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2001
The International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP) is a non-profit, non-governmental network organization with participants from all over the world. It is part of the worldwide activities of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES). The decision-making body of INESAP is the Coordinating Committee which has seven members from four continents.
The main objectives of INESAP are to promote nuclear disarmament; to strengthen existing arms control and non-proliferation regimes in the nuclear and the missile field; to develop and promote cooperative approaches to curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery and controlling the transfer of related technology; as well as to support a transformation of the nuclear non-proliferation regime into a nuclear weapons free world regime.
INESAP projects and activities in 2001
Against the background of the INESAP topics and objectives, the year 2001 was dominated by foreign policy and military decisions of the new US administration under President George W. Bush who made it clear that his priority is not on international, legally binding agreements. Among the determining factors were the September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the resulting coalition against terror and the Afghanistan war, the deepening crisis in the Middle East and between India and Pakistan, the debate on nuclear disarmament, the US announcement to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and to deploy both missile defenses and space weapons, as well as the US refusal to support the Verification Protocol of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Nevertheless, INESAP activities gained new momentum with the launch of a major new project which was also made possible by hiring an INESAP staff person who took over the group coordination and project management.
Moving Beyond Missile Defense
At the INES 2000 Congress in Stockholm/Sweden, INESAP decided to set up a new project under the name of "Moving Beyond Missile Defense" in cooperation with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF).
The project's main objective is to develop and introduce science-based proposals, developed by an international team of experts, into the international debate and the political decision-making process on missile defense, and to promote concepts and initiatives that enhance global stability and cooperation on governmental and non-governmental levels. The project wants to foster norms against ballistic missiles and space weapons, and develops proposals for controlling these weapons. The project aims at raising public awareness and understanding of the problems of missile proliferation and missile defense, allowing citizen groups to voice their concerns about the dangers of missile proliferation and missile defense and to utilize findings of the international Study Groups to advocate alternatives more effectively.
The project was launched in March 2001 in Santa Barbara/USA with sixteen people from nine countries attending. At the launch workshop, it has been decided to hold conferences in four regions where deployment of missile defense has a particular impact, namely North-East Asia, Europe and Russia, South Asia, and the Middle East.
The first regional conference concentrated on North-East Asia. US plans for a national missile defense as well as for theater missile defense systems in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea could have a severe impact on the region. China also is one of the countries that take US plans for space dominance very seriously, and that is attempting to initiate discussions of measures in international fora to prevent an arms race in space. The conference was held in December 2001 in Shanghai/China with almost forty people attending, the majority of which came from China, but also from Japan and South Korea, the US, the UK, and Germany. The conference was hosted by the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.
The Shanghai conference launched the following three international Study Groups: Improving International Missile Control and Disarmament, Space Weapons Ban, and Nuclear Disarmament and Nuclear Weapons Free Zones. Each Study Group defined three concrete tasks to be done over the next six months. In addition, a North-East Asia Forum was launched as a sub-project to "Moving Beyond Missile Defense", which will be coordinated and funded by the Center of American Studies in Shanghai.
For more information on the project, see the INESAP Information Bulletins #18 and #19 and the website http://www.mbmd.org.
Space Weapons Ban
In November 2001, INESAP co-sponsored a workshop in Berlin under the title "Is a Space Weapons Ban Feasible? How to proceed from the Göttingen Draft Treaty on the Limitation of the Military Use of Outer Space." The draft treaty had been authored in 1984 by four German scientists and had at that time been discussed in the German parliament.
In the light of the renewed plans of the US administration to develop and deploy space weapons, this workshop looked into the preconditions and the feasibility for a space weapons ban on the basis of the Göttingen Draft Treaty. Natural and political scientists as well as (foreign) policy officials and media representatives discussed the topic. They agreed on the importance of the topic and suggested that a follow-up workshop should be held soon.
The workshop in Berlin was an outcome of an initiative co-launched by German INESAP members in October 2000 and resulting in an appeal to the UN General Assembly to prevent a new arms race on earth and in outer space (Göttingen Appeal). More than 12,000 signatures had been sent in for handover to the UN General Assembly meeting in autumn, when any further related activities came to a halt after the September attacks. An appropriate time and opportunity for handover will have to be found in 2002.
The existing space weapons ban proposals and further information are posted at http://www.mbmd.org.
Abolition 2000 - international and German section
As a founding member of Abolition 2000, A Global Network To Eliminate Nuclear Weapons (http://www.abolition2000.org), INESAP continued to be active in the network. Several of the Abolition 2000 working groups are convened by active INESAP members, others are members of the Abolition 2000 Coordinating Committee and Global Council. In 2001, several INESAP members from Germany and the US were presenters and played an otherwise active role at the annual conference of the German Abolition 2000 section (Trägerkreis "Atomwaffen Abschaffen - bei uns anfangen!").
For more information on the German Abolition 2000 section, see the website at http://www.friedenskooperative.de/themen/abschaff.htm.
German initiative "Raketen abrüsten statt abwehren"
In March 2001, on the initiative of INESAP in Germany and the German NaturwissenschaftlerInnen-Initiative, the national campaign "Raketen abrüsten statt abwehren" (Missile disarmament instead of missile defense) was launched in Kassel. An appeal to the German parliament calls to refuse participation in any missile defense development and instead demands political initiatives for the abolition of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles. The appeal has received wide support from peace and other non-governmental organizations. Later in the year, the appeal initiators were able to secure a grant from the German Berghof Foundation for the initiative in order to develop and print a poster exhibition and a brochure on the issue of missile defense and missile disarmament.
Model Nuclear Weapons Convention
INESAP continues to promote the model Nuclear Weapons Convention (mNWC) as a basis for negotiations on the verifiable and irreversible disarmament of nuclear weapons and the ultimate goal of a nuclear weapons free world. In 2001, INESAP was involved in preliminary planning of an NWC Speaking Tour at German law faculties that will be organized by the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP.)
The text of the model nuclear Weapons Convention and additional information can be found at http://www.ippnw.org/NWC.html. Translations of the mNWC in Arab, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish are available as official UN documents. A German translation is contained in the book Sicherheit und berleben. Argumente für eine Nuklearwaffenkonvention (ISBN 3-00-006743-4).
Space Use and Ethics
As a follow-up of the international conference "Space Use and Ethics" co-convened by INESAP and held at Darmstadt University of Technology in March 1999, the conference proceedings have now been published. The book Space Use and Ethics. Volume I: Papers, edited by Wolfgang Bender, Regina Hagen, Martin Kalinowski, and Jürgen Scheffran, was published by agenda (Münster) and has 300 pages ( 21, ISBN 3-90688-134-5). The second volume will collect topic-related source texts and will be published in summer 2002.
INESAP Information Bulletin
After a two years break, a new INESAP Information Bulletin was published in September 2001. The articles of issue #18 fall under the following section titles: Moving Beyond Missile Defense (presentations from Santa Barbara project launch); Defense, Deterrence or Disarmament?; and Space Without Weapons. The Bulletin is currently sent to approx. 450 addresses and distributed at conferences and other public events.
Various
INESAP continued to co-sponsor the Middle Powers Initiative and was represented by the work of Professor Fernando de Souza Barros from Brazil, who is a member of the MPI International Steering Committee. (For more information on MPI, see the MPI webpage at http://www.middlepowers.org.)
In February 2001, INESAP co-sponsored and was actively involved in an international three-day workshop on "National and Theater Missile Defenses after the US Elections" in Berlin/Germany, which included a briefing for politicians, diplomats, and media representatives.
In April 2001, the INESAP Coordinator participated in the international conference "Space without weapons - area of international cooperation in XXI century" held under UN auspices in Moscow/Russia. The conference was held in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the first-ever manned spaceflight of Yury Gagarin on April 12, 1961.
In May 2001, INESAP co-sponsored a speaking tour of Bruce Gagnon, the international coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. The INESAP Coordinator participated in three days of expert meetings, political lobbying and press conferences in Berlin/Germany on the issues of missile defense and space weaponization.
IANUS co-sponsored the Union of Concerned Scientist's annual Summer Symposium on Science and World Affairs which took place in July 2001 in Berlin/Germany. INESAP members from several countries actively participated in the conference.
Throughout the year, the INESAP Coordinator and ohter INESAP members followed requests to present INESAP topics, initiatives and findings at national and international events.
Organizational matters in 2001
INESAP Coordinator
Regina Hagen started work as INESAP Coordinator in February 2001 on a part-time basis. The job was extended to full time in November. The Coordinator manages most INESAP activities. The Coordinator office is located in Darmstadt and hosted by the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Science, Technology and Security (IANUS) at Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany).
INESAP homepage
The INESAP homepage is located at http://www.INESAP.org and gives access to INESAP publications. For the "Moving Beyond Missile Defense" project, a new homepage has been set up at http://www.MBMD.org which is maintained by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
INESAP e-mail discussion lists
Since 1994, Johan Swahn facilitates an e-mail discussion list for information exchange and networking among INESAP participants. To subscribe to the list, send an email to the administrator at inesap-owner [at] fy [dot] chalmers [dot] se. Project-specific lists have been installed for the "Moving Beyond Missile Defense" project and the Space Weapons Ban Study Group. To subscribe, contact Carah Ong at research [at] napf [dot] org.
Funding and support
INESAP funding in 2001 came from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and from IANUS. The office of INES in Dortmund continued to support the work of INESAP, especially with respect to the Abolition 2000 Network. For the German project "Raketen abrüsten statt abwehren", funds could be secured from the German Berghof Foundation.
Workshop summary (for details see above)
"National and Theater Missile Defenses after the US Elections", February 2001, Berlin/Germany
Launch workshop "Moving Beyond Missile Defense", March 2001, Santa Barbara/USA
"Is a Space Weapons Ban Feasible? How to proceed from the Göttingen Draft Treaty on the Limitation of the Military Use of Outer Space?", November 2001, Berlin/Germany
Regional workshop "Moving Beyond Missile Defense - North-East Asia", December 2001, Shanghai/China
Selected publications
Wolfgang Bender and Wolfgang Liebert (eds.)
Wege zu einer nuklearwaffenfreien Welt
agenda, Münster, 2001, ISBN 3-89688-087-X, 20,35
Wolfgang Bender, Regina Hagen, Martin Kalinowski, Jürgen Scheffran (eds.)
Space Use and Ethics, Volume I: Proceedings
agenda, Münster, 2001; ISBN 3-89688-134-5, 21,-
Pervez Hoodboy (director) and Zia Mian (script)
Pakistan and India under the Nuclear Shadow
Video documentary, 2001, Eqbal Ahmad Foundation (P.O.Box 222, Princeton, NJ 08542-0222, USA), $ 35,-
Smitu Kothari and Zia Mian (eds.)
Out of the Nuclear Shadow
India: Lokayan, Delhi, 2001, ISBN 81-86962-26-3, Rs 500 (hb); ISBN 81-86962-26-3, RS 275 (Pb); USA/Europe: Zed Books, London, 2001, ISBN 1-84277-058-6, $ 69,96 (Hb); ISBN 1-84277-059-4, $ 27,50 (Pb)
David Krieger and Carah Ong (eds.)
A Maginot Line in the Sky. International Perspectives on Ballistic Missile Defense
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, 2001, $ 14,94 +SH
Paul Podvig (ed.)
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces
MIT Press, 2001, ISBN 0-262-16202-4, $ 45,-
