How to Create a Nuclear Weapons Policy for the People
Russia’s war in Ukraine raises the use of nuclear weapons policy in 2022 to heights not seen since the Cold War. In the midst of this global crisis, the Biden administration has finalized a classified version of its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), outlining the government’s approach to nuclear weapons. The unclassified version is now set to be released sometime this fall. Since the first NPR in the 1990s, no government has seriously considered the human and environmental costs of nuclear weapons, or considered whether nuclear weapons actually make anyone safer. Nor has the government addressed the inherently white racist, imperialist, and patriarchal nature of these weapons, which maintains a clear power imbalance not only between government and citizens, but also between the nuclear powers and the rest of the world.
How is that possible? How can the administration of a duly elected President so openly and without apparent consequence ignore the security concerns of most people living in this country? In short, our democracy is broken. Creating the NPR is inherently a mysterious and exclusionary process. A small group of unelected individuals, led by the Secretary of Defense, rarely representing the country, draft an ideologically unified document used to justify continued nuclear posturing. There is no accountability to voters or the public. Dissenters are eliminated.
President Biden’s NPR could be NPR for the people. It could offer a broader and broader view of true security. It could acknowledge the damage that US nuclear weapons have done to the people of the US and around the world. It could truthfully consider the costs and alleged benefits of nuclear weapons, which are costing the United States millions of dollars every hour. While this may sound like a utopian vision for policy making, given the indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons, an NPR should be the norm for all people. Furthermore, it is not “realistic” or “rational” to continue maintaining and upgrading a vast arsenal of weapons that could lead to catastrophic global famine and a return to the Ice Age.
Regardless, all signs point to a Biden NPR that maintains an undemocratic status quo, does not anticipate the harms of nuclear weapons, or meaningfully promotes true human security.
TThe mere manufacture and maintenance of nuclear weapons causes devastating disease and pollution—without anyone ever dropping a bomb. And the impacts are most likely to be felt by women and children, who are disproportionately affected by radiation exposure, and Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, who are treated as dumps radioactive pollution.
Mining for uranium for nuclear weapons poisoned groundwater for indigenous peoples like the Diné (Navajo) and Hopi of the Southwest, leaving them without clean drinking water and causing generations of cancer and other health problems. For decades, Diné members who worked in the mines without proper protective equipment were exposed to deadly radiation.
The United States conducted over 1,000 nuclear tests within its borders and violently in other countries, such as the Marshall Islands, with generational consequences. The ongoing radiation is preventing many Marshallese from returning to their home countries. For “downwinders” — people in the United States who are exposed to radiation by living downwind of nuclear tests — this means asking the US government to do its job by providing compensation and assistance to affected individuals over the radiation Exposure Compensation Act broadened and expanded. is now set to expire in two years after Congress recently passed a short-term extension.
An NPR for the People would reckon with the true cost of building and maintaining nuclear weapons and the damage they inflict on individuals, communities and the environment. It would create and propose measures to restore justice that would provide affected communities with the compensation, resources and support they need not only to survive, but to survive thrive as people.
DDespite his bold campaign promises, President Biden’s NPR looks more like a Trump-era document than a reflection of the needs and expectations of the people he represents. Biden spends more taxpayer dollars on nuclear weapons than his two recent predecessors, while underinvesting in solutions to real security concerns these taxpayers have, such as access to food and water, economic security, and protection from the many forms of violence that nuclear weapons cannot Address. The 2022 Biden budget funds new nuclear weapons proposed by the Trump administration, old weapons the Obama administration wanted to withdraw, and keeps the United States on track to target more than $1.5 trillion over the next three decades issue nuclear weapons. The Biden administration has decided to stake everyone’s life on nuclear weapons.
A people’s NPR would require a larger, more representative (diverse), and accountable group of contributors. Opportunities for public input would be crucial in developing policies that represent the security concerns of all, not just a privileged few.
WWhat if an NPR for the People concluded that nuclear weapons shouldn’t exist? Nuclear weapons are causing damage today and have been for years. They don’t address most people’s real security concerns. A popular NPR should acknowledge these truths and include language that suggests abolition is the ultimate goal. This would be consistent with the US obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to make a good faith effort towards complete disarmament. It would also address the undemocratic nature of nuclear weapons, which precludes the right to vote whether you want to opt for this mass extinction doctrine, which is being touted as a “healthy” nuclear strategy.
No US law requires an NPR or a specific process for preparing one. At any time, the President can change an NPR, request a new one, or revise the composition of those included. A president who is genuinely pro-the-people would call for a pro-the-people NPR.