The Cost Of The Bowls Of Wrath (Revelation 16)

The impact of nuclear weapons

By DATUK DR. RONALD S. MCCOY – 7 November 2014 @ 8:09 AM

 

AS a member of the United Nations, Malaysia has unswervingly supported multilateral diplomacy and advocated nuclear disarmament and nuclear abolition. Its recent capture of a two-year non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, after a gap of fifteen years, should present another opportunity for active diplomacy, strengthening multilateralism and advancing disarmament, despite the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China — who are all nuclear-armed and veto-empowered.
It is a time when the world is in serious disarray as it struggles to deal with the twin existential threats of climate change and nuclear war. Nation states continue to fumble in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and arrest anthropogenic climate change and to eliminate nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear war, whether by accident, miscalculation or intent. None of these threats is distant or abstract, and yet, we seem to be sleepwalking to disaster, afflicted with a kind of blindness and cognitive dissonance which enables us to virtually ignore life-threatening crises that are staring us in the face. The question is whether we will wake up before it’s too late.

Historically, the Second World War ended and the nuclear age began in 1945 with an unpunished war crime: the use of just two atomic bombs to completely destroy two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two years later, the so-called Cold War triggered a nuclear arms race which peaked at 70,000 nuclear warheads. Today, with the end of the Cold War, 16,300 nuclear weapons continue to threaten civilisation, about 94 per cent of which are American and Russian. Nuclear doctrine has not changed, and all nine nuclear weapon states show no genuine commitment to multilateral nuclear disarmament. Instead, they upgrade and “modernise” their arsenals and delivery systems and maintain them on high-alert launch status.

Although a global nuclear war now seems remote, there is reliable evidence that even a “small” regional nuclear war, for instance, between India and Pakistan, or a conflict between fanatical nuclear-armed religious groups could result in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The use of no more than the equivalent of 50 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs would have catastrophic consequences for the environment, global health, social order, human development and the world economy. Climate scientists have shown that the detonations would result in unprecedented firestorms and smoke which would obliterate the Sun long enough to bring about a “nuclear winter” that would destroy crops and precipitate widespread famine.

Such humanitarian risks have increased. As regional turmoil boils over and spawns new networks of insurgents and terrorists who seek nuclear arms, as command and control systems in even the most sophisticated nuclear-armed states remain vulnerable to not only systemic and human error but also increasingly to cyber attack, as inertia and fatigue overtake international political will, let us recall that the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference expressed “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” and declared that “all states need to make special efforts to establish the necessary framework to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons.”

On Oct 20, 2014, 155 countries, including Malaysia, issued a Joint Statement at the UN General Assembly which reiterated those deep concerns and emphasised that no state or international body would have the capacity to respond adequately to such a humanitarian catastrophe.

The international community is now convinced that only the elimination of nuclear weapons will guarantee that they will never be used again. In the same way that chemical and biological weapons, land mines and cluster munitions were banned, a growing number of countries are now working assiduously to fashion an appropriate political environment and construct the building blocks for a practical and technical disarmament framework for the necessary legal instruments to delegitimise and ban nuclear weapons. Making them illegal will inexorably lead to their irreversible and verifiable elimination.

These initiatives are strongly supported by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a global coalition of 360 civil society organisations in 93 countries, including Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility (MPSR). Two conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons have been held in Norway in March 2013 and Mexico in February 2014, hosted by their respective governments. A third will be held in Austria next month, which 150 governments, including a team from Wisma Putra, and 100 civil society delegates, including MPSR, are expected to attend.

In a recently published book — A UN Chronicle (1988-1998) — the author, Tan Sri Razali Ismail, one of Malaysia’s outstanding diplomats and a former president of both the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly, describes “Malaysia’s foray in the world of multilateral diplomacy” and its international activism which propelled its standing on the world stage, gave it a say in UN decision-making, and enabled a small country to “punch above its weight”. It was a time when Wisma Putra was known to be the dynamo which generated enormous energy that advanced important initiatives in multilateral diplomacy.

The author has produced a very readable, candid and authoritative account of his ten years in the United Nations, based on original documents and sources, which makes for enthralling reading.
Looking to the future, Razali expresses concern about the quality of education in Malaysia today and its impact on “the minds of the young” and the quality of diplomacy in Wisma Putra. He says that “we must strive to improve the calibre of our officers at Wisma Putra, the quality of which has declined over the years. A proper education is a big part of this …”

A self-confessed lover of words, Razali emphasises the supreme importance of proficiency in a world language. Historically, that would be English. Many neighbouring countries have invested heavily in quality education from primary to tertiary levels. In today’s highly competitive world, Malaysia must have a national education policy that ensures high education standards and nurtures scholarship, progressive ideas, critical and independent thinking, and proficiency and fluency in English. Genuine quality education is the essential foundation on which all developed nations are built.

Malaysia’s elevation to the Security Council should act as a powerful stimulus to re-examine and revamp education at all levels and raise academic standards and language skills. It is also an unmissable opportunity to recruit bright career-minded officers and build an intellectually strong Wisma Putra which will raise Malaysia’s profile and impact in the UN and other international fora.