Press Release

Worse than Irrelevant? British Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century

A new report by Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy

London, Embargoed to 00.01, November 22, 2006

A new report published today presents the information the government should be providing as part of the public and parliamentary debate on the future of UK nuclear policy that needs to take place before any decision is taken on Trident replacement.

Worse than Irrelevant? British Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century, by Rebecca Johnson, Nicola Butler and Stephen Pullinger, provides a detailed analysis of the options and urges the government to seize this historic chance to marginalise nuclear weapons and promote more effective strategies to strengthen the multilateral non-proliferation regime.

In advance of the government’s White Paper, ‘Worse than Irrelevant?’ analyses the Trident decision in light of Britain’s international security and non-proliferation interests and considers six options: Trident like-for-like replacement; Trident-lite; adapting smaller submarines; air-launched possibilities; service life extension; and the option not to replace Trident, which would require a managed transition to non-nuclear deterrence and defence.

"The Trident decision embodies both an opportunity and a responsibility to examine Britain’s security needs and debate our role in the world," said Dr Rebecca Johnson, director of the Acronym Institute and the report’s lead author. "Climate change requires our priority attention, and UK nuclear weapons are an expensive distraction from the real issues. It is wrong and dangerous for such an important decision to be rushed through because of superficial political rivalries. We call for the government to take the time to have a comprehensive security and defence review, involving civil society and combining the perspectives of foreign affairs, defence, non-proliferation and international law."

"Our security environment and priorities have changed since Trident was procured. Preventing and reversing proliferation is now the key to ensuring Britain’s future security," said Dr Stephen Pullinger, director of the International Security Information Service (ISIS-Europe), Brussels. "Any increase in nuclear possessors and bomb-making materials – juxtaposed with extremists who might use such weapons – is a recipe for disaster, against which Trident would be completely useless. Britain should take the lead in promoting a multilateral process of denuclearisation before it’s too late."

"The billions earmarked for upgrading Aldermaston should be suspended until a decision is taken about whether Britain needs a further generation of nuclear weapons," said Nicola Butler of the Acronym Institute. "It’s widely known that the MoD does not want to pay for Trident replacement unless the Treasury finds new money. The government needs to provide full disclosure of its planning assumptions, together with a detailed breakdown of estimated costs and opportunity costs for all the options."

Worse than Irrelevant? British Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century by Rebecca Johnson, Nicola Butler and Stephen Pullinger Available from: www.acronym.org.uk/uk/Worse_than_Irrelevant.pdf and www.comeclean.org.uk

For hard copies, contact nbutler at equality.uk.com

For further information and to arrange interviews, call Dr Rebecca Johnson on 077 333 60955 (currently in Glasgow, rej@acronym.org.uk), Dr Stephen Pullinger (+32 (0)2 230 7446 in Brussels, spullinger@isis-europe.org) or Nicola Butler (on 0208 440 8276 in London, nbutler@equality.uk.com)

"Worse than Irrelevant" is published by the Acronym Institute in conjunction with Beyond Trident, a one-year project funded by the Ploughshares Fund of San Francisco and involving three other NGOs: British American Security Information Council www.basicint.org Oxford Research Group www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk and Weapons of Mass Destruction Awareness Programme www.comeclean.org.uk).

About the Report's authors:

Dr Rebecca Johnson is executive director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy and former special advisor to the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Dr Hans Blix. She holds a PhD in international relations (multilateral arms control) from LSE.

Dr Stephen Pullinger is executive director of the International Security Information Service (ISIS-Europe) and was advisor to Saferworld on WMD. His PhD from the University of Bradford was on ‘Parliament and the Defence Debate: the Generation, Provision and Use of Specialist Information’.

Nicola Butler is Deputy Director of the Acronym Institute, before which she worked in Washington DC, with a specialist interest in US-UK nuclear relations. She wrote her MA dissertation for the University of Bradford on the UK Trident Programme.

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© 2006 The Acronym Institute.