by Rebecca Johnson
The just-concluded third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference has been heralded as a much needed
success story, with much of the credit given to the Obama administration’s more positive
approach to multilateral diplomacy and arms control.
In the most constructive and collegial atmosphere seen in an NPT meeting since 2002, the agenda and all significant procedural decisions for 2010 were adopted expeditiously in the first week of the May 4-15 meeting in New York. Barring any unforeseen and dramatic deterioration in relations, there is an excellent chance that next year’s review conference will be able to open smoothly and get down to work without the kind of frustrating procedural delays that marred the 2005 NPT Review Conference.1 Although the PrepCom was not able to agree on substantive recommendations to transmit to the review conference, the negotiations on the chair’s three successive drafts established a useful framework for forward-looking recommendations to be negotiated in 2010 and provided a reality check on the commitments that different states will seek to include in or exclude from the documents that emerge from next year’s conference.
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Enhanced Prospects for 2010: An Analysis of the Third PrepCom and the Outlook for the 2010 NPT Review Conference
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My concern is for the outlook for the 2010 NPT Review Conference. Article VI of the NPT Is: "Each of the Parties to the
treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." The goal of the NPT is not nuclear disarmament but genaral and complete disarmament. The 2010 Review Conference should reflect that fact. The United States proposed general and complete disrmament in an address before the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 25, 1961. President John F. Kennedy said, "The program to be presented to this assembly--for general and complete disarmament under effective international control--moves to bridge the gap between those who insist on a gradual approach and those who talk only of the final and total achievement." and "It would achieve under the eyes of an international disarmament organization, a steady reduction in in forace, both nuclear and conventional, until it has abolished all armies and all weapons except those needed for internal order and a new United Nations Peace Force." The 2010 NPT Review Conference should implement Article VI of the NPT and create an International Disarmament Organization.
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