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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

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

UN First Committee 2009

Acronym Institute Senior Associate Carol Naughton is currently attending the UN First Committee in New York. Her observations and comments can be read below:

Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.91, Summer 2009

Disarmament Documentation, November 2009

Proliferation in Parliament, Summer 2009

START TALKS, July 2009

Nuclear Non-Proliferation News, July 2009

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

Highlights

British News

International News

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

PrepCom Chair's Recommendations (Drafts)

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

Cover of Unfinished Business

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.

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:

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.

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