George Perkovich, Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Chair and Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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This article refers to:

The strategic elimination of nuclear weapons: an alternative global agenda for nuclear disarmament

Notes

1 Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi, “Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers,” Report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament,” 2009, <www.icnnd.org/reference/reports/ent/pdf/ICNND_Report-EliminatingNuclearThreats.pdf>.

2 Private conversation with two North Korean diplomats in 2007. Subsequent official statements by North Korea reflect this view in their insistence that Pyongyang will not abandon its nuclear weapons and, nevertheless, seeks a negotiated agreement to end sanctions and normalize relations.

3 See, for instance, Eli Watkins, “CIA Chief Signals Desire for Regime Change in North Korea,” CNN, July 21, 2017, <www.cnn.com/2017/07/20/politics/cia-mike-pompeo-north-korea/index.html>. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as on other issues such as Qatar and Afghanistan, has offered a more reassuring alternative description of US objectives than President Donald J. Trump and other officials have. But which official are security establishments in countries such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and Pakistan more likely to believe represents actual US intentions?

4 Robert Joseph, “Bring Back Containment,” Weekly Standard, August 21/28, 2017, p. 19.

5 Garry Kasparov, Twitter post, August 15, 2017, <https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/897482941638377472>.

6 For a current, representative example of facile thinking about regime change and nuclear threats, see Jackson Diehl, “Why Aren’t We Talking about Regime Change in North Korea?” Washington Post, August 31, 2017, <www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/why-arent-we-talking-about-regime-change-in-north-korea/2017/08/31/d36b0b00-8d9e-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html?utm_term=.b83ad5bfa12c>.

7 W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1935), p. 30.

8 Zia Mian, “Processes, Conditions and Stages for a Humanitarian Approach to Achieve and Maintain a World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” paper presented to Acronym Institute Workshop, Glion, Switzerland, June 23–24, 2011, <www.princeton.edu/sgs/faculty-staff/zia-mian/Processes_Conditions_Stages>.