The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy

The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy has been working since 1995 to promote effective approaches to international security, disarmament and arms control. Engaging with governments and civil society, Acronym provides reporting, analysis and strategic thinking on a range of issues relevant to peace and security, with special emphasis on treaties and multilateral initiatives.

The Acronym Institute publishes the journal Disarmament Diplomacy, with comprehensive overview of news, events and documentation relating to disarmament negotiations and developments in proliferation.

Founding Director & Editor: Dr Rebecca Johnson rej@acronym.org.uk

The Acronym Institute is grateful to the Ford Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for their enabling support of our work and publications, including this website.

Highlights

Ex-army and defence chiefs question need to replace Trident

• UK must not rush to replace nuclear deterrent, ex-official says, Global Security Newswire/Press Association, 22 January 2010
• General Sir Richard Dannatt: British nuclear deterrent is "not forever", James Kirkup, Daily Telegraph, 20 January 2010
• Don’t replace Trident says ex-army chief, North West Evening Mail, 21 January 2010
  

On the third anniversary of their original call for a ‘world free of nuclear weapons’, the ‘Four Horsemen’ speak of the need to maintain confidence in US nuclear infrastructure and weapons

• How to Protect Our Nuclear Deterrent, Schultz, Kissenger, Perry & Nunn, Wall Street Journal, 19 January 2010
  

UN Chief Ban Ki Moon tells Conference on Disarmament: 2010 will be an historic year

• This year can be ‘historic’ for progress on disarmament – Secretary-General, UN News Centre, 19 January 2010
  

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moves ‘Doomsday Clock’ back

• 'Doomsday Clock' moves a minute back, BBC News, 14 January 2010
  

China tests missile defence system

• China says missile defence system test successful, Guardian/Associated Press, 12 January 2010
  

Australia and Japan launch International Commission (ICNND) launches report Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers, December 2009

German Government Coalition supports withdrawal of US nuclear weapons, November 2009

• German Coalition Policy on withdrawal of US nuclear weapons, Martin Butcher, 6 November 2009
• Germans press for removal of US nuclear weapons in Europe, Julian Borger, The Guardian, 6 November 2009

UN First Committee 2009

In October 2009, Acronym Institute Senior Associate Carol Naughton attended the UN First Committee in New York. Her observations and comments can be read below:

• Voting – Cluster 1: Nuclear Weapons, 27 October 2009
• NGOs call for words to be put into action, 23 October 2009
• Trust Building, 22 October 2009
• Curious wording or clever diplomacy? 21 October 2009
• Keeping space peaceful, 20 October 2009
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 19 October 2009
• 'Real Action is Needed', 15 October 2009
• Looking towards the NPT Review Conference, 14 October 2009
• The Last Day of General Debate, 13 October 2009

Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.91, Summer 2009

• Needed: Good Leaders to Cut the Nuclear Posturing
  Editorial, by Rebecca Johnson
  

• Laying Substantive Groundwork for 2010: Report of the 2009 NPT PrepCom
  by Rebecca Johnson, including:
  • Recommendations to the Review Conference, 7 May 2009
  • Recommendations to the Review Conference, Rev 1, 13 May 2009
  
  
• Nuclear Testing and Proliferation —
  an Inextricable Connection
  by Thomas Graham, Jr. and David Hafemeister
  
  
• Unfinished Business: Lessons from the CTBT Negotiations
  by Rebecca Johnson
  
  
• A Fissile Material (Cut-off) Treaty:
  Some Observations on Scope and Verification
  by Paul Meyer
  
  
• Japan’s Challenges and Dilemmas over Nuclear Disarmament
  by Masa Takubo
  
  
• Midpoint between Review Conferences: Next Steps to Strengthen the BWC
  by Nicholas A. Sims
  
  
• Towards a Negotiating Mandate for an Arms Trade Treaty
  by Michael Spies
  
  
• The Conference on Disarmament in 2009: Could do Better
  by Ray Acheson, including:
  • Decision on the Establishment of a Programme of Work for the 2009 session (CD/1864)
    
    
• Disarmament News Review

Disarmament Documentation, November 2009

• IAEA Director General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran, 21 October 2009
• US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg testimony on Iran, 6 October 2009
• President Obama Remarks on Iran, 1 October 2009

Proliferation in Parliament, Summer 2009

• Cross party support for a review of Trident replacement gathers momentum
• Calls for Initial Gate to be delayed
• The Road to 2010 (but don't mention the 'T' word)
• A less than Strategic Defence Review
• NATO-Russia Relations and Missile Defence
• NATO Nuclear Policy and the Strategic Concept
• Government confirms Radioactive Releases from Faslane
• Hot air balloons infringe security at Aldermaston
• Sellafield MP calls for two new reactors
• A breach of export controls?

START TALKS, July 2009

• Nuclear powers come in from the cold, by Rebecca Johnson on the START negotiations, Comment is Free, www.guardian.co.uk, 7 July 2009.
• Joint Understanding on Strategic Offensive Arms, 8 July 2009

Nuclear Non-Proliferation News, July 2009

This month's edition of Nuclear Non-Proliferation News includes information on:

Highlights

• US-Russia Strategic Arms Talks

British News

• Brown hints at Trident cuts
• Ministry of Defence announces a Defence Review
• Commission on National Security calls for re-examination of Trident
• Crunch Time for Trident
• Liberal Democrats oppose Trident renewal
• Conservative Debates on Trident
• Foreign Affairs Select Committee Report calls for progress on disarmament
• Scottish debate intensifies
• Nuclear Fleet to be based at Faslane
• Nuclear Submarine Accidents
• Brown Speech
• Defence Industry
• Opposition to Trident continues
• Remembering Michael Quinlan

International News

• NPT PrepCom 2009
• Towards CTBT ratification
• Ending the CD deadlock
• Missile Defence on the defensive
• NATO nuclear policy under pressure
• Towards Space Security

Previous editions of Nuclear Non-Proliferation News are available at: www.acronym.org.uk/news.

NPT Preparatory Committee meeting, May 2009

Latest analysis from Rebecca Johnson

• Enhanced Prospects for 2010: An Analysis of the Third PrepCom and the Outlook for the 2010 NPT Review Conference, by Rebecca Johnson, published in Arms Control Today, June 2009

PrepCom Chair's Recommendations (Drafts)

• Recommendations to the Review Conference, 7 May 2009
• Recommendations to the Review Conference, Rev 1, 13 May 2009
• Recommendations to the Review Conference, Rev 2, 15 May 2009 (with suggested changes highlighted)
• Final Report, 15 May 2009

For further coverage go to Acronym's NPT page.

North Korea's Nuclear Test and the CTBT, 25 May 2009

North Korea is undermining international security with its high risk nuclear brinkmanship. In conducting its nuclear test, North Korea is playing a high risk game of nuclear brinkmanship that underscores the global urgency of bringing the CTBT into force.

North Korea probably hopes to put pressure on the Obama administration and the Six Party Talks, and increase the price of its denuclearisation as required by the UN Security Council. This test demonstrates the need to make the global prohibition on nuclear testing fully binding in international law. Condemnation is not enough: the US and China have particular responsibility and must accelerate their own efforts to ratify the CTBT.

180 states have signed the CTBT and 148 have ratified, including Britain, France and Russia. The treaty cannot enter into force until 9 specified states ratify, including China and the US.

For further background on North Korea, go to Acronym's North Korea page.

Unfinished Business: the Negotiation of the CTBT and the End of Nuclear Testing, by Dr Rebecca Johnson

Published by UNIDIR, Unfinished Business: the Negotiation of the CTBT and the End of Nuclear Testing, by Rebecca Johnson details how the CTBT was fought for, opposed and finally negotiated. It considers how a decade of political and institutional obstacles have prevented the CTBT from entering into full legal effect, including the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests of May 1998, the US failure to ratify the treaty in 1999, and the October 9, 2006 nuclear test by North Korea.

• Link to UN Publications to order copies of Unfinished Business: The Negotiation of the CTBT and the End of Nuclear Testing, by Dr Rebecca Johnson
• Link to the UNIDIR website to download a pdf of Unfinished Business

For more on CTBT go to Acronym's CTBT page.

Carnegie Nuclear Non-Proliferation Conference, April 2009

Acronym Institute Executive Director Dr Rebecca Johnson was part of a plenary panel on International Expectations of the Obama Administration, chaired by Naila Bolus of the Ploughshares Fund.

Transcripts, video and audio recordings of the panel are available from the CEIP website at:

• http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/?fa=eventDetail&id=1301

President Obama speech on Nuclear Disarmament, 5 April 2009

President Obama has reaffirmed his commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. Obama said that the US would lead the endeavour to eliminate nuclear weapons, saying that as the only country to have used a nuclear weapon, it had a 'moral responsibility' to act.

• Full text of the Obama speech, Prague, 5 April 2009

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