Dr David Rodin joins discussion on the Letter of Last Resort

David Rodin, Senior Research Fellow at Oxfords Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC) participated in a BBC Radio 4 roundtable discussion on the Letter of Last Resort: the letters in which British Prime Ministers leave directions for commanders of British nuclear submarines on how to respond should the UK be destroyed by a nuclear attack.

The key question, of course, is whether to retaliate or not? Joining David were Commodore Tim Hare, former MoD director of nuclear policy, and Dr Caroline Lucas MP. Each participant was asked to draft their own letter outlining how they would instruct a surviving submarine captain to respond. In his letter David writes, The fact that you are reading this means that [deterrence] has failed. Retaliating now would cause great suffering for no discernible purpose. I cannot countenance this, and I will not have the final legacy of our great people be the senseless destruction of millions of lives You are therefore ordered to render your warheads unusable by jettisoning them into the sea. Let this final act of heroic restraint be the testament of a people who even in their final and most desperate hour did not abandon their humanity.

The program can be heard in full here.