Paul Bieniek
pbb001@marietta.edu
On Oct. 12, the Political Science department’s Pizza & Politics series continued with a presentation by Dr. Gregory Kulacki, an expert on U.S./Chinese relations from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit group whose mission states it “puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet’s most pressing problems.” His presentation focused on the need for nuclear non-proliferation and the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and China.
He began his presentation by stating that the conflict between the U.S. and China is the largest roadblock to nuclear arms reduction. He says this conflict, while rarely discussed openly, has been made worse by the Obama administration’s foreign policy efforts to “pivot to Asia,” which have been put in place under the assumption that China is an adversary.
Kulacki said that assumption is based on three myths. One is a U.S. feeling that the Chinese want to obtain parity with the United States in terms of how many nuclear weapons they have. Kulaki said this is false for several reasons: China has an extremely small number of nuclear weapons which indicates it would take a large amount of time for them to catch up to the U.S. Secondly, the Chinese, starting with Chairman Mao in the 1950s, have always viewed nuclear weapons as a “paper tiger” (in Mao’s words) because they cannot actually be used without bringing harm onto yourself. Kulacki said the few nuclear weapons China has are for retaliation purposes only, and their practice of keeping warheads and missiles separate provides proof for this. Third, the U.S. is worried that if it reduces its nuclear load, Japan will develop nuclear weapons to defend itself from the perceived Chinese threat. Kulacki said this would be extremely unlikely to occur as the Japanese public is strongly opposed to nuclear technology in general, much less nuclear weapons.
Kulacki said all these misconceptions boil down to ineffective communication between China and the U.S. He said a lack of Chinese fluency among U.S. officials plays a large part in this, and it is a problem the State Department never seems to address. Additionally, he said the two countries do not hold official talks on nuclear weapons frequently enough.
Junior political science major Sam Welch said she appreciated the department bringing in an outside speaker for this Pizza and Politics.
“I always think it’s fun when we have a guest speaker in because we get a different group of people coming and it’s just a different vibe altogether,” she said.
However, Welch thought Kulacki’s inability to legally discuss the current presidential campaign hampered the question and answer session. The Union of Concerned Scientists is a 501c nonprofit that is barred from supporting political candidates or parties.
Senior mathematics major Danny Tincher also found the speaker engaging.
“I thought it was good, and informative. The speaker had obviously done a lot of research, and was good at getting that information across,” Tincher said.
He also said the lecture gave him some comfort about the threat of nuclear war.
“Ironically, perhaps, I am less worried about nuclear war now. He assuaged my fears of a war between the U.S. and China, and I feel that that is the most likely superpower war to go nuclear,” he said.
