nUkiEmOLe iNf0 #7/ 02 Nov 2016: NSDU-238 the bloated nuclear weapons budget or Falsity
nUkiEmOLe iNfO #7/ 02 Nov 2016
NSDU-238 the bloated nuclear weapons budget or Falsity
“[1]The bloated nuclear weapons budget also impacts negatively on the international community. The annual UN Core Budget, for example, is only 5.1 billion USD – or 5% of the annual global nuclear weapons budget. Overseas development aid from the nuclear-armed States to the developing countries remains way under the agreed target of 0.7% of GDP, a target which could easily be reached if the funding for nuclear weapons was re-directed towards development aid. Civil society actors, working with legislators, can impact on budget decisions relating to nuclear weapons, and reverse this trend.
Most of the nuclear weapons money [italics mine] goes to private companies which are awarded contracts to manufacture, modernize and maintain nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. For these companies, the bloated budgets are in their interests. Indeed, the companies actively lobby their parliaments and governments to continue allocating the funds to nuclear weapons. And they support think tanks and other public initiatives to promote the ‘need’ for nuclear weapons maintenance, modernization or expansion.
A recent report Don’t Bank on the Bomb identifies 26 major nuclear weapons producers, and more than 382 banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers from 27 countries that invest significantly in these corporations, all of which have a vested interest in high nuclear weapons budgets.
US President Eisenhower warned 60 years ago of the possibility of a military-industrial complex being established – a formidable union of armed forces and defence contractors using their power to move governments and parliaments to maintain high military budgets. This has arguably come true – especially in relation to nuclear weapons. 1 Introduction 2 Nuclear weapons budget: opportunity cost “Over 16,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world’s arsenals costing $100 billion annually – funds that could instead be used to reverse climate change, eliminate poverty and address other social and economic needs.” A Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Our Common Good. Joint statement of legislators and religious leaders organised by Mayors for Peace, Religions for Peace and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.
Those pursuing nuclear disarmament therefore need to find ways of countering this power. Anti-nuclear activists and other civil society leaders need to join forces with progressive legislators, non-nuclear governments and allies within the governments of nuclear-armed states in order to reduce the lobbying power of the nuclear weapons corporations, and move the money from nuclear weapons budgets to fund social, economic and environmental programs instead.”
[1] “Move the nuclear weapons money– A Handbook for Civil Society and Legislators “ by IPB, PNND & WFC http://www.ipb.org/uploads/documents/other_docs/pnnd-handbook.pdf apeco filed 11-02-16
