Leadership in Preventing Nuclear War, Returning to Diplomacy, and Negotiating the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
Jackie Cabasso / Mayors for Peace North America
HONOLULU, Hawai’i (July 1, 2019) – Today, at the close of its 87th Annual Meeting, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), unanimously adopted a bold new resolution, “Calling on All Presidential Candidates to Make Known Their Positions on Nuclear Weapons and to Pledge US Global Leadership in Preventing Nuclear War, Returning to Diplomacy, and Negotiating the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.” The resolution calls on “all Presidential candidates of all political parties” to make these “priority issues in the 2020 Presidential campaign.”
The USCM resolution quotes Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, who “has declared that the risk of nuclear weapons being used again is at its highest since World War II, calling it an ‘urgent’ issue that the world should take more seriously,” and notes that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, “US spending for nuclear warheads, delivery systems and supporting infrastructure over the 2019-2028 period is projected to cost $494 billion, for an average of nearly $50 billion a year.”
In remarks to a plenary session of the USCM annual meeting on Sunday, June 30, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, President of Mayors for Peace, declared: “As mayors, you are working every day for the wellbeing of your citizens, but all your efforts could be for naught if nuclear weapons are used again. I would also like to point out that, while every one of the nuclear-armed states is spending billions of dollars to modernize and upgrade their arsenals, that money could be much more productively spent to meet the needs of cities and the people who live in them.”
Warning that “the US announcement, followed by Russia’s, of their intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty effective in August 2019 are signs of deepening crisis among the nuclear-armed states,” the resolution “calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge their support for the joint 1985 declaration by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,’ as urged by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres”.
The USCM resolution further “calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war by renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first and by actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.”
The resolution observes that despite the fact that “the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which entered into force in 1970, requires the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China to negotiate “in good faith” the end of the nuclear arms race “at an early date” and the elimination of their nuclear arsenals,” “nuclear-armed states are engaged in nuclear weapons modernization programs.”
And the USCM “calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to reverse US opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to embrace its humanitarian values and goals”.
The resolution was sponsored by Mayors for Peace US Vice-President T.M. Franklin Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa and 18 co-sponsors including outgoing USCM President Steve Benjamin, Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and USCM International Affairs Committee Chair Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton, Ohio.
The USCM, the nonpartisan association of 1,408 American cities with populations over 30,000, has unanimously adopted Mayors for Peace resolutions for 14 consecutive years. Resolutions adopted at annual meetings become USCM official policy.
As noted in this year’s resolution, “Mayors for Peace is working for a world without nuclear weapons and safe and resilient cities as essential measures for the achievement of lasting world peace, and has grown to 7,756 cities in 163 countries and regions, with 215 US members.”
Mayors for Peace, founded in 1982, is led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Jackie Cabasso is Mayors for Peace’s North American Coordinator. The full text of the resolution follows:
CALLING ON ALL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO MAKE KNOWN THEIR POSITIONS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND TO PLEDGE US GLOBAL LEADERSHIP IN PREVENTING NUCLEAR W AR, RETURNING TO DIPLOMACY, AND NEGOTIATING THE ELIMINATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Resolution unanimously adopted by the US Conference of Mayors at its 87th Annual Meeting
Sponsored by:
The Honorable T.M. ‘Frank” Franklin Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines
The Honorable Denny Doyle, Mayor of Beaverton
The Honorable Frank C. Ortis, Mayor of Pembroke Pines
The Honorable J Christian Bollwage, Mayor of Elizabeth
The Honorable Jorge O. Elorza, Mayor of Providence
The Honorable Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton
The Honorable Roy D. Buol, Mayor of Dubuque
The Honorable Steve Benjamin, Mayor of Columbia
The Honorable Jesse Arreguin, Mayor of Berkeley
The Honorable Alex Morse, Mayor of Holyoke
The Honorable William Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh
The Honorable Dontario Hardy, Mayor of Kinston
The Honorable Gleam Davis, Mayor of Santa Monica
The Honorable Pauline Russo Cutter, Mayor of San Leandro
The Honorable Patrick Wojahn, Mayor of College Park
The Honorable Michael P. Victorino, Mayor of Maui County
The Honorable Lauren Poe, Mayor of Gainsville
The Honorable Patrick Furey, Mayor of Torrance
The Honorable McKinley L. Price DDS, Mayor of Newport News
WHEREAS, nuclear weapons are the most devastating weapons ever created by humankind, with immense destructive capacity and trans-generational radiation effects; and
WHEREAS, nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons, 93 percent held by the US and Russia, pose an intolerable threat to humanity and the biosphere; and
WHEREAS, Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, has declared that the risk of nuclear weapons being used again is at its highest since World War II, calling it an “uurgent” issue that the world should take more seriously; and
WHEREAS, the US announcement, followed by Russia’s, of their intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty effective in August 2019 are signs of deepening crisis among the nuclear-armed states; and
WHEREAS, following the 2002 US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, collapse of the INF Treaty imperils the entire structure of arms control and disarmament, including prospects for extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which expires in February 2021, and could lead to new, unpredictable arms racing; and
WHEREAS, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NNPT), which entered into force in 1970, requires the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China to negotiate “in good faith” the end of the nuclear arms race “at an early date” and the elimination of t heir nuclear arsenals; and
WHEREAS, nuclear-armed states are engaged in nuclear weapons modernization programs; and
WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Office reports that US spending for nuclear warheads, delivery systems and supporting infrastructure over the 2019 – 2028 period is projected to cost $494 billion, for an average of nearly $50 billion a year; and
WHEREAS, US military spending in 2018, at $6649 billion, accounted for 36 percent of global military spending, almost as much as the next eight highest spenders combined, and more than two times as much as China and Russia combined; and
WHEREAS, notwithstanding the US commitment to support immediate negotiation and early entry into force of a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CCTBT) made in connection with the 1995 indefinite extension of the NPT and subsequent review conferences, the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review explicitly states that the Administration will not seek Senate approval of the CTBT; and
WHEREAS, over the objection of and without participation by the United States, Russia and the other nuclear – armed states, 122 countries – compelled by the unacceptable humanitarian consequences of any nuclear weapons use – in 2017 adopted and opened for signature a historic treaty to prohibit the possession, development, testing, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; and
WHEREAS, Mayors for Peace is working for a world without nuclear weapons and safe and resilient cities as essential measures for the achievement of lasting world peace, and has grown to 7,756 cities in 163 countries and regions, with 215 US members; and
WHEREAS, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) has unanimously adopted Mayors for Peace resolutions for 14 consecutive years, on June 11, 2018 calling on the Administration and Congress to “step back from the brink and exercise global leadership in preventing nuclear war.”
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the USCM calls on all Presidential candidates of all political parties to make known their positions on nuclear weapons and to make preventing nuclear war, returning to diplomacy, and commencing negotiations on the global elimination of nuclear weapons priority issues in th e 2020 Presidential campaign; and
BE IT FUTHER RESOLVED, that the USCM calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge their support for the joint 1985 declaration by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” as urged by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the USCM calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war by renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first and by actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the USCM calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, as an urgent priority, to lower nuclear tensions with Russia through intensive diplomatic efforts, including negotiations to replace the INF Treaty and to extend or replace New START; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the USCM calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to promptly seek Senate approval of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the USCM calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to reverse US opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to embrace its humanitarian values and goals; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
that the USCM urges all US mayors to join Mayors for Peace to help reach the goal of 10,000 member cities by 2020. And encourages all USCM members to call on all Presidential candidates to make known their positions on nuclear weapons and to pledge US global leadership in preventing nuclear war, returning to diplomacy, and negotiating the elimination of nuclear weapons.
