ICNND Report Lays Out Action Agenda for Disarmament
March 19, 2010
In this week’s RevCon news, ISIS would like to highlight the comprehensive action agenda contained in the December 2009 report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND). The ICNND is a “joint initiative of the Australian and Japanese governments… [which] aims to reinvigorate international efforts on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, in the context of both the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, and beyond.” (See the website of the ICNND).
The Commission’s agenda states that “maintaining the status quo is not an option.”
Addressing all the three pillars of the NPT, it continues:
The threats and risks associated with the failure to persuade existing nuclear-armed states to disarm, to prevent new states acquiring nuclear weapons, to stop any terrorist actor gaining access to such weapons, and to properly manage a rapid expansion in civil nuclear energy, defy complacency.
The report calls for agreement at the NPT Review Conference on a 20-point statement to be entitled “A New International Consensus for Action on Nuclear Disarmament,” which would update and extend the “Thirteen Practical Steps” agreed to at the 2000 review conference. The report recognizes the need for a “phased approach” on disarmament, noting that disarmament will be a “long, complex, and formidably difficult process, most realistically pursued as a two-phase process, with minimization the immediate goal and elimination the ultimate one.” It advocates 2025 as the point when minimization of arsenals should be achieved (this would entail a global maximum of 2,000 warheads, reflecting reductions to less than 10 percent of current levels).
The action agenda supports adoption by nuclear weapon states of no first use (NFU) doctrines, and deployment and alert statuses of weapons that reflect these policies. It calls on the United States to adopt in its upcoming Nuclear Posture Review, if not a no first use commitment, the principle that its nuclear arsenal exists as a sole purpose to deter the use of nuclear weapons against it and its allies. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is expected to reject adopting a no first use policy, and is under pressure to keep U.S. nuclear posture ambiguous over the issue of deterrence, for example, should the United States be forced to respond to a biological or chemical weapons attack.
The ICNND report notes that disarmament measures should proceed regardless of doctrinal declarations (countries would have until 2025 to declare NFU policies anyway), and advocates for reductions to nuclear arsenals “even if a target date for getting to zero cannot at this stage be credibly specified.”
See past weeks’ RevCon analyses and follow ISIS’s coverage of the NPT Review Conference here.
Recent RevCon news and official remarks:
“World Needs Russian Federation’s Sustained, Creative Engagement across United Nations Agenda, Secretary-General Says in Address to Moscow Institute,” Media-Newswire.com, March 18, 2010.
“U.S. Official: Iran’s Nuclear Pursuits Clouding Talks,” CNN, March 17, 2010.
“The NPT: Still ‘Knotty’ at Forty,” Khaleej Times, March 14, 2010.
“Stronger Political Will Required to Achieve Complete Global Non-proliferation: Kazakh FM,” Asian News International, March 14, 2010.
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