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ABSTRACT
The 2017 Nuclear Weapon Prohibition Treaty preamble reaffirmed the role of regional nuclear weapon free zones (NWFZs) in enhancing regional peace and security and in contributing to wider nuclear disarmament objectives. Existing such zones in many regions, including Latin America, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central Asia and Mongolia, have played significant roles in both preventing or reversing nuclear proliferation, assisting in the delegitimization of nuclear weapons as part of regional security arrangements, and securing binding negative security guarantees from nuclear weapon states (a feature absent in the NPT). At the same time, the new Prohibition Treaty contains important provisions that may require strengthening of existing NWFZs and consideration for incorporation in new such zones. The article examines particular needs for strengthening existing and proposed NWFZs, particularly in relation to the control over nuclear weapons, threats of nuclear weapon use, assistance in engaging in prohibited nuclear weapon activities, and obligations to provide victim assistance and environmental remediation in areas affected by nuclear testing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Michael Hamel-Green is Emeritus Professor in the College of Arts and Education, and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Victoria University Melbourne, Australia. His teaching areas include international security, conflict resolution, and community development. His research has focused on regional nuclear weapon-free zones, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and multilateral negotiations. He is Chair of the Editorial Board of Global Change, Peace and Security, and Convenor of the Curatorial Committee of the online Australian Living Peace Museum (livingpeacemuseum.org.au). Recent publications include ‘Cooperating Regionally, Denuclearizing Globally: Multilateral Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Initiatives’ in Jeffrey Knopf, (ed.) International Cooperation on WMD Nonproliferation (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016), and ‘Australia's Disarmament Dilemma: Nuclear Umbrella or Nuclear-Free’ (International Law and Policy Institute, 2014).
Notes
1 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/tpnw (accessed December 3, 2017).
2 Republic of Austria, ‘Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons’, Disarmament, https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/european-foreign-policy/disarmament/weapons-of-mass-destruction/nuclear-weapons-and-nuclear-terrorism/vienna-conference-on-the-humanitarian-impact-of-nuclear-weapons/ (accessed December 3, 2017). The most important of these conferences was the 2014 Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons hosted by the Austrian Government and attended by 158 states and a wide range of non-government organisations, including the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Previous conferences on the humanitarian impacts were in Oslo (March 2013) and Nayarit (February 2014).
3 UN General Assembly, Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, UN, New York, A/CONF.229/2017/8, July 7, 2017; UN General Assembly, Taking Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations, UN, New York, A/71/371, September 1, 2016.
4 UN General Assembly, ‘Report of the Open-ended Working Group’, UN General Assembly, Taking Forward Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations, UN, New York, A/71/371, September 1, 2016, 7–8. For a recent discussion of the relationship between the NWPT and the NPT, see Nick Ritchie, ‘The NPT and a Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty’, Reaching Critical Will, Nuclear Ban Daily 1, no.1 (March 27, 2017) http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/disarmament-fora/nuclear-weapon-ban/reports/11392-nuclear-ban-daily-vol-1-no-1 (accessed December 3, 2017).
5 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
6 Alfonso Garcia Robles, The Denuclearization of Latin America (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1967); Monica Serrano, Common Security in Latin America: The 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco (London: Institute of Latin American Studies, London University, 1992).
7 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ’Antarctic Treaty’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/antarctic (accessed December 3, 2017); Donald Rothwell, The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Olav Schram Stokke and Davor Vidas, eds., Governing the Antarctic: The Effectiveness and Legitimacy of the Antarctic Treaty System (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
8 Robles, The Denuclearization of Latin America.
9 For overviews of the NWFZ treaties already established see: Jozef Goldblat, Arms Control: The New Guide to Negotiations and Agreements (London: Sage Publications and International Peace Research Institute, 2002), 196–219; Michael Hamel-Green, ‘Cooperating Regionally, Denuclearizing Globally: Multilateral Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Initiatives’, in International Cooperation on WMD Nonproliferation, ed. Jeffrey W. Knopf, (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2016), 206–28; Ramesh Thakur, ed., Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zones (Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1998); Pericles Gasparin Alves and Daiana Belinda Cipollone, eds., Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones in the 21st Century (Geneva: UNIDIR, 1997).
10 Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikhan, ed., Mongolia's Nuclear-Weapon-Free Status: Documents Speak (Official Documents 1992–2015), (Ulaanbaatar: Blue Banner, 2015); Jargalsaikhan Enksaikhan, ‘Mongolia and the Nuclear Age’, The Mongolian Journal of International Affairs 14 (2007): 43–50.
11 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear weapons’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/npt/text (accessed December 3, 2017); Thomas Graham, Jr. and Damien J. Lavera, Cornerstones of Security: Arms Control Treaties in the Nuclear Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003), 110.
12 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Treaty of Tlatelolco’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/tlateloco_p2 (accessed December 3, 2017).
13 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Protocol to the Treaty on Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/ (accessed December 3, 2017).
14 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Treaty of Rarotonga’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/rarotonga_p3/text (accessed December 3, 2017).
15 Nina Tannenwald, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945, Cambridge Studies in International Relations (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
16 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
17 United States Mission to the United Nations, Joint Press Statement from the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations of the United States, United Kingdom, and France Following the Adoption of a Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons, New York City, July 7, 2017.
18 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
19 Davis R. Robinson, ‘The Treaty of Tlatelolco and the United States’, The American Journal of International Law 64, no. 2 (1970): 283–4; John R. Redick, ‘Regional Nuclear Arms Control in Latin America’, International Organization 29, no. 2 (1975): 146.
20 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Tlatelolco’.
21 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Rarotonga’.
22 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
23 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Protocol to the Treaty on Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone’.
24 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Tlatelolco’.
25 Ibid.
26 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Additional Protocol II to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/a/tlateloco_p2/unitedstatesofamerica/rat/mexico+city (accessed December 3, 2017).
27 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, ‘Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/canwfz/text (accessed December 3, 2017).
28 Australian Government, 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, https://www.fpwhitepaper.gov.au/foreign-policy-white-paper, 84 (accessed December 3, 2017).
29 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Rarotonga’.
30 Organization of the Collective Security Treaty, Moscow http://www.odkb.gov.ru/start/index_aengl.htm (accessed December 3, 2017); Organization of the Collective Security Treaty, http://odkb-csto.org/documents/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=1897 (accessed December 3, 2017).
31 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia’.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
35 Desmond Ball, A Suitable Piece of Real Estate: American Installations in Australia (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1980), 154.
36 Joseph Cirincione, Jon Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002), 178.
37 Peter Hayes, Nuclear Command-and-Control in the Millennials Era, NAPSNet Special Reports, February 17, 2015, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-special-reports/nuclear-command-and-control-in-the-millenials-era/ (accessed January 21, 2018).
38 Richard Tanter, The ‘Joint Facillties’ Revisited – Desmond Ball, Democratic Debate on Security, and the Human Interest, Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, Special Report, December 12, 2012, http://nautilus.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-_Joint-Facilities_-revisited-1000-8-December-2012-2.pdf (accessed January 21, 2018).
39 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
40 Ibid.
41 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Tlatlelolco’.
42 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Bangkok Treaty’.
43 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia’.
44 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Rarotonga’.
45 Richard Tanter, The Nuclear Ban Treaty, Pine Gap and the Nobel Peace Prize, John Menadue – Pearls and Irritations (website), November 16, 2017 https://johnmenadue.com/richard-tanter-the-nuclear-ban-treaty-pine-gap-and-the-nobel-peace-prize/ (accessed December 3, 2017).
46 Richard Broinowski, Fact or Fission: The Truth about Australia's Nuclear Ambitions (Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2003), 51–73.
47 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
48 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty of Tlatelolco’.
49 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties. ‘Pelindaba Treaty’, Disarmament Treaties Database, http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/pelindaba/text (accessed December 3, 2017).
50 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Rarotonga Treaty’.
51 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Bangkok Treaty’.
52 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia’.
53 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
54 Ibid.
55 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia’.
56 For an account of the environmental impact of Soviet nuclear testing, see D. J. Peterson, Troubled Lands: The Legacy of Soviet Environmental Destruction (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993).
57 For accounts of the impact of Pacific nuclear testing on victims and the environment, see: Tilman A. Ruff, ‘The Humanitarian Impact and Implications of Nuclear Test Explosions in the Pacific Region’, International Review of the Red Cross 97, no. 899 (2015): 775–813; Nic Maclellan, Grappling with the Bomb: Britain's Pacific H-Bomb Tests (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2017); Nic Maclellan and Jean Chesneaux, After Moruroa: France in the South Pacific (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1998).
58 For a review of the history of previous Northeast Asia NWFZ proposals, see Michael Hamel-Green and Peter Hayes, ‘Paths to Peace on the Peninsula: The Case for a Japan-Korea Nuclear Weapon Free Zone’, Security Challenges 7, no. 2 (Winter 2011): 105–21.
59 Peter W. Colm, Rosemary Hayes, Karl F. Spielmann, and Nathan N.White, ‘The Reduction of Tension in Korea’, Institute for Defense Analyses, Technical Report (Secret), prepared for the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, distributed by the Defense Logistics Agency, Arlington, Virginia, Vols. 1 and 2, June 1972. [Declassified 1977].
60 Michael Hamel-Green and Peter Hayes, ‘Paths to Peace on the Peninsula’, 111.
61 Jozef Goldblat, Arms Control: The New Guide to Negotiations and Agreements (London: PRIO/SIPRI/Sage, 2003), 205.
62 Malcolm Chalmers, Preparing for War in Korea (London: Royal United Services Institute, Whitehall Report September 4–17, 2017), 1.
63 Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris, ‘North Korean Nuclear Capabilities, 2018’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 74, no. 1 (2018): 41–51.
64 Satoshi Hirose, Keiko Nakamura, Tatsujiro Suzuki, and Hiromichi Umebayashi, Proposal: A Comprehensive Approach to a Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (Nagasaki: Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, March 2015).
65 Hiromichi Umebayashi, Proposal of a Model Treaty on the Northeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Peace Depot Working Paper No.1 (Yokohama: Peace Depot, November 2005).
66 Morton H. Halperin, ‘A Proposal for a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone in Northeast Asia’, Global Asia 6, no. 4 (2011); Morton H. Halperin, ‘A New Approach to Security in Northeast Asia: Breaking the Gridlock’, The Asia-Pacific Journal 10, no. 3 (August 19, 2012); Morton H. Halperin, ‘Time to Strike a Comprehensive Security Deal in Northeast Asia’, Point of View, Asia & Japan Watch (September 11, 2014).
67 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
68 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Pelindaba Treaty’.
69 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Disarmament Treaties Database, ‘Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia’.
70 Jesse Johnson, ‘For North Korea and China, Defense Pact Proves a Complicated Document’, Japan Times, April 18, 2017.
71 Vilmos Cserveny, Jozef Goldblat, Faawzy Hussein Hamad, Hannelore Hoppe, Jez Littlewood, Ibrahim Othman, Enrique Roman Morey, and Mohammed Kadry Said, Building a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East: Global Non-Proliferation Regimes and Regional Experiences (Geneva, UNIDIR, 2004); Joseph A Camilleri, Michael Hamel-Green, Marianne Hanson, Michalis Michael and Nicholas A. J. Taylor, Athens Dialogue on a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction as Well as Their Means of Delivery (Athens: European Public Law Organization, 2013); N. A. J. Taylor, Joseph A. Camilleri, and Michael Hamel-Green, ‘Dialogue on Middle East Biological, Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Disarmament: Constraints and Opportunities’, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 38, no. 1 (2013): 78–98.
72 Benjamin Hautecouverture and Raphaelle Mathiot, ‘A Zone Free of WMD and Means of Delivery in the Middle East: The Multilateral Diplomatic Process, 1974–2010’, in WMD Arms Control in the Middle East: Prospects, Obstacles and Options, eds. Harald Muller and Daniel Muller (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 55.
73 United States Department of State, 2102 Conference on a Middle East Zone Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (MEWMDFZ), Washington DC, November 23, 2012, cited in Patricia Lewis, ‘Tiptoe, Stride and Leap: Steps Towards a WMD-free Middle East’ in WMD Arms Control in the Middle East: Prospects, Obstacles and Options, eds. Harald Muller and Daniel Muller (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 297.
74 British American Security Information Council (BASIC), Achieving the Possible: WMD Free Zone in the Middle East – Draft Treaty [unpublished preliminary draft available from BASIC]; Margaret Rowland, A Draft Treaty for a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East: Time to Envisage the Practical, UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, October 12, 2017, https://www.un.org/disarmament/update/wmdfz-in-middle-east (accessed December 3, 2017).
75 Details of Indian and Pakistani nuclear forces are provided in Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Yearbook 2016 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 641–52.
76 Thomas S. Axworthy and Sara French, A Proposal for an Arctic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Presentation to the Interaction Council Expert Meeting on ‘Achieving a World Free of Nuclear Weapons’, Hiroshima, April 15–16, 2010; Hamel-Green, Michael, ‘Atomwaffenfreie Zone Arktis: Vorbilder und Perspektiven’, Osteuropa 6 (February–March 2011): 289–99.