Ten Nuclear Wishes for the New Year

1) That Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s past will not become any other city’s future.

2) That the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will get at least 50 ratifications and enter into force.

3) That there will be no further proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries.

4) That no insane leader will initiate a nuclear war and leaders of nuclear-armed countries will stop taunting each other.

5) That nuclear deterrence will be recognized for the fraud that it is.

6) That there will be no accidents or miscalculations leading to nuclear catastrophe.

7) That the parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will engage in good faith negotiations, as the treaty requires, for an end to the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament.

8) That there will be no cyber-attacks on nuclear weapons systems, leading to the launch of nuclear weapons.

9) That the nuclear weapons states will halt their plans to spend hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars to modernize their nuclear arsenals.

10) That people everywhere will realize the necessity for peace in the Nuclear Age and will demand that their governments seek peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.

David Krieger is president emeritus of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org).