RISKS OF NUCLEAR WAR RISING.....

Risks of nuclear war rising because of global tensions and insecure stockpiles, warn experts

'Too many nuclear weapons in the world remain ready to launch on short notice,' the military, political and diplomatic figures say

Ian Johnston

Monday 08 December 2014

Urgent action is needed to minimise the risk of a nuclear war, more than 120 senior military, political and diplomatic figures from across the world have warned.

Ahead of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, which starts today, the experts wrote in a letter that the danger of such a conflict was “underestimated or insufficiently understood” by world leaders.

The signatories include people from across the political spectrum such as former Conservative Defence Secretary Lord King, a Labour counterpart Lord Browne, former Foreign Secretaries Margaret Beckett and David Owen, and former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell. John McColl, former Nato Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Lord Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff, and General James Cartwright, former Vice-Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also signed the letter.
In pictures: The Nuclear Security Summit 2014
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The waiters who got the job

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The waiters who got the job
The official group shot
Talk amongst yourselves
Angela Merkel and Sauli Niinisto
The opening session
Barack Obama and Mark Rutte
The empty chair
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Mark Rutte
View on the opening
Helle Thorning Schmidt
Park Geun-hye and Barack Obama
Federica Mogherini and Mark Rutte
Julie Bishop
Ban Ki-moon and Barack Obama
Erna Solberg and Helle Thorning-Schmidt
The G7
The royals and Dalia Grybauskaite

“Tensions between nuclear-armed states and alliances in the Euro-Atlantic area and in both South and East Asia remain ripe with the potential for military miscalculation and escalation,” says the letter to Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.

“In a vestige of the Cold War, too many nuclear weapons in the world remain ready to launch on short notice, greatly increasing the chances of an accident.

“This fact gives leaders faced with an imminent potential threat an insufficient amount of time to communicate with each other and act with prudence.”

There should also be better crisis management in “conflict hotspots” and new security measures, warning that stockpiles were “insufficiently secure, making them possible targets for terrorism”.