Disarmament Diplomacy

Editor's Introduction

As Disarmament Diplomacy was going to press, Saddam Hussein appears to have been swept from power, but the dangers for the Iraqi people and, potentially, regional and international security are far from over. Unsurprisingly, Iraq's ill-equipped soldiers were no match for the hugely expensive, state-of-the-art military might of the US-led Coalition. But what will be the long-term ramifications for international, Middle East - and, indeed, US - security? In terms of the basic structures and processes of international relations, what will the impact be of an intervention such as this carried out without UN Security Council backing and in the midst of a weapons inspections process widely seen to be making progress towards determining the actual extent of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and missile programmes since the inspectors' withdrawal in 1998? Rebecca Johnson's editorial considers the role of the United Nations and warns of serious consequences if the international organisation is reduced to the sole role of 'chief mopper upper' and provider of humanitarian assistance while the UN's fundamental political purpose of mediating and resolving conflicts among nations is allowed to be bypassed and neutered.

As well as documenting global reaction to the war on Iraq, our News Review details the increasingly frantic diplomatic struggle in New York and elsewhere over diametrically opposed views of the inspections process and the related security threats. The Review also includes extensive coverage of another important arms control crisis: North Korea's refusal to abide by the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In late April, NPT states parties will gather in Geneva for the latest meeting of the treaty's Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) looking ahead to the 2005 Review Conference. Rebecca Johnson's preview urges a candid, far-sighted appraisal of the options for more effectively addressing the functional and political difficulties still undermining nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Nicholas Sims of the London School of Economics and Political Science tackles the serious problems faced by another key accord, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), following the Bush administration's withdrawal of support for a stronger verification regime.

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© 2003 The Acronym Institute.