May 2009 saw the first steps to break the “Decade of Stalemate” in the International Organisations responsible for Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation.  On Friday the Conference on Disarmament, after a 12 year stalemate, agreed to begin negotiating a new treaty to ban the production of radioactive material for nuclear weapons. The CD is the only international forum where all the countries with nuclear weapons sit together to decide on Arms Control and Disarmament.

My Blog of 16 May reported the breakthrough in the New York meetings of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) again after more than a decade.

But this month also saw North Korea (also a CD member) test a nuclear weapon and missile delivery systems; definitely a step backwards on the road to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.

Are the two directly related? Probably not; although the Korean test certainly underlined the damage done by more than 10 years of interminable wrangling over procedure in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and in the NPT.

Building a new global coalition as described by David Miliband and getting decision makers (and opinion formers) to appreciate the extent of global interdependence that Gordon Brown has talked about has been a long haul in Arms Control and Disarmament.

Success in Geneva this week under Algeria’s chairmanship was the result of a such an (informal) coalition. Countries as varied as Poland and South Africa, Mexico and Nigeria, Ireland and Indonesia; all willing to speak up, determined to make progress and refusing to be put off by the many obstacles. The UK has been part of that coalition sometimes to people’s surprise. But David Miliband has been talking about “The Global Hub” for some time now.

No progress would be possible without the political vision of both the current and past generation of world leaders over the past 3 years. We will continue to need that political momentum over the next 12 months as we prepare for the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

Have we broken the mould? Well clearly not. There is real concern about nuclear proliferation. More widely several generations of decision-makers and opinion-formers have based their professional careers on concepts such as the East West or North South divide and the interplay of 20th Century power politics defined by enemies and allies. Recent events only serve to reinforce such views. If military alliances will remain part of our uncertain world for some time to come, this way of viewing the world has to evolve. Today’s Britain as an avowedly multicultural society should recognise that more than most.

Links to media comment on the CD decision are on delicious. Dominic Asquiths blog on reaction to David Miliband’s speech.




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