Schell questions whether non-proliferation is the essential element of the Bush doctrine, and his suspicions lead to global empire, a "global behemoth, throwing off its chains at last, striding out into a world it means to dominate." The 9-11 attacks, couched in terms of a "tragedy that has befallen the United States," is also "an opportunity to unleash the immense coiled power of the Untied States to remake the world in its own image." Very briefly Schell recognizes that throughout American history "episodes of pre-emptive attack, overthrow of regimes, and pursuit of dominance are common."
The final section of the book looks at ways to respond to the current problem, and requires a significant paradigm shift away from the double standard. The answer, "founded on the principles of law and consent...can only be one thing: the elimination of nuclear weapons by global agreement." This sets up a single standard, that no nation shall possess any nuclear weapons. Simple answer, difficult journey.
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev came the closest to this ideal in the 1980s, only to be hung up on the American insistence on the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI or Star Wars), a distressing fact as "SDI was a delusion for the foreseeable future" (and except for a few rigged solitary test situations, still is). The SDI also emphasizes "the primarily psychological character of nuclear transactions", a "technical fantasy...at the center of the most important strategic decisions in the last years of the Cold War."
The lessons of these nuclear failures – the failure of the Reagan-Gorbachev abolition, the failure of Bush's "strategic school of nuclear warfighters" – confirms a "central axiom of life in the nuclear age", that there is no true advantage to them and "they are inescapably a common danger than can only be faced by all together." Yet the nuclear momentum continues to build, in face of only the "perceived" difficulty in getting rid of them, with the result that for each passing year, "nuclear weapons provide their possessor with less safety while provoking more danger."
Schell concludes with several broad principles that could guide the world to nuclear free territory, starting with the adoption of the idea that the "abolition of nuclear arms [serve] as the organizing principle and goal of all activity in the nuclear field." Above all else he sees global nuclear abolition as an opportunity to also address "larger planetary crisis" such as chemical and biological weapons, the inequitable global market economy (largely funded and supported by U.S. corporate militarism), natural or engineered pandemics, and global warming, the latter he considers the "most difficult item on the broader agenda."
Seldom do writers see, understand, and express such a comprehensive global vision in such readily understood terms. Schell offers that global scope, and offers what should be seen as common sense solutions. The human environment – the environment period – is endangered by most human activities in the pursuit of global power, control, and wealth. Coming to terms with the scary psychology of the nuclear dilemma is a good place to start. Overcoming the psychological constructs built around the need for possessing a doomsday weapon will allow the people of the world to make much more significant progress with the other dilemmas that threaten their survival.
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