2003

INESAP Annual Report 2003

The International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP) is a non-profit, nongovernmental 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 decisionmaking 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 nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and their means of delivery and controlling the transfer of related technology; as well as to support a transformation of the nuclear nonproliferation regime into a nuclear weapons free world regime.

Global Background

For INESAP, as for a large part of civil society worldwide, the war waged by the United States-led “coalition of the willing” against Iraq was the most prominent event in the year 2003. The war was initiated with the overriding goal of eliminating Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and its prohibited ballistic missiles. When no such weapons could be found, the military activities were justified instead by the positive effects expected to result from “regime change.” The U.S. government claimed that freedom and democracy in Iraq would have positive impacts, both on the overall development in the Middle East and on nonproliferation efforts.

Many observers, however, fear that the display of “preventive action” in Iraq could encourage some weaker countries to offset their military inferiority by trying to acquire nuclear capabilities. The relatively patient pursuit by the U.S. of negotiations with the North Korean leadership, in spite of that country’s withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, could be interpreted alternatively as showing the potential of diplomatic avenues, or as suggesting that a small nuclear arsenal, or even the perception that a country might have one, could play a role in deterring U.S. military action.

“Non-proliferation” became the new catchword of the year, far beyond the war in Iraq. Just two examples:

In April and May 2003, the third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference (to be held in 2005) reflected the US focus on non-proliferation while at the same time marginalizing the disarmament obligations of the nuclear weapons states. While insisting that non-nuclear weapon states refrain from acquiring any nuclear weapons-capable technology, the US continued debate on development of nuclear weapons with new capabilities (from new varieties of “mini nukes” to much bigger “bunker busters”), while increasing readiness for underground nuclear tests. The Bush Administration also rejected ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), further diminishing prospects for its eventual entry into force.

Shortly after the NPT PrepCom, the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) was announced, with the goal of stopping “the flow of [WMD items] to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern.” The PSI functions outside the United Nations and stresses “the need for proactive measures,” including the interdiction of shipments by air or sea.

Further relevant U.S. actions included withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in June 2003 and increased funding for development of tactical and long-range missile defense systems and for military space programs, including those which could lead to the weaponization of space.

With proliferation of nuclear weapons, missiles, and missile defenses globally on the rise and space militarization/weaponization becoming a recurring theme, a new civil society initiative brought a ray of hope to many NGOs. The Mayors for Peace, lead by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, took the lead in promoting a renewed vision for a nuclear weapons free world, to be achieved by 2020. INESAP is proud to have been able to further this important initiative, which complements INESAP activities related to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament; ballistic missile non-proliferation, control, and disarmament; and efforts to make the case against missile defenses and to prevent the weaponization of space.

INESAP Projects & Activities 2003

Moving Beyond Missile Defense

The project Moving Beyond Missile Defense, which was started in cooperation with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) in 2001, continued throughout 2003. The year began with the third project conference being held in Berlin in January under the title Arms Control, Transparency, and Verification in a European-Russian Framework of Cooperative Security.

The conference brought together scholars and researchers from many European countries, including Russia, but also from the United States and Latin America, to discuss European and Russian perspectives on missile defense and space weapons as well as to draw lessons from different existing control regimes (Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Non- Proliferation Treaty, Ballistic Missile Control Regime, Outer Space Treaty, etc.) that could be useful when devising frameworks for missile, missile defense, and space control regimes.

For the Moving Beyond Missile Defense project, a homepage is maintained at http://www.mbmd.org by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Space Weapons Ban

At the NPT PrepCom in 2003, INESAP initiated an informal European Working Group on Missile Defense and Space Weaponization, in order to improve exchanges of missile defense and space weapons-related information in Europe and to encourage joint work on the promotion of alternatives including a missile flight test ban, missile disarmament, the prohibition of missile defenses, and a space weapons ban. The working group communicates via the discussion list EU_MDandSpace [at] yahoogroups [dot] com.
Panel at NPT PrepCom

INESAP Panel with Jozef Goldblat and
Tadatoshi Akiba at NPT PrepCom in Geneva

Non-Proliferation Treaty Prepatory Committee 2003

As in the past, INESAP has had a focus on the preparations for the next Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which will be held in New York in 2005.

At the 2003 Prepatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting in Geneva in April/May 2003, INESAP together with IALANA and the Mayors for Peace convened a discussion forum on Compliance within a Nuclear Abolition Regime with Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, UN Institute for Disarmament Research consultant Jozef Goldblat, and IALANA consultant Alyn Ware as speakers. The PrepCom appearance of Mayor Akiba was the result of previous INESAP interaction with the Mayors for Peace. In Geneva, Mayor Akiba took the opportunity to formally announce a new global campaign for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2020 under the auspices of the Mayors for Peace in his address to the PrepCom delegates. The campaign was formally launched in Nagasaki in November 2003 under the name of 2020 Vision: An Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, and calls for a formal decision at the NPT Review Conference in 2005 that States Parties will negotiate a Nuclear Weapons Convention by 2010. The mayors’ campaign has already gained considerable support both from the NGO community and from mayors, with 20 large-city mayors announcing participation in the 2004 PrepCom and NGOs in several countries making it the focal point for the work in August 2005 (i.e. through the NPT Review Conference up to the 60th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings.)

INESAP also participated actively in NGO activities at the PrepCom, being closely involved in the drafting of statements to be delivered to the delegates in the “NGO Session.” The INESAP Coordinator contributed with the statement Nuclear Disarmament and Ballistic Missile Elimination Go Hand in Hand http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/npt/NGOpres2003/Missiles.htm.

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 addition to the contributions to the NPT PrepCom, INESAP also plays a crucial role in the German Abolition 2000 section “Trägerkreis Atomwaffen abschaffen – bei uns anfangen!” and in preparing its annual conference, which was held in Berlin this year. At the conference, the INESAP Coordinator was nominated one of three co-coordinators of the German network.
Titel page of Exhibition

Titel page of German exhibiton on missile
defense developed for German Abolition 2000

German Initiative “Raketen abrüsten statt abwehren”

In May 2003, the exhibition Macht den Himmel nicht zur Hölle. Argumente gegen eine Raketenabwehr (Don’t Turn the Heavens into Hell: Arguments against Missile Defense) on the dangers of missile defense became available for public showings. Developed for the German Abolition 2000 section by Regina Hagen, Jürgen Scheffran, and Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck and funded by the German Berghof Foundation, the exhibition drew great interest and has already been shown in many towns. The exhibition continued the “Raketen abrüsten statt abwehren” (Missile disarmament instead of missile defense) initiative. To advertise the exhibition, a booklet containing the full exhibition was produced, as well as a CD containing posters and flyers which can be easily adapted by local exhibition organizers. The exhibition can be viewed at http://www.ippnw.de/frieden/awaffen/AusstellungRaketenAbruesten_2003.pdf; (6 MB).

Model Nuclear Weapons Convention

The Mayors for Peace’s Emergency Campaign brought renewed attention to the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (mNWC). Merav Datan, one of the main mNWC drafters, was involved in the mayors’ campaign, assuring that the mNWC was presented in the most useful way. The complete text of the mNWC is contained in the book Security and Survival. The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which is co-edited by INESAP, IPPNW and IALANA http://www.ippnw.org/IPPNWBooks.html.

Biological Weapons Prevention

INESAP Coordinating Committee member Kathryn Nixdorff is actively involved in a series of projects that deal with bioweapons and means of their prevention.

The BioWeapons Prevention Project http://www.bwpp.org, founded in November 2002, gained additional momentum in 2003 with the appointment of its own director. The project, a new civil society initiative to monitor the ban on biological weapons, is located in Geneva, Switzerland, the meeting place of the United Nation’s Conference on Disarmament. BWPP is a joint project of eight founding non-governmental organizations, among them INES. The initiative aims to establish a global monitoring network to increase openness in biological weapons matters.

BWPP will strengthen the ban on biological weapons by monitoring governments, industry and others. The watchdog group will be assisted by partner organizations around the world. The project follows in the footsteps of successful non-governmental efforts to monitor the ban on landmines and the spread of small arms.

Other Issues

INESAP expertise on the use of space was provided to German and European parliamentarians in need of information on and an evaluation of space policy, on a global and European as well as national level. INESAP participants contributed to a hearing on the “Green Paper: European Space Policy” and published several statements on the planned integration of European space policy in the increasingly militarized European Security and Defense Policy of the European Union.

A high-level delegation of the Middle Powers Initiative, of which INESAP’s ‘mother organization’ INES is a member, visited several European capitals and NATO in autumn 2003, to lobby the Foreign (and Defense) Ministries for a more outspoken stance on the issue of nuclear disarmament. As a national delegation member, Regina Hagen participated in meetings with German officials during the delegation’s visit to Berlin.

General Networking

INESAP has extended contacts to government officials and diplomats as well as to other NGOs and active individuals.

As the network’s only staff person, the INESAP Coordinator now represented the network at many events and in many NGO bodies, e.g. in the Abolition 2000 Global Council, as a co-coordinator of the German Abolition 2000 section, on the Board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and as Vice President of the NGO Committee for Disarmament in Geneva. Regina Hagen has also become a member of the editorial team of the German quarterly “Wissenschaft und Frieden” (Science & Peace).

Armin Tenner, INES chair, took over representation of INES/INESAP on the Middle Powers Initiative Steering Committee from Fernando de Souza Barros.

On a daily basis, many INESAP participants continue to represent INESAP and its expertise and ideas at conferences, in other organizations, at UN meetings, in expert bodies, and in a variety of other forums. INESAP also maintains, among others, regular contact with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, the International Peace Bureau, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

INESAP Coordinating Committee

A few changes were made to INESAP committees at the “Moving Beyond Missile Defense” conference in Berlin. On that occasion, the INESAP Coordinating Committee (CoCo) had the opportunity to meet. Most members of the committee renewed their commitment. After 7 years, Martin Kalinowski left the committee because of other obligations. Martin played a key role in INESAP for many years, and his continued advice will be greatly appreciated. Johan Swahn, one of the founding fathers of INESAP, left the committee because his main research focus has shifted to sustainable development.

At the same meeting, Prof. Kathryn Nixdorff accepted a place in the committee. She is professor for microbiology at the Darmstadt University of Technology, a member of IANUS, and has been participating in INES and INESAP activities since its foundation. She has been working on non-proliferation and preventive arms control for biological weapons as well as on verification for toxicological weapons. The last open place in the CoCo was filled by Dr. Morten Bremer Mærli, researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Morten is working on nuclear nonproliferation and prevention of nuclear terrorism. He is a physicist by training with both practical and research experience in the fields of nuclear safety and security.

INESAP Information Bulletin and Briefing Paper

The Editorial Board of the INESAP Information Bulletin saw changes as well. The only person remaining in this group is Dr. Jürgen Scheffran who continues to be the main editor. Alexander Glaser, Regina Hagen, Andrew Lichterman, Dr. Götz Neuneck, and Prof. Dave Webb are the new Editorial Board members.

In 2003, INESAP published two issues of the INESAP Information Bulletin:

#21, Is Might Right? Counter-Proliferation Spurs WMD Threat, in April 2003,

#22, Catching the Bomb. 10 Years Networking in INESAP – The Role of Scientists in International Security, in December 2003.

Between 800 and 1,100 copies of each issue were printed, with approximately 500 being mailed to subscribers. The other copies were distributed to diplomats, policy makers, media people, as well as NGO and academia representatives on many occasions. The Bulletin can also be obtained both in PDF and HTML format from the INESAP webpage http://www.inesap.org/publ_bul.htm.

The series of INESAP Briefing Papers was continued in October 2003 with Issue No. 11, Cleanup of Cold War Legacies. The Ongoing Nuclear Contamination of the Artic Region, written by Ulrike Kronfeld-Goharani, a Researcher at the Schleswig Holstein Institute for Peace Research (SHIP).

INESAP Homepage

The INESAP homepage is located at http://www.inesap.org and gives access to INESAP publications and information, with the INESAP Information Bulletin making up the largest part. In 2003, the webpage continued to receive steady use, with an average of 200-250 visits and approx. 2,000 hits per day. Interestingly, INESAP webpage information seems to be much appreciated by US educational, US military, and US government users.

Various

INESAP continued to co-sponsor the Middle Powers Initiative, and is now represented by Armin Tenner from the Netherlands on the MPI International Steering Committee http://www.middlepowers.org/mpi/index.shtml.

Unfortunately, several active INESAP participants lost their positions in 2003 due to a lack of funding of their respective projects or organizations. This reflects the general difficulties in obtaining funds for NGO work in the field of disarmament. If this situation continues, the work of INESAP as well as other NGOs will be seriously threatened. Even more so is it appreciated that these individuals continued contributing to INESAP activities.
Organizational Matters in 2003

INESAP Coordinator

The Coordinator manages most INESAP activities. The INESAP office is located in Darmstadt and hosted by the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Science, Technology and Security (IANUS) at Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany) http://www.ianus.tu-darmstadt.de.

In 2003, the coordinator, Regina Hagen, spoke at a wide variety of events on INESAP activities and topics. Of particular importance was her participation in the 2nd Nagasaki Global Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in Nagasaki/Japan, where the Mayors for Peace officially launched their Emergency Campaign “2020 Vision” for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020. Further planning between the Mayors for Peace, INESAP, and a few other Abolition 2000 representatives was possible in a follow-up visit to Hiroshima on this occasion.

INESAP E-mail Discussion List

Since 1994, Johan Swahn has facilitated an e-mail discussion list for information exchange and networking among INESAP participants. To subscribe to the list, go to http://lists.chalmers.se/mailman/listinfo/inesap. Projectspecific lists have been created for the Moving Beyond Missile Defense project and the Space Weapons Ban Study Group. To subscribe, contact Regina Hagen at inesap [at] hrzpub [dot] tudarmstadt [dot] de.

Funding and Support

INESAP funding in 2003 came from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (core funding for Coordinator salary, project work, and general expenses), from the IANUS group at Darmstadt University of Technology (office and infrastructure, INESAP Information Bulletin #21 and #22 and website maintenance), from the German Berghof Stiftung für Konfliktforschung (Berlin conference of Moving Beyond Missile Defense project), and from the New York-based Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (study work on missile control and disarmament). Gert Harigel from Geneva generously hosted the INESAP Coordinator during the NPT PrepCom 2003.

Selected Publications of INESAP or INESAP Participants:

The following selection of publications authored by INESAP participants is in no way complete. INESAP members are encouraged to inform the INESAP office of their future publications.

Regina Hagen and Jürgen Scheffran, Is a space weapons ban feasible? Thoughts on technology and verification of arms control in space, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Disarmament Forum, no. 1/2003, pp. 41-51.

Regina Hagen, Jürgen Scheffran and Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck, Macht den Himmel nicht zur Hölle. Argumente gegen eine Raketenabwehr, exhibition for Trägerkreis „Atomwaffen abschaffen – bei uns anfangen!“ (German Abolition 2000 section), 13 panels, May 2003.

David Krieger, Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Blackaby Paper 4, 2003, Abolition 2000 UK, 16 pages, ISBN 0-9540464-3-9.

David Krieger (ed.), The Poetry of Peace, Capra Press, 2003, 132 pages, ISBN 1-5926-6000-2.

David Krieger (ed.), Hope in a Dark Time: Reflections on Humanity’s Future, Capra Press, 2003, 242 pages, ISBN 1-5926-6005-3.

K. Nixdorff, M. Hotz, D. Schilling, M. Dando, Biotechnology and the Biological Weapons Convention, agenda Verlag GmbH & Co.KG, Münster, 2003, 128 pp.

L. Rozsa, K. Nixdorff, Bioweapons in non-soviet Warsaw Pact countries, in: M. Wheelis, M.R. Dando, L. Rozsa, Bioweapons Research, Development and Use from 1945 to the Present, 2004, Harvard University Press

M.V. Ramana and C. Ramanohar Reddy, Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream, Orient Longman, New Delhi, hardcover, 502 pages, ISBN 81-250-2477-8.

Another noteworthy publication is War No More. Eliminating Conflict in the Nuclear Age, written by long-time INESAP supporter Joseph Rotblat together with Robert Hinde (Pluto Press, August 2003, 240 pages, ISBN 0-7453-2191-7.)