Introduction

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Introduction

The concept of a nuclear weapons convention (NWC) is gaining ground, even as the political environment necessary for complete nuclear disarmament appears increasingly elusive. The release of the Model NWC in 1997 was intended to encourage debate about the political, legal, and technical requirements of an international regime for the verified prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. Since then, this debate has grown richer, broader in scope, and more nuanced in content, as the articles and quotes in this issue of the NWC Monitor indicate.

Recent political developments, however, seem to challenge the development of a good faith global effort to abolish nuclear weapons. Within some of the nuclear decision making circles, talk about strategic nuclear weapon reductions is linked to missile defenses, undermining the policy and paradigm shifts needed to move away from security based on the threat of mass destruction. Other policy makers and analysis would prefer to continue relying on deterrence by itself as a cornerstone of "strategic stability."

Both these positions grow out of the Realist perspective, a school of thought that regards the quest to achieve and maintain power as the only way to understand international relations. Although Realism works to explain some current policies and practices, it does not address the untenable reality that will develop if these policies and practices continue. The damage caused by a strictly Realist approach to security is a theme that runs throughout this issue of the NWC Monitor. Other themes include the choices and opportunities that could lead the international community away from the dangers inherent in maintaining the status quo.

Section 1 of this issue, Nuclear Disarmament Today, looks at the current security environment with a view to the goal of nuclear disarmament. This section includes an update of resolutions, statements, and analyses relating to a nuclear weapons convention. Government references to the NWC are increasing, as are analyses that use the concept of an NWC and the Model NWC as tools to explore the goal of nuclear abolition. The contributions to this section also point more generally to the role of law in social and political change.

In Section 2, current Nuclear Choices facing governments, institutions, and individuals are spelled out. Observations about critical junctures and windows of opportunity have become cliche. Either our governments and policy makers want nuclear disarmament or they do not. Either they continue to pursue security through threat, technology, and secrecy, or they respond to the various calls for human security and proposals such as those presented here.

These choices will have a direct bearing on the role of science in society, as illustrated in Section 3, Science and Verification. The cause and effect, however, work in two directions. The work scientists pursue today will also shape future security options: either more high-technology militarization or a nuclear weapons free world. This section suggests that much valuable work can already begin, and has begun, to promote verified elimination of nuclear weapons.

Section 4 looks at Health, Environment, and Energy aspects of living in the Nuclear Age. A theme that emerges from this section is the lack of openness regarding the effects of nuclear choices made in the past on health and environment today. Efforts to deal honestly with these effects, along the lines suggested in this section, will help remedy past grievances as well as address the challenges of nuclear disarmament in a way that does not compromise health and the environment.