The international system comprises a plurality of sovereign states often pursuing conflicting interests. One means of resolving or managing conflicts between those states is diplomatic bargaining or negotiation. In the last fifteen years, the study of negotiation has attracted researchers from various disciplines in the social sciences, and the vol
Cette etude, completee d'une bibliographie, sur les efforts faits par les Nations Unies dans le domaine du desarmement est destinee a combler une lacune. En effet, malgre toute la documentation sur le travail des Nations Unies a cet egard, on ne trouve aucun resume objectif des propositions des differentes nations et des conclusions des deliberations qui se poursuivent depuis la creation des Nations Unies en 1945. En septembre 1956, l'Assemblee pleniere de la Federation Mondiale des Associations pour les Nations Unies adopta une resolution priant le Comite executif "d'examiner la possibilite de favoriser plus largement l'information et l'edu cation et de provoquer des etudes plus approfondies et des reunions d'etudes sur les differents aspects du probleme du desarmement". Pendant la periode 1956/57, le Comite executif accepta qu'une etude, completee par une biblio graphie, soit publiee sur cette question et M. Yves Collart, Assistant du Directeur de l'Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales de Geneve fut charge de la preparer. Cette etude a ete faite par M. COllart selon les directives generales de la Federation Mondiale des Associations pour les Nations Unies qui desirait notamment que les faits soient presentes de maniere aussi objective que possible. La respon sabilite de ce texte incombe a son auteur et non a la Federa tion. Les membres du Comite executif de la Federation furent neanmoins invites a faire par ecrit leurs remarques sur le premier projet de cette etude et M. Collart a tenu compte de leurs commentaires en redigeant le texte final.
In 1962 Dean Acheson famously described Britain as having lost an Empire but not yet found a role. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the realms of nuclear weapons. An increasingly marginal world power, successive post-war British governments felt that an independent nuclear deterrent was essential if the country was to remain at the top table of world diplomacy. Focusing on a key twenty-year period, this study explores Britain's role in efforts to bring about a nuclear test ban treaty between 1954 and 1973. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it examines the nature of defence planning, the scientific goals that nuclear tests were designed to secure, Anglo-American relationships, the efficacy of British diplomacy and its contribution to arms control and disarmament. A key theme of the study is to show how the UK managed to balance the conflicting pressures created by its determination to remain a credible nuclear power whilst wanting to pursue disarmament objectives, and how these pressures shifted over the period in question. Based on a wealth of primary sources this book opens up the largely ignored subject of the impact of arms control on the UK nuclear weapons programme. Its appraisal of the relationship between the requirements and developments of the UK nuclear weapons programme against international and domestic pressures for a test ban treaty will be of interest to anyone studying post-war British defence and foreign policy, history of science, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and international relations. It also provides important background information on current events involving nuclear proliferation and disarmament.
From the destruction of Hiroshima to the conclusion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968, the international community struggled to halt the nuclear arms race and to prevent the annihilation of humanity. This study offers an accessible and authoritative account of European policy in this critical dimension of world politics. How much influence did Europeans exert in Washington? Why were European objectives often at variance with U.S. expectations? To what extent did differing national agendas on non-proliferation cause friction within the Western Alliance? Schrafstetter and Twigge examine five initiatives designed to prevent or restrain the nuclear arms race: the international option, the commercial option, the moral option, the multilateral option, and the legal option. Their conclusions show the extent to which non-proliferation policy dominated European politics and the transatlantic relationship. The international option focuses on early UN plans for international control of atomic energy (1946-48). The commercial option assesses the influence of Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace proposal of 1953 and the impact of civil nuclear power. The moral option charts international attempts to outlaw the testing of nuclear weapons, resulting in the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. The multilateral option discusses the role of collective nuclear forces in addressing West German demands for nuclear equality within NATO. The legal option explores British, French, and West German attitudes to nuclear disarmament and charts the international drive to stop the spread of nuclear weapons culminating in the signing of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. Throughout the analysis, attention is focused on the role of the European powers and their influence on both Washington and Moscow.
Focusing on a key twenty year period, this study explores Britain's role in efforts to bring about a nuclear test ban treaty between 1954 and 1973. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it examines the nature of defence planning, Anglo-American relationships, the efficacy of British diplomacy and UK contributions to arms control and disarmament. The appraisal of the relationship between the requirements and developments of the UK nuclear weapons programme against the countervailing international and domestic pressures for a test ban treaty will be of interest to anyone studying post-war British defence and foreign policy, history of science, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and international relations, or who is looking for background information on current events involving nuclear proliferation and disarmament.
