Every five years, representatives of the 189 nations that are signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) gather at the United Nations to review progress made on the three pillars of the Treaty: nonproliferation, disarmament, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Historically, the Review Conference has been marked by deep divisions between nuclear haves and have-nots. This year, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has played a behind-the-scenes role in bridging that rift. By bringing together senior officials from nations that have or are aspiring to have nuclear power, the Academy’s Global Nuclear Future Initiative has provided a neutral forum for key players to candidly exchange ideas and approaches, free of posturing that often dominates discussion in the public spotlight.
Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan of the Philippines, presiding President of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, joined leaders of the Academy’s Global Nuclear Future Initiative at an Academy-sponsored meeting held in New York on May 7, 2010. The group also included several former Review Conference Presidents, including Ambassadors Sergio Duarte of Brazil (currently the UN’s Representative for Disarmament); Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka (currently the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs); and Mohamed Shaker of Egypt (currently the Vice Chairman of the Board of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs).
Ambassador-level delegates from more than twelve countries attended the meeting, along with the leaders of the Academy’s Initiative– Steven Miller (Harvard University) and Scott Sagan (Stanford University) –and senior project advisors Robert Rosner (University of Chicago) and Stephen Goldberg (Argonne National Laboratory).
The Global Nuclear Future Initiative’s distinctive and pragmatic approach to nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation issues has had a direct impact on domestic and international policy. The findings and recommendations drawn from this work have been requested and cited by senior officials in the White House and the Departments of Energy and State, and have directly informed the work of the April 2010 Global Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Obama.
The Academy has used its convening power and the wide range of expertise of its members to involve diverse international players in the Initiative. Participants include representatives from nuclear industry and international organizations, as well as from those states now embarking on nuclear power programs whose views and concerns are often overlooked by the international community. The result has been the formation of a new network of policy-makers and scholars dedicated to the security of nuclear energy.
The Academy has held a series of meetings on various aspects of the nuclear future, including an international conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in December 2009 that focused on the spread of nuclear power in the Middle East. Another international meeting will take place in Singapore in November 2010. It will focus on regional perspectives on current nuclear trends, including the changing nuclear suppliers market and managing the nuclear fuel cycle in a way that takes into account the nuclear development goals of the region. In addition, the Academy has published a widely cited special double issue of its journal Dædalus (Fall 2009 and Winter 2010) and a series of Occasional Papers that gather diverse international perspectives on the fuel cycle and disarmament.
More information about the Global Nuclear Future Initiative is available on the Academy’s website at https://www.amacad.org/project/global-nuclear-future
This Initiative is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York, which hosted the New York meeting; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; and Fred Kavli and the Kavli Foundation.