Senior Policy Director John Erath spoke with Truthout about the latest report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) about increased nuclear weapons spending.
John Erath, senior policy director for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told Truthout in a phone call that nuclear weapons cannot simply be wished away. “There has to be a lot of work done in other areas to settle a lot of the causes of insecurity around the world, the motivations for why people want to have nuclear weapons to begin with. If you can do that, then you can start talking about reducing nuclear weapons,” he said.
“Clearly, the governments in both [India and Pakistan] feel that it’s worth the additional security that they feel nuclear weapons provide,” said Erath. Economic sanctions alone will not convince either country to abandon nuclear weapons, Erath says, without resolving disputes that have dogged the two countries since partition in 1947.
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As a minority of nations increase spending to support their dependence on both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation’s Erath asked, “Do we really feel safer with more of these very dangerous weapons out there?” adding, “The world is a safer place with fewer nuclear weapons, not more.”
