A Call to Action: Religious Voice Against Nuclear Weapons

Bruce Knotts

UUA Office at the United Nations

When William Smith wrote to his local town representatives in the Town Council of Jamestown, Rhode Island (on which I serve as Vice President) to make a request of us, it was anything but typical. He asked us to pledge support to nuclear disarmament by endorsing a resolution in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. That’s a far cry from a discussion of dump stickers and liquor licenses. 

But for a variety of reasons, it struck a chord with me and my fellow councilors. It did so for reasons small and large, for some that are local, and others that far exceed our shores. We are a small town, an island. We know each other. We take the concerns of our citizens, both separate and shared, seriously. We also recognize our fellow islanders’ propensity to self-sufficiency. William is a prime example of such independence, powering his home through solar and wind power for more than twenty-five years now. With his dedication to clean energy, he has been an exception for many years, but others are catching up.

So, from this island community came the ultimate suggestion that we are not all islands in this world, that our self-sufficiency and ruggedness matter not at all in the face of nuclear weapons. Our mutual destruction is ensured if we do not cooperate, not just on clean energy but on inhibiting and preventing nuclear destruction. What can such a small place like Jamestown do to support this idea?  

Sign up and sign on. And so, we did, though not blindly or without discussion. On our Town Council serves an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who also served in the Pentagon and White House, who knows quite a bit about U.S. policy on the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty. Because of that experience, as a reserve member of the military, he chose not to support our resolution endorsing this specific treaty, though he supports disarmament avidly. But as another councilor stated, “We have to start somewhere.” We chose to sign our names to this resolution in an effort to promote the discussion, to encourage negotiation, and to keep talking and working toward nuclear disarmament.  

All politics is local. Dump stickers, liquor licenses and the fate of humanity. One step at a time. 

Quad, Quin, or Trio? Implications of Australian Nuclear Subs

Rev. Brian K. Muzás, Ph.D.
The Center for United Nations and Global Governance Studies
School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University

Second, it is significant that the United Kingdom is working only with Australia and the USA, even though there is a pre-existing Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Australia, the USA, Japan, and India. Here is where the payoff calculations become more involved.

Why was the United Kingdom not invited to turn the so-called “Quad” into a “Quin”? On the surface, a trio seems weaker than a partnership of five, but this is not necessarily so. The new grouping may have more flexibility than a quad or quin since Japan’s defense cooperation is constrained by its constitution. India’s policy of strategic independence could also limit cooperation.

In both cases, it is easier to coordinate a smaller alliance with fewer partners than a larger alliance with more members. Moreover, different partnerships may be more suited to different goals and shared interests. For example, the intelligence partnership known as the “Five Eyes” includes not only the AUKUS countries but Canada and New Zealand, while excluding Japan and India.

China naturally criticizes the new partnership because of the challenge it presents. France understandably laments that Australia will no longer acquire the dozen conventional submarines that Australia had been poised to purchase, yet the decision makes sense from the political, geostrategic, and reputational perspectives of the AUKUS members.

Australia will gain new capabilities from old friends. The USA will have a more capable ally in a region likely to be more heavily contested in the foreseeable future. And United Kingdom’s Indo-Pacific involvement will give a concrete, significant boost to the post-Brexit concept of a “global Britain.”

However, whether the new partnership will prove stabilizing or destabilizing to the Indo-Pacific has yet to be seen. Likewise, Australia will now have to face questions about dismantling, defueling, and disposing of its submarines when they reach the end of their service.

Acknowledging the need for inclusion and visibility of marginalized groups has become increasingly important to activists, scholars and social movements around the world, across a variety of social justice areas. An intersectional approach highlights that all struggles for freedom from oppression are interlinked and enables us to identify the challenges that a lack of heterogeneity poses to the legitimacy, accountability, and solidarity present in our movements.

Highlighting the need for social movements to proactively address systemic racism is essential in order to break cycles of violence. Focusing on the systemic nature of racism, how racism would be reinforced and perpetuated by killer robots, and the potential threat that they will pose to people of color is a key element of this work.

Racism and artificial intelligence 

When it comes to artificial intelligence (A.I.), there is an increasing body of evidence that shows that it is not neutral, and that racism operates at every level of the design process, production, implementation, distribution, and regulation. Through the commercial application of big-data, we are being sorted into categories and stereotypes. 

When we apply biased A.I. to killer robots, we can see how long-standing inherent biases pose an ethical and human rights threat, where some groups of people will be vastly more vulnerable than others. In this regard, killer robots would not only act to further entrench already existing inequalities, but could exacerbate them and lead to deadly consequences. 

Facial recognition

The under-representation of people of color and other minority groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields means that technologies in the west are mostly developed by white males, and thus perform better for this group. Joy Buolamwini, a researcher and digital activist from MIT, revealed that facial recognition software recognizes male faces far more accurately than female faces, especially when these faces are white. For darker-skinned people, however, the error rates were over 19%, and the systems performed very poorly when presented with the intersection between race and gender, evidenced by a 34.4% error margin when recognizing dark-skinned women.

Historical, latent bias

Machine learning algorithms also often reflect statistically popular racist sentiments. These learnt biases are further strengthened, thus racism continues to be reinforced. An example of this is in data-driven, predictive policing that uses crime statistics to identify "high crime" areas, which are then subject to more aggressive levels of policing. 

Gang databases are currently being used in a number of regions around the world, including in North and South America and in Europe. These databases reinforce and exacerbate already existing discriminatory street policing practices, such as racial and ethnic profiling with discriminatory A.I. For example, a state audit in California found that the “CalGang” database included 42 infants younger than one-year-old, 28 of whom had supposedly “admitted” to being gang members, and that 90% of the 90,000 people in the database were men of color. 

The issue with racial and ethnic bias engrained in A.I. is not only that they reproduce inequalities, but actually replicate and amplify discriminatory impact.

Lack of transparency and accountability

Concerns are being raised about the lack of transparency behind how algorithms function. As A.I. systems become more sophisticated, it will become even more difficult for the creators of these systems to explain the choices the systems make. The results make it harder to address discrimination. 

For example, holding those responsible for the unlawful killings of people of color by law enforcement and the military is already a huge challenge in many countries. This issue, however, would be further impaired if the unlawful killing was committed by a killer robot. Who would be held responsible: the programmer, manufacturer, commanding officer, or the machine itself? Lethal force by these weapons would make it even easier for people of color to be at the mercy of unlawful killings and far more difficult to obtain justice for victims of color and their families.

A shift in thinking

The nature of systemic racism means that it is embedded in all areas of society, and the effects of this type of oppression will not easily dissipated. The development of weapons that target, injure and kill based on data-inputs and pre-programmed algorithms is a frightening example of how colonial violence and discrimination continue to manifest in notions of racial superiority and dominance. Automating violence in this regard could not only lead to biased killings, but simultaneously amplify power disparities based on racial hierarchies, causing irreparable harm to targeted communities.

In order to break the culture and circles of violence prevalent in weapons systems and in society, we must shed light on the root causes of violence, domination and oppression wherever they may lie. We can start by identifying the structures of power and privilege that exist in our own organizations by looking at whose voice is not present and confronting misuse of power and the occupation of space. In doing so, we can foster movements that are truly global and representative of all peoples from different walks of life, cultures, and communities.

Rising Actors in Nuclear Disarmament

Featuring Hiroyo Murayama

Religions for Peace Japan

What can be done for the abolition of nuclear weapons? Countless people have been searching for the answer to this question. Many are taking action. Their motivations, actions, and principles are shaped by the environment that molded them since they were young.

I grew up as a person of faith in Japan, a country that experienced the unprecedented destructive nature of nuclear weapons. Joining Religions for Peace (RfP), the organization I currently work for, has helped me channel my motivation to ensure these deadly weapons are never used again.

RfP Japan expressed several demands to the Japanese government when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force in January of 2021. One of them is to take the position that the TPNW and the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty are complementary, and another is to truly engage in the 'bridge-building' that the Japanese government has long been advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

As an individual, I would like to be a "bridge" for as many people as possible to help them understand that nuclear weapons are actually a threat that is very close to us and to help increase the number of people who are willing to take action for peace.