by Arjun Makhijani, with additional text by Marylia Kelley from Tri-Valley CAREs' December 1998 newsletter, Citizen's Watch
De-alerting is a generic term for deactivating nuclear weapons. It is one way to address urgent needs to reduce nuclear dangers in the immediate and short term. Specific techniques range from pinning open switches of missile motors to removing warheads from delivery systems, storing them, and putting them under international monitoring.
The elimination of first strike threats and of large-scale nuclear war by accident or miscalculation are some of the most urgent priorities for de-alerting. However, de-alerting should be carried out in such a way as to represent the clearest and most significant progress towards complete nuclear disarmament, in fulfillment of Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In other words, partial de-alerting measures cannot be seen as ends in themselves, any more than dismantling some nuclear weapons can be a substitute for complete nuclear disarmament.
In the immediate term, de-alerting measures can proceed even without a prior commitment to nuclear disarmament since nuclear weapons can be returned to alert status. However, de-alerting all nuclear weapons will essentially eliminate the risk of large-scale accidental nuclear war, and greatly lower the risk of war by miscalculation. Therefore, de-alerting can allow for a nuclear weapons stand-down that will allow the political room and the time to achieve complete nuclear disarmament in a safe and verifiable way.
It can also allow for a process in which the five nuclear weapons states parties to the NPT can bring the other three nuclear weapons states into a process that neither denies the existence of their arsenals, nor legitimizes them. This is important, as stable maintenance of a state of complete de-alerting will require participation in verification by all eight nuclear weapons states. Specifically, a verifiable halt to production of new nuclear weapons will be required in order to prevent clandestine deployment.
However, there is ample room for unilateral actions. For instance, partial de-alerting does not require prior agreement on verification, and can be carried out in order to test verification procedures and build confidence...
Further, de-alerting measures are complementary to existing arms reduction processes, such as those which are occurring under START I and are scheduled to occur under START II. Most of the world's countries and many other leaders and NGOs have been insistently calling for nuclear disarmament, and de-alerting is widely seen as a crucial first step. For instance, the Canberra Commission endorsed de-alerting, as have retired U.S. Admiral Stansfield Turner (former CIA director), and General Lee Butler (former chief of the US Strategic Air Command).
The recent initiative by Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa, and Sweden calls on the nuclear weapons states: "...to abandon present hair-trigger postures by proceeding to de-alerting and deactivating their weapons. They should also remove non-strategic nuclear weapons from deployed sites. Such measures will create beneficial conditions for continued disarmament efforts and help prevent inadvertent, accidental or unauthorized launches."
De-Alerting: An idea whose time has come
As 1998 draws to a close, a national grassroots campaign is gathering steam to press President Clinton to de-alert the U.S. nuclear arsenal in the coming year, and to challenge other nuclear armed nations to follow suit.
While the concept of de-alerting has been discussed in policy circles for some time, several things are bringing this idea to the forefront now. First, we recently learned that in 1995 the world was less than 15 minutes from nuclear war. The U.S. launched a rocket on a scientific mission from Norway, and Russian radar detected it without knowing whether it was a nuclear assault. For the first time in history, the "black suitcase" that Boris Yeltsin would use to authorize a nuclear attack was activated. It took the Russians 8 minutes to decided it wasn't a U.S. nuke- less than 4 minutes before their launch-on-warning response deadline.
Second, we are discovering that nuclear systems are not only not exempt from possible Year 2000 computer problems, they are particularly complex and susceptible, and with potentially disastrous consequences. De-alerting nuclear weapons could provide the world with a margin of safety.
ACTION: We have put a beautiful de-alerting postcard graphic and text on
our web site for you to download and copy on card stock. If, however, you
need a camera-ready copy of the template mailed to you, send us an email
message containing your snail mail address. And, don't forget to check our
web site in coming months for more information and additional grassroots
actions in 1999.
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