Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri over June 20-23, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution calling for nuclear disarmament and dialogue with one’s enemies. The resolution lists the many active wars and simmering hot spots around the world as a motivation for quick action. The resolution reads, “As long as nuclear weapons exist, it will always be the right time to be thinking concretely and constructively about how we will eliminate them.” The mayors note that global military spending is at an all time high and that the U.S. spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined, yet the U.S. is committed to spend an additional $2 trillion to modernize its nuclear arsenal.
The resolution warns of the “increasing risks of nuclear war by accident, miscalculation, or crisis escalation that make disarmament that much more urgent.” It emphasizes that those “nuclear-armed governments at war who do not believe the time is ripe to negotiate the end of hostilities currently underway should recognize the value of talking to their adversaries at every opportunity about limiting the most dangerous of all weapons.”
