The South and disarmament at the UN

Abstract

This article analyses the Global South’s role in disarmament. It offers evidence of a customarily ignored Southern agency in UN processes and suggests that the later work of Hans Morgenthau explains both this agency and contrary state policies. The article looks at the recent agreement with Iran as an example of constructive convergence and sets out the structure of an emerging and Southern-supported disarmament initiative.

Keywords:

• Disarmament
• Global South
• Southern normative agency
• United Nations
• Iran

Acknowledgements

The author recognises the research assistance of Kevin Miletic and David Franco.

Notes

1. Alden et al., The South in Global Politics.

2. Ibid., 2.

3. Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 231.

4. The Editorial Board at Millennium could not confirm the total number of articles and book reviews published since 1971. However, in 2003 Mark Hoffman noted that between 1971 and 2003 some 3000 total articles and book reviews had been published; my estimate is that by the end of 2010 Millennium had surpassed the figure of 4000 total articles and book reviews.

5. It is worth noting that most of these appeared in book reviews as opposed to articles.

6. For further information, see Eriksson, “Observers or Advocates?”; and Balzacq, “The Three Faces of Securitization.”

7. Alden et al., The South in World Politics,” 9.

8. Prashad, The Darker Nations, 143.

9. Ibid.

10. Alden et al., The South in World Politics,” 6.

11. Alden et al., The South in World Politics,” 18.

12. Plesch and Miletic, “GCD,” 1.

13. Morgenthau, A New Foreign Policy, 208.

14. Ibid.

15. Morgenthau, A New Foreign Policy, 230.

16. Morgenthau, A New Foreign Policy, 240.

17. Plesch and Weiss, Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations.

18. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia, Asia–Africa speak from Bandung, 167.

19. Prashad, The Darker Nations, 42.

20. Ibid.

21. Westad, The Global Cold War, 100.

22. United Nations General Assembly, Report to the Secretary-General, 1–33.

23. Ibid.

24. Institute of Foreign Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 3–4.

25. Mortimer, The Third World Coalition, 14.

26. Jaipal, Non-alignment, 68.

27. Jackson, The Non-aligned, 172.

28. Jaipal, Non-alignment, 72.

29. Jackson, The Non-aligned, 172.

30. Prashad, The Darker Nations, 43.

31. Pubantz and Moore, “Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee,” 3.

32. Ibid.

33. Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament, Summary of the Sixth Meeting, 1.

34. Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament, Summary of the Sixth Meeting, 5.

35. Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament, Situation Report, 29.

36. Institute of Foreign Affairs, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 20.

37. Institute of Foreign Affairs, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 110.

38. Institute of Foreign Affairs, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 175.

39. Ibid.

40. Institute of Foreign Affairs, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 371.

41. NAM, Tehran Declaration, 67.

42. Riedel, “JFK’s Overshadowed Crisis,” 1.

43. Prashad, The Darker Nations, 43.

44. Institute of Foreign Affairs, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 206.

45. Institute of Foreign Affairs, “Summit Declarations of NAM,” 263.

46. For details, see http://www.cisd.soas.ac.uk/substrand/middle-east-wmd-free-zone-project,57101077.

47. Fitzpatrick, A Dozen Ways, 1.

48. Shultz et al., “Deterrence,” 1.

49. The SCRAP concept was first introduced at the UN by SOAS researchers with the support of Costa Rica and the Philippines. Subsequently it was presented to the UN Conference on Disarmament and on the margins of the NPT Review Conference and the General Assembly’s First Committee with the support of a dozen European, Latin American and Asian countries. For details, see www.scrapweapons.com.