Eliminating nuclear threats: a practical agenda for global policymakers

International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament

December 2009

Eliminating nuclear threats is a matter of necessity, not choice. The world’s 23,000 nuclear weapons – many still deployed on high alert – can destroy life on this planet many times over. That the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not so far been repeated owes far more to luck than to good policy management.

Even with the U.S. and Russia showing welcome new leadership, the policy challenges are immense. Every state with nuclear weapons has to be persuaded to give them up. States without nuclear weapons have to neither want nor be able to acquire them. Terrorists must be stopped from getting anywhere near them. And rapidly expanding peaceful nuclear energy use must be security risk-free.

This report, the work of an independent commission of global experts sponsored by Australia and Japan, seeks to guide global policymakers through this maze. It comprehensively maps both opportunities and obstacles, and shapes its many recommendations into a clearly defined set of short, medium and longer term action agendas.

The tone throughout is analytical, measured and hard-headedly realistic. But the ultimate ideal is never lost sight of: so long as any nuclear weapons remain, the world can never be safe.

The global launch was held in Tokyo on December 15th at a ceremony attended by the heads of the Commission, former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Yoriko Kawaguchi and Gareth Evans and Prime Ministers of Australia and Japan, Kevin Rudd and Yukio Hatoyama.

On December 23rd, at an event co-organized in Buenos Aires by the Embassies of Australia and Japan and the NPSGlobal Foundation, the report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) “Eliminating nuclear threats: a practical agenda for global policymakers” was presented in Buenos Aires.

The ceremony in Argentina, which was held at the residence of the Ambassador of Australia, John Richardson, brought together a select group of experts, academics, representatives of nuclear organizations, members of the diplomatic corps and the media. In his opening speech, Ambassador Richardson noted the presence of Ambassador Roberto García Moritán, a member of the Board of Advisors of the ICNND consisting of renowned personalities worldwide.

Moreover, the Ambassador of Japan Hitohiro Ishida stressed the timeliness with witch the document is presented, in an effort to reinvigorate these issues on the agenda of high politics and to make a tangible contribution to the international debate on the eve of the forthcoming Review Conference of the Treaty on Nuclear Non-Proliferation of May 2010.

Click here to read the full report.

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