Source: ICAN
Increasing the stigma around nuclear weapons, and demonstrating whole of society opposition to possession of nuclear weapons helps negotiation efforts to make them illegal, which in turn facilitates their elimination.
No weapon has ever been eliminated before it was outlawed.
No weapon is outlawed without first becoming stigmatised.
The stigma is more important than we may think. We know that nuclear weapons are bad, but we must be much louder in defining them as unacceptable, as illegitimate.
By following the money, we can cut it off, and while this isn’t the only thing necessary to make nuclear weapons extinct, it will help.
The nine nuclear-armed states are planning to spend more than USD 1,000,000,000,000 (1 trillion) over the next decade to maintain and modernize their nuclear weapons.
While the majority of that money comes from taxpayers in the nuclear-armed countries, the Don’t Bank on the Bomb report shows that 411 banks, pension funds, and asset managers in 31 countries made more than 402 billion USD available between January 2011 and August 2014 to 28 companies that produce, maintain, and modernize nuclear arsenals in France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
A wide range of financial institutions operate in our globalised world. These include privately owned companies and state-owned institutions, banks, insurance companies, investment funds, investment banks, pension funds, export credit agencies and many others.
As a large majority of companies rely on the financial markets and financial institutions to provide them with operating capital, these financial institutions play a key role in every segment of human activity. In choosing which companies and projects they will finance and invest in, financial institutions play a significant role in the world.
Choosing to avoid investment in controversial items- from tobacco to nuclear arms- can result in changed global policies, and reduces the chances of humanitarian harm.
Exclusions by financial institutions have a stigmatizing effect and can convince directors to decide to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons contracts and expand into other areas.
While it is unlikely that divestment by a single financial institution would create sufficient pressure on a company for it to end its involvement in nuclear weapons work, divestment by even a few institutions based on the same ethical objection can have a significant impact on a company’s strategic direction.
Let me give you an example from our sister campaign- Stop Explosive Investments. In that campaign, the focus is disinvestment from cluster munitions producers.
Granted, cluster munitions, unlike nuclear weapons, have been clearly outlawed through a specific international treaty. Nevertheless, not every country has stopped making cluster bombs, and the disinvestment campaign has had a clear and significant effect.
Stigmatize, ban and eliminate: a new vision for nuclear disarmament | Source: ICAN
Does anyone think that Lockheed Martin would listen or stop making weapons? Well, they did, and they said in a letter to PAX: “I hope our cessation of the activities in the area of cluster munitions would enable our removal from prohibited investment firms and allow investors to consider Lockheed Martin for inclusion in their portfolios”.
This suggests that pressure from the financial world has had an impact. It stopped a producer from making an illegitimate weapon, even though those weapons were being sold to countries outside the treaty regime.
In our conversations with financial institutions, there was clear feedback that the campaign and pressure from investors had contributed to Lockheed Martin’s decision to end its involvement.
It is clear that prohibiting financing and divestment campaigns can and do make a difference. As work continues to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons, cutting off the money from companies associated with nuclear weapons is key.
*Susi Snyder’s article was published on ICAN–International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Go to Original on ICAN.
Read also:
Nuclear Weapons: The Gap, the Pledge and the Ban
Spending on Nuclear Weapons — US$105 Billion a Year; US$300 Million a Day, US$12 Million an Hour
Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Europe – The Dangers Are Very Great Today
Nuclear Weapons Abolition – “NATO” Is Not an Excuse
Nuclear Weapons Abolition – ‘US Attempts to Bully Allies into Inaction’
Tell Your Bank Not to Invest in Nuclear Weapons!
Initiative on Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons Takes Centre Stage at UN General Assembly
‘The Damage Caused by Past Nuclear Testing Cannot Be Reversed’
Nuclear — Despite Price Dip, Uranium Demand, Production Continue to Rise
UN Officials Call for Renewed Global Commitment to Ending Nuclear Tests
Do You Have the Courage to Ban Nuclear Weapons?
Why Is the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons So Urgent?
Hiroshima: The Myth of “Military Necessity”
Inhumane, Illegal, Immoral and Cruel: a Survivor Account of the Hiroshima Bombing
Anti-Nukes Move from Norway to Bahrain The NPT’s “Unacceptable and Continuous Failure”: Egypt Walks Out
Fed Up With Empty Promises, The Arab May Abandon Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Middle East Nuclear Free Bid Moves to Finland – Yet Another Lost Chance?
Nuclear Free Middle East “High Priority” Nuclear Free Middle East — Necessary Yet Impossible
Middle East — France’s Fuzzy Face on Nuclear Abolition
‘Strong UN Commitment’ to Nuclear-free Middle East Conference
Which Countries Have Nuclear Weapons and How Many?
Banks, Pension Funds, Insurance Companies in 30 Countries ‘Invest’ Your Money in Nuclear Arms
‘Humanity Could Not Survive a Nuclear War Using Even a Fraction of Existing Arsenals’
Another Lost Chance to Save Middle East from Mass Destruction
Watch The Sky–It May Rain Atomic Bombs
Nuclear Terrorism – Killing 100,000 People Not Very Difficult
Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons — Are You Ready to Hit the Gas?
Ecocide, a Catastrophic Consequence of Nuclear Weapons
“Breaking the Nuclear Chain” Campaign
Pressure to Push the Nuclear Genie Back in the Bottle
Germany Resolved to Pave the Way to Nuclear Disarmament
India, Pakistan Engaged in World’s Most Active Nuclear Arms Race
World Nuclear Forces: ‘Fewer But Newer’ Weapons
Desert “Star Wars”, Respect Dignity of Life
Nuclear Dangers, The World Is “One Minute Closer to Midnight” U.S. Spending on Atomic Bombs Doubles UN Budget
Of Dr. Strangelove and the Risk of Using Atomic Bombs World Campain Against False ‘Nuclear Deterrence Doctrine’
The Story of Child Yami and the Atomic Bomb
Obama and How to Save a Quarter of a Trillion Dollars
You Choose: $105 Billion a Year for Health Care or Nuclear Weapons?
Will Israel Attack Iran … Really?
Top US Military Commander: ‘I Don’t Want to Be Complicit’ if Israel Attacks Iran
US Defense Secretary Warns of ‘Pearl Harbor’ Cyber Attack by Iran
2015 Human Wrongs Watch
