Rethinking Nuclear Weapons - Pragmatic solutions to nuclear weapons

The world is different. On January 4, 2007 the world of nuclear weapons radically changed. The prospects for abolishing nuclear weapons suddenly moved much, much closer.

Former Secretary of State George Schultz (Reagan), former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Nixon), former Secretary of Defense William Perry (Clinton) and former Senator Sam Nunn published an Op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for “reversing reliance on nuclear weapons,” “preventing their proliferation,” and “ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.” The article was signed by 17 academics, government officials, an admiral, a scientist, a number of ambassadors and others.  (You can read the text of the Op-ed here.) What was striking was the conservative credentials of the group (many were from the Hoover Institution) and their insider-ness.

What does it mean when conservatives and government officials call for abolishing nuclear weapons?