U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to change a great number of things in his first election campaign 2008, and among them was bringing peace to the Middle East. Long neglected during his first Presidential term, it seems that now, at last, Israeli-Palestinian relations may be rising to a higher level of political salience.
Counter Proliferation
The Future of Nuclear Weapons
On 11th June, Warwick University's Politics and International Studies department (PAIS) hosted a meeting in collaboration with BASIC entitled 'The Future of Nuclear Weapons: Between Disarmament and Proliferation'. The event, which brought together experts from diverse backgrounds and with significant experience on these issues, consisted of two roundtable discussions on the future of Trident and British nuclear weapons policy and prospects for non-proliferation and disarmament in the Middle East.
Open-Ended Working Group Furthers the Disarmament Agenda in Geneva
On Thursday and Friday, the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on nuclear disarmament meets for the third time in Geneva. The OEWG was established in December 2012, under UNGA Resolution A/RES/67/56, to develop proposals for innovative and measured steps to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament for the achievement and maintenance of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Getting to Zero: Further Reading
Earlier Detailed Proposals for Nuclear Disarmament
- Report of the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms, (“Blix Report”), June 2006
- Japan Institute of International Affairs, the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Japanese Government, Report of the Tokyo Forum on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, 1999
- Committee on International Security and Arms Control, National Academy of Sciences,
Getting to Zero Timeline: 2007
December 20, 2007: U.S. Special Representative for Nuclear Nonproliferation, Christopher Ford, spoke at the UK Foreign Office Wilton Park conference about the goal of zero nuclear weapons:
Getting to Zero Timeline: 2008
“Getting to Zero” 2008 Timeline
Getting to Zero Timeline: 2009
December 2009: International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) publishes final report: Eliminating Nuclear Weapons: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers, Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi, Co-Chairs, International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.
Getting to Zero Timeline: 2010
December 22, 2010: U.S. Senate approves New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
May 28, 2010: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference 2010 adopts consensus Final Document (PDF), available online via Reaching Critical Will