Nuclear Nonproliferation

“It is time to take the full measure of certain arguments widely cherished by churchmen to excuse Soviet practice and minimize the Soviet threat” – Henry P. Van Dusen in 1946, responding to Christians who thought the West’s actions caused tensions with the USSR.

President Biden’s decision to fully extend the treaty without condition was mostly met with a figurative sigh of relief from arms control advocates and those who seek a world “free of nuclear weapons.” But Americans should be sober-minded about the real impact of the treaty, and not be lulled into believing New START, or any one treaty, will moderate US adversaries or better position the United States in our competition with either Russia or China.

Reinhold Niebuhr in 1945: “For only a full understanding of the practically insuperable difficulties which confront us can arm us with the humility and the courage to seek for a solution of this problem radical enough to prevent the annihilation of civilization.”

Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press argue in “The Myth of the Nuclear Revolution” that the Atomic Age isn’t too different from other ages. Geopolitical rivalries, arms races, military doctrines, stalemates, and much else are still the same.

Three decades after the Cold War’s end, do we still need a nuclear arsenal today? Edward Ifft thinks not and in Christianity Today urges his fellow Christians to believe likewise. Peter Feaver, William Inboden, and Michael Singh disagree.

What does the Bible teach us about nuclear weapons treaties? Nothing. That’s right. Nothing. If one scours their Bibles, they will find not one single passage that tells us what God thinks about nuclear non-proliferation treaties.

While many are hopeful about the current back and forth between Trump and Kim, the history of US-North Korea relations gives little cause for hope.

If Trump can somehow cajole or charm Kim into beginning a process that would allow the North Korean people to be treated like people, that would be a win for humanity.

Three years after Obama finalized the Iran deal, President Trump withdrew the US, and today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out a new and very ambitious path forward.