29 June 2007
Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Regime Challenges Experts
Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Regime Challenges Experts
Washington – International experts gathered here for a two-day conference and brainstorming session on how to strengthen the nuclear weapons nonproliferation regime as officials outside Washington grappled with what to do about nonconformists like Iran and North Korea.
The annual nonproliferation conference, hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, drew 850 participants from 35 countries. U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell told attendees at the June 25-26 conference that the United States is committed to reducing the number of weapons and weapons-capable states while ensuring that the benefits of nuclear power are spread widely.
The world is nearly ready to produce enough electricity for future energy needs through nuclear power, Sell said, but the technology -- if left uncontrolled -- has the capacity “to end the world as we know it.”
Although no one can “un-invent nuclear weapons,” Sell said, stockpiles still can be cut, production costs reduced, associated excess material disposed of safely, separation of plutonium avoided, and better ways found to conduct nuclear commerce so that energy requirements are met, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and proliferation risks are minimized.
Sell pointed to the Bush administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership to develop proliferation-resistant technologies to recycle spent nuclear fuel globally and the next generation Reliable Replacement Warhead Program as mutually reinforcing nonproliferation strategies. The new warhead will not have any new or different military capabilities, he said, but will be more dependable, allowing the United States to meet its national security needs with the fewest nuclear weapons.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett -- speaking on the verge of the Blair-Brown government transition -- delivered the keynote address tackling the question of future stockpiles.
With the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty set to expire in 2009, she said it is time to think about moving from a bilateral U.S.-Russian disarmament framework to one better suited to the realities of a post-Cold War world.
PAST DISARMAMENT SUCCESS MUST BE COMPOUNDED
She also pointed to the past success of South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus -- all countries turning away from nuclear weapons. More successes are needed in the years ahead, Beckett added, to draw closer to a world freed from these weapons.
Allowing disarmament efforts to slacken, or taking the nonproliferation consensus for granted poses the risk of lengthening and deepening the ever-hovering nuclear shadow, Beckett said, until one day it may “blot out the light for good.”
She questioned the practicality of pushing the disarmament envelope too quickly, saying that the total elimination of nuclear weapons likely would not occur in her lifetime. Much more than disarmament diplomacy is needed to reach the end game, Beckett said, adding: “It would require a much more secure and predictable global political context.”
The parties to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) must come together every five years to review the articles of the treaty. Looking ahead to the 2010 Review conference, Beckett said that a fractious meeting must be avoided. Instead, she said, the NPT must be strengthened “in all its aspects.”
President Bush’s special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation discussed some of the consensus-building problems encountered during a 2007 preparatory committee meeting.
U.S. Special Representative Christopher Ford said Iran refused to sign off on the work agenda of the preparatory commission meeting in April for days, meaning no work could be done until it did. Then, the Iranian delegation expressed dissatisfaction with the chairman’s summary of the work accomplished and would not sign off on the summary until a last-minute compromise was reached.
Ford said a key topic emerging for 2010 is what to do to deter withdrawal from the treaty by nations in violation of core nonproliferation obligations, and, measures needed to be taken should deterrence fail (the U.N. Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors and nuclear suppliers might exert influence on offenders). (See related article.)
Ford said parties to the NPT should focus on finding ways to ensure that it will be able to function better in the years ahead. He expressed optimism about prospects for a successful treaty review in 2010.
This is critical because, as former Senator Sam Nunn said at the conference, “We are approaching a perfect storm” with the proliferation of nuclear expertise and terrorists threatening to use nuclear devices if they get them.
Nunn and another leading speaker, Egyptian Assistant Minister for International Organizations Naela Gabr, said vision is needed to help the treaty achieve its intended potential.
Additional information on the NPT Review Cycle is available on the State Department’s Web site.
Highlights of the conference are available on a Web site of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Limiting Nuclear Weapons.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
