Donna Park: 75 years after Hiroshima, we can end the threat of nuclear war

In early August 1945, the U.S. government dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki. Regardless of where you stand on this decision, hopefully we can all agree that in the future, no innocent civilians — especially children — deserve to suffer and die the way the residents of these cities did. If we are to eliminate the threat of a nuclear war that continues to hang over us, it seems reasonable to turn to the United Nations, the one institution which brings the nations of the world together.

However, the United Nations in its current form is unable to eliminate or control the spread of nuclear weapons in our world. There is no mechanism for the UN to create and enforce global laws. And the five victors of World War II — the U.S., Britain, China, France, and Russia — still hold veto power in the strongest body at the UN, the Security Council. Miraculously, we have avoided another world war, but the risk of nuclear destruction is higher than ever.

After the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Albert Einstein and many others had an idea to transform the UN into a federation of nations, in order to enable the elimination of war and nuclear weapons. This idea was well received in the late 1940s and early 1950s until Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his allies labeled it a communist plot, which of course it wasn’t. The time has come to dust off this old idea.

When the United States was established with a federal government, the states agreed to solve their differences through legal means. Rather than use their state militias to fight each other, they hired lawyers and went to court or resolved interstate conflicts through national legislation. The Civil War provides an example of the terrible carnage that resulted when, for a brief time, the states departed from this practice.

This federal model can work on a global level if the UN is transformed into a democratic federation of nations, with the ability to create and enforce world law. We can then outlaw war and nuclear weapons, create a plan for the dismantling and elimination of all nuclear weapons, and solve any disagreements through world law. If the leader of any nation refused to participate, he or she would be arrested, tried in a court of law, and sent to prison if found guilty.

Einstein said, “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I do know that World War IV will be fought with rocks.”

Humanity must come together at the UN to put an end to war and nuclear weapons. We can use the same path (enforceable world law) to guarantee universal human rights, protect our global environment, and improve the way the world deals with global pandemics.

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Donna Park is the board chair of Citizens for Global Solutions Action Network. She received the Margaret Fuller Peace Award from the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in 2018.