The Future of Nuclear Weapons

Jayantha Dhanapala is the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Disarmament. In this video, he talks to Steve Paikin of The Agenda on the future of nuclear weapons.

He says that today, "the greatest worries are that we could have a nuclear weapon being used, either by accident, or by design, and by state actors, who have nuclear weapons, or by non-state actors - terrorist groups. It's become much more diversified, much more complex, and much more dangerous than the cold war situation."

He also stressed that dialogue and negotiations are the way towards resolving our nuclear problem, not sanctions and pre-emptive strikes. He also called upon the major nuclear states to show leadership in reducing their nuclear arms. Eventually, nuclear weapons must be outlawed, and a nuclear weapons convention must exist.

He also pointed out the hypocrisy of major powers on allowing the peaceful use of nuclear power, saying that when a regime change occured, their attitudes suddenly changed. He also pointed out that it cannot be proven that nuclear deterrence and the "balance of terror" has helped kept the peace.

The host asked at the end, perhaps with some disbelief, "Is a world without nuclear weapons genuinely achievable? Mr. Dhanapala replied confidently that "It is achievable. We scaled many mountains in international relations. We though that slavery could not ba abolished because it was an institution that fed a lot of economies in the world - but it was abolished.  We thought that women's right to vote would not be achievable, but it was achieved. We thought that apartheid was immutable, but it was destroyed finally. And so, I'm sure that we can, with the right political will and the part of countries, and the leadership of the right people like President Obama, achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons."