2018: Geneva. Verify the bomb

The light of Jerusalem was shining in Geneva. Do we want to see it? Time for a vision: It's time to bring missing states - North Korea, Israel, Pakistan and India - to the NPT, to move on together. 

UN building. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.

Geneva, Switzerland. April 23rd till May 4th 2018. First week: sunshine and clear view of the mountains. Second week: rain and sunshine, clouds around mountains. United Nations, Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT PrepCom 2018). As part of a wonderful delegation of the Friedenswerkstatt Mutlangen, a German Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). For an overview of the PrepCom see Reaching Critical Will's excellent information platform and its NPT News in Review. 

Creating a reality

It's time to bring all relevant states, North Korea, Israel, Pakistan and India, to the NPT and to move on together. 

I am very disappointed to hear that a conference on establishing a nuclear free zone in the Middle East did not take place in 2017. I remember, that this was proposed last year in Vienna. I have hope to see such a conference happening early in 2019 in Geneva. We all should support Russian delegates in organizing it. I observed delegates of the United States and the Russian Federation working together, especially women, giving me hope. We are beautiful human beings: Where is our shared will to meet and to talk, till we have worked out a solution? Yes, it is about nuclear weapons, it is not easy; and I don't care. I assume that no state will ever have the intension to use these weapons. The weapon is used as a threat and people feel it. It creates fear and distrust. I had a long conversation with a woman from the Lebanese delegation about the aspect of perceived threat. A Jewish State will never be able to justify the use of nuclear weapons within its deepest roots written in the Bible. The Republic of Iran cannot unite our Islamic world by wishing to destroy the Jewish state of Israel. Help uniting the world, without defining an enemy. Saudi Arabia does not need to enrich uranium for peaceful uses. There is enough enriched uranium for peaceful use in the world for centuries to come. It's time to speak honestly. God is listening, too. We all know. We have two years to make the zone happening. Let's work together, loyally and trustfully.   

UN Assembly Hall. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.

I got exited and very optimistic seeing the nuclear safeguard and verification mechanisms under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) growing and working. A diplomat next to me was saying, that we maybe will see verification mechanisms (as you can see on the side-event's website) to be needed in North Korea soon. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is an example that the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) verification mechanisms are in place. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is functioning around the world. A critical mass of actors support a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. The Additional Protocol makes sense. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is emphasizing the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and is heard in the world. We could hear more female and young diplomats raising the voice for their country's needs. Mixed teams work better together. 50 years after the NPT was born, the building of nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, and safeguard is build, it is amazing, it is real. Civil society actors around the world, such as the abolition2000 group, are committed to work together to help and support a global zero. For a useful overview of our full basket of options see the summary by the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND). People with good hearts have been continuously working on this issue around the world; and are committed to keep working on it.

Diplomats talk about nuclear safeguard. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.

In the decades after World War II the international community has build an institutional framework to safeguard and verify nuclear disarmament. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is build. Cooperation with national institutions works. This is great. We as human beings have found an institutional way to guard the danger of nuclear destruction for our generation and probably also for future generations.

Civil society (abolition2000 network) exchanges and coordinates its program. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018. 

Following a step-by-step approach we now can start creating the political will to establish nuclear free zones on our continents and in our regions. We do this process step-by-step, all together. 

The next step is the Middle East. No country in the region needs nuclear options to threaten its enemies. This is old. It is not honest and not following the truth. The idea to build its own national missile program is also very boring. All the noise and blaming who is violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in Europe should wake us up. This not the future and not a perspective and heritage to give our young generations. This weapon systems are 70 years old. Even if we keep modifying them endlessly, this is really not the future. Are deterring weapon systems needed on earth at all? Why not finding ways to cooperate, instead of using our human capacities to threaten each other? God the merciful does not allow for this intension of threat anymore. Do we really want to act beyond God's will? We should have established a nuclear free zone in the Middle East by 2020.

Mayors for Peace, action. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.

Envision a reality 

It's time for visions and rigorous implementation. 

Here the vision. Step two is a nuclear free zone between Pakistan and India in 2025. Step three is a nuclear free zone in Europe, Asia and North America in 2030. It is not so very complicated. The world has continents, these continents can have political unions and can be nuclear free zones. For some continents the nuclear free zones will help to build political unions, for others, such as Europe, the unions will help to establish nuclear free zones. Both processes can be mutually reinforcing creating win-win situation, constructive dialogue and mutual respect around the world. We need supra-national unions anyways to institutionalize coordination mechanisms for the social consequences of climate change. We can be done by 2030. We start with the first step of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East till 2020. Don't let your mind find reasons to disagree. Trust my words for a month and share this vision with your colleagues during this month. Trust my words the next month again. Create an infinite regress. Challenge what I say but also work towards what I say. 

A nuclear free Middle East is impossible. Impossible is not the answer anymore as I learned in Washington D.C., when walking by a Marine Corps memorial: "The difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a bit longer." 

"The impossible takes a bit longer." Washington D.C., USA, 2016. 

Israel does not need a strategy of nuclear ambiguity anymore. What Israel and the Jewish nation needs is recognition. It already is the super power in terms of human capital, creativity, and innovation in the region, if not in the world. Israel needs to be respected with a language of recognition. I think Israel would allow for unlimited verification of their nuclear program if Iran will do so. Will the world and the Middle East be ready to speak the words to welcome Israel as a friend and neighbor and partner to the NPT? This is the question we should talk about. Offering a language of recognition in order to reach disarmament. Allah does not want to destroy Israel. The Mahdi of the 21st century wants to unite the whole world, respecting the faith of all our forefathers. He will be looking ahead to the shared problems of future generations. Uniting our world and solving our problems is only possible with Israel. 

Nuclear topics do not allow for compromises. And still they have a very emotional component. 

Renegotiating the JCPOA with Iran is a chance. If you go in any nuclear negotiations you cannot move in with the idea of finding a compromise. The dangerous nature of the atom does not allow for a sunshine clause and a 'maybe in the future' argument. A new agreement with Iran, based on the terms put out by the US administration on May 21st 2018, will allow Israel to join the NPT in 2020. Then, Iran's demand of Israel's denuclearization would become reality. Also, Saudi Arabia would not need to enrich uranium anymore, meeting Israel's wish. Enemies could become partner and wars will end. God would smile. We need to find the language of care and understanding.

Disarming is painful for people who have the dream for their country to become a nuclear power.  We need to find ways for new dreams that are more powerful as the dream of dominance and deterrence. We can start telling the story that our unfulfilled dreams are part of a larger dream. From a spiritual point of view it could be the Messianic era of shared togetherness of all people on earth.  From a political point of view we could tell us the story of a united world, where we are able to organize distribution of goods, rights and services in a just and respectful way. 

Washington D.C., USA, 2016.

We can solve nuclear disarmament, because it is a social process. We can organize social process if we want to. Even if they are unlikely, social processes follow a probabilistic nature and can happen today or in the infinite future. If we want they can happen today: "The impossible takes a little bit longer." All we need are words and language and a strong will. The Manhattan Project, the creation of the nuclear bomb, is one example for what we are able to do, if we want to and if we do it together. We can do our job today. We know the goal. Don't ask for permission to continue, continue. 

Be the United Nations

One last thought before we continue working. We should look back in history to the time before the bomb and World War II. Looking back to Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, the President and the First Lady of the United States from 1933 till 1945. After the war, Eleanor Roosevelt became the first Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights (1946–1952). There are two busts of the couple in the back entrance area of the Assembly Hall. How can they inspire us today? 

Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt. UN Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.

I remember walking the Roosevelt memorial in Washington D.C. on a bright August day in 2016. I read on a stone: "The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, one party, or one nation... It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative efforts of the whole world."  Becoming one human nation. Overcoming the idea of war - study war no more. A world with universally shared human rights. Do we have enough political processes on a supra-national level to govern questions of global dimensions today? 

Washington D.C., USA, 2016.

Is what we have enough? I believe that the need for nuclear disarmament talks indirectly points towards too much noise at the United Nations Security Council. This is a harsh critic on this wonderful round of voices. We should not hesitate to think to reform the Security Council. I don't know enough about the United Nation's political bodies to present an answer. But I sense, that the strategy of nuclear deterrence and the concept of strategic stability based on nuclear deterrence is needed, because we do not have established enough strong and binding political process in the United Nations that can replace the idea of threat and nuclear deterrence. Deterrence still serves its duty of holding peace and preventing us from starting a new world war. It is a pity and shows how limited we think we are. It is still more powerful to threaten each other with destruction of the world, than to trust in the ability to negotiate stability again and again. The most important bodies of the United Nations should be a symbol of peace and an example for trust, hope, and friendship in our world. They should be creating the space for global cooperation. 

Roosevelt memorial. Washington D.C., USA, 2016.

"Unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind." I kept reading, walking the Roosevelt memorial. How does the UN Security Council look like in a time of complete nuclear disarmament? Where is the power of our voices than coming from? What power will then be holding peace without the power of our nuclear arsenals? What is the power of truth? Are human rights the answer? We cannot ignore universal human rights and the dignity of a single human being on earth. No Security Council is above the simple principle of shared dignity. We know where this rules come from and we know that we as humans are not able to change universality with force. We are not in the past anymore, the past of 20th century's battlefields. Our councils should not be uses as battlefields. They should be a place of love, honesty and trust instead of power and dominance. Welcome to the present. We are one world. Let's talk together, let's find solutions and, by God's wish, let's cooperate : ) We are one world. We cannot change it anymore.   

Let's sit together and forgive each other why we meet. God want's us to walk the Avenue of Peace, l'Avenue de la Paix.

Avenue of Peace. Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.

2017: Vienna. Disarming the bomb

May 2017, Vienna, Austria. United Nations. 

Sound of risk

In a draft of my dissertation I write: "The art of change for a risk entrepreneur then could be to be an amplification station that receives, encodes and translates all available signals in order to form a message and to send the signals that best represents the existing information of the present (individual) ignorance system. The hypothesized abilities to listen to the sound of risk go beyond -- as far as I know -- scientifically accepted evidence and empirical testing. The sound of risk might also only be a metaphor that helps to describe the integrating power of risk for individual, social, and (if existing) higher order life on Earth. Risk in my opinion hence is not only solved by technical solutions, but by communicative processes and by creating a space of ignorance that itself shapes the decision making processes. The space of ignorance can best shape a risk's sound if all existing knowledge is incorporated in the process. The balance of the aggregated signals, the final sound, then is the `best available risk sound' (BARS) at time 't' for risk 'i' (BARS_ti). Risk can be also a vector of different risks. A risk entrepreneur then is a conductor of an illustrious orchestra playing the risk symphony of the 21st century -- a drunk dreamer who desperately tries to balance the misery of a terrible headache." 

The headache, I describe, is the real problem that we created an arsenal of nuclear bombs, with immense efforts and our believes in its need and controllability.  We lack the political will to disarm and we still do not know how to safeguard the technology for further generations. Too many voices in an orchestra that never needed to learn to listen to each other. Who is conducting? Do we really want to wait till God comes to us to teach us how to talk and to listen to each other? 

When joining the  First Preparatory Committee on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in May 2017 in Vienna, I realized that the drunk conductor is real. In order to justify the need of nuclear weapons and its risks in the 21st century, we need to keep the narratives and the political order of the 20th century alive. In one of the side events, a man from the U.S. delegation said that nuclear accidents are unlikely. This is not true as empirical evidence in the history of nuclear accidents shows us. I was tempted to city from Psalm 78: " Then the Lord awake as one asleep, like a mighty man recovering from wine.  And He smote His adversaries backward; He put upon them a perpetual reproach.  Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;  But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount of Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He hath founded for ever." Are we able to build a sanctuary today with our words and thoughts, a shared place we can accept without doubts? 

Interesting to say that the crucial element in the ongoing disarmament process is to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Maybe mount Zion will become an important voice in this disarmament process. A clear voice. 

Again, the drunk conductor. God as a listener of dialogues, resting near mount Zion, a master in managing and balancing ignorance. An source of truth. There is a lot to do. How to make peace in the region and to overcome the idea of nuclear deterrence is the question, nuclear partners need to address till 2020.  I enjoyed listening to diplomatic talks for two weeks. It is so difficult and needs so much attention. I like it.  At the end, the main message I took is: We need to "trust" (American delegation), all is said, we need political "will" (Iranian delegation) and we want to bring people together hosting talks (Russian delegation). It was also recommended to build more mixed teams with women and men working together. It was good to see how diplomats want to work together but do not know how to do it without falling back into traditional patterns of blaming each other. I did not hear the word love in any of the talks. I missed it.  

I felt honored to be part of the PNND delegation, the Parliamentarian for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. The global coordinator Alyn Ware organized a side event where I could present a civil-society initiative called Détente Now!  History of the Cold War has shown that in order to build trust among actors you start with topics that are not controversial. It need time to build trust. A policy of diplomacy and détente you do with your enemies not with your friends. And it is not a sign of weakness if you try to reach out to an enemy instead of just demonstrating a strong shoulder. Building trust is what we strive for.

I want to see a Middle East free of nuclear weapons happen. How can redemption work when the shield of David is based on nuclear deterrence? This is one question I took from Vienna. How can we build a tent of peace in Jerusalem and to bring peace to the world if the idea prevails to use nuclear weapons to either protect or to attack the Holy City? We have time till 2020 to work on trust and mutual recognition as a basis of a peaceful solution. 

Psalm 78 reminds all of us to keep working. 

2016: Berlin and Prague. Chaining the bomb

October 2016, Berlin, Germany. November 2016, Prague, Czech Republic 

I entered the nuclear disarmament world in summer 2016. The dissertation 'The sound of risk and the art of change' was written. In Berlin I met people from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), as well as from the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND). In October 2016 I attended the abolition2000 meeting for the first time, a platform where non-governmental actors coordinate their activities. I was in the center of non-state actors nuclear disarmament work. It is a small world. 

I had no previous knowledge of the disarmament process and did not know most of the terms, people where talking about. I was convinced, and still am, that nuclear disarmament will happen. Enough good people are working on this wish. In Berlin, I learned that a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the ban treaty, as it is called, is negotiated at the United Nations. I also learned that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is going to be negotiated again in 2020. I was exited to learn more. 

In Prague, I joined a conference on nuclear disarmament with a mixed participants from national state actors, NATO, science and non-governmental groups. I learned about the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). 

I figured out that listening to the narratives is important. We tell us different stories and create different realities with our words. We want security and we -- state actors -- still believe that nuclear weapons are a guarantee of security for us. I wonder how we can change our basic assumptions and can leave this infinite regress. Do our children really deal with this issues? What story do we want to tell our children? What story do we want our children to be telling their children? Keep working and listening.  

The days in Prague left me with deep thoughts. The nuclear weapons have the power to destroy the world on the one hand, on the other its destructive power also forces us to find a language we all understand and speak to overcome the idea of enmity, hatred and revenge. Solving the nuclear dilemma also bears the chance for the international community of nations to speak as one voice and one community. From my point of view, It is an opportunity for political leaders to learn from each other, to build trust and cooperation. Disarmament is an responsibility an obligation to act. 

In front of a former cold war Soviet nuclear weapon bunker, we were invited to take pictures on a 3D installation. We all try to work on chaining the bombs around the world. 

Join and take bold and careful steps to make it happen.  

2015: East Lansing. Making the bomb

2015, East Lansing, Michigan (USA)

In 2015 I spent many month at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan writing on my dissertation on nuclear risk perception: 'The sound of risk and the art of change.' 

Human will can move mountains

The library allowed me to find out and learn more about the beginning of the nuclear bomb. One book for example had many black and with pictures of the Los Alamos Laboratory, where all the scientists lived from 1942 on for three years to build the bomb. I understood that the Manhattan Project was a unique moment in human history, at least from my point of view. World War II allowed to bring together money, logistics, knowledge and will to produce the most powerful weapon in the world. The best scientists, for example, usually very individual people, decided freely to live together with their families in a prison like areal to work on the secret bomb. As soon as the war was over they left and went back to different universities. If we really want and need to, we can do a lot together. We can also join for nuclear disarmament. If we all want to. It is our choice. 

Oral history. A flying canoe

A second observation I made still makes me wonder. In a book I was reading of a place in Canada where uranium to build the bomb for Hiroshima was taken from. There is a story among native people form this area that many decades ago, before white people were in the country, a group of native people passed a rock near a lake. When resting at the place, the medicine man started crying and kept crying the hole night. The next day he told that in his dream he saw people with flying canoes coming to the rock, taking part of it. They flew in the dessert and put it on a bigger flying canoe. The medicine man followed the flying canoe, flying across the ocean to drop the rock above a different country, bringing suffering to people. He ordered all people of his tripe to not to drink water from around the rock and to always stop to pray and honor the rock with gifts. This story was known among the native people, before uranium was taken from this place in Canada to build the Hiroshima bomb. 

We can be the change

For me this two stories I was reading show the same: if we care as human beings we can bring a change to the world. There is a story why we created nuclear bombs, there is a reason. And there will be a reason why we are ending the ear of nuclear arms, as weapons of destruction and deterrence in the world. There is. Will we see the reason? Will we accept it already today? 

What will remain a question we will hand over to the next generation for many generations is the question of how to best govern the knowledge and the existing infrastructure to safeguard the knowledge and technology. This is the heritage of World War II and the Manhattan Project. 

2014: In Hiroshima. Dropping the bomb

July 2014, Hiroshima

In July 2014, my travels brought me to Hiroshima. On August 6th, 1945 the first nuclear bomb detonated over Hiroshima. Walking around the memorial side and walking through the museum, I tried to imagine how sudden the nuclear explosion changed the face of the city and how much pain it brought to its citizens. Dropping the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki three day later ended World War II also in Japan. 

Social reality and curiosity

Was dropping the bombs' only reason to end a war? In the Hiroshima museum also additional reasons are named, such as demonstrating military power to Soviet Union or justifying the immense costs of the creation of the bomb, what was cold the Manhattan Project. Ground zero -- the center of the explosion -- not only became the center of destruction and death it also became a focus of scientific research on how efficient a nuclear bomb is able to kill people, as Hugh Gutterson describes in his book 'People of the bomb.'  

I didn't find an answer to what I saw in the museum and learned about the Hiroshima tragedy. The bomb is a massive attack on human dignity, it is a weapon. A war is an attack on human dignity as such. I got interested to learn more about different narratives and views on war and on the nuclear arsenal. I was surprised to see how many nuclear bombs had been disarmed  already, yet I also noticed still many nuclear arms hold by nuclear armed states. I was surprised and realized I am born into a world of nuclear forces. I wanted to learn more. 

A long afternoon

Ringing the peace bell did not bring much relieve. Still nuclear arms in the world, I thought that Japan is the only country in the world, that experienced a mayor nuclear accident (in Fukushima 2011) and the dropping of nuclear bombs (in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945). What are these events telling us? What do we, as human beings, learn from this events? What do the suffering souls tell us? 

When visiting Hiroshima in 2014, I did not know that I will get involved in nuclear disarmament. And still, I realized that something is necessary to do. We cannot keep the idea of a nuclear war alive for ever. I want it to stop, and I want to walk for disarmament and peace through our world.