Disarmament and International Security Committee, 2012

Devoted to “the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security,” the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) of the United Nations (UN) focuses on the topics of arms control, pacifistic conflict resolution, and global safety. As a General Assembly (GA) Mains Committee, DISEC is inclusive of all UN Member States, serving as a large forum for discussion on all topics regarding international security. Each member has one vote.

Though the Security Council (UNSC) is the only UN body capable of imposing force upon Member States (economically, militarily, or otherwise), the First Committee makes valuable recommendations to the Security Council on all aspects of matters that place global peace at risk. Because the First Committee’s legislative process incorporates the voice of every Member States to the UN, its resolutions are always respected and considered by the Security Council. These resolutions are also salient due to their normative nature.

The First Committee is part of a large global security framework. Besides the Security Council, this framework includes the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), amongst other NGOs and regional groups. To this end, the First Committee focuses on achieving definite goals, such as establishing a Nuclear Weapons Free Zones (NWFZ) in Central Asia. As DISEC resolutions must be passed by the entire General Assembly (GA), it is necessary that the First Committee be centralized upon specific, accomplishable tasks; broad undertakings may otherwise hinder the efficiency and passing of the First Committee’s legislation.

Successes in DISEC include curbing illicit small arms and light weapons (SALW) trafficking to establishing important weapons treaties, such as the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). DISEC has not wavered in its mission to promote international disarmament; recent items on its agenda include non-state terrorist actors, reduction of military budgets, and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Topic 1

Security Implications of a Nuclear Weapons Program in the DPRK

The mandate of DISEC entrusts the committee to guarantee the maintenance of international peace and security by proposing resolutions to the General Assembly and making recommendations to the Security Council. The threat of nuclear weapons has been of specific interest to the committee, as it has focused many of its meetings on nuclear proliferation in specific regions of the globe and the need for protection for non-nuclear weapons states. The use of nuclear weapons obviously poses the greatest threat to international security and therefore nuclear weapons development is of great interest to DISEC.

At present, the consensus among United Nations member states is to move towards disarmament. The creation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the IAEA, and subsequent bilateral and multilateral negotiations including the START treaty the Six-Party Talks have all been initiated with the goal of nuclear disarmament in mind. However, many states’ refusal to participate or even cooperate with these conventions has hindered disarmament progress (New York Times 1). And in this discussion on nuclear disarmament, it is impossible to ignore the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). The history of North Korea’s utter disregard for international law and lack of concern for international peace and security makes the danger of its nuclear weapons capabilities very high (McCurry 1). North Korea’s situation with nuclear weapons is a unique and challenging one for delegates to debate, considering the many state-specific obstacles preventing the international community from achieving success in disarmament. That being said, it is most important that issue be tackled in DISEC due to its ability to involve all member states that inevitably have a vested interest in limiting the nuclear threat against them. DISEC also has the ability to make direct recommendations to the Security Council which is important given the pressing nature of this issue.

Topic 2

State-Sponsored Terrorism

A representative from the Israeli delegation to the General Assembly once described state-sponsored terrorism as “a lethal cocktail” in which terrorist groups are thus “empowered with military capabilities that formerly had been found only in the arsenals of sovereign states” (UN General Assembly 1). In 2004, the United States had compiled a list of the most involved state-sponsors of terrorism and terrorist organizations which included: Cuba, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria, however the list is constantly changing as new factors and sponsors emerge as well as disappear from the spotlight (U.S. Department of State 85). The issue that comes into play whilst attempting to combat the financing, training, supporting, and supplying of terrorist organizations from the state-level is sovereignty. There is a lack of international conventions and enforceable legislation that can prevent state-sponsorship of terrorism from posing a great threat to the international community. Without this, states are often unwilling to cease support of these groups, largely due to mutual relationships that grant the state diplomatic leverage, regional political and military influence, and a means of exhibiting violent acts on political enemies. States can also exercise sovereignty rights that prevent outside actors from intervening or investigating. The issue at hand is one that the UN alone cannot combat but also by nature lacks cooperation from the states most involved in the problem. DISEC will need to develop solutions that circumvent the sovereignty issue in order to reinstate peace and security in the face of terrorism.

Resources

Downloads: