No First Use Global campaign and strategy meeting

A civil society meeting to build cooperation and campaign actions for no-first-use policies
May 26-27, 2021

Organized by: Abolition 2000 working group on nuclear risk reduction (UK/International), Basel Peace Office (Switzerland/International), Beyond the Bomb (USA), Peace Depot (Japan), People for Nuclear Disarmament (Australia), PragueVision Institute for Sustainable Security (Czech Republic), World Future Council (Germany/International) and Zona Libre (Mexico).

Introduction:

‘No-first-use’ (NFU) is a policy that can be adopted by a nuclear armed (or allied) state to never initiate a nuclear exchange by being the first to use nuclear weapons. China and India have declared such policies. The Soviet Union/Russia had such a policy from 1982 to 1993. There are political developments promoting the adoption of no-first-use policies by others – particularly the United States and its allies under extended nuclear deterrence, i.e. NATO/Japan/South Korea and Australia.

This event will bring together campaigners, policy makers, academics and others to discuss strategies, share initiatives and build cooperation for a Global NFU campaign to:

1. advocate for the adoption and implementation of NFU policies by nuclear-armed States;
2. assist the USA NFU campaign by building necessary support from US allies in Asia/Pacific and NATO/Europe;
3. advance NFU as part of the broader objectives of nuclear risk-reduction, non-proliferation and disarmament, and as complementary to other related measures and initiatives.

Program:

Session 1: Timed for participants from Americas/Europe/Africa/Middle East
Wednesday May 26: CET: 17:00-19:30, San Francisco (PDT): 8:00-10:30, Mexico City (CDT): 10:00-12:30, New York (EDT): 11:00-13:30, London 16:00-18:30, Geneva/Cairo: 17:00-19:30, Moscow/Tel Aviv/Amman: 18:00-20:30.

• Introduction to the campaign
• Participants share their actions and initiatives on no-first-use
• Discussion on strategies to advance no-first-use
• Proposals for the campaign

Session 2: Timed for participants from Asia/Pacific
Thursday May 27: CET: 7:00-9:30, Islamabad: 10:00-12:30, Delhi: 10:30-13:00, Nursultan: 11:00-13:30, Beijing: 13:00-15:30, Tokyo/Seoul: 14:00-16:30, Sydney: 15:00-17:30, Wellington: 17:00-19:30, Honolulu: 19:00-21:30.
Session 1 program is repeated:

• Introduction to the NFU campaign
• Participants share their actions/initiatives on no-first-use
• Discussion on strategies to advance no-first-use
• Proposals for the campaign

Session 3: Concluding session
Thursday May 27: CET: 14:00-15:30, San Francisco (PDT): 05:00-06:30, Mexico City (CDT): 07:00-08:30, New York (EDT): 08:00-9:30, London 13:00-14:30, Geneva/Cairo: 14:00-15:30, Helsinki/Moscow: 15:00-16:30, Delhi: 17:30-19:00, Tokyo: 21:00-22:30, Sydney: 22:00-23:30.

• Elements of the campaign
• Campaign resources
• How organizations and individuals can be involved
• Addressing the proposals and future events

Participation is for those individuals and organizations supportive of No-First-Use policies and interested in supporting the global campaign. Click here to apply to participate in the event. Event flyer: No First Use global campaign meeting May 26-27. Event facebook page. For more information contact: info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Global meeting reports and outcome documents:

• NFU global meeting Session 1 chat (abridged)
• Session 2 chat box with links
• Sesison 3 chat box with links
• Open Letter on No First Use to Presidents Putin & Biden for their June 16 Summit
• Endorsers Open Letter to Presidents Biden and Putin