Annan to discuss nuclear disarmament today

Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is set to deliver a major policy address on campus this afternoon, focusing on the dangers of nuclear proliferation and the need for decisive global nuclear disarmament.

Annan, who will speak in Richardson Auditorium, ascended to the top position at the United Nations in 1997, when the Cold War had been over for nearly a decade but Soviet-era nuclear material was still not completely accounted for, about a year before India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests.

"I think he has made [the issue of nuclear proliferation] a centerpiece of his tenure, and there have been several useful things that have happened at the [United Nations] because of that," said Laura Holgate '87, a vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organization that works to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Accordingly, Annan will focus his remarks on moves to restrict proliferation, reiterating that "the current paralysis — with each side insisting that the other go first — is fraught with danger for humanity," Edward Mortimer, director of communications for the Secretary-General, said in an email. "It is not really a speech about institutions, but about substance."

United Nations Resolution 1540, passed by the Security Council in 2004, is the main success with regards to the issue, Holgate said, because it establishes for the first time binding and universal requirements for nations to secure their nuclear materials and knowledge.

"The largest nuclear threats we face come in two categories of activity: state-based concerns, such as Iran and North Korea, and non-state actors, involving the challenges of nuclear terrorism," Holgate added. "The United Nations has important responsibilities and has made important contributions to both."

Holgate also cited the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency last year as "a huge vote of confidence in the U.N. on that issue."

Some, however, doubt Annan's effectiveness in actually enforcing resolutions and constructively enacting real-world change.

"The prescribed Annan solution is often dialogue and appeasement," American Enterprise Institute scholar Danielle Pletka said in an email. "That has left us with a nuclear detonation in North Korea, and Iran [is] well on its way toward one."

"The United Nations has passed several important WMD-related resolutions in Annan's tenure, but their relationship to Annan is tenuous at best," Pletka added. "The solution cannot lie in more agreements ... ignored with impunity. The answer is to address the root causes of proliferation."

Nuclear nonproliferation, however, "faces a set of serious challenges," Wilson School and astrophysics professor Christopher Chyba said, including nuclear smuggling networks, countries that pretend to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while pursuing nuclear ambitions, states not covered by the NPT and the ongoing diffusion of nuclear weapons technology.

Annan's tenure as Secretary-General, though praised by some observers, was also marked by scandal. He was investigated during the height of the Oil for Food scandal in 2004, when his son appeared on the payroll of a Swiss bank contracting with the United Nations.

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The Oil-for-Food program was also plagued by rampant corruption, with Saddam Hussein and his regime allegedly receiving nearly $2 billion in kickbacks and illegal surcharges, and by allegations that the food supplied to Iraqis was unfit for human consumption.

Former South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-moon will replace Annan at the start of next year. He will serve a 10-year term as the U.N.'s eighth secretary-general.