The international Global Zero movement

The international Global Zero movement launched in December 2008 includes more than 300 political, military, business, faith and civic leaders — and hundreds of thousands of citizens — working for the phased, verified elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.

Global Zero members believe that the only way to eliminate the nuclear threat — including proliferation and nuclear terrorism — is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, secure all nuclear materials and eliminate all nuclear weapons: global zero.

The movement combines grassroots and media outreach, cutting-edge policy analysis and direct dialogue with governments to make the elimination of nuclear weapons an urgent global imperative and to bring all nuclear weapons countries to the table to negotiate the phased reduction of arsenals to zero. 

The international Global Zero Commission of 23 political and military leaders has developed a practical step-by-step plan – backed by hundreds of former heads-of-state, foreign ministers, national security advisers and military commanders – to achieve this goal over the next two decades.

The Global Zero Action Plan calls in its first phase for the United States and Russia to cut their arsenals to 1,000 total warheads each, all other countries with nuclear weapons to freeze their arsenals, and the international community to conduct an all-out global effort to block the spread of nuclear weapons. These steps would be followed by the first multilateral negotiations in history for stockpile reductions by all nuclear weapons countries.

In February 2010 in Paris, the 2nd Global Zero Summit convened 200 eminent leaders from around the world. Presidents Obama and Medvedev and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent strong statements of support, including President Obama's declaration that Global Zero "will always have a partner in me and my administration." Fmr. US Secretary of George Shultz delivered the keynote address.

From the UN Security Council's September 2009 endorsement of the goal of Global Zero, to the April 2010 START treaty signing and the Nuclear Security Summit, political support and momentum for Global Zero are growing. Global Zero has garnered extensive worldwide media attention. More than 400,000 people from every country in the world have signed the Global Zero declaration and joined the movement. Students are getting involved, starting over 70 Global Zero chapters on college campuses worldwide.

Global Zero, in partnership with the Academy Award winning team behind An Inconvenient Truth, Lawrence Bender and Participant Media, produced Countdown to Zero, a major documentary film which opened in theaters across the US in July 2010 and which is now available on DVD.  A chilling wake-up call about the urgency of the nuclear threat, the film will be distributed internationally and will raise awareness and help build the Global Zero movement.