Regional Nuclear Weapons Free Zones

I hate posting on top of Josh’s fantastic AQ Khan post. Go read that first.

I don’t think I got around to mentioning the article on regional nuclear weapons free zones that I wrote for Janes Intelligence Review (Regional restraint – The uses of nuclear weapons-free zones):

Nevertheless, on balance a well-designed NWFZ treaty can complement universal approaches to non-proliferation by making explicit the ‘good neighbour’ bargain embodied in the NPT and allowing countries within a region to create obligations tailored to particular regional concerns.

“Well-designed” is the magic word — negative security assurances and provisions regarding transit ought to be designed to elicit support from the nuclear weapons states. (Something I discussed in an August 2009 African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone post that led to the longer article).

The issue of what constitutes a ‘well-designed” zone from the perspective of a nuclear weapons state is the subject of a talk I am giving at a day-long event hosted by USIP and the Eliot School to follow Ambassador Jayntha Dhanapala’s talk on Tuesday night. You can’t RSVP for the day-long conference exacly, but if you go to the form to RSVP for Dhanapala’s talk, you can ask to receive more information about the conference itself.