Brown the dreamer

Mr Brown indicated that Britain stands ready to reduce the number of its own warheads as part of a broader negotiation involving the US and Russia.

Multi-lateral reductions in nuclear arsenals should be part of a new “grand global bargain” which will see all states – including Iran – given the possibility to develop civilian atomic power programmes under strict conditions, said Mr Brown.

Dreaming of a world free of nuclear weapons is a nice hing to do, it feels good and you sound like you’re thinking about what’s best for the world when you say it. I also know of people who claim that getting rid off the nuclear weapons is the single most important challenge humanity faces. This is a nice dream, and maybe even a vision worth working for, but that’s also all it should be; A dream.

As long as we have a world where we got one part of it that’s free, with democracy and everything that comes with it, and engaged in a war against organisations supported by totalitarian states the disarming of the west’s nuclear arsenal shouldn’t be anything worth striving for. Imagine a scenario where the west, and Russia, all abolish their nuclear arsenal and a state like North Korea or Iran builds one up instead. That’s not a pretty scenario.

Instead of dreaming about disarming or nuclear weapons we should work towards turning Iran, North Korea and other totalitarian states into democracies. When we’ve done that, then we can talk about disarming.