Can the Spread of Nuclear Weapons Be Stopped?

1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. M. Burns

Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons is one facet of the problem of preventing nuclear war, a problem which has engaged the statesmen of the world ever since the dust of the Nagasaki explosion settled. In the Truman-Attlee-King declaration of November 15, 1945, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Prime Minister of Canada proposed that the United Nations set up a commission to study how atomic energy could be controlled so as to limit its use to peaceful purposes, how atomic weapons could be eliminated from national armaments, and how safeguards could be set up so as to ensure that all nations would comply widi the obligations which they undertook to these ends. Thus fell to the United Nations one of the most intractable problems of international organization, a problem which might be looked on as the creation of a new sphere of international law.

Author(s):  
Ramesh Thakur

The very destructiveness of nuclear weapons makes them unusable for ethical and military reasons. The world has placed growing restrictions on the full range of nuclear programs and activities. But with the five NPT nuclear powers failing to eliminate nuclear arsenals, other countries acquiring the bomb, arms control efforts stalled, nuclear risks climbing, and growing awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, the United Nations adopted a new treaty to ban the bomb. Some technical anomalies between the 1968 and 2017 treaties will need to be harmonized and the nuclear-armed states’ rejection of the ban treaty means it will not eliminate any nuclear warheads. However, it will have a significant normative impact in stigmatizing the possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and serve as a tool for civil society to mobilize domestic and world public opinion against the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.


1971 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 836-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph I. Coffey

On March 5, 1970, the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) went into effect, having been ratified by 47 states including the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty legally bars these three nuclear powers from transferring atomic weapons to nonnuclear states and formally pledges those nonnuclear states signing the treaty to refrain from developing such weapons or acquiring them from other powers. It thus caps a long effort by the United States to inhibit—so long as it could not preclude—the spread of nuclear weapons and to avoid the potential instabilities associated with that spread.


Author(s):  
Justin Morris

This chapter analyzes the transformational journey that plans for the United Nations undertook from summer 1941 to the San Francisco Conference of 1945 at which the UN Charter was agreed. Prior to the conference, the ‘Big Three’ great powers of the day—the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom—often struggled to establish the common ground on which the UN’s success would depend. However, their debates were only the start of the diplomatic travails which would eventually lead to the establishment of the world organization that we know today. Once gathered at San Francisco, the fifty delegations spent the next two months locked in debate over issues such as the role of international law; the relationship between the General Assembly and Security Council; the permanent members’ veto; and Charter amendment. One of modern history’s most important diplomatic events, its outcome continues to resonate through world politics.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
Sara Montgomery

The United Nations is often looked to for guidance in conflict prevention and intervention, but its lack of hard power has proven to be extremely limiting. Although the United Nations has been a major improvement from the League of Nations, its ability to maintain world peace is restricted by the aspirations of its member states. The Security Council is especially significant, made up of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia. Each state in the Security Council has the ability to veto any initiative proposed by the United Nations. Additionally, the United Nations cannot take action without leadership from one or more of its states, and many states are hesitant to sacrifice their military resources even in the event of major human rights violations. This hesitancy to intervene is especially evident in the case study of the Rwandan genocide, but can also be seen in the Cold War and the Syrian Civil War, amongst other conflicts.


1965 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. Green

Ever since its establishment Indonesia has been notorious for its disregard of international law and world opinion as expressed through the United Nations. The recent policy of confrontation to crush Malaysia is merely the culmination of a series of posturings by Asia's sawdust Caesar.As long ago as early 1945, in the latter days of the Japanese occupation, Soekarno was outlining his views of the Indonesia to be. In February and May of that year he participated in a conference of Indonesian nationalists summoned by the Japanese to discuss the State to be created. Soekarno spoke in a way that is more expected of predatory imperialists than of anti-colonialists believing in selfdetermination. Like Mussolini, who was always harking back to ancient Rome, Soekarno referred to an ancient empire of the Middle Ages which he wished to see revived. Indonesia was to be a restoration of this, consisting not merely of the Dutch colonies which the Japanese occupied, but also of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, Borneo, Brunei, the Philippines and southern Thailand. In those days at least, Soekarno paid lip service to both international law and the realities of a political situation, recognising that in so far as Malaya, Singapore and the Philippines were concerned there might be difficulties with the United Kingdom and the United States.


1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 720-721
Author(s):  
T. M. F.

The United Nations Administrative Tribunal (UNAT) has elected Herbert Reis of the United States, a former Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, as its Second Vice-President for the coming year. Mr. Reis has served on the tribunal for 5 years. Samar Sen of India and Arnold Kean of the United Kingdom were elected President and First Vice-President of the tribunal, respectively.


1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 970-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
William T. R. Fox

The Security Council of the United Nations will, from the first day of its existence, include in its membership all of the great powers. The Council, backed by the united will of the five powers with permanent seats in that body, will act, if it acts at all, with an authority which no organ of the League of Nations ever possessed. In the League Council, there was no time during which all of the great powers participated. Only two of them, France and the United Kingdom, were League members throughout its period of activity. Some may believe that too high a price, or a higher price than was necessary, was paid to insure the participation of the Five Powers, and especially the United States and the Soviet Union, in the United Nations Organization. The price was paid largely in provisions of its Charter relative to the maintenance or restoration of international peace and security which circumscribe carefully the situations in which the Security Council can take action.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
Mamnoon Ahmad Khan ◽  

This research paper examines the attitude of People’s Republic of China towards Kashmir conflict. Chinese leaders have been evolving their own strategy towards the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Chinese concentration was focused basically to oppose the United States and the United Kingdom in the United Nations. Even when the Soviet Union began to favour the Indian stand, China remained neutral. China cooperated with Pakistan in every field including the Kashmir issue but the United States, Soviet Union and the Western block opposed Chinese efforts in the United Nations. That’s why China remained unsuccessful in resolving the Kashmir dispute.


1953 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-530

Report of the Agent General of the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency: Addendum covering the period February 15–June 30, 1953: On July 23, 1953, the Agent-General of the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency transmitted to the seventh session of the General Assembly a report covering the period February 15–June 30, 1953. The Agent-General (John B. Coulter) noted that the planned expenditure of the $70 million program included approximately 59.5 percent for projects for the rehabilitation of productive capacity and 29 percent for sustaining commodity imports. In addition to the $43,828,954 available as of February 15, 1953, UNKRA had received $26,714,236 during the period reviewed; this included $15,750,000 from the United States, $7,840,000 from the United Kingdom and $1,330,733 from Australia. Of the total of $71,793,190 available at the end of June, $1,745,123 had been offered in kind. During the period reviewed, $3,590,205 had been expended, leaving a balance of $66,457,826 available for the $70 million program. Of that amount, $54.4 million had been allotted to firm and agreed projects


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