Disarming Doomsday by Becky Alexis-Martin

Author:Becky Alexis-Martin [Alexis-Martin, Becky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780745339207
Google: 1DsxvQEACAAJ
Publisher: Pluto Press
Published: 2019-01-15T04:27:58+00:00

7

Spaces of Irregularity

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

– Carl Sagan

Nuclear norms are the expected behaviours of arms control. The most significant norms associated with nuclear weapons are those of non-proliferation, non-use and deterrence.1 Both vertical and horizontal proliferation are delegitimised by non-proliferation treaties, where horizontal proliferation is the spread of weapons from state to state, whereas vertical proliferation is an increase in the number of weapons in a state’s own domestic arsenal. The non-proliferation norm attempts to prevent nuclear weapons from spreading to any other actors; the non-use norm sets an internalised moral restraint on detonating a nuclear weapon; and the deterrence norm provides a prudential rationale for not using nuclear weapons against an opponent who also has a nuclear arsenal.

Nuclear weapons used to be an irregular mode of warfare. It is not conventional, and not designed or intended for use in conflict, unless exceptional circumstances arise. However, the notion of the irregularity of nuclear warfare is being stretched by changing social norms that relate to nuclear weapon possession and deployment. The nuclear taboo is becoming gradually eroded, creating permanent changes to geopolitical culture.2 Many of these changes have come about because new nations are joining the nuclear game and changing the previous status quo.

The institution of the nuclear weapon possessor state has been fixed into international geopolitics as a permanent security doctrine. They deploy their perspectives on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a legitimising and normative framework for their own possession and on their own terms, as a management tool to enforce non-proliferation on other states.3 They have a diverse arsenal of nuclear weapons to ensure compliance.4 This includes tactical nuclear weapons for direct use on the battlefield against enemy forces, and powerful strategic nuclear weapons, which are designed to create maximum damage, destroying entire cities and industries, and killing hundreds of thousands of people.5,6 There are intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and submarine systems across the world, waiting for that unlikely moment when the need for deployment arises. On paper, the policing and control of nuclear weapon ownership, or arms control, should be relatively easy for dominant nuclear weapon possessor states to attain.

Nuclear warfare has been normalised. Nuclearism, the belief of psychological, political and military dependence on nuclear weapons, and the embrace of weapons for the solution to a wide variety of human dilemmas, most ironically, that of ‘security’ is normal.7 This ideology is based on a series of naïve assumptions – that the use of nuclear weapons can be managed, that their effects can be controlled, and that protection and recovery in a nuclear war are meaningful ideas.8 Like any other form of extremism when it becomes mainstream, it makes nuclear weapons appear as inevitable and acceptable features of international security.

In the history of mankind, nuclear weapons are not a normal way to resolve conflict and will likely be viewed as unacceptable by future generations, similarly to the atrocious chemical weapons that preceded them.

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