Reverend Robert Moore
» Subsections: Coalition for Peace Action
Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action
On April 11, 2006, our team interviewed Reverend Robert Moore, Executive Director of the Coalition for Peace Action, a Princeton-based group primarily dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons and halting the international arms race.
Reverend Bob Moore
Since 1981, Reverend Moore has been serving as the full-time Executive Director of the Coalition for Peace Action. On a day-to-day basis, Moore coordinates the political advocacy and grassroots campaign of the Coalition. Moore's office is constantly being hit by phone calls. It was difficult to go 5 minutes without the interruption of another phone call.
Reverend Moore also is a part-time Pastor of the East Brunswick Congregational Church and a part-time Pastor of the Livingston Avenue United Church of Christ.
In the past, Reverend Moore served for 3.5 years as the National Secretary of Mobilization for Survival, a nationwide coalition of 250 organizations working for disarmament and the reallocation of resources from military purposes to more pressing human needs. Prior to that, he served as an assistant pastor in an inner city Washington, D.C. church.
Reverend Moore is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. He graduated from Wittenberg University in 1976 with a Master of Divinity and earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from Purdue University in 1972.
Moore got into the peace movement as an undergraduate student. The Vietnam War was in progress, and at the time President Nixon seriously considered the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam. In 1978 he started working professionally in the peace movement. In the late 1970's, there was no large mass movement for nuclear disarmament, but in the 1980's the nuclear weapons issue was brought to the forefront of the public's attention.
Reverend Bob Moore, April 11, 2006
To learn more about the Coalition for Peace Action, click here.
Audio Excerpts
Reverend Moore on:
The Coalition for Peace Action - more info
"we do what's called education and advocacy for the global abolition of nuclear weapons...we don't trust the government leaders, we don't trust the arms control experts on their own... but, you know, the political will is what's missing... " - listen
"So, we started to get concerned. And then when Ronald Reagan got elected, this stuff really escalated... He had the largest nuclear buildup in history..." - listen
Technical Details of Nuclear Weapons
Failsafe Mechanisms
"There was a lot of ignorance, actually, being displayed... In fact, there's no failsafe mechanism. Once it's launched, it's a done deal... " - listen
PAL Locks
"There are locks that are called PAL locks that are supposed to prevent unauthorized access to a nuclear weapon..." - listen
The Bunker Buster - more info
"It's immoral, it's wrong, it's unethical...it's hypocritical for us to say to other countries-North Korea and Iran-don't get the bomb and yet we're making new types... It just undermines everything..." - listen
"...so right now we're in a holding pattern, quite frankly, as far as moving forward on nuclear disarmament...." - listen
Nuclear Energy
"I think that was actually a fallacy in the 'atoms for peace' program... I think in the long-run we should be shooing nuclear weapons as well...I think [Article 4 of the NPT] was a fatal flaw... Nuclear energy is not a solution to our energy needs..." - listen
The Feasibility of the Worldwide Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
"People have said 'oh, you're a dreamer' because you dream, you know, you're thinking that nuclear weapons can be abolished someday..." - listen
"You don't get rid of them overnight... You don't just snap your fingers and they all go away... We've cut the number of nuclear weapons by more than half... We're more than halfway there... I think the cup is half full..." - listen
The Necessity to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
"If we choose to allow nuclear weapons to continue to exist permanently, they will abolish us. They will abolish humanity." - listen
"...In the nuclear age it's no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence. It's a choice between nonviolence and nonexistence." - listen
"...The longer we allow these weapons to exist, the longer we allow technological innovation with them... There's a lot of scary things going on and we ought to be using our voices and our democracy to speak out against them.." - listen
"...Every weapon that's ever been invented in history does get used eventually, maybe not immediately but eventually someone finds a rationale to use them..." - listen
Nuclear Arms Control Treaties
"But then in the early 80's...there was a very big citizen's movement... In the end, [President Reagan] was the first President in history to sign a nuclear reductions treaty, the INF treaty (Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty)..." - listen
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)) - more info
"I think the idealogues that are in power right now are basically against treaties period...there's a big sales job that would need to be done...I think it's still a very good treaty..." - listen
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I & II (START) - more info
"START I and START II were both real reductions treaties with timelines, with inspections, verifications, and so on." - listen
Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT) - more info
"The so-called SORT treaty...that the current President Bush and Mr. Putin signed...has no timelines, no inspections...so I think it's basically meaningless..." - listen
Prevention of Terrorist Attacks
"The first and most important thing is to secure highly enriched uranium stocks around the world...We need to consolidate that highly enriched uranium and put it under secure guard, hopefully under international guard...If a terrorist wanted to get a nuclear weapon, the easiest way to get it would be to get some of this highly enriched uranium..." - listen
What You Can Do To Help the Disarmament Movement
"in Washington, we've been told...as few as five phone calls...is enough to get [an issue] to be called to the attention of their boss... Generally, there is a thumbnail rule that every person who contacts their elected official represents the voices of 100 people." - listen
"Get informed and get involved, because it's your future that's at stake. And if you don't get involved then there's a very real chance you may not have a future." - listen
- Moore, Robert. Coalition for Peace Action. Personal Interview. 11 Apr. 2006. To view our notes of the interview, click here.
