I'll be asking you if you feel safer come May
'Make or break' year for nuclear non-proliferation
15 January 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition.
THIS year will be "make or break" for the international treaty designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, as the gulf between the "haves" and the "have-nots" grows ever wider.
So says a report by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) based in London and Washington and the UK-based Oxford Research Group. They warn that without a breakthrough in May, when the 188 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are due to meet "the NPT may be declared bust".
Non-nuclear states argue that the weapons states, particularly the US, have failed to live up to their commitment to disarm. Last year's preparatory meeting ended in disarray without even agreeing an agenda for reviewing the treaty (New Scientist, 15 May 2004, p 5).
For the last eight years the UN "hasn't even managed to arrange the chairs around the conference table" to discuss disarmament, the report says.
There are even signs that the Bush administration is preparing to abandon disarmament promises it made at the last NPT review five years ago on the grounds that the security situation has changed in the light of 9/11. This is "disturbing to say the least", says BASIC's Nigel Chamberlain.
