Nuclear Threat Tackled By New Initiatives

Nuclear Threat Tackled By New Initiatives

May 18, 2011 - Worldwide efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually eliminate them have been boosted by the launch of a new centre at The Australian National University.

The Centre for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (CNND) will be headed by former UN Assistant-Secretary General Professor Ramesh Thakur who will work with a small advisory group led by ANU Chancellor Professor Gareth Evans. The centre has been funded for its first two years of operation by the Australian Government and ANU, with support from the governments of Switzerland and Slovenia.

The centre will produce a regular ‘state of play’ report card on worldwide efforts to minimise the risk of nuclear weapons use, stop their spread and ultimately achieve their complete elimination.

The creation of a centre such as CNND was a major recommendation of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.

Professor Evans says the ‘state of play’ reports CNND will produce will go a long way towards dealing with one of the world’s most significant and persistent challenges.

“Reducing the risk of nuclear weapons being used – by design, miscalculation or accident – is one of the world’s most urgent and important policy problems. In its analysis, and the foundation it lays for advocacy, the report will be an indispensible tool for global policymakers,” he said.

The Centre is launched on the same day that a new Leadership group comes into existence. The Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) brings together thirty former senior political, diplomatic and military leaders from thirteen countries around the region.

The group has been convened by Professor Evans, and includes former Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke, and former Defence Minister Robert Hill as its inaugural Australian members.

The APLN – which will be administered from ANU – will aim to inform and energize public opinion, and especially high-level policymakers, to take seriously the very real threats posed by nuclear weapons, and do everything possible to achieve a world in which they are contained, diminished and ultimately eliminated.

“The quest to eliminate nuclear weapons cannot begin to succeed without the determined engagement of policymakers in the Asia Pacific region,” said Professor Evans. “This stellar group of senior, respected and extraordinarily experienced individuals can really help make that happen.”

ENDS

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