Disarmament Diplomacy

Editor's Introduction

The first Disarmament Diplomacy of 2002 marks a new phase in our provision of information and analysis. Documents & Sources has been substantially transferred to our website at http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs as a special feature, Disarmament Documentation, providing a wider selection and great amount of material, updated on a weekly basis. Key documents will still feature in Disarmament Diplomacy, as in this issue, when we make publicly available for the first time the draft Final Declaration from the Fifth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC).

Establishing Disarmament Documentation on the website gives us the opportunity to expand the News Review summary of developments in Disarmament Diplomacy, now scheduled to be published 8-9 times each year. We will continue to provide in-depth reporting of major diplomatic meetings and initiatives, with analysis of the critical challenges threatening the very basis and survival of multilateral disarmament efforts in an era of accelerating global change and conflict.

This first reshaped edition sets the stage, with a challenging conceptual analysis of 'alternative approaches to arms control in a changing world', by Kerry M. Kartchner, US State Department representative to the Standing Consultative Committee of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, and George R. Pitman, a former senior official at the now defunct US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA).

The Conventions banning chemical and biological weapons are fundamental to international security. Acronym Analyst Jenni Rissanen reports from Geneva on December's dramatic setback to efforts to strength the BWC, while from Stanford University Alexander Kelle weighs the prospects for the first Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2003.

The expanded News Review covers a momentous and disturbing period, dominated by the grave crisis in South Asia, the US announcement of withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, and the unveiling by Washington of a 'New Triad' at the heart of a revised nuclear posture in which 'traditional' arms control is dismissed as an encumbrance to military planning and flexibility.

It is with immense regret that we have to announce Jenni Rissanen's departure. Despite Jenni's superb reporting on the BWC, CD and UN over the past two years, loss of a major funding source in late 2001 means we cannot renew her contract. We thank Jenni for all her hard work and wish her the very best in the future.

© 2002 The Acronym Institute.