The Nuclear Option Comes Home To Roost

Sometimes international discussions can feel very distant from our everyday lives. At other times they are right on our doorstep.

With talks in Geneva reaching agreement to grant UN inspectors access to the Fordu facility in Iran as part of President Obama's efforts to further the Non-Proliferation Treaty a new phase of global relations has got underway.

Primary among concerns is a question over who really holds power over the development of WMD.

Jerry Guo writes for the Council on Foreign Affairs noting how internal rivalries among inflexible conservative elements is pushing the potentially devastating confrontation, as "ideology remains secondary in the struggle to maintain and consolidate control within the fractured regime."

However local politics in Berkshire also has a direct impact on the debate. Decision-makers are in a prime position deciding planning and licensing the UK's military industrial infrastructure with regard to AWE Aldermaston.

The locally active Nuclear Awareness Group has released new footage of nuclear materials driving along rural Berkshire roads under the cover of dark, which they say is not only physically, but also strategically dangerous.



Meanwhile Green Party candidate Adrian Windish has republished a letter from CND honorary Vice-President Bruce Kent to UK PM Gordon Brown.

In it Mr Kent argues that dependence on nuclear weapons as the basis for security is counterproductive since it encourages other parties to do the same.

As President Obama explained just one nuclear explosion would be devastating, whether by accident or design, by government or by terrorists.

So although he reaffirmed as necessary his commitment to a nuclear deterrent he also clearly stated that it was incumbent on NPT signatories to work to reach agreement on how to reduce stockpiles - a move which was hailed as a potential breakthrough for normalising diplomatic relations.


Oranjepan says:
The threat to global peace and stability will in part be ultimately decided by the individual choices we make about who we elect. If we are not clear about the consequence of our actions then we may allow power to defer to those with very different aims.

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More on issues surrounding AWE Aldermaston.