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1 Tim Caughley, Breaking the Ice in the Conference on Disarmament: A Wrap-up 1 (2011)

handle is hein.unl/unaadq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Conference on Disarmament Breaking the Ice July 2011 The CD Discussion Series Between December 2010 and July 2011, the UNIDIR project The Conference on Disarmament: Breaking the Ice and the Geneva Forum are organizing a series of thematic discussions to examine the myths and realities of the CD-as well as the critical challenges facing it-with the aim to increase understanding of the history, processes and issue areas of this unique negotiating forum. Breaking the Ice in the Conference on Disarmament: A Wrap-up Tim Caughley Resident Senior Fellow, UNIDIR Introduction 1 Early in 2000 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned of the dangers of the accumulation of rust in the multilateral disarmament machinery. Over 10 years later that rust has developed to such an extent that neither the Conference on Disarmament (CD) nor the UN Disarmament Commission has produced any concrete results since 1996 and 1999 respectively.' What kind of oil should we apply to this machinery, especially the CD, or has the machinery become obsolete? 2 Before embarking on this examination, a prior question needs to be asked. Is the laboured, unproductive operation of parts of the multilateral disarmament machinery merely a symptom of more deep-seated considerations? If so, will those factors prove also to be obstacles to efforts to develop solutions? Is the problem one of international politics and security, or one of defective, unresponsive disarmament mechanisms, or both? 3 In other words, are the problems in the CD merely symptomatic of larger problems rooted in more complex international security circumstances in the face of which delegates to the Conference are largely powerless? Or, notwithstanding a more complicated negotiating environment than existed in the largely bipolar era in which most of the past successes of the CD were secured, are there ways in which delegates can get the rusted wheels of the Conference to move DEAS FOR PEACE AND SECURIT