Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

The future of the nuclear non-proliferation regime: the 2010 NPT review conference
have no problem with using it. And we know that there is unsecured
nuclear material across the globe. To protect our people, we must act
with a sense of purpose without delay». To this end, Obama announced
«a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around
the world within four years. We will set new standards, expand our cooperation
with Russia, pursue new partnerships to lock down these sensitive
materials». Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in this connection
that to the global pillars of global non-proliferation (preventing the spread
of nuclear weapons, promoting disarmament and facilitating the peaceful
use of nuclear energy) should be added a fourth: preventing nuclear
terrorism(65). Everything would thus appear to indicate that combating
nuclear terrorism is also going to be put on the global non-proliferation
agenda even though strictly speaking the NPT does not refer to the possible
use of nuclear weapons by non-state actors, and this may trigger a
certain amount of disagreement more than consensus at the 2010 Review
Conference.
Prior to the conference, the US has convened a World Summit on
Nuclear Security, which is due to take place in Washington on 12 and 13
April 2010 and to which more than forty states have been invited, among
them Spain. Nevertheless the summit poses a few political difficulties.
Some states do not consider they have a problem of nuclear security;
others regard nuclear materials as useful instruments of economic and
technological progress; and a third group views nuclear terrorism as an
inflated threat that chiefly affects nuclear states. It is therefore going to be
very difficult to achieve global consensus on what measures to implement
to stem nuclear terrorism. The goal is also highly ambitious: to put an end
(in four years) to black markets, intercept materials in transit and use financial
instruments to prevent the illicit trade in nuclear materials.
CONCLUSIONS: OUTLOOK FOR THE 2010 NPT REVIEW
CONFERENCE
Given this situation, what are the global priorities in disarmament and
non-proliferation matters with a view to the 2010 NPT Review Conference?
Or, to put it another way, what steps would need to be taken to ensure
that the world may continue to put its trust in the NPT as the «cornerstone
of disarmament and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons»? The fact
(65) CLINTON, Hillary, The Next Steps on Nonproliferation…, op. cit.
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