„Nuclear weapons are to global security what fossil fuels are to a green economy: a costly legacy of past generations thwarting justice and sustainability efforts in the long-term,“ argued IFSH rsearchers Franziska Stärk und Dr. Ulrich Kühn. They therefore described the global nuclear order as unjust to future generations.
In a new Bullletin of Atomic Scientists roundtable, Franziska Stärk and Dr Ulrich Kühn take their previous call for a critical reflection on past, ongoing, and future nuclear injustices to better connect the dots between scholarly fields and social movements further. They invite four scholars, practitioners, and abolition advocates to articulate what a research agenda on nuclear injustice should look like:
The researcher Rebecca Gibbons stresses the importance of including those most burdened by past nuclear injustices in the discussion like the Marshallese people. The diplomat Alexander Kmentt highlights the ban treaty on nuclear weapons as a useful prism to address nuclear injustice. The researcher Benoît Pelopidas warns that a nuclear injustice lens could ultimately strengthen arguments in favor of nuclear weapons if based on a conservative reading of nuclear deterrence. The activist Mari Faines considers the effects of colonialism, white supremacy, and racial injustice on nuclear weapons policy.
Reflecting on the contributors’ arguments, Stärk and Kühn conclude that for future generations to not inherit an unjust and unsustainable security architecture, nuclear injustice must become an agenda for change.
You can find the bulletin roundtable here.