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.

Since 1997, the Acronym Institute has published the journal Disarmament Diplomacy, with comprehensive overview of news, events and documentation relating to disarmament negotiations and developments in proliferation. Disarmament Diplomacy is published around 6 times per year.

Founding Director & Editor: Dr Rebecca Johnson rej@acronym.org.uk
Deputy Director and Website manager: Nicola Butler

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

Highlights

United Nations First Committee, November 2005

The 60th session of the UN First Committee is currently underway at the UN in New York in autumn 2005 with Y.J. Choi, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations as chair.

• UN First Committee, Sombre and Divided, by Rebecca Johnson, November 1, 2005
• UN First Committee Update, by Rebecca Johnson, October 31, 2005
• UN First Committee Update, by Rebecca Johnson, October 30, 2005
• UN First Committee: Introduction, by Rebecca Johnson, October 20, 2005

Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No. 80, Autumn 2005

• Editorial: Three Cities
  by Rebecca Johnson
• Politics and Protection: Why the 2005 NPT Review Conference Failed
  by Rebecca Johnson
  
• Reviving The Disarmament Regimes: Recommendations of the High Level Panel and Secretary-General's Advisory Board
  by Harald Müller
  
• The Relevance of Gender for Eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction
  by Carol Cohn with Felicity Hill and Sara Ruddick
  
• National Security and Neo-Arms Control in the Bush Administration
  by Jeffrey A. Larsen
  
• Just War and the Responsibility to Protect: UN Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Intervention
  by Hugh Beach
  
• In the News
  • Iran's Nuclear Programme: EU-3 Snubbed as Iran begins Uranium Conversion at Isfahan
  • North Korea's Nuclear Programme: Continuing obstacles in Six Party Talks
  • Hiroshima Peace Declaration
  • Nagasaki Peace Declaration
  • Robin Cook MP on Trident: Worse than Irrelevant

Disarmament Documentation, November 2005

Disarmament Documentation is a compilation of recent official documents and statements relevant to arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament.

• '[R]obust verification by the Agency, combined with active dialogue', IAEA Director General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran, November 24, 2005
• '[T]he [IAEA] Board cannot and should not have unlimited patience', US Statement to the IAEA Board of Governors, November 24-25, 2005
• UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, evidence on Iran, Liaison Committee, November 18, 2005
• UK Secretary of State for Defence John Reid, evidence on the question of Trident replacement, Defence Committee, November 18, 2005
• 'This is not the sign of a peaceful program,' US Ambassador Schulte on Iran, November 17, 2005
• US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Iran's nuclear programme, November 17, 2005
• President Bush and South Korea President Roh on North Korea's nuclear programme, November 17, 2005
• US Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill on the fifth round of Six Party Talks, November 11, 2005
• Six Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, fifth round of talks, November 9-11, 2005
• 'Yardsticks' for Curbing Nuclear Proliferation, IAEA Director-General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, November 7, 2005
• 'Old security concepts no longer apply', NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, November 3, 2005

NPT Review Conference, Acronym Institute special coverage, May 2005

The 2005 NPT Review Conference will be held at the UN in New York from 2 to 27 May 2005. For key texts and background to the conference visit our page on the NPT.

Updates from New York

Any part of any of the Acronym reports or updates can be circulated, forwarded or quoted from free of charge, but please credit the author appropriately.

• Day 26: Spineless NPT Conference Papers Over Cracks and Ends with a Whimper, Rebecca Johnson, May 27, 2005
• Day 25, or "My Objection is Bigger than your Objection", Rebecca Johnson, May 26, 2005
• Day 24: NPT RevCon slides from Bad to Desperate, Rebecca Johnson, May 25, 2005. See also Draft Texts from the Main Committees, referred to in this update.
• Day 23: closed meetings and bracketed texts, Rebecca Johnson, May 24, 2005
• Day 22: texts start rolling towards Friday, Rebecca Johnson, May 23, 2005, including a new addendum concerning a mystery text that has appeared in the conference rooms.
• Decisions and mysteries on Day 17: Committees and 'subsidiary bodies' to start on Thursday, Rebecca Johnson, May 18, 2005
• Breaking the Logjam on Day 16: working papers introduced in plenary, by Rebecca Johnson, May 17, 2005
• Day 10: NPT RevCon Agenda reportedly agreed, with an asterix, by Rebecca Johnson, May 12, 2005
• "The NPT is not implemented on auto-pilot":
  Still no agenda on Day 9, by Rebecca Johnson, May 10, 2005
• "Decisions, resolution and outcomes": Frustration as agenda is thwarted
  NPT Review Conference entering week 2 (May 9), by Rebecca Johnson, May 7, 2005
• "The miserable failure of the NPT to contain the nuclear spectre"?
  NPT Review Conference Day 3 (May 4), by Rebecca Johnson, May 5, 2005
• Imagine "a nuclear catastrophe in one of our great cities":
  NPT Review Conference Day 1 (May 2), by Rebecca Johnson, May 2, 2005
  

Pre-conference Analysis

• The 2005 NPT Conference in Crisis: Risks and Opportunities, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.79, April/May 2005
• Is the NPT up to the challenge of proliferation?, by Rebecca Johnson, published in Disarmament Forum, edition on the 2005 NPT Review Conference.
• US-UK Mutual Defence Act "arguably breaches NPT", Joint Advice from Rabinder Singh QC and Professor Christine Chinkin, Matrix Chambers.

Back to the Top of the Page

© 2005 The Acronym Institute.