On April 9, the Global Security Institute, one of the Basel Peace Office partner organisations, organised a special event at the United Nations in conjunction with the Holy See. The event, entitled Nuclear Weapons and the Moral Compass, focussed on the priority that Pope Francis is giving to nuclear abolition and how religious faiths can cooperate with other key actors - including the United Nations - to achieve this goal. (See UN TV video of the event)
The event provided an opportunity to generate media attention on the role of religious leaders - and in particular Pope Francis - in shifting the debate on nuclear weapons from one of national defence to one of morality and global common good. This focus on universal moral values helps break the nationalist walls that are 'defended' by nuclear weapons, thus rendering them un-necessary. This focus builds the understanding that our security in an interconnected world is a 'shared security' not a security based on destroying an 'enemy' (and in doing so destroying ourselves as well).
In a special feature article on April 10, Time Magazine reported on this event, and on the potential impact of Pope Framcis making nuclear abolition one of his priorities. Time noted that the US State Department, in particular, plays great importance to the role of Pope Francis, and has recently been meeting him to discuss this.
Rose Gottemoeller, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, who led a US delegation to the Vatican last week says 'I think there is a huge moral impact of the Vatican on issues that relate to nuclear weapons deterrence and the disarmament agenda overall,” Gottemoeller says. “I see it is as a confluence of interest in a very positive sense.'
Rose Gottemoeller speaking at the UN Conference on Disarmament
Time Magazine noted that the United States knows the political capital Pope Francis holds when it comes to national and international decision-making. Most notably, the White House credited Francis for his role in brokering the U.S.-Cuba deal in December.
Gottemoeller assured Pope Francis that the US is serious on making progress toward nuclear abolition. “President Obama from the very beginning of his term in office has been very clear that his goal is to proceed with nuclear disarmament,” she says. “People think sometimes that that is just a kind of propaganda slogan out there without a lot of ‘there’ there, so I wanted to make sure that our Vatican counterparts knew the degree to which the President’s Prague initiative has become substantively a very significant part of our national policy.”
The UN event on April 9 was cosponsored by United Religions Initiative, Religions for Peace, and the World Evangelical Alliance. Global Security Institute and Basel Peace Office have been working with these organisations to build cooperation between religious communities, diplomats, parliamentarians and civil society for nuclear abolition.
This has included publication of a Nuclear Disarmament Resource Guide for Religious Leaders and Communities. The German version of this was released at a special event in Basel last December on the occasion of the OSCE Mnisterial Meeting.
The Global Security Institute and Basel Peace Office will be organising some joint side events with the inter-faith organisations during the four-week long 2015 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at the United Nations (April 27 - May 22).
In addition, in October 2015, the Basel Peace Office (through our parliamentary program PNND) will be holding an international event in Prague on President Obama's Prague Initiative in cooperation with the Czech Foreign Ministry, Prague Institute of International Relations and the Czech Senate. Details to follow soon.