The Global Security Institute (GSI) is a largely private (though partly bipartisan[ clarification needed ]), non-governmental international organization with a mission to eliminate nuclear weapons through international cooperation and security. It aims to influence national laws, seeking to accomplish its mission by focusing on nuclear arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament.
The institute was founded by US Senator Alan Cranston in October 1999. He believed that nuclear weapons are "impractical, unacceptably risky, and unworthy of civilization." [1] [2]
The current leadership of the institute is as follows:
The institute currently consists of four well-defined programs:
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term denuclearization is also used to describe the process leading to complete nuclear disarmament.
In nuclear ethics and deterrence theory, no first use (NFU) refers to a type of pledge or policy wherein a nuclear power formally refrains from the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in warfare, except for as a second strike in retaliation to an attack by an enemy power using WMD. Such a pledge would allow for a unique state of affairs in which a given nuclear power can be engaged in a conflict of conventional weaponry while it formally forswears any of the strategic advantages of nuclear weapons, provided the enemy power does not possess or utilize any such weapons of their own. The concept is primarily invoked in reference to nuclear mutually assured destruction but has also been applied to chemical and biological warfare, as is the case of the official WMD policy of India.
Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. Historically, arms control may apply to melee weapons before the invention of firearm. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international treaties and agreements, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms. General and Complete Disarmament was defined by the United Nations General Assembly as the elimination of all WMD, coupled with the “balanced reduction of armed forces and conventional armaments, based on the principle of undiminished security of the parties with a view to promoting or enhancing stability at a lower military level, taking into account the need of all States to protect their security.”
Alan MacGregor Cranston was an American politician and journalist who served as a United States Senator from California from 1969 to 1993, and as President of the World Federalist Association from 1949 to 1952.
Douglas James Roche, OC, KCSG is a Canadian author, parliamentarian, diplomat and peace activist. Roche served as Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton—Strathcona from 1972 to 1979 and for Edmonton South 1979–1984. In 1984, he was appointed Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament, a position he held until 1989. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada on September 17, 1998, where he served until June 13, 2004. Currently he resides in Edmonton, Alberta.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control. The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers, researchers, media and the interested public.
The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) is a research institute of the United Nations focused on disarmament and international security. It was established in 1980 by the United Nations General Assembly with the stated purpose of informing states and the global community on questions of international security, and to assist with disarmament efforts so as to facilitate progress toward greater security and economic and social development for all.
James Eugene Goodby is an author and former American diplomat.
Dr. Randall Caroline Forsberg led a lifetime of research and advocacy on ways to reduce the risk of war, minimize the burden of military spending, and promote democratic institutions. Her career started at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in 1968. In 1974 she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to found the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS) as well as to launch the national Nuclear Freeze campaign.
Jonathan Granoff is an American lawyer, screenwriter and lecturer, widely known as President of the Global Security Institute.
The Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), a program of the Global Security Institute, is dedicated to the worldwide reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons, in a series of well-defined stages accompanied by increasing verification and control.
Anti-nuclear organizations may oppose uranium mining, nuclear power, and/or nuclear weapons. Anti-nuclear groups have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience which have included occupations of nuclear plant sites. Some of the most influential groups in the anti-nuclear movement have had members who were elite scientists, including several Nobel Laureates and many nuclear physicists.
The International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament took place in Oslo on 26 and 27 February 2008. It was organized by The Government of Norway, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority in collaboration with the NTI and the Hoover Institute. The Conference, entitled "Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons", had the purpose of building consensus between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states and about the importance of all the actions in the NPT.
The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe — is an international non-governmental organisation uniting leading world-renowned experts on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, materials and delivery vehicles.
Iran convened a conference titled "International Disarmament and Non-proliferation: World Security without Weapons of Mass Destruction" on 17 and 18 April 2010 in Tehran. The theme of the conference was Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One.
The G7-led Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction is an international security initiative announced at the 2002 G8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in response to the September 11 attacks. It is the primary multilateral group that coordinates funding and in-kind support to help vulnerable countries around the world combat the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction (WMDs).
The International Day against Nuclear Tests is observed on August 29. It was established on December 2, 2009, at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly by the resolution 64/35, which was adopted unanimously.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It was adopted on 7 July 2017, opened for signature on 20 September 2017, and entered into force on 22 January 2021.