by General Eugene E. Habiger, USAF (Retired)
18 February 2008

The relevance of nuclear weapons 16 years after the end of the Cold War is a complex political and potentially dangerous dilemma facing not only those nations with these weapons, but must include all nations. Global proliferation is a very real possibility and as players join the nuclear club, the more difficult it will be to reduce or eliminate nuclear weapons in the future. Time is not on our side. The total elimination of these weapons is probably not achievable but there is certainly no reason to discard the concept as a goal.

The military utility of nuclear weapons has diminished dramatically with vastly improved accuracies and new warhead technologies now available with conventional weapons. Why don't we just dismantle the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons as virtually every nation on the planet has agreed to do with the advent of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970? The United States, Russia/Soviet Union as well as over 180 nations who have signed the treaty have all agreed to......"the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date, nuclear disarmament, and a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." Making these three things happen is not easy.

First, you cannot de-invent nuclear weapons. The technologies to build these weapons is not easy; however, once you get your hands on a few tens of kilograms of highly enriched uranium or plutonium, it can be done. Unfortunately, there are several hundreds of tons of weapons grade materials around the world in over 40 countries. Next, since the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons are no longer on the radar screens of the main stream public or policy makers. Finally, up to this point in time, no one nation or group of nations has stepped up to the leadership void to rally the NPT signatory nations to action. We came very close in October 1986 when Presidents Gorbachev and Reagan at their meeting in Reykjavik almost reached what would have been a monumental bilateral agreement for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Fortunately, today there is an international and bipartisan movement appearing that offers some tangible hope that there will be some action.

Over the past year there have been a number of very influential former and current policy makers who have offered varying views that there is no harm and little risk in taking those very important first steps in moving forward with the three goals from the NPT. This group has engaged in a relevant and meaningful dialog mostly through op-ed pieces includes former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, former Senator Sam Nunn, former US Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former US Secretaries of Defense Harold Brown, and Bill Perry, former CIA Director John Deutch. While the specifics of each approach are not always in agreement, there is consensus to do something. Clearly, we are long overdue our moment in history to do something .....we have reached the point where it is time to attempt something great and fail...... or attempt to do nothing and succeed. We may never get to zero but we can come closer than we are today.

General Eugene E. Habiger was the Commander In Chief of the United States Strategic Command (1996-1998) and was responsible for all deployed US strategic nuclear weapons.