Organized by SIPRI, the Nobel Symposium on A Future Arms Control Agenda considered how arms control contributes to a cooperative security system based on the peaceful resolution of disputes and the gradual demilitarization of international relations. This book documents the proceedings, including comprehensive discussions of new elements of the post-Cold War global security system and objectives and limitations of arms control within that evolving system. Special attention is given to the changing roles and responsibilities of the major powers in arms control efforts.

In 2002 the Group of Eight industrialized nations - in which Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, the USA and representatives of the European Union participate - formed the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. The G8 pledged to raise up to $20 billion to carry out the Global Partnership projects over a 10-year period, initially in Russia but with the intention to expand the scope of projects to include other countries. These projects will help to specify the quantities and locations of weapons and materials and ensure that...

This report reviews the current cooperative threat reduction activities with a particular focus on projects and approaches engaging European partners. It examines the organizing principles for cooperative threat reduction and the lessons learned from past project implementation. Finally, it examines how European countries might organize their cooperative threat reduction activities to increase their coherence and effectiveness.

The diversion to military programmes of materials and technologies obtained from foreign suppliers for peaceful purposes has played a prominent role in the known cases of nuclear proliferation. The need to strengthen nuclear export controls has been identified by the G8 group of industrialized states and the European Union. This study examines the structure and activities of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as an ad hoc group of 44 states committed to applying effective controls on the export of nuclear-related dual-use equipment and material.
In this context, the study raises the...

Governments have a legal obligation to guarantee effective control over arms exports and to monitor and supervise the movement of arms to ensure they do not fall into unauthorized hands. This book provides a detailed description of how governments discharge this responsibility. Individual chapters describe national efforts to control arms transfer, concentrating on the existing legal framework to regulate arms exports. Multilateral arms transfer control regimes are discussed, including the United Nations, the Co-ordinating Committee for East-West Trade Policy (CoCom), the missile Technology...