Melissa Parke: Nuclear weapons and AI demand a new way of thinking

By Francesca Merlo

As conflicts multiply and nuclear rhetoric returns to international politics, Melissa Parke, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), is urging world leaders to reject deterrence in favour of dialogue, diplomacy and disarmament.

Speaking to Vatican News on the sidelines of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War at the Borgo Laudato Si' in Castel Gandolfo, Parke challenges the very premise of nuclear deterrence, arguing that lasting peace cannot be built on the threat of mass destruction.

"I think it's inherent in the word deterrence, which has as its root the word 'terror'," she says. "Is that the way we want to live? Do we want to live in a war-shaped world? Or do we want to live in a world that's about love, cooperation and getting on with each other? Because that is the true basis of humanity, I think."

Parke argues that recent conflicts have shown the limits of deterrence as a security strategy. Pointing to the wars in Ukraine and Iran, she says nuclear weapons "have not delivered peace" and "haven't prevented war."

"They have been strategically irrelevant, extremely dangerous and extremely expensive, but strategically irrelevant," she says. Yet, she warns, they continue to "sit in the background and create an existential threat to humanity for every moment they continue to exist."

A growing nuclear threat

According to Parke, the current global security climate is characterised by "an absolute lack of trust", with conflicts involving nuclear-armed states unfolding alongside the breakdown of arms control agreements, renewed nuclear threats and a new nuclear arms race.

"What we're seeing is this very sky-high risk of the use of nuclear weapons," she says, warning that the integration of artificial intelligence into military systems is exacerbating that danger. Rather than continuing down a path of militarisation, she calls for "a new way of thinking" based on "dialogue rather than confrontation, diplomacy rather than militarisation, and disarmament rather than proliferation."

Putting humanity at the centre

Reflecting on today's conflicts, including the wars in Ukraine and Iran, Parke says civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of violence, with attacks on civilian infrastructure and the very means people depend on to survive becoming more common.

She also warns that modern warfare increasingly involves "using rape as a method of war." At the same time, she notes that social media and instant communications have made the realities of conflict more visible than ever before, allowing people around the world to witness the human cost of war as it unfolds.

"The lesson of what we're seeing is that we must do everything we can to prevent it," she says.

With this reality in mind, Parke describes the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly in Castel Gandolfo as an opportunity to place "humanity at the centre" by bringing together Nobel laureates, scientists, faith leaders and civil society representatives in search of alternatives to confrontation. She argues that the discussions reflect the need for ethical leadership alongside political and scientific expertise in addressing today's global security challenges.

A moral frontier

For Parke, the campaign to abolish nuclear weapons and address the risks posed by artificial intelligence is not simply a political or security issue, but fundamentally a moral one.

She describes nuclear disarmament and the governance of AI as "a moral frontier" comparable to the abolition of slavery and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguing that humanity faces a defining choice about whether technological progress will serve life or threaten it.

"To continue devoting our finest minds and greatest resources to the art of mass killing and AI domination," she says, "is to squander the heritage and the spiritual inheritance of humankind."

One concrete step

Asked what world leaders could do over the next year to make the world safer, Parke points to one practical measure: joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

She notes that the Holy See was the first State to join the treaty, which she said now has around 100 signatories, describing it as a concrete example of international cooperation in pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons.

For Parke, the treaty demonstrates that dialogue, multilateral cooperation and international law - grounded in respect for human rights and human dignity - offer a credible alternative to military escalation and nuclear deterrence.

"That is how we move forward," she says. "Through dialogue, multilateral cooperation, international law, and respect for human rights and human dignity."