During the last couple of years, prominent policymakers in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and elsewhere have advanced proposals on how the world could move toward a nuclear-weapons free future. These initiatives have attracted worldwide attention and considerable support, although also some reservations. They have sparked renewed debate on the desirability and feasibility of nuclear disarmament and the means to attain this goal. Several governments ranging from India to Norway to Russia have expressed their support for the idea, provided various conditions are met in the process.
Progress toward a world without nuclear weapons will be complicated and prolonged. To reach the goal, current methods of controlling both vertical and horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons may have to be revisited. A key issue is how the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), a cornerstone of the global regime for controlling these weapons, relates to the aim of a nuclear-free world. This question will be a major consideration at the forthcoming NPT Review Conference that will take place at the United Nations in New York in May 2010.
To explore these issues, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame have organized a conference that will bring together policymakers and experts to consider ways to strengthen the NPT regime and reduce the number of nuclear weapons, aiming toward zero. The organizers are planning follow-up activities to disseminate the findings of the Helsinki conference at the NPT Review Conference in New York in May.
Principal organizers of the conference are Professors Raimo Väyrynen (Director of the FIIA) and David Cortright (Director of Policy Studies at the Kroc Institute).
Confirmed speakers include, among others:
William Perry, former US Secretary of Defense and Professor at Stanford University;
Margaret Beckett, Former UK Foreign Secretary;
Gareth Evans, former Australian Foreign Secretary and current co-chair of the International Conference on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament;
Olli Heinonen, IAEA Deputy Director General;
Mohamed I. Shaker, former chair of the UN Committee on Disarmament;
Henrik Salander, former Swedish ambassador and chair of the 2002 NPT Preparatory Committee meeting;
James Goodby, former US ambassador.
Conference proceedings are open to the public. For more information and to confirm participation, please contact Annica Moore (annica.moore@upi-fiia.fi), no later than October 7, 2009.
