Our work on nuclear non-proliferation since the end of 2003 has focussed upon three areas:

• assessing the impact of developments in Libya, Iran and Pakistan upon nuclear non-proliferation activities;
• evaluating the proposals made by both President Bush and The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr Mohammed ElBaradei for changes in the international arrangements for nuclear non-proliferation and global governance of nuclear materials; and
• assisting states to prepare for the 2005 NPT Review Conference.

In pursuit of these objectives, John Simpson and Ian Kenyon have participated in a range of informal international meetings and workshops in Austria, Switzerland, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss the impact of the changing nuclear proliferation challenges upon state policies, and to evaluate their impact upon the international mechanisms for regulating nuclear proliferation and governing nuclear energy activities. Products of this work have included an article in UNIDIR's Disarmament Forum published in February 2004.  These issues are also addressed in successive volumes of the MCIS/CNS-MIIS NPT Briefing Book.  Support work for the NPT review process has involved organisation of joint MCIS CNS-MIIS meetings in Annecy, France and participation in two similar CNS-MIIS meetings in New York and; and participation in the Preparatory Committee session of the 2005 NPT Review Conference and the Conference itself.

In addition, the Mountbatten Centre also convenes a study group on nuclear proliferation and counter proliferation policies with the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Counter-Proliferation Department.

The 2005 NPT Review Conference

The April 2005 Briefing Book and Studies relevant to the2005 NPT Review Conference can be found here.

PPNN archive
The Programme for Promoting Nuclear Non-Proliferation (PPNN) was an international non-governmental networking organisation structured around a Core Group of acknowledged authorities in the field of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.  Its aim was to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime by alerting diplomats, government officials, the academic community, industry and the public media to the nature and causes of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the need to deter it, and the factors that might advance nuclear disarmament.

During the period 1987-2002 it held an average of two meetings a year of its Core Group and two linked regional or specialist briefing meetings and workshops, focussing upon those involved in the NPT review process.  It also published and distributed widely to an international audience five types of publication: a quarterly PPNN Newsbrief; a series of focussed PPNN Occasional Papers, later renamed Studies; a series of PPNN Issue Reviews; near annual PPNN Briefing Books for circulation at meetings of NPT Parties; and collections of meeting papers and reports.

• Funding for PPNN's activities came from leading US charitable foundations and other UK and Japanese sources.  PPNN's Executive Chairman was Dr Ben Sanders and Programme Director Professor John Simpson.  Hard copies of PPNN's publications and working and other papers are preserved in the Southampton University archives.
• Copies of all of these publications are to be found in the MCIS - PPNN archive.