Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 43, January - February 2000

Editor's Introduction

In January's issue the Acronym Institute's new Geneva analyst, Jenni Rissanen, provides two reports: one on the continuing impasse at the Conference on Disarmament (CD); and the second giving an update on the ongoing negotiations in the BWC Ad Hoc Group.

Acronym Institute senior analyst Nicola Butler reports on renewed interest in nuclear issues at Westminster, while Malcolm Savidge MP and Tony Colman MP write on the newly launched All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation and British ratification of the IAEA Additional Protocol respectively.

With national missile defence (NMD) high on the political agenda, China's Director-General for Arms Control and Disarmament, Ambassador Sha Zukang, sets out his view of US NMD deployment plans in Opinion & Analysis. Merav Datan, programme director of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) in New York, writes on the historic Israeli Knesset debate on nuclear policy, which is also covered in Documents and Sources. William Walker, Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, gives us a thought-provoking analysis looking at how legitimate and effective order can be established in a unipolar world.

Documents and Sources includes recent key statements on Russia's new security concept, Madeleine Albright's visit to Moscow, US NMD plans, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on disarmament and China's view of the peaceful use of outer space. This section also references relevant website addresses.

News Review includes reflections on recent newswire coverage of Russia's new Security Concept, START and ABM related issues, the new UN Iraq Commission, new US Taiwan legislation, President Clinton's planned visit to South Asia and the recent US proposal for a moratorium on Russia nuclear reprocessing.

All of us at the Acronym Institute would like to welcome Jenni Rissanen, who has joined us as Geneva analyst, to monitor the CD and BWC negotiations. Jenni, who completed her Masters degree at the US Monterey Institute for International Studies and has interned for the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs in New York, most recently worked with the Finnish delegation to the CD and UNGA First Committee during Finland's 1999 presidency of the EU.

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