Report on PrepCom & Outlook for 2010 NPT Review Conference

Rebecca Johnson, executive director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, has published an article in Arms Control Today, reviewing the third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, held May 4-15, 2009 in New York. The article, titled "Enhanced Prospects for 2010: An Analysis of the Third PrepCom and the Outlook for the 2010 NPT Review Conference," summarizes the negotiations and results of the Third PrepCom. The PreCom raised hopes for a productive 2010 Conference (scheduled for May 3-28, 2010), but also highlighed the enormous political and diplomatic work required in the next year to achieve agreements that will result in advancing the nonproliferation agenda and in creating a foundation for moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons. The article is available at: http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2009_6/Johnson

In his discussion with the Webster University class "Global Issues: Japan" (June 9, 2009), Steven Leeper (Chairman, Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation), referred to the 2010 NPT Review Conference as a milestone for knowing whether or not the world will choose to work toward a nuclear weapon-free world. Leeper asserts that if it does not choose that path, then other nations will develop nuclear weapons within a few years, and "it will only be a matter of time before they are used."