.

Pat Hynes describes developments which demonstrate the strong force of world opinion, and even U.S. opinion, that is building against these ultimate weapons of mass destruction: 

■ The General Electric Company stopped production of nuclear weapons in 1993. ...

■ Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group, 1 of the 5 largest banks in the world, has excluded nuclear weapons production from its portfolio, labeling them “inhumane.” ...

■ Our goal must be a world “without nuclear weapons … “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought:” Former Republican Secretary of State George Schultz and former Democrat Secretary of Defense William Perry.

■ Mayors for Peace: 7,675 cities in 163 countries support the total abolition of nuclear weapons.

■ Fifty-six former presidents, prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers from 20 NATO countries and Japan and South Korea recently signed an open letter in support of the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons. “Sooner or later our luck will run out — unless we act. … There is no cure for a nuclear war,” they asserted. “Prevention is our only option.”

■ Pope Francis: “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral. As is the possession of atomic weapons.”

Isn't this all just noise, without effect or meaning? After all, the guys with the bombs still have the bombs and even sensible U.S. presidents still prove their manhood by "modernizing" the nuclear arsenal for great profit to the defense contractor establishment.

Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro's book, The Internationalists, convinced me that the process of developing an international legal framework to replace the rule of "might makes right" is a vital and effectual part of turning our fractious species away from our own destruction. We don't go quietly, but our better angels can be given space by the clamor of the people. Creating this treaty, however aspirational, gives the peoples of the world -- who gain nothing from the continuing nuclear menace -- a place to stand. Bravo!

Today's yanked image is of Australian activists from ICAN/Twitter.