The diversion to military programmes of materials and technologies obtained from foreign suppliers for peaceful purposes has played a prominent role in the known cases of nuclear proliferation. The need to strengthen nuclear export controls has been identified by the G8 group of industrialized states and the European Union. This study examines the structure and activities of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a group of 45 states committed to applying effective controls on exports of an agreed set of items as part of a wider effort to prevent nuclear proliferation.

In 2002 the Group of Eight industrialized nations - in which Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, the USA and representatives of the European Union participate - formed the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. The G8 pledged to raise up to $20 billion to carry out the Global Partnership projects over a 10-year period, initially in Russia but with the intention to expand the scope of projects to include other countries. These projects will help to specify the quantities and locations of weapons and materials and ensure that stocks are held under safe and secure custody to prevent diversion to unauthorized users or inappropriate uses. If the weapons or materials are not required, this practical assistance can also help to eliminate the surplus.
The G8 initiative is only one of a number of activities sharing the same basic features: tailor-made measures jointly implemented on the territory of one state by a coalition including states, international organizations, local and regional governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
This report reviews the current cooperative threat reduction activities with a particular focus on projects and approaches engaging European partners. It examines the organizing principles for cooperative threat reduction and the lessons learned from past project implementation. Finally, it examines how European countries might organize their cooperative threat reduction activities to increase their coherence and effectiveness.

The Nobel Symposium on A Future Arms Control Agenda was organized by SIPRI to consider how arms control can contribute to creating a cooperative security system based on the peaceful resolution of disputes and the gradual demilitarization of international relations. The proceedings of the symposium include comprehensive discussions of the new normative and structural elements of the post-cold war global security system and the objectives and limits of arms control within that evolving system.

This report examines the prospects for defence industries in Central and Eastern Europe as they attempt to restructure in the wake of the dramatic changes in the security environment brought about by the end of the cold war. Chapters examine key factors affecting the process of industrial restructuring in the region: the role of military doctrine, the trend in national military expenditure, the process of internalization of the defence industry, and the role of arms exports. Contributors: Ian Anthony, Shannon Kile, Evamaria Loose-Weintraub

Governments have a legal obligation to ensure effective control over arms exports and to monitor and supervise the movement of arms to ensure that they do not fall into unauthorized hands. The purpose of this book is to provide a detailed picture of how governments discharge this responsibility. Individual chapters describe national efforts to control arms transfers, concentrating on the legal framework that exists to regulate arms exports. The book includes a discussion of existing multilateral arms transfer control regimes, including the United Nations, the Co-ordinating Committee for East-West Trade Policy (CoCom), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and arms embargoes agreed by the Council of Ministers of the European Community. Every effort has been made to produce a comprehensive compendium, but total success has been prevented by the continued failure of some governments to release adequate information into the public domain.