SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Making the Middle East Nuclear and WMD Free

7th Annual SOAS-British Pugwash Conference on a Middle East WMD Free Zone

Join the debate at SOAS as academics, diplomats and Lords will discuss the prospects for a nuclear free Middle East.

A live streaming of this conference will be made available on the day. 

Live Streaming of this Conference

Conference Programme (provisional):

1.30 pm Welcome and Introduction

• Prof Paul Webley, Director, SOAS
• General Sir Hugh Beach, British Pugwash
• Dr Dan Plesch, Conference Chairman, Centre for International Studies & Diplomacy, SOAS

2.00 pm Conference Opening Remarks

• HE Ambassador Pekka Huhtaniemi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Finland to the UK
• Chaired by Dr Dan Plesch

2.30pm Keynote Address

• HE Ambassador Hatem Seif El Nasr (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt)
• Chaired by Dr Dan Plesch

3.00pm Panel Discussion "Prospects for a Middle East WMD Free Zone”

• Prof Gilbert Achcar (Development Studies and International Relations, SOAS)
• Dr Farhang Jahanpour (Associate Fellow, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford University)
• Dr Rebecca Johnson (Executive Director, Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy)
• Dr Or Rabinowitz (Research Associate, Centre for Science and Security Studies, King's College London)
• Chaired by The Rt. Hon. the Lord Owen CH FRCP

 

4.30pm Break

 

4.45pm Keynote Address

• The Rt. Hon. Lord Howell of Guildford (Personal Adviser to the UK Foreign Secretary)
• Chaired by Dr Dan Plesch

5.30pm Conference finish (followed by a reception)

 

Further Details

Further details, including a full list of speakers and Conference programme, will be available on this website in due course.

This Conference is part of a project in applied international relations research aimed at developing public education and international dialogue on the issue of the proposed Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone (MEWMDFZ). With the UN supported conference on the same topic due to be held in December our conference's primary purpose is to provide an opportunity for making progress, with new ideas shared in a public forum that we hope can be translated into effective regional dialogue and action.

Read more about CISD's project on a MEWMDFZ and previous conferences (including videos and podcasts).

Middle East WMDFZ and Conference background

The official UN supported conference on a MEWMDFZ is the result the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference’s (NPT Rev Con) reaffirmation of the importance of the 1995 Resolution on the Middle East, which calls for the establishment of an effectively verifiable Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological, and their delivery systems.

To help achieve full implementation of the 1995 Resolution, the 2010 NPT Rev Con endorsed a number of practical steps including:

‘The Secretary-General of the United Nations and the co-sponsors [Russia, UK and the USA] of the 1995 Resolution, in consultation with the States of the region, will convene a conference in 2012, to be attended by all States of the Middle East, on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction, on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at by the States of the region, and with the full support and engagement of the nuclear-weapon States. The 2012 Conference shall take as its terms of reference the 1995 Resolution'’*

The 1995 Resolution was itself adopted by the 1995 NPT Rev Con and followed on from an Egyptian proposal, submitted to the 1990 Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, to establish a WMDFZ in the Middle East. In fact, adoption of the 1995 Resolution was an essential element of the outcome of the 1995 NPT Rev Con and of the basis on which the NPT was indefinitely extended without a vote in 1995.

The 2010 NPT Rev Con also recognised the ‘important role played by civil society in contributing to the implementation of the 1995 Resolution and encourages all efforts in this regard’.

* Taken from the 2010 NPT Rev Con Final Document (Volume I), Part I, Conclusions and recommendations for follow-on actions.