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  The Otago Daily Times, = (New=20 Zealand), 28 December 2001
The Christchurch Press (New = Zealand),=20 28 December 2001
The Jordan Times (Jordan), 19 October=20 2001=20

Visiting Ground=20 Zero

By Kennedy=20 GrahamThe possession of weapons of mass destruction still poses = the=20 greatest immediate threat to humankind, even in an age of = climate=20 change and global resource stress. The key, in the longer = term, lies=20 not in the major powers insisting on their sole retention, = on=20 grounds of superior political wisdom and safer command and = control -=20 still less on a moral justification by faith. The genie will = not be=20 so contained. The Non-Proliferation Treaty, that bastion of = Cold War=20 stability, did not corner all nations. Still less did it = place the=20 dragnet over private groups.=20

They will come to possess weapons of mass destruction in = the=20 future - the disaffected and the aggrieved of humanity - and = they=20 will quite likely use them in an act of blind outrage, as = outrage it=20 will be. Six billion going on ten, with inequality of wealth = at 70=20 to 1, ethnic and historical discord, resentment over = whatever global=20 imperium prevails, and the chance to sow the seeds of = change, no=20 matter what the outcome.=20

We shall not be safe from ourselves unless and until we = lance the=20 source of such grievance, and unless we move against the = national=20 retention of such weaponry. The NPT spoke not of the = elimination of=20 nuclear weapons from human hands, but from the national = arsenals of=20 states. In the late 1940s, those days of relative innocence, = the=20 international community toyed with the idea of international = possession of atomic fission. But the idea collapsed, = through mutual=20 mistrust among the major powers at the time.=20

Half a century on, we are about to complete the nuclear = parabola=20 with far-reaching force reductions towards the level of = minimal=20 deterrence. Then the moment of truth will be faced - a = decade from=20 now or a century. Can we place such weapons in the hands of = the=20 global sovereign, however configured and legitimised - can = we trust=20 ourselves that far?=20

Even then, the genie will remain loose among the entire = human=20 race. The threat of a disaster of our own making will be=20 ever-present so long as inequality and resentment, inflamed = by=20 fanatical belief, exist. But it would at least be contained = in time=20 and place. And we shall have moved to the state of a global = society=20 where law exists and seeks to prevail, where an enlightened = level of=20 compassion for all equates with a sobered recognition that = there can=20 be no other way. For the burden of nuclear knowledge, the = pain of=20 inequality and injustice, and the instinct for human = aggression and=20 revenge will forevermore exist side by side. For humanity to = climb=20 out of the abyss, we must confess our collective guilt, and = strive=20 anew for redemption through an appreciation, not of the = ideal state=20 that is beyond our reach, but of the imperfect global = society that=20 is within it.=20

Kennedy Graham, a NZ national, is = Director of=20 the United Nations = University=20 Leadership Academy. These comments, contributed in a = personal=20 capacity, do not necessarily reflect the views of the United = Nations.

=20

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