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 Interdisciplinary Research Group in Science, Technology and Security (IANUS) at Darmstadt University of Technology (Germany), as a member organization of INES, manages most activities in INESAP. The international Coordinating Committee has seven members in four continents. The main objective of INESAP are to promote nuclear disarmament, to tighten existing arms control and non-proliferation regimes, as well as to implement unconventional approaches to curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems and to controlling the transfer of related technology.
INESAP projects and activities in 2000
Model Nuclear Weapons Convention
A main point of the work of INESAP within the Global Network Abolition 2000 continued to be the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (mNWC) which has been adopted as an official United Nations document in 1997. In 1999, INESAP, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) published the book "Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention" which contains the full mNWC text. In 2000, INESAP in cooperation with the German IPPNW and IALANA sections sponsored the German edition of the book that was translated by Regina Hagen.
[IPPNW, IALANA and INESAP (eds.), "Sicherheit und Ueberleben. Argumente fuer eine Nuklearwaffenkonvention", Berlin, 2000; ISBN 3-00-006743-4; DM 29,80]
Monograph on "Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons"
The book "Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons" (edited by Martin B. Kalinowski) was published in April 2000. It analyses why elimination could not be achieved yet and how the current deadlock could be overcome. The authors are internationally reknown experts for nuclear disarmament. The book has an emphasis on scientific expertise.
[Martin B. Kalinowski (ed.), "Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons", Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden (Germany), 2000; [ISBN: 3-7890-6594-3; DM 78,-]
NPT Review Conference
At the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference 2000, which was held in New York, INESAP contributed to the briefing program of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with two panels. Both panels were very well visited by official delegations as well as by NGO and media representatives.
— "Achieving a Nuclear Weapons Convention - Legal, Political, and Technical Strategies for Nuclear Disarmament" (May 9; contributors: Ambassador Hasmy Agam from Malaysia, Merav Datan, Eugene Miasnikov, Juergen Scheffran, Penelope Simons; chaired by Alyn Ware), sponsored by LCNP/IALANA, IPPNW, and INESAP.
— "From Counter-Proliferation to Counter-Disarmament - Missile Defense, the ABM Treaty and the Prevention of an Arms Race on Earth and in Space" (May 10; contributors: Jackie Cabasso, Regina Hagen, George Lewis, Goetz Neuneck, Paul Podvig, Stephen Young; chaired by Juergen Scheffran), sponsored by INESAP and IALANA and discussed alternatives to ballistic missile defense like international missile control and a missile freeze, including a missile flight test ban.
Contribution to the INES 2000 Congress
At the INES 2000 Congress in Stockholm (June 14-18), INESAP organized the workshop on "Abolition of Nuclear Weapons" (contributors: Praful Bidwai, Dingli Shen, Martin Kalinowski, David Krieger, Bahig Nassar, Juergen Scheffran, Hiro Umebayashi; Alla Yaroshinskaya; chaired by David Krieger and Martin Kalinowski.) The workshop consisted of six sessions, one of which focused particularly on Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zones (NWFZ). The status of the corresponding project (see below) was presented and future steps were discussed.
The workshop was actually the first international INESAP meeting since the conference in Shanghai in 1997 and brought together about 20 active members of INESAP and other experts who work on the reduction of nuclear dangers and on the elimination of nuclear weapons. Consequently, issues of future INESAP developments were also discussed. In particular, a decision was taken to launch a new INESAP project under the name of "Moving Beyond Missile Defense".
The tentatively proposed goals of the project are to
— analyze the technical shortcoming and international political consequences of ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems and plans and
— assess possible alternatives to missile defense systems, including verifiable international agreements to control anti-ballistic missile systems, space weapons, ballistic missiles and other nuclear-weapons-capable and dual-use delivery systems.
The work will put emphasis on scientific-technical issues (e.g. in verification) in order to take advantage of the expertise within INESAP and will be done in cooperation with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF).
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones project and seminar
The project "Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zones" started in 1997, in cooperation with Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik (India), the Dag Hammarskjoeld Foundation (Sweden), the Transnational Institute (Netherlands) and the Peace Depot (Japan). As the main activity of the project in 2000, an international seminar was held in Uppsala (September 1-4) in which INESAP played a major part. The seminar was attended by more than 50 scholars, experts, diplomats and representatives of civil society groups and campaigning organizations from six continents. The keynote address was given by the United Nations Undersecretary General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala.
At first, recent developments in disarmament negotiations as well as the present state of affairs of the existing NWFZs were reviewed. Then, the feasibility as well as practical steps to implement corresponding concepts in other areas were discussed, especially with regard to five specific zones. The relevance of long-standing demands for a Nordic NWFZ and the concept of 'single-state' NWFZs that are advocated for countries as varied as Austria, Mongolia and Sweden was underscored. The seminar also discussed the issue of verification of NWFZ agreements and concluded on the basis of expert opinion that fairly reliable and accessible technological means exist to verify compliance of all concerned states with their obligations.
The participants agreed to campaign for NWFZs in different forums, global, regional and national. The seminar adopted the "Uppsala Declaration". It calls for Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones (NWFZs) to be established all over the world as transitional steps towards complete nuclear abolition and underscored the urgency of such zones particularly in South Asia, Northeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Europe.
It was decided to document the seminar in a book. Due to a lack of financial resources and in the absence of a project coordination, however, not much has been achieved in the NWFZ project since the seminar.
Various
In 2000, INESAP participated in several other activities:
— INESAP continued to support the Abolition 2000 (A2000) network. INESAP members are co-convenors of two A2000 working groups (Juergen Scheffran on the Nuclear Weapons Convention, Martin Kalinowski on nuclear-weapons-usable materials/cut-off.) INESAP was also represented at global strategy meetings of A2000.
— INESAP continued to be involved in the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), as a co-sponsor as well as by the work of Professor Fernando de Souza Barros who represents INESAP on the International Steering Committee of the MPI.
— Several German INESAP members participated in an expert seminar on ballistic missile defense in Goettingen/Germany (November 4). The seminar adopted the "Goettingen Appeal", calling upon the United Nations General Assembly 2001 to ban space weapons and abolish nuclear weapons.
Organizational matters in 2000
INESAP Coordinator position
In 2000, it was generally difficult to keep up INESAP work due to a lack of network coordination and to time restraints of the active INESAP members (this is why no INESAP Information Bulletin could be published throughout the year). In late 2000, however, INESAP was able to open a part-time position for a Coordinator. Among a number of highly qualified applicants, Regina Hagen was selected. She accepted her appointment and took up work for INESAP in February 2001. With this encouraging development INESAP will certainly gain new momentum in the course of the year 2001.
INESAP homepage
The INESAP homepage has a new URL: http://www.inesap.org. The 'look and feel' of the homepage has been modified and the site has been upgraded. The INESAP Bulletin is available as PDF, many issues also in HTML format.
INESAP email discussion list
Since 1994, Johan Swahn facilitates an email discussion list for information exchange and networking among INESAP participants. The list currently reaches 63 addresses. To subscribe to the list, send an email to the administrator at inesap-owner [at] fy [dot] chalmers [dot] se.
Funding and support
INESAP funding in 2000 came from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and by way of IANUS from public funds of the State of Hessia and the Darmstadt University of Technology. The office of INESAP is hosted by IANUS at the Darmstadt University of Technology. The office of INES in Dortmund continued to support the work of INESAP, especially with respect to the Abolition 2000 Network.
Selected publications
(for more details see above)
IPPNW; IALANA and INESAP (eds.), "Sicherheit und Ueberleben. Argumente fuer eine Nuklearwaffenkonvention", Berlin, 2000; ISBN 3-00-006743-4; DM 29,80
Martin B. Kalinowski (ed.), "Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons", Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden (Germany), 2000; [ISBN: 3-7890-6594-3; DM 78,-