On 22 March, the Non-Proliferation programme hosted a small discussion meeting entitled ‘A Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Time for a Serious Debate?’. The purpose of the meeting, led by Sir Michael Quinlan, was to explore the utility of a proposed research project on the prospect of nuclear disarmament.
The project’s aim would be to encourage a serious and objective examination of both the practical mechanisms and the political reforms required to create and sustain a non-nuclear world. This non-nuclear world would have to be at least as satisfactory in other respects as the world that exists today, or the world that may well exist in a relatively short period of time if instability in East Asia and/or the Middle East were to prompt a ‘cascade of proliferation’.
The meeting elicited a wide range of practical suggestions from the academics and policy-makers present. However, all were in agreement that the project was both feasible and timely, and it was decided that the next steps in the planning of this proposal should proceed.
