More than 50 Nobel Prize winners signed an open letter calling on all countries to cut military spending by 2% each year in the next five years, and invest half of the savings in UN funds to fight epidemics, climate crises and extremes poor.
Coordinated by an Italian physicist Carlo Rowli, This letter was supported by a large group of scientists and mathematicians, including Sir Roger Penrose, And published at a time when global tensions have increased and the arms budget has steadily increased.
“Individual governments are under pressure to increase military spending because other countries are doing this,” the signatories expressed their support for the newly launched Peace dividend movement“The feedback mechanism maintains a spiral arms race-it is a huge waste of resources that can be used more wisely.”
The well-known organization stated that the plan is equivalent to a “simple and concrete proposal to humanity”, although the realistic prospects that large and medium-sized governments will cut military spending or turn in any money saved are unrealistic. The United Nations and its agencies.
The total military expenditure last year was US$1981.0 billion (£1,496 billion), an increase of 2.6% According to Stockholm International Peace Research InstituteThe five countries that spend the most are the United States ($778 billion), China ($252 billion), India ($72.9 billion), Russia ($61.7 billion) and the United Kingdom ($59.2 billion)-all of which will increase in 2020 Up the budget.
Increasing tension between Russia and the West due to Ukraine and other situations China and the United States and its Pacific Allies on the Taiwan issue Helps increase spending, and in recent years some non-proliferation treaties, such as the INF agreement that excludes nuclear missiles from Europe, Has been allowed to expire.
The signatories of the letter argued that the arms race would lead to “deadly and destructive conflicts” and added: “We have a simple proposal for mankind: All UN member governments negotiate to jointly reduce their military spending 2 %, 5 years.”
Other supporters of this letter include the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the biologist and Cambridge University professor Sir Vinki Ramakrishnan and the American molecular biologist Carol. Grad.
They called on world political leaders to allow “half of the resources released by the agreement” to be allocated to “a global fund under the supervision of the United Nations to solve serious common human problems: epidemics, climate change, and extreme poverty.” They claim that by 2030, such funds may reach US$1 trillion.
