Calling for complete abolition of nuclear weapons

8 APRIL 2009. Calling for complete abolition of nuclear weapons through a convention, MAPW Vice President and Associate Professor Tilman Ruff joined former PM Malcolm Fraser, General Peter Gration, Lieutenant General John Sanderson, Barry Jones and Sir Gus Nossal to publish an article in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. 

This group of prominent Australians across the political spectrum have gathered to back PM Kevin Rudd’s efforts to promote nuclear disarmament.

The article argues that we are at the crossroads of a nuclear crisis: "On the one hand we are at a growing risk of nuclear terrorism and the use of still massively bloated arsenals. On the other we have perhaps the best opportunity yet to abolish nuclear weapons."

The article also focuses on the timeliness of nuclear disarmament, arguing that there has never been a better moment. For the first time since the Cold War, the US President is committed to abolish nuclear weapons, outlining a program of how to deliver it and showing evidence that he is serious.

• Read the full article at The Age or Sydney Morning Herald 
• Read a Sydney Morning Herald news item commenting on the article