An International Warheads to Windmills Campaign:
- Encouraging campaigning organizations to join both the ICAN and Fossil Fuel Treaty networks and to connect with other organizations in those networks.
- Working to promote both the TPNW and the FFT as treaties that all governments should support, join and implement.
- Building alliances and providing solidarity and support to organizations and campaigners in other countries trying to get their governments to join the TPNW and support negotiations for a FFT.
- Encouraging countries that are already party to the TPNW to pass national legislation and enforce prohibitions on assistance, including financial assistance, to nuclear weapons companies.
- Encouraging countries that support a FFT to ensure such assistance is also prohibited in the FFT and to commit to implementing and enforcing such a prohibition themselves.
- Calling on the US, Ukraine, Russia and other European countries to use every tool and mechanism at their disposal to find a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine.
- Calling on the US, China and other Pacific countries to use every tool and mechanism at their disposal to defuse tensions and resolve their differences peacefully and without recourse to war or the threat of war.
- Calling on the US, China, Russia, Iran, and all other countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East to use every tool and mechanism at their disposal to find a fair, just and permanent solution in the Middle East that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace and avoids further war.
It’s hard for many in the US to imagine being able to make any significant progress towards a world free of nuclear weapons or fossil fuels right now. Luckily for us, 96% of the world’s population is not in the US. There are allies all over the planet who are working hard to create such a world, including many national governments. Working together globally is crucial for real progress on both issues.
As described in the previous chapter, this two-pronged approach, or what in military terms would be called a “pincer movement,” is about putting pressures on the fossil fuel and nuclear weapons companies from both inside and outside the US in order to get them to use their enormous resources, power and influence to shift the US Congress and Administration. Neither the less-wealthy and less-powerful countries nor the ordinary voters in the United States have as much influence on the US government as these corporations do.
The one power we have is the ability to put pressure on those corporations through collective action.
Global movements
Movements to end the burning of fossil fuels, as well as movements to abolish nuclear weapons, are especially strong in Europe as well as in many other parts of the world. ICAN, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, now has over 600 partner organizations in over 100 countries, working to build support for the TPNW in their respective countries.[1] And there are now more than 2,000 organizations worldwide supporting a Fossil Fuel Treaty that would phase out all burning of fossil fuels.[2]
Although membership in each of these global networks is largely made up of organizations that focus on one or the other of these existential threats, there are some notable overlaps that already support both. The medical profession, for example, is heavily invested in both networks, with global networks like the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the World Federation of Public Health Associations playing key founding roles in both movements. Faith-based organizations like Soka Gakkai International and Pax Christi International are also in both movements, as are other long-standing international networks of women, like the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
There is enormous scope for further cross-pollination and collaboration between these two movements. Many of the organizations already in one of these two networks could easily be convinced to also join the other one. The World Council of Churches, the International Trade Union Confederation and the World Federation of United Nations Associations, for example, are hugely important international allies in ICAN but not yet on board with the Fossil Fuel Treaty. Amnesty International, the Parliament of World Religions and the World Medical Association are conversely allies of the Fossil Fuel Treaty but not yet on board with ICAN.
Although the impetus for a Fossil Fuel Treaty has clearly come from climate activists, those activists in part drew their inspiration for this treaty from previous treaties attempting to address the nuclear threat, namely the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[3] Many of the anti-nuclear activists in ICAN, meanwhile, drew their inspiration for the TPNW from previous treaties banning landmines and cluster munitions, and from the humanitarian disarmament movement that also helped achieve those previous treaties.[4]
These global movements in both fields are already making a difference, and they could be making even more of a difference by working together as one combined effort for our survival.
Global solidarity for peace
We cannot make progress on nuclear weapons or climate change without also addressing the elephant in the room: the animosity that undermines all prospects for global cooperation.
There are many tools available for resolving international differences. The future of the world depends on pushing the US, Russia, and China to use those tools and find a way to work together for the sake of humanity.
For the sake of survival, we must join the calls for peace in Ukraine and for an end to the hostilities between the US and China. This is not about “taking sides” or passing judgment on who is to blame for what. It is about demanding that these conflicts be brought to an end so we can cultivate mutually beneficial relationships.
For many in the US and Western Europe, this is not going to be easy. Sympathies have coalesced around the Ukrainians fighting for their homeland against a very large and powerful invading force, and around the students of Tiananmen Square, the protesters in Hong Kong, the Buddhists of Tibet and the Muslim Uyghers of Xinjiang.
But even if it’s difficult, we must build solidarity with the voices for peace around the world calling for an end to hostilities with Russia and China. That’s an essential component of any global campaign for survival.
These voices for peace include Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, and the Secretary-General of the UN. They include President Lula da Silva of Brazil[5], President Lopez Obrador of Mexico[6] and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa.[7] They include scientists and Nobel Laureates[8], health professionals[9], faith leaders[10] and war veterans[11]. These voices have been marginalized in western media, but they represent public opinion in the vast majority of the world.[12]
Global solidarity for peace, in the context of ongoing wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere, means amplifying these voices and challenging the prevailing narrative in the West that equates peace talks with “appeasement” and sees negotiation as “surrender.” It means standing our ground as representing the global majority who want peace and quite frankly don’t care who is to “blame” for current tensions, whether they are in the Middle East, China, Russia, or Ukraine.
[1] See list of ICAN partners at: ICAN. (n.d.). Partner organizations. https://www.icanw.org/partners
[2] See list of organizations endorsing the FFT at: The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. (n.d.). Who has endorsed?. https://fossilfueltreaty.org/endorsements/#organisations
[3] Newell, P., & Simms, A. (2019). Towards a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. Climate Policy, 20(8), 1043–1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2019.1636759
[4] See chronology of humanitarian disarmament treaties at ICAN. (n.d.). History of the TPNW. https://www.icanw.org/history_of_the_tpnw
[5] Jones, J. (2023, April 24). Brazil’s Lula pitches ‘peace coalition’ for Ukraine, but he treads a thin line. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/americas/brazil-lula-ukraine-peace-coalition-intl-latam/index.html
[6] Mary, K., & Cortes, R. (2023, July 31). Mexican president urges end to “irrational” Ukraine war, wants Russia at peace talks. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexican-president-urges-end-irrational-ukraine-war-wants-russia-peace-talks-2023-07-31/
[7] Radford, B. A. (2023, June 17). Ukraine war must end, South African President Ramaphosa tells Putin. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65940655
[8] Max Planck Society. (2022, March 3). Call for peace. https://www.mpg.de/peace-declaration-nobel-prize-laureates
[9] International Council of Nurses. (2023, February 23). One year on – ICN renews call for peace in Ukraine as nurses around the world stand in solidarity [Press release]. https://www.icn.ch/news/one-year-icn-renews-call-peace-ukraine-nurses-around-world-stand-solidarity
[10] Post, K. (2022, December 21). Nearly 1,000 faith leaders call for Christmas cease-fire in Ukraine. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/12/21/christmas-truce-ukraine-russia-war/
[11] Condon, G. (2023, March 20). US veterans call for holiday truce, ceasefire, and negotiations to end war in Ukraine. Common Dreams. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/12/18/us-veterans-call-holiday-truce-ceasefire-and-negotiations-end-war-ukraine
[12] See, for example, opinion polls conducted in India, China, Turkey showing very little support outside of Europe and the US for continuing the war. Ash, T. G., Krastev, I., & Leonard, M. (2023, February 22). United West, divided from the rest: Global public opinion one year into Russia’s war on Ukraine. European Council on Foreign Relations. https://ecfr.eu/publication/united-west-divided-from-the-rest-global-public-opinion-one-year-into-russias-war-on-ukraine/
See also Lewsey, F. (2022, October 21). War in Ukraine widens global divide in public opinion. University of Cambridge. https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/worlddivided