Nuclear Issues On The Agenda Of The Conference On Disarmament

UNIDIR/91/68

The Secretary-General announced on 24 May 2018 his Agenda for Disarmament, which outlines a set of practical measures across the entire range of disarmament issues, including weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms and future weapon technologies. It seeks to generate fresh perspectives and to explore areas where serious dialogue is required to bring disarmament back to the heart of our common efforts for peace and security.

Study of the arms control diplomacy of non-nuclear lesser states, as willing but seldom welcomed third parties to the Soviet-American bilateral dialogue at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament, the only formal multilateral arms control negotiating forum whose membership includes, in addition to the 5 nuclear powers, important non-nuclear states from among the neutral and Third World non-aligned as well as the major Eastern and Western alliances. The study examines the setting at Geneva, the "norm creation" functions of the Conference on Disarmament, and arms control issues.

The articles contained in this volume encapsulate the current debate on why and how to move towards a world free of nuclear weapons. Presented at an international conference held in New Delhi, the papers by leading experts from around the world, question existing paradigms and explore new security architectures.

On November 10, 2017, Pope Francis became the first pontiff in the nuclear era to take a complete stand against nuclear weapons, even as a form of deterrence. At a Vatican conference of leaders in the field of disarmament, he made it clear that the possession of the bomb itself was immoral. A World Free from Nuclear Weapons presents the pope’s address and original testimony from Nobel Peace Prize laureates, religious leaders, diplomats, and civil society activists. These luminaries, which include the pope and a Hiroshima survivor, make the moral case against possessing, manufacturing, and deploying nuclear arms. Drew Christiansen, a member of the Holy See delegation to the 2017 United Nations conference that negotiated the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, helps readers to understand this conference in its historical context. A World Free from Nuclear Weapons is a critical companion for scholars of modern Catholicism, moral theology, and peace studies, as well as policymakers working on effective disarmament. It shows how the Church’s revised position presents an opportunity for global leaders to connect disarmament to larger movements for peace, pointing toward future action.